Little T’s new favorite word.

I was feeling a little down today. We’ve been having issues working with the regional center, and we had some unexpected bills come up that made me wish I could plant myself some sort of money tree. 😉 Anyway….this downward spiral in thinking was interrupted by a scuffle in my kitchen. I figured the cats had probably brought in a bird, but to my surprise it was bigger than a bird. It also couldn’t fly and started to cluck, which made me think that perhaps there was a chicken in my kitchen.

After some Facebook postings, if was confirmed that my cats had indeed, caught a chicken.

When Big T got home, we put the chicken in our wagon and walked him around the neighborhood. We stopped at the home of the department chair for the animal science program at the college where Big T works. We thought they might know what to do with our new friend, who I decided to name Tofurkey.

They own a pet pig named Penelope, and I always love having a reason to visit her. 😉

They asked if we wanted to drive to the college to grab a little handful of hay for the bottom of the dog (now chicken) cage, and to see all of the new baby animals. This day was increasingly getting better. We got to see pigs, horses, sheep, mules, and lots of other fun animals. They even let Little T sit in a tractor for a few minutes. It may have been the most exciting thing to happen to him ever. 😉

It turned out to be a nice adventure for a hard day, much better than sitting around and feeling stressed out about stuff.

But seriously though, if anyone needs a pet chicken, please let me know. I think our cats have some dubious plans for that little guy. 😉

• Little T is becoming very good at impressions. He can now do a “Darth Vader” face, where he scrunches up his eyebrows and glares. He also does a “Baby Cry”, “Peter Pan”, and my favorite….? When he throws a towel over his head and bats his eyes and tells me he’s acting like Snow White.  lol
• The other day he didn’t want to go to daycare, so he gave me a fake cough and said that he was sick and needed to stay home and drink Gaterade and watch Harry Potter. Sounds like a good day to me. :p
• His other trick when he doesn’t want to go to daycare, is to wave to Big T and shout, “goodbye, have fun at work Dada”, thinking that Big T might forget Little T is supposed to come with him.
• Little T is obsessed with basketball. He knows every basketball term he can think of, it’s all he wants to do or talk about. He also loves cars.
• Little T has quite the imagination. Sometimes when we’re driving, he’ll tell us to hurry up because there’s a ghost chasing after us. One time he had me convinced that there was a worm in his car seat and I finally pulled over to see what was going on. Yeah, it was just a piece of string.  :p
• Little T’s favorite movies are Peter Pan, ParaNorman, and Beauty and the Beast.
• His favorite T.V. shows are Little Bill and Little Einsteins. We watch Little Bill over and over and over again.
• Little T has just discovered that the ladies love it when he blows them kisses.
• He’s a total boy, through and through, but he does still love those princesses. Especially Merida.
• His favorite place to go is Disneyland, and he always asks to go to Disney on Ice.
• One of the cutest things he does now is sing. I love to hear him singing to himself.
• And my favorite is how he will tell us he’ll do everything we’ve ever wanted him to do when it’s bedtime to get out of going to bed. He doesn’t ever want to use the potty, unless it’s bedtime. He doesn’t want to eat pasta, unless it’s bedtime. He doesn’t want to clean up his clothes, unless it’s bedtime. I think we should use this to our advantage and start putting him to bed earlier, so that he’ll do all the things we need him to do within the hour before his real bedtime starts. Silly guy.
• And my favorite, the other day he pointed at me and said, “That’s my momma. I love my momma”.
• 

I’ve planned this letter so many times in my head, started to write it out, then started all over again….Isn’t the beginning always the hardest place to start?

I guess what I’m trying to say is, thank you for growing with me. When I started White Rabbit Photo Boutique a year and a half ago, I was planning on having it be a part time thing. I imagined it being a job that I would do while I tried to find another job, and never dreamed it would become the business that it is today. I can’t even begin to tell you how thankful I am to everyone who has supported me and been there helping me along throughout the past year. Especially my husband, who just tried to cheer me up by jumping around with a Thor hammer…no joke. Now my editing time has turned into working 7 days a week at 60 hours or more. I seriously start working from the second I wake up, and fall asleep at the computer. This is what I love to do, but I think my husband is beginning to miss me a little bit.

