This is 40: Part One

It has been an eventful few weeks around here with some interesting (and annoying) happenings.  The day the kids got out of school, my bank alerted me that there was some fraudulent charges on my bank account.  Also that day, my tire got a nail in it making it flat and necessitated a trip to the tire repair store.  The kids got out of school and my youngest came home crying about something that happened at school.  That weekend, 2 of the 3 boys ended up with a nasty cold (with the last one getting it a few days later).  Santa apparently brought hacking, fevers and runny noses to our house (and many others from what I hear) this year. 

When we got home from celebrating Christmas in the mountains, I was alerted that my website was attacked/hacked and there was malware in it.  10 days later and I still don't have a working website.  STUPID hackers!!!!  I am working on trying to fix the problem, but I have spent hours and hours on hold and emailing everyone I can think of to try to get my website up and running again.  So much for being productive and getting things done this last week.

Yesterday we came home from a wonderful and relaxing time celebrating New Years at our family cabin and I accidentally flooded our upstairs sink.  Ugh.  Think water spewing down into the garage.  The giant fan is working overtime....still.

And my website is still not working!!!

However.  I don't really have any room to complain.    We had a wonderful time with family and friends celebrating Christmas and New Years.

And now it is time to celebrate again.  Guess who is going to be 40 in a few days??  THIS GIRL!  I have always hated my birthday as it is only 11 days after Christmas.  Everyone is out of money and sick of celebrating and so am I.  So when my husband starting asking me what I wanted to do for my 40th birthday I didn't know what I wanted.  I knew one thing for sure...I didn't want a party.  I am not much of a party person and prefer more intimate get-togethers with close friends.  I really wanted to go somewhere but it is hard to do that right after Christmas.  But I love to travel and we don't do it that often (except that we just went to NYC alone....such lushes---the kids were not happy to hear that they are staying home---AGAIN---).  Sorry kids.  You will understand when you turn 40.

In November I was having lunch with one of my oldest and best friends (who also happens to be turning 40 two days before me) and we hatched a plan.  We had heard about people taking spontaneous trips and just showing up at the airport and buying a cheap ticket on the next flight.  We thought it sounded like a blast and proposed the trip to our spouses.  They loved the idea and so it began.

The funniest part about this is that Stacy and I are both planners.  Not just planners.....but obsessive OCD planners.  So this is totally outside of our comfort zone and we are actually really excited about it.  Which is really funny as I HATE surprises!  I guess I am changing in my old age.

Chris chatted with his cousin's wife who does ticket sales for United and she strongly discouraged just showing up at the airport and buying a ticket.  She said we would probably have to sit around for a long time and then it might be tricky to get a cheap ticket that way.  I was really sad as I thought it would really fun to be completely spontaneous.  So I got the idea to have someone else find us a deal on tickets and buy them for us using our credit card but use their email so we wouldn't know where we were going.  My friend Vicki is the BEST bargain hunter in the world and so while we were up in the mountains together for New Years I asked her to find a deal....and she did.  She had fun trying to find us a deal and planning our trip for us.  She even found us a rental car for $17 a day!!!  That is crazy awesome! 

The rest of the trip will be totally spontaneous.  As soon as we find out our destination tomorrow morning we will start looking for deals on Hotels and things to do.  

I plan on doing a lot of Instagramming and Facebooking and Social Mediaing so that you can all follow along in all of our Shenanigans.  I promise it will be a lot of fun!!  

So are you in??  Want to turn 40 with me and have a huge Social Media Birthday Party??  Make sure you follow me on Instagram @lilo_photography and I would love to hear your suggestions if you have ever been to our mystery destination.

Stay tuned.  Our flight leaves Denver International Airport at 9:10 tomorrow morning.  Until then....this planner has to try to figure out how to pack for a mystery destination.

Lisa- the 39 year old boring planner.  About to be Lisa- the 40 year old fun spontaneous traveler.

Best of 2017- Denver Colorado Photographer

As 2017 comes to a close I wanted to take a look back and see what 2017 brought for LiLo Photography.  2017 was an amazing year.  I set some pretty lofty goals and for the most part, I conquered those goals.  I can't wait to sit down and starting dreaming about 2018.  Sorry for the long post, but I bet if you scroll through this you might see some people you know and love!

