C.C. Miller Photography bio picture
  • Welcome to our blog!

    We are the Miller's. A Party of Five...for now. This little blog is about our life, which I think is best described as "crazy...but NICE."

    I am Carissa Miller....a wife, mother, sister, daughter, and friend who loves to capture life's little moments using photography. I am married to my high school sweetheart, the love of my life. When we were just kids ourselves, we dreamed of marrying each other and having a big family. So I guess you could say that we are "livin' the dream."

    What will you find in our blog? You will find a little bit about everything that I love the most...My family. My kids. My friends. Cooking. Photography. And of course, some funny stories documenting this crazy little life of ours. I hope that reading our blog makes you smile, or maybe even laugh. I hope that you enjoy looking at the pictures I take which capture not only our lives, but others as well. Most of all, I hope it makes you want to pick up your camera and start capturing all those little moments in your own lives!

    Oh, and I love comments. So if you see something you like, leave me one!

    ***Coming Soon: my new website and photography portfolio: www.ccmillerphotography.com***

operation throw coco a birthday party: success.

     

 The birthday boy.  I love him.  ALOT.  That is all I will say because if I say more…I will most definitely start crying again.

The cake…thank you Trina, for saving me yet again.  Yes, there is a story behind the cake.  Long story short…I am not a “details” person and Trina, one of my bf’s knows this.  She always bails me out and Coco’s birthday was not exception.  She called me on the morning of the party and I was all upset because I had forgotten about Cohen’s miniature cake for him to tear into at the party.  I had Michael run to Wal-Mart that morning and of course all they had was some butt-ugly cake that was seafoam green and “coral’ (aka ugly pink) with blue, green, and yellow scary-ugly sea horses all over it.  Trina bailed me out and went to Target to get this ridiculously cute cake that was of course, perfect.  She IS a details person which is why she is so perfect for me.  Thank God I have friends who loves me despite my MANY faults.  Trina, I owe you….but then again, I always do!

The eating of the cake….he was not a big fan.  Thank goodness he has a mom who loves sweets…I was more than happy to help him out.  FYI…Super Target has YUMMY cakes.  This was one of the best cakes I have ever tasted AND I think they did an awesome job of decorating it.  Especially since they threw it together on the morning of the party.  Oh and the best part…it only cost $6!
The cupcakes and plates.  I guess I forgot to mention that it was a “ball-themed” party.  I made the invitations and they said, “Let’s have a BALL” and had bouncing balls all over them.  Then we had beach balls all over, ball pits, and “balls” (aka polka dots”) all over the decorations.

The party favors….
My favorite part….THE FOOD!  I am big on carrying the theme of the party throughout…even with the food.  So all the food was round and ball-shaped of course

1. Stuffed mushrooms – I have the yummiest and easiest recipe.  I will have to share it in another post!

2.  Homemade cinnamon rolls – this is another post as well.  I made the Pioneer Woman’s recipe from scratch and of course, they were DELICIOUS!  I have a few mistakes I made though and have some suggestions for how to NOT make my mistakes if you are going to make them.  Again, I will post about that later. 

3.  Spinach dip with round veggies – cucumbers, carrots, and cherry tomatoes

4.  Round fruit – banana slices, grapes, oranges, and blueberries

5.  Sausage Balls – I have a quick, yummy, and easy recipe for these as well. 

6.  Coffee Punch – the yummiest drink EVER.

I will share the recipes in a later post!

 THE BALL PIT – Birthday boy’s bf Jackson has one of his balls and he is scheming on how to steal it back.
More ball pit action. 
 THE TABLE – I am sick about not thinking to move the chairs in the picture so I could get a better shot.  That is what happens when trying to play mom, photographer, hostess, and birthday coordinator all at the same time.  Not the best picture but oh well!
 Again, NOT a good picture but it is stinkin’ hilarious.  This is what happens when you try to get 8 babies and 8 moms in one picture while their are twenty other older siblings running around screaming outside while trying to take the said pictures…it is pretty much impossible.  But I just had to post it anyways….because it makes me laugh.

may the force be with you

 Seriously?!?!  I love them.   What more is there to say?  I took the boys out for a little photo shoot the other day.  Big brother turns 5 next week and little brother turned 1 on Friday.  I will be posting about the birthday party later this week…yes, I did survive and believe it or not, I got more than 4 hours of sleep the night before the party.  I will also be posting more pics from this little session but I just couldn’t wait on this one.  Look at the intensity in big brother’s eyes.  It is literally like he is doing a “Jedi mind trick” on me.  Like, “you WILL stop taking pictures of me right now.”  That is probably the mind trick he was trying to pull off.  And little brother….just so happy like always.  And so thrilled to be in big brother’s company….with a light saber, of course.  Look out if you take that thing away from him.  It gets ugly. 

Yep, I love these boys.  More from this photo shoot later in the week.

Leslie Ahrberg LawsonMarch 9, 2010 - 7:43 pm

Carissa, you and Mike have the most beautiful family! I LOVE looking at your blog. You are a very talented writer (and photographer), and your heart for your family shines through. God Bless!!

Amy FinneyMarch 9, 2010 - 3:19 pm

Love this picture!!

cmillerMarch 9, 2010 - 3:00 pm

HA!%20%20Rhesa%2C%20I%20looked%20at%20this%20picture%20after%20your%20comment%20and%20it%20TOTALLY%20looks%20like%20he%20has%20highlights.%20%20Crazy!%20%20NO!%20%20I%20am%20way%20too%20cheap%20to%20pay%20to%20highlight%20my%20own%20hair%2C%20much%20less%20my%20sons.%20%20Guess%20he%20was%20blessed%20with%20%22natural%20highlights.%22

cmillerMarch 9, 2010 - 3:00 pm

HA! Rhesa, I looked at this picture after your comment and it TOTALLY looks like he has highlights. Crazy! NO! I am way too cheap to pay to highlight my own hair, much less my sons. Guess he was blessed with “natural highlights.”

