Vote for a Holiday Special!

The holidays will be here before we know it, and I am getting a head start on the planning.  I would love your input regarding what types of specials you would like to see offered during the holiday season.  If you look on the right hand side of this blog, you will see a poll where you can vote.  Please take a second to cast your vote- as I will offer whatever special has the most interest!  Feel free to pass it along to friends and family as well!

Back From Vacation!

Last week, we traveled with family up to the Yosemite area.  We stayed at the Evergreen Lodge and rented the "John Muir House".  It was a great time, and a nice distraction from the crummy week we had before we left.  We certainly felt at one with nature as we had a bear visit the back deck every night, crossed paths with a rattle snake on a nature walk, caught little frogs and saw the BIGGEST beetle I have ever seen in my life (it was honestly about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide- and it HISSED!!!!!!!).
We also took Derek on his first fishing trip and he caught the first fish of the day!  He reeled it in all by himself and was SO excited!  Though I am not sure if he was more excited about the fish or about riding in the back of our fishing guide's pick up truck down to the stream.
Ella had a few firsts on the trip as well....she had her first ice cream cone and practically devoured it.  She actually started crying when it was gone, but her Papa saved the day and offered her the rest of his.  She also ate something else for the first time...... sand.  She loved the sand box, but ate a few handfuls of yucky, dirty sand (blech!)!!!  Well, I guess every kid has to do it at some point, right?
Enjoy a little slideshow of the good times we had...

Lil' Buddy

Last night we lost our little buddy- our 7 1/2 year old english bulldog named Oskar. He was diagnosed in January with right sided heart failure and after a miraculous recovery up at UC Davis, he came home to live out the rest of his life which they expected to be 6-18 months.  He was unfortunately on the short end of that estimation. :(  We believe he had a heart attack in his sleep while laying next to my bed last night; he went quietly and peacefully.
He was such a wonderful dog with such a quirky personality!  He never wanted to be alone, loved to sun bathe in the warm sunshine, LOVED cheese, snored, farted, and was the most gentle animal you would ever meet.  We love him with all of our  hearts and miss him terribly.  Rest in peace Oskar- we'll never forget you.

Fairy Princess

Here is my 10 month old fairy princess!  This processing is a little different for me- but I had a lot of fun doing it!  Ella is ALL girl; she shrieks with delight, is entirely emotional and let's me dress her up in fun, frilly outfits!

Happy Birthday Baby "A"!

This sweet baby girl turned one in July!  I've had the pleasure of photographing her since she was in Mommy's tummy!  We started off with a few cute pictures outdoors and then brought it inside for the classic cake smash!  "A" was slow to dig in to the cake but in the end she was covered in it (and smelled SOOOOOO yummy, too!).

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!