the 14th was sister sylvie’s graduation.
the 12th she turned 18.
i’m not sure exactly when she grew up, it seems like overnight…where did those 18 years go??
our long time family friends kathy and paul came down from vancouver to see her walk, brother casey was here (he’s done with the marines at the end of this month!!!), sister ali was here, and my mike too. omg i LOVE my family!!!
sylvie is going to WSU in the fall and my dad will officially have an empty nest after all these years…crazy…
december has been hectic and christmas was just the break i was looking for. family, food, and doing nothing, three of my favorite things 
ali came down from vancouver but our little family was not complete without brother casey. he is currently deployed and spent christmas in dubai. he is done this summer and will be back for good! i cant wait! he will have the freedom to come and go to wherever and whenever he wants, i think he is looking forward to that.
i have a couple of categories on this blog dedicated to my sisters ali and sylvie, they are well photographed by me. we did a shoot today AND we were photographed TOGETHER!!!! omg this never happens! a couple of years ago i set up my tripod and took some of all four of us kids for dad. i would set the timer, run around, pose with them, then run back and do it again. not as fun as having someone else photograph you!
thank you sooooooooo much to my photog friends april and resa for giving us girls what we cannot give ourselves, photographs together! i very much appreciate you two, bunches!! the few of us together are from resa and april’s will be coming, i will post when i get them!!
i really have the BEST sisters in the whole wide world! i love them to death! they are soooooooooo much fun! we are so silly together and we make fun of each other and laugh and laugh and laugh!
the connection we have to each other is so very strong and i think we compliment each other nicely. i love being their big sister so i can tell them about all the mistakes i have made and share my perspective with them. i love it when they listen to me and take what i say to heart. i am grateful to have two sisters that i love and get along with. and they are the best shopping partners, they always tell the truth about how i look in an outfit and encourage me to try new clothes i might not have thought of on my own. where do you think i get my funky style?? my sisters!!!
ali has taken my hair color to where i have always wanted it to be, she is a true talent! i am so lucky to have her! she gives me hair that belongs in a much bigger city than tacoma she is innovative and i love when she tries something new on me, its so fun
i am so excited for sylvie to go to wsu next year. she is gettin all growed up, i just cant believe it! i was 16 when she was born and now she is 17. weird. but awesome. my dad and i bought her a dress form for christmas and she cried when we gave it to her, it was the best ever! she wants to be a designer and will soon be making clothes for herself and others!! she just completed her first project:she made her own homecoming dress, can you believe it??
on christmas we were looking through a bunch of old photographs from when we were kids. i cant believe how many rolls of film my mom took. imagine if she hadnt, we wouldnt have all of these amazing memories to look back on, its unthinkable. it really reminded me that i need to take more photographs during my own life. i’ve been so busy documenting others that i kind of forgot about my own.
photography is my passion but it is also my profession. sometimes you just dont feel like being at work during your time off, know what i mean? its sorta like picking up the camera=work. but thats not how i feel when i’m shooting, i love it! i love being a photographer more than i can describe in words. its not something i do, its who i am. i think this past year the business side of photography has been trying to eat me up. i do feel a bit nibbled on but i will not be consumed.
this next year i really want to streamline the business side of things so i can have more time to be creative and be more open to creativity. i want to be driving down the road and see a beautiful scene and stop. get out of the car. photograph it. then continue on. i dont want to pass anything by. one of my biggest fears is photographing the same way over and over again. i never want to get stale. i always want to have a fresh eye and an open heart and mind. always. wow, it’s not easy though, i feel like i’m constantly stuffing so many things into my brain so much that i feel like i want to give it a flush and start over. but thats life, its a challenge. a least its not boring
the only other person i know who changes her hair more than me is my crazy sister ali (she has her own category on this blog, if you want to see, click here). and she just told me yesterday she is already tired of it and the next time i see her it will be different, woo hoo!
so i realized that i put these up on facebook but how can the WHOLE world see if we’re not “friends”??? i love that she is such a goof ball. everyone in my family is but she is the best at it. except for this one video i made of my other sister sylvie but she said that i can’t show it to anyone who isnt family 
it’s really funny, too bad she was being a HUGE goof ball! i wish i could post it on youtube but i dont think she would talk to me for a long time.
so…here’s the latest hair from crazy hairstylist sister ali:
and the latest edition to her left leg…color to come…
and here is miss tinkerbell (she will probably have her own category soon ). i was playing around with my friend mackenzie’s 50mm (it’s a 1.4 i think so you have to be careful or everything will be out of focus!) and this one is blurry but guess what? i don’t care, it’s so cute! i’ve been looking at old photographs and most of them are out of focus, off color, and in a weird way, that’s what i like about them! that retro feel. so lets just call this blurry cat retro and then it turns into a beautiful memory
ali’s apartment is on the 12th floor and it has the best light. thats her cherry tomato plant in the bkg…
and here is my latest hair:
and one more of the two of us…we just dont have that many pics together, i am always behind the camera. my bro just got me a point and shoot for my birthday, i havent had one in about 5 years. if it wasnt for that, i wouldnt have this image, thanks casey, i love you!
i’m up in vancouver right now. i cant help but post something that i keep looking at over and over. i cant just have ali and jerel look at it, the whole world needs to see it…:)
and this is miss tinkerbell. of course my sister Ali the princess would have a cat named tinkerbell, of course. sometimes she is pinkerbell and that works too words cannot describe how soft her fur is. you really have to touch it to believe it. soooooo very soft…her fluffy chest hair is the softest part, sometimes she is nice and lets you pet it, sometimes she is wild and crazy and wants to eat you. kinda like my crazy sister…:)
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ok, and one more of Ali, omg i love this one!!
Willow
Your Tacoma Photographer