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A Family shoot

I did this ones newborn shoot about a year ago...she was such a good baby!



Now she is one and wants to shout it through the trees! Doesn't she look like she is just belting a song out...I love this. Maybe she'll be a singer when she grows up!!


I had such a fun time this weekend with these guys. We went to a great spot and there were so many options, the kids had fun walking (well, running) around. It was a beautiful day too!! Thanks for a fun morning!!











Love how she is holding his hand...so sweet!




OK everyone, have a great Easter weekend!!

Mac's bday present. We found the elusive

Wii!!! I bought it at an actual store and paid retail! I was very excited about that!
Let me start by saying I am not a video game player at all, but this thing ROCKS!! It is so much fun. You can golf, bowl, skeet, drive, run, box, play tennis, baseball, seems like everything!! But you actually DO it, like go through the motions of bowling the ball not just moving a joystick and hitting a button. Bowling is probably one of my favorites. Macguire seems to like baseball and tennis.

Here they are playing baseball...Mac is pitching.


Ready for some more heat?


Nothing like carrying a Dora purse and eating (singing in to) a microphone. You can tell she is thrilled with the new purchase.



OK, so the funny part of this story is we (I) bought the Wii a few weeks before is birthday but Marc and I wanted to check it out so bad that we actually hooked it up and even played with friends while the kids were asleep before we even gave it to him. Yeah, I am sure we will be up for parents of the year! He did get it a week before his bday though and these are from that day:)

If you don't have one you need one, young or old...it is SO much fun.

Mac's party

Macguire wanted a race car party for his birthday. Not sure how he started to love racing because we don't watch it but he loves it! So I found a place about a half hour away that would let kids ride with a parent. We had such a great time! We were there forever though...I think about 4 hours!
I found the coolest invitations on ebay, they looked like a ticket to a nascar event!

Here is everyone ready to race!


And there off...

Having a great time on the course.

Mommy even got to take a ride:)

Then in for lunch and cake. Still can't believe he is FIVE!

Then out for some mini golf. Niya was thrilled as you can see.


"A little less swing there bud!"

Still thrilled with the golfing!

Mom, what the heck are you doing down there.

A little happier...she found a random ball. (because the one that we gave her at the beginning just wasn't good enough).


We had such a fun day. Thanks to all our friends for making the 30 min trek to the races!!

Baseball, opening day

This is our first year of little league and I think this will be a fun thing for Macguire as it is his third favorite sport (behind football and basketball). I didn't realize what a big deal little league is, he has learned a lot and seems to have fun. Opening day is a crazy event with a hit-a-thon, food, t-shirts, speeches, and they announce all the teams when they run on to the field. I think the older kids are there for hours, luckily we are the younger ones so it was only 2.5 hours for us (yes, I am happy for ONLY 2.5 hours!)...and it was raining (so I only brought our point and shoot).

Here is Macguire, first in line and totally bored, waiting to be called on to the field.

And him with their winning banner.


Birthday party ones are next (we had SO much fun) and I have a couple shoots coming up too!

One more thing...

I have been meaning to do this because I think it is so cool that a couple of people I met briefly have left me more blog love (i.e. comments) than friends and family! So a big shout out to Kimi and David Baxter of Ohana Photography. If you know someone getting married send them to Ohana Photography! http://www.sdohana.blogspot.com/

Seriously what bride wouldn't want a picture like this to remember the big day. Smokin hot...

Kids Fair

When I heard about the local Kidsfair I was thinking what a cool thing to have, local preschools and vendors all in one place...then I thought "hey, that me!!". So I put this together in a very short time, had some canvases made, made a portfolio, bought some things for display. I think it turned out OK. There weren't booths or anything fancy just an 8 ft table to decorate.
It was fun, 3 hours of talking to Moms, some seemed generally interested so hopefully they will think of me when they need to update their pictures around the house.







The booth next too me was Nina, owner of Tickled Pink Face Painting and O MY GOSH!! The awesomest face painting ever (she has been doing it 13 years or so)!! She did a boys whole face exactly like spiderman in like 3 min. This is a butterfly she was working on when I had the camera out. It's not done here there is a few more things and she finishes it off with glitter.

So if you are thinking face painter for anything give her a shout. She serves most of SoCal and is super cool! http://www.tickledpinkfacepainting.com

She does makeup too!

Insanely busy 4 days!!

Macguire's bday was Thursday and I had a table at a Kids Fair to show my work (my first one!). Then Friday Macguire picked the pirate show for his bday dinner. Sat was opening day of baseball (a huge deal that lasts hours) and a basketball game, then Sunday was his bday party (another huge deal that lasted hours!!).


I will start with the Pirate dinner...so the food was barely OK but the show was actually pretty good. Entertaining, a couple contests, some acrobatics, and they got kids involved in a few things too. Macguire was picked to be sworn in as a pirate and then at the end of the show a member of the princess's army. Niya even really enjoyed it! We thought she might be freaked out.

The gang...we were on the Red Pirate's team...

Enthralled with the action...


Up on stage being sworn in as a pirate, Mac has the light pants on in the middle. (side note: these were taken with a point and shoot and no flash was allowed so I had to slow the shutter down...basically - excuse the blur)

All the pirates taking their oath, Mac is still on stage...

Then at the end in the princess army, he was very serious about this...SO CUTE!!
(turned the flash on for these because no one was flying around the stage)



He loved it and that is all that mattered. I just wish they would get better food for how much it is. But hey, you only turn 5 once right!

Someone's birthday is tomorrow...

Snow Day

I just realized it has been a while, my apologies!
Niya had snow day at school a couple weeks ago and these are from that. They basically hire a company to dump snow on the grass and build a small little sledding hill (which she would not go on). She had fun playing in the snow though.


Throwing snow at me (that snow it in mid air, not on her sweater)

Stomping the snow balls that Mommy was making, stinker.

Happy Valentine's Day with the princess

the pink princess to be exact! Everything has a pink before it...pink car, pink horse, pink shoes, pink tires, it doesn't matter to her...she sees the world through rose colored glasses.

Can you tell how many dresses she is wearing at once? I was trying to count I think it is 2 dresses, 4 tops, and 4 skirts. She is normally not this round:)




And of course she had to do my nails too.

Meeting other photographers

It is so much fun to have someone else shoot my kids! They get a different perspective than what I get and the kids think it is nice to have someone else take pictures of them for a change.
Niya takes a bit to warm up but Macguire was having fun from the get go.

So Thursday I met up with Shannon from Madison Ave Photography in Pasadena. It was fun to finally meet her, we have been emailing for a while.

Go to her blog to see some pictures of the kids! I LOVE them!!
http://www.madisonavephotography.com/blog/v-day-shoot/

Recent Session

...with an exciting twist (I will tell you about that when I have something to share).

This family was great! 18 month old twins and their big sister. The girls were SO sweet and so were Mom and Dad. I was lucky enough to spend a couple afternoons with them for some great family photos. I love when the kids warm up and start calling me over to watch this or that.