One of my biggest goals this year was to quit my part time job (even though I loved it) to be able to focus more on photography full time.  In May, that dream came true.  It was the perfect timing for me to transition out of my job as they needed someone who wanted to work more hours and I wanted to work less hours.  I miss all of my dear friends there but I am able to visit often and it has been great for me to have more hours to do photography.

Another big goal for me this year was to do more birth photography (5 to be specific).  This has become a true passion for me and I was so thankful to be there as 5 babies took their first breath.  Next year I am hoping for even more!!  I think these birth images are some of my ALL time favorites.  Such joy, pain, raw emotion and truly a life-changing event!

Look at Grandma's face in this one!

It was such a long road for this mama.

I was lucky enough to go into the OR with this couple as they had to do a C-section after 24 hours of labor.  It was such an amazing experience. 

So hard to choose favorites when it comes to these photos.

I was so thankful to have captured other big days as well.  My weddings this year were AMAZING!  I even got to photograph my sister's wedding.  What a privledge. 

Look...I even made it into a picture!

Cutest first look I have ever done. Look at the girls peeking.  And it wasn't even staged!

Most beautiful first look.  The lush forest made these photos even more magical!

What comes after marriage???  Cute little baby bumps of course!  

Check out these beautiful mama-to-bes.

Newborn babies are some of my favorite sessions.  They are a lot of work and usually have me sweating (as I keep the room REALLY warm to keep the babies sleepy) but I love to snuggle them and capture this newborn stage.  I am super proud of these images and how far my newborn photography skills came along this year.

It is no secret that babies are my favorite.  I love to cuddle and hold them, I LOVE baby drool and I love being silly and making them smile.  Look at all of these cute babies.  Some of them you can even watch them grow as I did 4 month and 8 month sessions for them. 

 

Then comes the one year session.  Usually we do a cake smash and 

I love to watch them devour their little cake! 

I am so lucky to work with so many wonderful families!  

I love capturing their love and freezing time for them.  

I had some amazing family sessions this year!

And look at all of these adorable sibling shots!  

So many cute kids. Some of them might just have a future in modeling.

Look at this fun picture of my kids and my sister's kids.  

It was a remake of a photo we did 7 years ago. 

Another goal this year was to capture emotional connection.  Whether it is between a husband and wife, a mother and child or an animal or nature, I wanted to capture emotion.  Needless to say these are some of my favorite as well! 

Are you tired of pretty pictures yet?  Good, me neither.  Let's continue.

Another favorite session for me is when my nieces turn 13 I do a photo shoot for them.  So this year McKenzie turned 13 so we did a fun teenage session.  I love this girl!

Speaking of teenagers.....Senior pictures are the best!  I love spending time getting to know them and having a little bit longer of a session where we can find great spots and great lighting.  I even did some fun sessions with my other niece and her friends.  I can't believe she is going to be a senior next year!

Double trouble.  Twins are so much fun!  I love to see their personalities come to life!

 Head shots.  Again, I love doing these as it gives me time to get to know them and making them feel beautiful and special.  

Another goal of mine was to do more inanimate pictures.  I have always been more of a people person, but this year I really stretched myself and tried to do more promotional pictures, commercial shoots and pictures for social media marketing.  I really enjoyed this new form of photography.  I also got a new macro lens and I LOVED experimenting with it and taking new and different pictures.  These have been a labor of love for sure.  Enjoy!

Styled Shoots.  In the past I have shied away from these.  I never really had time for them and I didn't really find any that I wanted to participate in.  This year, I decided to put myself out there and do more styled work.  It is like a play-date for photographers.  Basically someone finds beautiful people, stunning flowers, arranges beautiful details and then you get to go and take pictures of it.  It is wonderful because usually on a wedding day you don't have time for a ton of artistic liberty with details.  This gave me time to capture beautiful, creative and new things!  It was so much fun and I love the images.  I never got around to blogging about the two styled events because they were within a few weeks of each other and happen to hit in my busiest month.  So enjoy these beautiful pictures!!  One of the shoots was Colorado themed (YES!) at a local brewery.

The other one was a Villa Parker and was stunningly beautiful.......complete with a hanging cake.  What!?

And last, but certainly not least......the bloopers.  

These images just make me laugh and smile and I had to let you in on them!

Thank you so much for sharing your lives with me.  I am so grateful that I am able to do what I love and what I am passionate about!

I can't wait to see what 2018 is going to bring!