So, OF course I am one of the TONS of people addicted to facebook.  If you have been on there recently, you have probably seen people doing the 30 days of Thankfulness statuses.  I am going to do it but here on my blog instead.  I missed the beginning of it so I will catch up as I can.

SO for November 1, 2011………

I am thankful for our God.  HE is soo freaking amazing and always surprising me.

Happy November!  Obviously the holidays are approaching.  It is almost my FAVORITE time of year, WINTER!!!!!  I am loving it outside lately.  We have had several cold spells causing our highs to jump around from like 80 one day to 59 degrees the next day.  Yesterday was a 59 degree day, today is 70 and then tomorrow is back to 59 degrees.  This weekend should be perfect as well with the high only being 61*.  What is the weather where you are?  I am running out the door right now to get get more milk and pick up the boys from kindy.  Then it is back to editing.  I couldn’t be much happier.  Of course, you all know by now that a post isn’t good without a picture usually so here is one of our new house up here in Nevada.  Have a great day!

Happy Monday! ughh who am I kidding, I HATE Mondays…lol
Anyways, hope your week is off to a great start.  I am staying busy trying to get my name out here in Nevada now.  I go up randomly to sooo many people…  I like to find you at my kids schools, the grocery store, anywhere!  I go up to the person and introduce myself, let them know we have just relocated from Arizona and that I am trying to re-establish my photography business up here.  Then I offer you a free session with ME!  how can you beat a COMPLIMENTARY PROFESSIONAL CUSTOM PHOTOGRAPHY SESSION!!!!!  It is perfect timing for the upcoming holidays as well.  holiday photo cards??? Yep, I make them!  Photo calendars for gifts to grandma and grandpa–Absolutely!  Special photo ornaments???  YES PLEASE!  You can get it all from me!  Schedule your special time with me by calling or emailing me at julie@juliecookportraits.com   So, be on the lookout if you are in Vegas for a short red head who wants to make your pictures!

We allllll know that a blog post just isn’t the same without a picture, so here is a very sweet shot of a new little family that I shot!

baby love

  So tomorrow is Oct. 1.  I hope you are all beginning to think about Christmas or holiday pictures!  In the next few weeks, I will be making a holiday special.  Stay tuned for that!  Please be aware that spots fill up very quickly in October and November.  Make sure to get the time you want by sending your session fee when you book!

Moving up to Vegas…

So one of the benefits of our move up here to Vegas is that my little sister, Lindsey, is living with us!  She isn’t so little anymore…  20 years old…  but it is fun to have her around and my kids LOVE playing with her.

Lindsey recently purchased a little doggie to keep her company.  It is a chihuahua.  Her name is Sassy and she looks adorable when dressed up in her little doggie clothes.  Even more AMAZING is the fact that NONE of my kids are allergic to her.  When we first moved into our house a few weeks ago, Hannah (my 10 yr old) was sooooo allergic.  It would get way worse if she sat or layed on the carpet.  So obviously, the people here before us had pets.  So we made sure we vacuumed alot and washed everything and made Hannah sit on our couch or chairs only.  How crappy is it to be allergic to your own house!  :(  Anyways, when Lindsey was out dog shopping, she made sure to take the girls to see if their allergies flared up with whatever dog type she was looking at.  After they got the dog and brought her home, none of my kids allergies acted up.  No swollen eyes, no watery puffy eyes, runny noses, splotchy skin…nothing. Nada> Zip.  :)So there is a dog in the family now (even though I did NOT want ANY pets.)  So of course, here  is a picture of Sassy.  I will need to get one with her clothes on soon!  Her tutu is TUTU cute on her!  Hope u all have a great weekend!

HOORAYYYY!  We made it!  Our move from Arizona to Nevada is over!  This is wonderful and fantastic news as moving is hard on everyone involved…and even more so when it is a large family.  The kids are all enrolled in school up here.  Our house is cute and sooo much more spacious than our old, ugly blue one.  :)  I still have my same cell phone number 602.740.0362  and today we got a Vegas number hooked up.  So if you are local in Nevada, call me up at 702.463.9110 and make sure you leave a message so I can call ou back and get your photography session scheduled.  :)  I am still taking clients in Arizona as well so you can call me at 602.740.0362 to schedule your session in Arizona with me.

soooooo, If you have won a photography session from me in Dr. Szmucs monthly baby photo contest or have already paid your deposit in Arizona, the next time I will be down there for sessions is SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8TH, 2011.  If you are thinking about fun pictures for Holiday cards and gifts, make sure to call and reserve your time and get your deposit in so that your time can not be given to someone else.  Sessions are limited, so don’t delay!

and of course…what is a blog post WITHOUT a picture….  so here is a picture of our latest family birthday person.  Makena turned 6 right before we moved! She is one of my gorgeous miracle babies!  But not so little anymore.  So here is her 6th birthday picture!  One of my favorites I have ever taken of her.  :)  Have a happy week!

