This photo was inspired by the great Beth Jansen – I originally wanted to put him on one of those yellow Tonka dump trucks, but he came out at 9.5 lb and was way too big. So I pulled out the big Tonka firetruck instead!

Quick story behind this shoot: Erin and I talked about doing something different for her maternity session.  We wanted to incorporate nature and knew weather would be an issue.  We arrived at Deception Pass and began staging the shoot, previsualizing each shot so there would be as little down time between each shot as possible.  When we were ready to begin, it had dropped another 10 degrees and the windchill put it somewhere around ‘dang’ cold.  Erin simply said was, ‘Let’s go for it!’

I photographed Dylan at 9 month-old in my studio last month for his first photo session and dreamy doesn’t begin to describe him. He has a sweetness and deep curious eyes that translated very well in photographs.  I love the image of Dylan and his dad — they seem so in sync as their body language and expressions mirror the other. I met Danielle at her house for a complimentary, custom wall-art consultation and below are some of the images she chose.  Her favorite is the first one that she got in a 16×24 for her living room.  Thank you Danielle for opening your home to me — it was a fun visit!

Lost and found

He lost it and then he lost it again. Yes, My son, my six year old lost his first tooth today. Oh! Please don’t feel sorry. It was the most awaited moment of his life. I knew he would be excited but not to this extent. He was jumping everywhere. I thought it’s in exhilaration but no it was because he couldn’t find his lost tooth.

His dreams were almost shattered. Tears trickled down his cheeks. He was already missing his tooth fairy.  There will be a hole in tooth fairy’s castle, as she won’t get his tooth.  Now, he won’t be rich anymore. He will not get any gift from her. All kinds of horrifying thoughts crossed his mind.  Oh boy! My boy was miserable. I could feel his pain.

I tried to console him.I told him that tooth fairy will still visit him even if he doesn’t have the tooth. He didn’t  want to listen. He shouted, “Mom please keep looking for it.” I had never imagined myself like this; looking so frantically for a broken tooth. How could I have envisioned that, I was never a mom before? And secondly it was not just anyone’s tooth, it was my precious one’s and that too his first.

My search continued but to no avail. I just picked some apple crumbs and some breadcrumbs, as though I was trying to  clean up my rug. Those little food testers were the results of my little one’s generosity . I was suspicious. Did Sid gulp in his tooth with the bite of an apple he was just having? Or has he shared his tooth, instead of apple with his little brother?

Soon, both school of thoughts were negated as he found his precious possession. I was relieved, so was he. I was amazed to see the size of that tooth. No wonder, why I (with my amazing eyesight) couldn’t find it. I later came to think of it, it was normal sized, as six years old kids should have. It was not supposed to be like that Rudy Dinosaur’s tooth shown in Ice Age 3.

Now, it was a moment of celebration. A moment he had been waiting for since the beginning of the year 2009. He is youngest in his class. All of his classmates have lost one or more teeth. That hole in the mouth is like a certificate  of getting bigger that a kid carries with him/her at all times. And among the whole group he was the only one without any windows in his mouth. He needed some air. It was too much of a pressure that he was going through. It was a big problem that you and I cannot easily understand. It is too much to handle. Try to relate to the time when you were left alone. Remember that depressing feeling of loneliness.

Finally, the day has come and he wanted to celebrate it by sleeping early.  So, that he can welcome his tooth fairy in his dreams. Good night my sweetheart!  Sleep tight.

For several years now I’ve wanted to do an Advent Calendar with my kids. The problem was, I never remembered until maybe the last day of November or a couple of days into December. Sure, I could have started it a little later but I tended to just shrug my shoulders and plan to do it the next year.

Last year, I saw a neat Advent Calendar/Wreath at Target that I really liked. Unfortunately the only one that was left at my Target was missing a piece. And frankly, I wasn’t interested in driving all over Nashville to various Targets to see if they had one that was whole. So once again, I shelved the idea. Then much to my delight, while we were with my parents for Christmas, I came across one at a Target in their city AND it had all it’s parts AND it was on clearance! So I snatched it up, brought it home and put it away with the Christmas decorations.

Fast forward to yesterday.

I spent a good part of the day taking down and putting away my Autumn and Thanksgiving items and pulling out and setting up my Christmas items. And there was the Calendar/Wreath, taunting me. I was so unprepared. It was the day before December. We had just returned on Sunday from being out of town for 10 days. I had so much to do. But I just couldn’t put off for another year, not when I had the calendar right there in front of me.

