Family

Happy New Year!

The holidays have come and gone, and I must admit, I’ve been dealing with some personal issues that have kept me preoccupied. So preoccupied, I didn’t realize that it’s been 2 and a half months since I last posted. Yikes!

I’m in a new, much better place now, and am slowly starting to adjust.

In the midst of my turmoil, one thing I learned was that God, my family and the relationships I hung onto mattered the most.

I’ve met some very special families along the way, and was able to take their holiday photos for them.

Mommy Goggles On.

This weeks’ I Heart Faces challenge theme is: Best Face Photo from Summer 2011.

How can I resist not sharing a photo of my kids?

These are the best faces from my Summer 2011. These are the best faces from my life.

A Touch of Sun

This weeks’ I Heart Faces Challenge theme is: A Touch of Sun.

This photo has always been one of my favorites…Beautiful expecting Mommy, adorable little girl and the sun, wrapping them up in a warm, safe blanket.

White

This week’s I Heart Faces challenge theme is: white.

The first thing I thought of was this particular photo of sweet, little Baby N, a baby girl whom I nicknamed Snow White. She had the creamiest skin, rosiest lips and the darkest, jet-black hair. So beautiful.

 

 

 

The Emotion of a PB&J

I have the best job. I’m a Mom of two young boys. I’m also a photographer. Both allow me to be creative in different ways (one lets me make a mean PB&J and the other allows me to dig deeper into my emotions and express it in a photo.) But both make me equally excited and happy. Wow! What a beautiful shot! Hey, that’s some sandwich!

My senior photo session with Miss M was amazing. Most of the time while on a shoot, I am inspired by the sun, and how it softly drapes it’s rays of light onto everything I see. How it creates a mood only explained by a feeling. But with Miss M, I was so inspired by the location. The grittiness of the bricks. The cracked and chipped paint on the walls.The sound of the asphalt pebbles cracking under the weight of each step I took.

It’s almost time for me to make my son’s lunch for school tomorrow. I wonder what I’ll come up with tonight…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Summer

I remember summer vacation. The 3-month break of fun-in-the sun before school starts. The days of carefree. Sleeping in. Watching the clouds roll by.

But when you’re going to be a Senior in high school, for some reason, that last summer seems so short. You start thinking of college and what you’re going to do after high school. The “real world” suddenly takes over.

Only that you don’t realize that you’ve already been living in the real world. And things are going to be just fine. As long as you know how to do your own laundry.

These two beautiful Seniors are anxiously waiting to start their last year of high school. They are ready to take whatever life gives them and laugh along with it at the same time. Which is what they did 95% of the photo session. Make each other laugh.

Jeepers Creepers

Where did you get those peepers?

I love looking into the eyes of my kids. They show me so much feeling, so much emotion. They tell me what their words are unable to do.

Usually these eyes are telling me that he’s about to get into some kind of mischievous trouble (as a 2-year-old should!) but in this photo, they are telling me that he loves me. Or at least that’s how I interpret it. Or that he loves me and that’s he’s just about to get into some kind of mischief in the next 2 minutes…

To see more photos of beautiful eyes, head on over to the I Heart Faces Website or click on the button below.

Baby M

His name starts with an M, but I think the M stands for “Miracle.”

Baby M was born at 35 weeks. Which is pretty amazing since his mom was admitted to the hospital at 29 weeks right after her water broke.

Weeks of bed rest, never-ending prayers and consuming hospital food three times a day paid off (maybe without the green Jello…)

Beautiful Baby M was born and proved all the statistics wrong (her doctor said 85% of patients whose water breaks early deliver within one week.)

 

 

 

Water

An outside game of hide in seek while the sun goes down. Popsicles. Sleeping in.

Summer. The only season where you can swim all day and still have time to squeeze in a picnic.

This year, my son learned how to swim. He’s now an expert at cannonballs. He really loves the water and exploring each way and direction his body can move in the water, whether it’s slightly moving his legs to gracefully turn or violently kicking his legs to create enormous splashes.

I love the sheer joy and excitement on his face when he’s in the water…

To see more water photos, head over to the I Heart Faces website or click on the button below.

 

Prayers For My Friend…

My good friend Nicola is expecting her third child. She’s already expecting her body to go through many changes. She’s already expecting to sleep in 2-hour increments when the baby arrives. But what she wasn’t expecting was for her water to break. Early.

She was only 29 weeks and 2 days along when she was admitted to the hospital. Things didn’t look optimistic, but she hoped and prayed. Her family hoped and prayed. Her friends hoped and prayed.

Today, Nicola reached 34 weeks. Not too bad for beating the odds (her doctor said 85% of patients whose water breaks early deliver within one week.)

We’re still praying for you, Nicola…