look! (renee)

It is hard to believe that little Marissa is a year old already! We hit the beach for this end of the year session and then we went across the street to the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, to dodge the sun a bit. Marissa just is prettier every time I see her and she likes me a lot, which is always a bonus!

I know some of y’all think i am crazy about feet. But when they are this cute, who wouldn’t be?

Marissa wasn’t 100% impressed with the beach. But I’ll take that snuggle, thank you!

I also love her red hair.


I have to include these last two together so you can laugh at me with myself. You would think that after several years in southwest Florida, I would know better by now, but apparently not. I wanted to see if Marissa would sit for me for a few minutes (she was too busy earlier), so we plopped her down in the grass and I knelt in front of her. I fired off the first shot and then apparently still had my finger on the shutter when I realized that something was very wrong… my leg was being pinched. I looked down, horrified, and sure enough, I was kneeling right in a nest of fire ants–and they were swarming all over my pants (note to self: yes, pants really are a fantastic idea for sessions). The good news is that I had the presence of mind to drop the camera and pick up the baby (yay for mommy instincts there), who was thankfully not near enough or not interesting enough to have attracted the ants’ attention. Happily for me it was also one of the sweetest families in the world and we were at the end of the session anyway. But “look before you sit” is definitely on my reminder list. And I am so glad that I wasn’t laying in the grass like I often do!