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Tag Archives: Atlanta Holiday

I did this for me and thought I might as well share.

My favorite love verses in one place. 

1 John 4:7-8
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Romans 12:9-10
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Mark 12:30
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

1 Corinthians 13:4-13
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

All are New International Version.

Love Verse

Staying with the Non-Commercial meaning of love… 🙂 Here are service projects if you are near Smyrna, Georgia:  Your whole family can participate on Valentine’s day and show love to others.  Meet at Smyrna First United Methodist on Concord Road at 10AM for a continental breakfast and then break out to the following places for a day of service (your choice):

Seven Bridges Ministry, Fitzhugh Lee School, Woodland Ridge Assisted Living, Gardens of Smyrna Memory Care Facility, and Friends of Refugees. Services vary from Bingo with Assisted living residents to clean up of flower beds and pizza parties.

My family will be split up among Fitzhugh Lee, The Gardens and Friends of Refugees.

Love Verse

Other local fun activities for Valentine’s Weekend 2015

Parents Night out by The Little Gym of Smyrna (2/14 6-10pm) *** Wow – reserve now!

Romeo et Juliette presented by Atlanta Ballet

Catch Me If You Can presented by Atlanta Lyric Theatre

6th Annual Marietta Mardi Gras 5k Run

14th Annual Chattahoochee Nature Center 10K Challenge

Date-Night Special Valentine’s Dining I found: McCray’s Tavern & South City Kitchen (reservations needed so act quickly!)

  love-verse-valentineI think my conversation hearts were trying to be so modern…unfortunately, it is probably already outdated. How about Text Me?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Follow Lisa’s board Holiday on Pinterest.

posted in: Musings

red white blue clothing family

Red, White and Blue Clothing

The Fourth of July is one of those holidays that usually means family-time. It might just be a good opportunity to take some pictures of your family while you are all together and having fun.  Here are some red, white and blue clothing ideas so your family can show their patriotic spirit.  White with different shades of blue is a great base to start with so that you can add in smaller amounts of red.  Note how great the stripes look and it wouldn’t hurt to have lots of American Flags in little hands! It is the 4th so you can go a little crazier than usual with the color. 🙂

 

red white blue clothing family

I hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July holiday and a week that moves at a slower pace that usual. Enjoy the family-time that you have. Oh, and enjoy the hot dogs too!  Take lots of pictures even if no one ever gets out of their bathing suit!

Gymboree and J. Crew have red, white and blue clothing options for children ever year.  A great place to start for patriotic holidays.

 

posted in: What to Wear

Happy Valentine’s Day! Just a little early…  Don’t tell my boys I posted a picture of them together when they were not punching each other!

I have got to get started on 1,000 Valentine Cake Balls for three parties so I don’t have a lot of time to write. I wanted to share at least one last minute resource for very cute free Valentine printables from OntoBaby.com.  I love that you can customize the colors you want to use.  Check it out here:

I have a few other fun Valentine ideas on my Holiday Pinterest Board.


Lastly, I will leave you with some iPhone pictures of my weekend in North Georgia with my husband. We had the day off from our regular life as a gift from my Aunt and were able to visit Frogtown Cellars (we are now citizens) and Wolf Mountain Vineyards. It was a beautiful day and a big-fun time. I recommend taking a day trip as soon as you can to see what Georgia has to offer in red and white wines.

Do you see the sleeping photo-bomber in these pictures? 🙂

posted in: Childhood,Musings

What to Wear for the Holidays

Christmas is often the time when extended families are together.  I get a few requests every year to photograph families that have finally all come together for the Holidays.  It may be the only time it happens all year.  Whether your family portrait this Christmas is by a professional or on your own, it will really make a difference in the overall look if you take the time to coordinate the color scheme of your group.  Use this picture as a visual to have a clothing basis of creams, dark grays or black and tan.  Add a few pops of red or any bright color to tie it all together.

Click the above icon or here to see my Pinterest board of What to Wear.  Get lots of other clothing ideas for families that belong to other people as well as my own stuff.

On a more personal note, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.  I don’t cook much during the year and I make up for it the days leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas.  If you need me, I am in my kitchen.  It is exhausting!  Pinterest has opened up a new world of things to try but I have one go-to cookbook that I always use.  It is my Nana’s Calling All Cooks  cookbook that I inherited years ago after she passed away.  I can’t believe I actually found it on Amazon!  I highly recommend this book.  It has good ole Southern recipes straight from Alabama.  It has the kind of stuff you will find at any church potluck.  Mine is a little more special than what you will find at Amazon because it is falling apart and full of flour and sugar.  The page with my favorite dessert, Four Layer Chocolate Pie, has chocolate on the pages from when she used to make it for me.  I know she made it for me more times than I can count.

