It's a Miracle!

Well, the Gods smiled down on me today!  Both of my kids sat together and looked in the direction of the camera!

Ella is now (FINALLY!!!) officially crawling!  She started off slowly doing the "army crawl" (like her brother did until he walked) for a few days, but she is now up and on her knees!  Life has changed!  Derek has reluctantly started swim lessons; the first one didn't go as badly as I had expected though.  It will be a slow process, but I see him enjoying the water in the end (the poor teacher though).  He is also on a flag football team.  It is hysterical- he comes running off he field (with bright red cheeks) and says "I runned out of energy" and takes a drink of water.  Mind you- this is about 5 minutes in to practice! ;)

Purple!

The theme is "purple" over at I ♥ Faces and I immediately thought of this recent picture!  Check out all of the wonderful and creative entries!  Such inspiration!

"G" Family Sneak Peek!

Tonight I had the chance to photograph a big family that has SO much fun together!  Grandma and Grandpa are so lucky to have such a great son, daughter and extended family!  They have been married 40 years and when asked to share their secret to success, they replied with "love" and "faithfulness" (and a few others I won't mention! ;) )

Enjoy your sneak peek!

Featured on The Album Cafe!

My blog header is featured on The Album Cafe Blog today!  It is a fabulous site that offers photoshop templates for professional photographers.
Check out the post here!

Brown Eyed Girl

Look at the big brown eyes on this cutie!  She makes me think of this song......

"C" was very interested in the props I brought and was very eager to model them!  By the time we were done with our session, she was asking for more pictures to be taken and had a few suggestions of her own on the locations!  Too cute!

Waiting!

This lovely family has decided to find out whether they are having a boy or a girl until his/her birthday!  How exciting! The girls are bubbling with anticipation and already have the baby named.  I can't wait to meet your new arrival when he or she makes their debut- enjoy your sneak peek!

Fun In the Pool!

From birth, Derek never liked the water.  He cried during his baths, doesn't like to "swim" past the first step in our pool and doesn't even like water on his face when I wash his hair now.  Ella on the other hand is the complete opposite-she loves to play in the water, loves her baths and even thinks it is fun to get splashed!
But one thing they do agree on, is that the baby pool, filled with just a little bit of water is fun!  Add a water gun to the equation and we have a great afternoon in the making.

A Few More From the Fourth!

Some of my greatest memories from childhood are from when my family celebrated the 4th up in a town called Greagle (somewhat near Tahoe).  They had the best parade; it was totally hokey- but I loved it!
I think my son is the same... he LOVES a parade!
We started our day at the Danville parade where they expected crowds of 40,000 people! We actually had to put our chairs out the day before in order to get a front row spot!  It was HOT but that didn't stop Derek. He waved to the people in the parade, he proudly waved his flag and he danced - A LOT!  I actually had 4 separate people stop me and ask if he was my son (usually my answer depends on why they are asking ;) ).  They all continued to say that they were enjoying watching him, more than the parade- yep,  he was having that much fun!

We then went over to some friend's house to BBQ and watch the kids run around.  By the end of the evening, nobody had the energy to go watch the fireworks- so we watched the NY ones on tv!

4th Of July Photoshoot: FAIL

Well, sometimes there are shoots that just don't go as well as you hope.  The kids are tired, don't have any interest in the camera and are a little unruly.  This session was one of "those" and has been my hardest so far.  Unfortunately, the kids were not cooperative and it was impossible to get the two of them together.  The little guy just wanted to run around and be naughty and the little girl cried whenever he got near her.  At least I got a few shots of them individually.  I feel badly for their mother.... oh, wait
 I AM their mother!!!

And this is what ALL of the shots of the two of them look like....  I didn't even get a chance to get my settings right in camera.

I think the neighbors were getting really tired of me begging and bribing Derek to "just sit there for one minute" and then threatening time outs!  I promise I don't do this with clients!  My kids have the worst case of PKS ("Photographer's Kids Syndrome").   Do you feel my pain!?!?!
Happy Independence Day!

Christmas in July!

Contact me today if you would like to book a session!