Woohoo, Julie Cook Portraits is MY photographer!!!

Hey!  I hope that everyone is having an amazing summer.  This week my kids went back to school so I have a little extra time to blog now!  YAYYY!  Anyways, living in Arizona in the summer is NOT very fun.  So we took another trip up to Washington.  It is so beyond amazing up there.  We wanted to go in the summer this year to make sure we love the summer weather as much as we loved the cold winter weather.  Needless to say, we did!  I do know that we were very lucky to have such awesome weather while we were up there.  The forecast for the week before we left said daily that it would be perfect…highs in the mid to upper 70s the whole trip.  even the pilot of the plane on our way up there was telling us mid 70s for the temp during our plane ride there.  Then the closer we got we started getting messages from the pilot saying, well there is a little turbulence…  then it became there are some thunder storms, then we had to change our flight direction and go up north and then back down to the airport.  So once we got there and got off the plane, we were FREEZING.  I didn’t pack warm clothes for any of us.  It was POURINGGGGG  and sooo cold.  The temp never got above 60 degrees that day.  It didn’t bother us much because that was a travel day so we don’t plan to DO anything on travel days.  The kids can only deal with sooo much.  So that was the only day of rain that we had the whole vacation.  The rest were all sunny, beautiful days.  So here are 3 pictures of the hundreds taken…  lol  I will post more as I have time.  Thanks for the comments that you guys type to me in the comment section!  I read and love them all!

Space Needle by Julie Cook Portraits

Julie by Julie Cook Portraits

love

July.

In Arizona..

SUCKS.  Lol.

What can u do in the heat of summer here without going bankrupt in electricity bills trying to keep your house at a decent temperature while it is 110-120 degrees outside.  Swimming you say???  Well we don’t have a pool.  We have friends and family who do but it is too hot to be outside more than the 35 seconds it takes to go from house to car etc.  My kids would burn right up in this sun.  So anyways, we stay inside as much as possible.  Today we are at McDonald’s….again…  I HATE McDonalds.  I HATE the playlands…  but free cold a/c, busy kids, and free WIFI make it worthwhile.    I know how far behind I still am in bloggy-land but since I don’t have my multiple hard drives and pictures with me, I had to save one of my web versions (not good for printing only good for web viewing) so I could at least post a picture with this post.  Seriously, what good is a blog post WITHOUT any pics??  lol  So the picture I am posting, I don’t think I have posted on here..(I know it’s posted on facebook though)  it was from a very fun sessions (when are they NOT fun???)  It has become one of top 10 favorite pictures that I have ever captured.  It just makes you smile and giggle when u see it.  so here is Miss R looking as cute as possible.  Thanks for coming to the blog and make sure u leave  a comment so I know you were here!

Julie Cook Portraits

Yes, I did NOT fall of the face of the Earth.  I did fall of the blogging train though.  But now I am back thanks to www.kimtown.com Kim is ALWAYS there to help me.  this time was no different.  I had forgotten how to even get into my blog to update it so she gave me that info.  Then she helped me again when I couldn’t remember my log in or password.  So anyways, if you EVER need a website or Web-related advice, hit up www.kimtown.com

So it has been a very long time since I have updated this blog.  I have wayyyyyy to many pictures to share on here from all of my cshoots in the last year so I will just start posting one here and there.

Julie Cook Portraits

Hi everyone! So one of the big things about being a photographer is that you are soo busy photographing other people and their children, that yours (kids and family) get pushed to the bottom of the photography list. Mine are NO EXCEPTION. LOL My mom has been asking me to see our Halloween 2009 pictures for MONTHS! So while I was up at 3 am, unable to sleep, I went and cropped them, put on my watermark and now they are ready to go onto the blog. So here are our Halloween 2009 pictures. Hannah was Alex Russo from the show Wizards of Waverly Place. Makena was a fairy princess. Noah and Jackson were “daddy” (military boys) So, enjoy our snapshots!

Halloween pictures by Julie Cook

Fairy Princess

Girls

Noah

Picture of Jackson

Noah and Jackson

Family

Hey everyone! I am still in the process of catching up on all of my editing. But I wanted to share with you another fun, beautiful senior. This is Lindsey and we had a great(but HOT) time at her session. so, I am glad that you loved your gallery images and here are one or two of my favorites. Congratulations Lindsey!

High school senior girl in Arizona

fun, funky, vintage picture urban photography