RhesaMarch 9, 2010 - 2:36 pm

Seriously, C. Does Easton have highlights? He looks like 5 going on 15! : )

We just recently got rid of the light sabers (sniff). Those were sweet years.

KennaMarch 9, 2010 - 3:53 am

You have such handsome boys! I love the look in Easton’s eyes. And sweet Cohen’s smile is contagious. I can’t wait to see the rest from this shoot.

Baby R {Sneak Peek}

I had the most fun with this little cutie and her parents on Saturday!  Her parents were just so laid back about everything and it was just so obvious how in love they were with their daughter.  As you can tell from the pictures, it is not hard to see why!  J & C – thank you so much for asking me to take pictures of your precious daughter.  Hope to see you guys again in the future!
  
  

KennaMarch 9, 2010 - 3:54 am

She is a precious baby girl. I love her hat. Great job.

SummerMarch 8, 2010 - 9:39 pm

Love, Love, Love them! So cute! Great job Carissa!

Baby L {9 months}

 I absolutely love my “job.”  I don’t really think I can call it that because how can taking pictures of adorably cute babies really be “work”??  Anyways…I have had three baby sessions in three days so this will be my first of three posts.  All of the babies were girls so get ready for plenty of gorgeous blue eyes, ridiculously cute tutus, and bows galore of course!  This is the beautiful Baby L.  I had the privilege of photographing her when she was 3 months old as well.  It is so fun to see how she has grown!  She is into everything and crawling all over the place so it was definitely more of a challenge to take her pictures this time.  We had alot of fun though and I think I was able to capture her spunky little personality!  M – Thanks for asking me to take her pictures.  Hope you like them!

operation coco’s birthday party is in effect.

 That’s right people.  Operation throw Coco a birthday party is in effect.  I have less than 24 hours to turn this pile of craziness in to  a “Fabulous First” celebration  for my baby boy.  So what am I doing rather than getting started?  I am stalling and writing this blog  because I am looking at this pile and thinking I have completely lost my mind.  Here’s the long and short of it and hopefully there will be somebody reading this out there who will learn from my mistakes wonderful life experiences.  When you have only one child….it sounds OH SO FUN to throw a ginormous (I don’t know if that is a word but I like it) first birthday party including serving almost 50 people hand-marinated brisket with homemade barbecue sauce, homemade baked beans, and all the fixins as well as transforming your church foyer into something that looks like it came out of “Farm & Country” magazine (don’t know if this magazine exists but let’s just go with it…) to celebrate his “cowboy-themed” birthday party.  Oh, did I mention hand-made invitations, handmade party favors, pretty much handmade everything?  The truth is…I loved it though!  Those of you who know me, know that there are two things I love to do: 1.  Throw parties.  2.  Cook for people.  So of course I threw my little cowboy a party that was a force to be reckoned with.

Now comes the problem and hopefully all you moms out there are listening…..

AS A MOTHER, WHAT YOU DO FOR ONE…YOU WILL HAVE TO WANT TO DO FOR THE OTHER.

It is a lesson that has to be learned.  I am not sure where my mom and older sisters were when I was throwing this “Fabulous First” ginormous birthday party for my first child.  Why did they not stage an intervetion?  Let’s be honest…probably because they know me well enough to know that I am too crazy to listen anyways.   So I am going to tell you what I wish someone would have told me:  All I am saying is that you might want to think through the fact that you WILL have more children (if you are planning on it) and whatever you do for one child’s first birthday, you will want to do for the next child and the next child and the next child.  However, it will get increasingly more difficult to throw the said “fabulous first” ginormous birthday party when you are now toting “the next child and next child and next child” along with you for the birthday shopping.  For instance, shopping kid-free for a first birthday party for your only child and starting 6 months early on the planning is completely different than starting two weeks before and shopping with three kids with you who are breaking glass Glade-scented candles in the Wal-Mart aisles and while mom cleans up the mess, the other child is throwing twenty bags of unshelled nuts (because I was SO planning on using those in my birthday cooking) in the cart. 

So there it is….think it through.  For me, I didn’t.  But to be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I might be drinking coffee at midnight while I make my homemade cinnamon rolls for brunch the next morning but you know what, I will be rockin’ my ipod and listening to “I Will Survive” Aretha Franklin style.  Because I WILL surive.  And I WILL throw this party for my little man.  And I WILL be glad that I did it.  (Notice the use of the power verbs).   And after writing this blog, I am actually feeling excited about it.  I believe in looking on the bright side.  So here is the bright side….it maybe a little, ok ALOT, crazier to throw a first birthday party now, but I have two little helpers that are just SO excited about helping me get ready for their little brother’s birthday, and there are just no words to express how precious that is.  So now I am off to tackle “the pile” with my little man.  I am sure I will be posting pics of how everything came together in the next few days.

I will not, however, be posting any pictures of myself.  Because I, most definitely, will be in a coffee coma with large dark circles under my eyes.  I will definitely have some adorable pictures of the birthday boy though!

ElaneMarch 9, 2010 - 2:53 am

I still remember 1 year old Easton dressed up in his outfit and then you taking off his outer shirt to reveal the t-shirt underneath announcing that he would be a ‘big brother’ before he turned 2:)

bethanyMarch 5, 2010 - 12:28 am

I remember E’s first! Have a great time – I am sure it will be a fantastic party=) Can’t wait to see your pics from it!