My mom thought it was hilarious that I work until I fall asleep and snapped a picture:

I just want to thank you for being so patient and understanding while I work through all the things that a new business goes through. I want to continue to be the kind of photographer that really knows you. I want to know the names of your family, know what colors your wedding dresses are going to be, and be so incredibly excited for your wedding that I can’t stand it. I want to answer e-mails as fast as possible, get your photos back in a short amount of time, and send you a product that you will cherish for the rest of your lives, because really what do you have to look back on after your wedding day besides your videos and your photos? I want you to have the most amazing photography experience and look back at your photos and think…that was a beautiful day.

All of this has gotten a little harder because I overbooked myself a few months ago. But oh-how I am learning and growing from these experiences and growing pains. I’m having to make a few changes to my 2014 year so that I can keep running things the way that I envision them, and also would like to leave a little more room for balance in my life. I’m booking less weddings in 2014, trying to find help (which is hard because I’m a perfectionist), and taking classes on business and photography workflow.

Thank you so much for understanding while I work this all through. In the meantime, thank you for continuing to be patient with me. I promise, I am working as hard as I can. It’s been a crazy, exciting, amazing, year, but it’s also been a little stressful and full of growing pains as I’ve had to figure this whole business thing out.

I just want you all to know that I love you and I’m working hard, and I’m so thankful and happy that you enjoy my photography and have supported me. Photography is the way I share my heart with the world, thank you for letting me share my heart with you.

Do you remember when M and I adopted that cat from the SPCA who was pregnant and had a kitten? The kitten is all grown up now…kind of. I say “kind of” because M’s cat, (who we affectionately call Flower-even though Tiger would have been a more appropriate name) absolutely loves to walk around with a pacifier in her mouth. It’s the funniest thing. Of course, we only buy Flower pink pacifiers so there is no confusion between her paci’s and Little T’s (Little T knows the difference between the paci’s and who they belong to). We also let everyone know that if they see a pacifier on the ground, it’s not Little T’s and belongs to the cat. Anyway, I finally snapped a picture of Flower walking around with her paci the other day. M may not be living with us for much longer, so I wanted to make sure to document it before they move to bigger and better places. 🙂

Yesterday was really fun for me, because I was able to photograph flowers at the Rose Court Garden and end my night at the Jazz Kitchen. I know it’s cliche, but I adore photographing flowers. Especially bouquets. So there I was, surrounded by 20 or so beautiful arrangements, and taking my time to photograph each one.

When I finished, I asked what was going to happen to all the flowers. M offered me an arrangement, so now I have a beautiful bouquet with roses and lambs ear sitting on my kitchen table. I told M that I decided working in a floral shop would be much better than working at a pizza place, because you would always smell like roses instead of sausage. She agreed, teehee.

After photographing flowers, I had a small break and used it to catch up with a few friends I hadn’t seen in a while who work around the resort, and then met with a potential wedding couple. I love these meetings. I get to put a face to e-mails and go over plans and explain the photography process. They brought their daughter/soon to be step daughter with them, and the dynamic between the three of them was so much fun, they’re going to be a cute little family.

After the meeting, I had to run to the Jazz Kitchen to photograph some details for a wedding they were having there. I wasn’t hired by the bride, so I ran into their photographers in the Brisa Courtyard and introduced myself and told them to just kick me if I ever get in their way! They were really nice, and we talked about cameras and lenses and they showed me some of their photographs they’d taken. The bride was beautiful and her wedding was New Orleans themed. It really was a beautiful set up, I always look at weddings like this and feel a pang of, “oh, I wish I’d done something like this for my wedding”, and then I run through potential friends who I can possibly persuade to have a New Orleans themed wedding some day, heh heh. Something tells me, that’s not going to fly, but one can hope?