Thanks, Nana!

You can find more of my favorite recipes (or what I love the idea of making) on this Pinterest Board.  We have cookie exchanges coming up so yesterday was dedicated mostly to cookie making from scratch.  I think store-bought Oreos are just as good (to me).

Happy Holiday Baking AND Happy Birthday to My Mom today!

Mental note: now that I found Calling All Cooks  online, I will have to buy it for everyone next Christmas.

posted in: Family,Musings,What to Wear

I made it! The 12th day of Christmas and I was able to post something every day.  I was glad to share so many sessions but have saved a personal post for last.  I am pretty sure my Christmas Cards will be late this year so I’ll just share some pictures of my own kids right now.  Getting combed hair doesn’t seem to be the battle I chose to fight this day.  I’m fine with it.  My standards are pretty low for pictures of my own kids.  I only want three things: Them, no crazy Superhero T-shirts and to look “pleasant” (aka it is okay not to smile).

They were acting very silly and out of control on this afternoon.  I would like to say that is out of the ordinary but it isn’t.  They were doing big huge cheesy grins with their eyes shut tight.  Below is what I got when I asked them not to smile so much.  It reminds me of those old pictures from the 1800s when everyone looked so miserable stoic.

Are you still with me or asleep?  In case my Christmas cards really never make it out, I have included a couple of my annual Santa pictures.  My middle child has the gift thing figured out and explained to my little girl how it works as we waited our turn.  According to him, if you only put ONE thing on your list, you are certain to get it.  If you put 5 or 6 things you don’t know what you will get.  So sure enough, all three went up to Santa with exactly one thing on their lists.  Barbie Scooter, iPod and Wii-U.  That is all the Phillipson kids need to make their Christmas complete.  I’m afraid 2 of the 3 will be very disappointed on Christmas morning (although Andy and I have been known to cave at the last minute). I like this Santa.  We think he must be the real thing and not just a helper.  I like him because he always tells my children to brush their teeth.

Photographer’s Note: I want to get a canvas for each year of my Santa pictures and pull them all out every December.  I haven’t quite figured out how to display them or where I would put them so stay tuned.

I would like to share the best and absolute worst all time Christmas picture of all 3 of my children.  It again has the theme of uncombed hair.  An added bonus is that it features Alex’s haircut he created himself called my bangs were bothering me and now they are not.  If you read my earlier post about how I have lived with scissors on the top shelf for the last 10 years, now you know why.  Unfortunately, my kids are bigger now and can move chairs and climb high when I am not looking.  Ariel the Mermaid had a recent hair loss as well.  Anyway, Enjoy! Merry Christmas.

No, you may not submit this to Awkward Family Photos.  I plan on holding on to all my awkward photos.  I’m pretty sure I will have enough material for my own book one day.  If you have a funny picture, I would love to see it.  And you actually can submit to a funny Holiday contest here.

More silliness below (probably my Mom is the only one that has made it this far?).  I will call this session “get in the backyard so I can get a Christmas Card picture” OR ” the sun is going, the sun is going, stop it!”  I can’t decide.

kid photographer atlanta my own kid photographer atlanta

Christmas Gift Ideas: Only one today – remember the real gift already given to us all!  I’ll leave you with my favorite Christmas song:

Merry Christmas!

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you: He is Christ the Lord.” –Luke 2:11
posted in: Musings

These beautiful sisters were lucky enough to get two new puppies this year.  Meet Shrimp and Grits.  They were every bit as wiggily and playful as you would expect.  We laughed a lot and had fun.  When I got the call for this session it was very much like one for a newborn session.  We had to rush and fit it in ASAP to make sure we captured these puppies before they got any bigger.  Mom said “they are already changing!”

We are in the process of hanging their favorite images in a collection of Obrien Schridde black frames.  It is going to look so great.  I have these same frames hanging in my family room and I think I love them more each year.

Christmas Gift Idea:  Frames!  Of course.  Grandmas and family always love getting framed pictures of their family.  I also love to give framed chalkboards or mini ornament frames that can be hung on the tree.  I have several of these on hand if you need help.  If you want to try canvas, I know Canvas on Demand has a good product you will be happy with.  Instacanvas is what you need to check out if you are an Instagram user. (They have Gift Ideas to check out and just make sure you order by December 10th for Christmas delivery).

Merry Christmas!

 

 

posted in: Pets

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