Ever since her birthday in April I’ve been meaning to do a little photo session with her. We had the perfect light one evening, a lovely new quilt top that I found on ebay, and a cute new outfit. After the first few minutes Arden admitted to me that she was nervous. She wanted things just so and to ‘look pretty in the pictures’. I will admit that photographing your own child can be challenging sometimes, but it was so worth it as this session resulted in some new favorite images of my very favorite little girl. I still can’t believe she’s so grown up and going to be going to kindergarten in September!! (please scroll to the bottom of this post for a few of my favorite things about her)

The new quilt top in all it’s glory…love it and can’t wait to use it for sessions!!

The number of facial expressions this girl has never ceases to amaze me. and crack me up!

Dancing…I love the motion blur!

my very favorite image of the evening. so perfectly her. Sugar and spice and everything nice

not from the same day, but from a special Father’s Day celebration from preschool.

She was so excited to go on a ‘date’ with daddy!

I just had to share a pic of my handsome hubby and beautiful girl.

A few of my favorite things about Arden at 5:

SHE…is definitely sugar and spice. graduated from speech therapy (it still amazes me how far she’s come and how well she can talk now!). constantly creating art…lots of coloring, painting, cutting, glueing and crafting. loves to dance and listen to music. super girly. doesn’t like skinny jeans, and prefers ‘fat jeans’. likes to give makeovers…often involving markers and nail polish! Is well on her way to reading with lots of sight words, and can write the whole alphabet. loves homework. very social and constantly wanting playdates. is into shoes and all things girly (glitter lipgloss anyone?). Scaredy Squirrel books are her favorite. tall and skinny…finding clothes is definitely a challenge! Still loves her long hair, and her favorite hairstyle is a headband. my little sidekick who loves outings and shopping. a great sister who’s always willing to watch out for her little brother (total little mama). Words we hear a lot from her are: actually, uh-huh (said like a southern diva) and sure. Wants to be a mom and a baker when she grows up. Loves the TV shows Cat in the Hat and Super Why. A bit of a tattle-tale (much to her big brother’s dismay). Switches between being a mommy’s girl and a daddy’s girl. Has a good dose of tom-boy in her, and isn’t scared of bugs, snails, slugs or dirt (just like her mama as a girl!). Loves to help in the kitchen and can already make some simple items like pudding and loves to create picnic lunches. Loves fruit, carrots, candy and gum. Favorite toys are Barbies, and just recently she stopped playing with Little People. Loves preschool. Things babysitters are the best. Needs her sleep and she still loves to crawl into bed and snuggle with me in the mornings. Got her ears pierced for her birthday, and was super-duper brave! She loves to lay out multiple outfit combinations before choosing what she will wear for the day. Favorite color is still pink.

How did he go from this:

to this?

This little boy lights up my life, and keeps me on my toes. He is laid back, easy-going, and definitely a ‘me too!’ kid. But yet, he is stubborn, persistent and knows exactly what wants. He can play for hours with cars and little people. He doesn’t talk much, and only has about 25 basic words/sounds and most of them only we understand (wow, yay, thank-you, go, mom, please, help, up, on, off, and a few others) but yet he’s very good at making it known what he wants. He says “moooooom” many many times in a day and is always finding me to show me what he wants. He signs more, help and please. He eats 100% on his own and has never wanted to be fed. He loves yogurt, fruit, meat, fruit snacks and porridge. He was a later walker (16 months) and just started running everywhere. He loves to climb. He can sit through a movie. He’s totally iPhone literate. He loves his soobie and blanket. He still loves to snuggle. He just dropped his second nap, and usually sleeps 1.5-3 hours during the day and 12 hours at night. He has the scrawniest little chicken legs…25ish lbs (30th% for weight and 70% percentile for height). He still only has 4 teeth on the bottom, the two center ones and two molars. Just like his Uncle Bart, one ear sticks out a teensy bit more than the other. He has a good sense of humor. He loves being out of the nursery and into Sunday school at church. He has the cutest little temper tantrums…he just throws himself on the ground and pouts – silently (they are kind of nice and a pleasant change from the daily dozen hysterical screaming fits his sister had at this age!). He has started to give me cheesy smiles when I have the camera out (case in point: the picture of him above with the fence behind him). He loves hockey, mostly because his big brother does too. He has adorable dimples.

He’s really really stinkin’ cute, and has his mama wrapped around his little finger

Happy (belated) birthday baby boy. I can’t wait to see what the next year brings! Hopefully toilet training and more talking. And more of your sweet personality, sticky hugs and slobbery kisses. xoxo. Mom.

So, I will be out of the office for most of August, and possibly the first few days of September. I will have some access to email, but my response may be delayed depending on if we have network access. If you are interested in booking a fall session for Christmas cards, please email me as soon as possible to reserve a date as this time of year fills up fast.

I wanted to share some pictures from our second camping trip of the year in Shuswap.

My kids can play together *so* nicely, and hockey is a current fave. Arden loves doing the face-offs!