After meeting their photographers, I went to the Jazz Kitchen to take a few photos of the decor. I’m always amazed when I go there at how positive and organized their staff is. I used to work in a restaurant, and it wasn’t anything like it is there. B, their manager, was so professional and had everyone excited about setting up the decorations for the wedding. It was really fun to feel like a part of it. They had a New Orleans band that was going over music in one of the rooms upstairs, and it was fun to hear their music playing.

After a while, Little T and Big T showed up to bring me a light stand that I’d left in my car. Little T loved hearing the band and wanted to play on the big drum. At one point, the band walked up to Little T and took his hand, and danced with him while they were playing. Little T, of course, thought this was amazing.

When it came time to photograph the wedding couple (the New Orleans band was leading them from the Brisa Courtyard at the Grand Californian to the Jazz Kitchen), I stood above on the top floor of the Jazz Kitchen to grab my shot. I was looking down at the rehearsal dinner that was going on, and suddenly realized it could possibly be the wedding I’m photographing today. When I’d run into one of the wedding planners earlier, she was telling me that the bride I’m photographing (today!), was so sweet and friendly and beautiful, with hair that looked kind of like Kim Kardashian. I was looking down at the rehearsal dinner from above, and noticed the bride looked a lot like her description. I ran downstairs to quickly see if it was her, and was so excited to discover that it was. She said it was funny because she’d been staring at Big T and Little T (they were downstairs at this point waiting for the band), and she thought they might be my family because she’d recognized them from my Facebook Page. I was really excited to meet her the night before her wedding, and it made me look forward to today even more!

When the band and the bride marched up, it was really exciting and energizing. I could hear the band playing and everyone outside the restaurant cheering, and everyone began to march into the Jazz Kitchen with New Orleans umbrellas, beads, and instruments. I thought it was one of the coolest reception entrances I’d ever seen, and kind of got teary eyed, because I always do that when I see large groups of people who are all just happy and having a great time. What can I say? I’m just /mush like that.

After I’d photographed their grand entrance, it was time to say goodbye. Big T, Little T and I, walked through Downtown Disney and stopped to hear some live Latin Music. Little T ditched us to dance with a group of pre-teen girls, who were definitely feeding into Little T’s ego by going on and on about what a cute little toddler he is. :p I tried to dance with him at one point, but sadly, even at the age of 2, there are moments where mom just doesn’t make the cut. Here he is, running away and breaking my heart. 😉

All in all, a good day.

A trip to Disneyland is exciting, but add in a few cousins and it was almost too awesome to handle. 🙂 At the end of the day, we talked about what our favorite rides were. R decided she loved Jungle Cruise, Little T said Pirates (was there ever any doubt?), both of us moms liked Small World Holiday, and Big T liked the Jungle Cruise.

Little T was going through a mommy phase UNTIL he saw Big T play football and win their league championship. Now Big T is a god in his eyes.

We had the trendsetter awards for the association of bridal consultants. I didn’t win best photo, but I’d like to think my photo did help Disney win for best Momento. 😉 Fairytale Hair and Makeup made me look presentable. I loved my hair so much, that I couldn’t stop looking at myself. Teehee

And isn’t Little T beginning to look so grown up? What a cute little man he is, I can’t believe how much he has grown. It goes by way too fast. His favorite thing to do right now is give people high fives, go on Pirates of the Caribbean, play basketball, and shout “I DID IT” whenever he is able to do something by himself.

This last week, we lost my step-sister, Lindsay. Lindsay was a beautiful woman who left us far too early. I can’t think of her without remembering her kindness, her sharp wit, her energy, and the love she had for those around her. It seems too simple to say that we’re going to miss her, because it feels so much bigger than that, but I’m at a loss for words. The world has lost a special person this week. We’re all going to miss you, Lindsay.

Please give your family members an extra hug for me this Thanksgiving.

Love, Jenna