Happy MARCH!  I love this time of year because we’re over the hump for winter and it is so SO close to spring!  Those days that are a little warmer and I can see some blue sky give me hope that summer is almost here!  I haven’t done a recap post since JULY so I think it’s time to check in.  (And yes, I’m doing these by season now instead of by month so hopefully they’ll be easier to keep up on!)

Let’s start with a little recap of what I’ve been up to the last few months!  (If adorable kid photos aren’t your jam, you might want to skip this post!)

Fall was a busy time for us!  Fall family portrait season is always pretty hectic in a good way–I reconnect with all my favorite family clients for their yearly photos.  I still maintain that summer is an excellent time for your yearly portraits but I know some of you out there are NOT summer people so that’s totally fine!  I spend a lot of time in the fall playing in the fall colors with families and that is so fun!  I did a pretty good job of balancing work with home life (for once, hurrah!) so I was able to enjoy a lot of fun stuff with my kids!  I sent my oldest kiddo to KINDERGARTEN and there were just a many tears on my part as you’d expect.

The littlest and I had a great fire station tour at the Dundee Fire Station hosted by Hike it Baby:

 

I spent Halloween and many days after in the company of an adorable little ladybug:

 

And my type A personality worked hard to just RELAX and enjoy some slow days at home:

 

We definitely snuck some apple picking time in at Sherwood Orchards.  Oh, I can’t WAIT for U-Pick season to start up again!

 

And each week I hauled this tiny ballerina to her dance class and it is literally more cute than I can handle.

 

And this! Snowmageddon!

On the business front, I spent a lot of time regrouping and evaluating the next steps for Samantha Shannon Photography.  I designed and launched a new website, and spent plenty of time making amazing friendships with other business owners at The MOB (Mom-Owned Businesses).  I spoke at The Young Pros of Yamhill County on how to get the best LIGHT in their photos!  I also had a ton of coffee dates, shootouts, and teaching talks with The Professional Women Photographers of Yamhill County–we have a lot of exciting things planned for this group!

So let’s talk GOALS!  How did I do on my last ones?

BUSINESS goals–August:

• Rock three more anniversary sessions and treasure my time with more past SSP couples! (I did this and it was FABULOUS!  Best choice I’ve ever made in my business!  See anniversary sessions here)
• Celebrate Mykael and Evan’s wedding!  So excited!!  (Their wedding was seriously amazing!  See their blog post here!)
• My BIG GOAL: launch my updated website! This has been in the works for a few months now and comes with some soul-searching and tons of computer time, but I can’t wait to share the new online face of Samantha Shannon Photography!  (IT HAPPENED!!!  I’m still so jazzed that I DID IT!  This has been on my wish list for FOREVER.)
• Along with the new website, finish my new pricing guide!  I’m kind of bored with the current one, so I’ve been working on pretty-fying it with updated photos and a new layout!  (This, sadly, did not happen.  It’s sitting half-designed on my desktop and I pretty much forgot I had planned to do this.)

​PERSONAL goals–August:

• Enjoy some time with my baby girl while my son is at day camp!  (Done and DONE!)
• Enjoy my big long weekend that I scheduled off!  Maybe a beach trip day?  Maybe camping?  Who knows!  Something fun and summery!  (We had so many fun adventures this summer!)
• Do back to school shopping for my son!  I love new school supplies so this will be a fun one!  Any guesses on how many notebooks I’ll add to the cart for myself?  I have a problem.  (Update. I do indeed have a problem.  I think I added like four for myself.)

I can’t wait for spring to start.  I’ve been able to spend time this winter planning some big goals for myself and this is just the start of what’s to come!

BUSINESS goals–SPRING:

• Plan and enjoy an amazing Dream Bigger // Creative Mastermind Retreat with my favorite creatives!  This has had my heart all winter and I can’t wait to see what kind of magic happens in Lincoln City this month!  Follow us on IG in early March: #dreambiggerretreat
• Launch the website for The Professional Women Photographers of Yamhill County!  I’ve been leading some super fun events with this group of truly wonderful women, and I think we need to share about our group!  Each of these women has so MUCH love + potential to share with our community and this is one way I’m hoping to connect us all with the rest of Yamhill County!
• Shoot and share MARY’s wedding in April!!
• Shoot and share LOGAN’s wedding in MAY!!
• Stick to my calendar: I’ve been pretty good lately about planning out blogs and scheduling dates for business tasks–I need to keep sticking with it!

PERSONAL goals–SPRING:

• Plan an epic dinosaur-themed birthday for my son!  RAWR!
• Hike more: I’m letting the rain or the cold keep me inside too much!
• Keep Kondo-ing my life!  I did a huge declutter in January but the clutter has a way of seeping back in if I’m not on top of it!  It’s been such a positive change for our house to go a little more minimal and I want to keep it that way!

PHEW!  That’s a lot of life in one post!  Thanks for sticking with me!  What are your goals for this spring?