Yes, she has killer hair. Wish I could have hair like hers

Hudson is a huge hockey nut. In his world, the bigger the stick, the better.

Ethan is loving reading. It’s still not his first choice for activities, but once he starts he can’t put a book down and he’s been reading a ton of chapter books and comic books this year.

I love my Keens. Best camping sandals ever….great for hiking, biking and the beach. And the resulting sandal tan is hot. haha

The cutest boots ever!

Arden had three mosquito bites right around her eye, and it was almost swollen shut. It was so freaky to look at, she looked like a completely different girl. Fortunately it didn’t bother her.

She is finally starting to master her bike. Her bike is pink (her favorite color) and girly. Of course.

We did a lot of biking here. The provincial park campground at Shuswap is nice and flat and perfect for biking.

We do a lot of reading. I’m so glad Tim and I are both readers, it’s the perfect way to spend a cloudy day in the campsite.

The bike trailer is always a big hit. Pulling it with 50+ pounds of kids is a super workout.

Hudson and his push car were pretty much inseparable. With it he can run. fast. He loved 4×4′ing the trails with it.

Everything was so green and luscious here. We live in such an incredibly beautiful area of the world.

The best part about meeting up with photographer friends is getting to be in front of the camera… check out the awesome shots she got! (and no…I didn’t plan to match quite so perfectly, but I do love how it looked.) Thank you Traci for a fabulous time together and for the awesome pictures!

Here’s a few of my shots:

Check out the air she got!

Traci in action with her new D3:

Isn’t she gorgeous?

And in between picture taking, lots of chatting of course.

(and this gives you a chance to see that mofo lens/camera combo Traci has going on!)

Meanwhile, the boys were happily sitting in their strollers and hanging out.

Or so we thought! Until Will decided to be a turtle and walk/crawl with his stroller on his back.

In between watching movies on Traci’s iPhone that is (talk about genius idea…I so need to load up a few movies onto mine for the kids!)

And to finish it off…a few Traci & Will shots.

Because every mama needs a picture like this….my favorite of the day.

More to come in the next few weeks here on this blog…(nephew) Liam’s newborn pictures, (another) Liam’s 6 week pictures, Jeremy & Julie’s engagement session and Katy & Anthony’s wedding! Stay tuned…

Ethan, our six year old, loves this local fair. We went for the first time last year, and I can’t even count how many times since then he has asked when we were going back. The week of the fair finally arrived, and fortunately we had a free evening to go. We had a great time, the kids loved the rides, I loved the fair food, and Tim enjoyed seeing us have fun.

The ferris wheel…it was almost dark when this was taken, but the sky was a lovely shade of blue. I took a ton of pictures during our very very long wait in line:

My little buddy. I’m so sad he’s going off to grade one next week. He’s such a great help with Arden, and I’m sure he’ll be with the new baby as well. He’s so fun to have a conversation with, and I know I’m going to miss his chatter. He’s quite worried about school and a new grade/teacher/class, etc so today we went out on a Mom/Ethan outing where he was thoroughly spoiled rotten with ice-cream for lunch, a few new things for school and time with just the two of us.

Anyways, this is from the fair as we waited and waited and waited some more in line for the ferris wheel. He was getting tired and cold so he cozied up to my belly (aka the furnace!). I love that he’s still snuggly. :

Ethan remembered this stuff from last year, but it was all new for Arden…and she went totally crazy for all the rides/games/activities. She loved it just as much as Ethan, and they thought their resulting small stuffed animal prizes were just perfect.

And these were the pictures I couldn’t resist posting. Arden in all her 2 1/2 year old spazziness. Ahhh, this girl keeps us on our toes I tell ya. She is a real firecracker and she sure lets that side of her personality show on a regular basis. These are as we had a little drink/snack break, and she wanted me to pick her up (which at this point in my pregnancy, is getting rather difficult and uncomfortable). So instead, I tormented her by snapping some pics…as the pictures show, she was less than impressed! Haha, these pictures totally crack me up, and they sure do perfectly portray this side of her personality!

“up, upppp, UPPPP!!!” Notice her signing please?

She’s progressed to full on screeching here (she has a speech delay, which definitely increases her frustration. She thinks we don’t understand her, but she’s able to make herself perfectly clear!!). “UUUUUUPPPPPPPPPP!!!!” (notice her tongue is shaped like a heart here?)

And then the maniacal side comes out. “Mom, mom, mom, mom, MOOOOOMMMMMM! UUUUUPPPPP!!!” (this one is my favorite….man do I love this girl, even with her temper tantrums and spazziness!!)

And lest you think I’m a horribly cruel mother, I did pick her up after this, and she snuggled right in and gave me hugs and kisses. I don’t think two-year-olds know how to hold a grudge, fortunately

Anyways, please pardon this little foray into the land of my personal family pictures. I will have some more client photos coming up soon…including Tricia & Bryan’s sneak peek from their wedding, some family pictures and some wall galleries. Stay tuned!