Which is why I was up until midnight last night coming up with our advent activities and setting up the calendar/wreath. And because I couldn’t come up with 24 specific things to do and because I know how, um, well, lazy, I can be, I fudged it a bit and there are three candy days. That means when they open that day, there will be two pieces of candy waiting for them instead of an activity. There are also two present days. They will be told to go look in a certain place to see what’s there.

{And as I wrote this, GMan was beside himself with anticipation about the first box. I told them this morning we would open it when JBelle got home from school.}

Here’s what we are doing for the next 24 days:

1. Go outside and look at the moon & stars before bedtime. Remember the star that the wise men followed. (I thought it was going to be clear tonight! It wasn’t. We stepped outside and looked at the blurry moon though and we read the book The Greatest Gift about an angel that becomes the star that points the way to Jesus and I tried to put “glow in the dark stars” up in GMan’s room, but they kept falling off the ceiling. Tomorrow should be easier…I hope!)
2. Shop for Y.E.S. gift
3. Decorate bedroom doors
4. {candy}
5. Watch a Christmas movie
6. Bake cookies with Mommy
7. What’s in the red basket above the TV? (it’ll be Christmas socks)
8. Make paper snowflakes
9. {candy}
10. Take Christmas goodies to a shut-in member from our church
11. Make a Christmas card for friend
12. Build a fort from blankets & pillows. Read a Christmas book in the fort.
13. Have hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows or whipped cream.
14. Donate food to Second Harvest Food Bank
15. {candy}
16. Make shrinky-dink ornaments or magnets
17. Go see TN State Christmas Tree & Nashville Christmas Tree
18. Eat dessert first (brownies with peppermint ice cream)
19. What’s in the cookie jar? (it won’t be cookies! it will be an, as of yet undetermined, treat)
20. Drive around and look at Christmas lights in our pajamas
21. Count all the Santas in the house
22. Make paper toys (www.thetoymaker.com)
23. Go on a Christmas scavenger hunt (I may regret this! Remember, I already admitted to being lazy!)
24. Read Christmas story from the Bible and open Christmas Eve present from Mommy & Daddy (it’s always pjs)

Some of these I came up with on my own, several of them I “borrowed” from Kristen of We are THAT Family. A few others I found on the web (this is a neat list).

{JBelle arrived home as I was working on this post and we opened the first box. Unfortunately, GMan was quite disappointed. Of course, he’s five and doesn’t quite get the whole concept. JBelle, on the other hand, was impressed and is looking forward to our first activity. I think once we get to Day 4, GMan will be on board!}

Do you do an Advent Calendar? What is in yours?

Another excellent idea is The Twelve Days of Christmas. My friend, Sarah, is doing this for one of her blog readers (her sweet husband does this for her every year.) I’m going to do this, too…next year. Sorry to make you wait but after putting that Advent Calendar together, I’m plumb out of ideas.

This family was the last of my 17-shoot marathon that was spread out over 2 days. One would think I would have been exhausted when they arrived but they were so sweet and easy-going that it was actually energizing.  All 3 children had the biggest, most beautiful eyes…I couldn’t stop shooting! The image of the siblings together was truly a candid moment that shows their closeness.  They were sitting on a rock upright and hugging until one of the boys playfully leaned over. In an instant, the whole photo came together with their hand-play, expressions, and the light. I love photography for these unique nano-seconds in time that are captured forever.

What a joy it was to photograph Nina and Lucas over the weekend.  Their parents, who so funny and easy-going with their children, have been bringing their darling twins to me every year since they were babies. For this photo session on a perfect, crisp fall day, they were dressed to the nines with Nina in vintage dress and Lucas in a suit! The lavendar layered cake dress and the headband are from J.Crew. Thank you Louise and Frank for coming to me for family photos year after year.

This beautiful family has been coming to me every year since 2006. I photographed Shelby and Colby for a couple years until their mom called to say that they now had twins, Sadie and Casey. I photographed them at 3 months-old, and at ages one and now at two. I’m always struck by how well all four children get along, and how patient and loving the older ones are with their siblings. Did I mention that they all have stunning blue eyes and the longest eyelashes ever?!

Tuesday’s are super exciting around our house because my nephew Nick spends the night. The kids are always so excited to see him. Excited isn’t even really the right word. They positively adore their cousin.

It was pointed out to me this evening that I always make spaghetti on Tuesdays (Nicky Night). I hadn’t thought about it, but it seems I do tend to make a bid spaghetti dinner on Tuesdays, mainly because I know we’ll be home and I don’t have to rush. Spaghetti, garlic mashed potatoes, garlic bread. Super simple, but probably the kids’ favorite meal night. Its one of the few things they can all agree on.  I suppose I should attempt to vary our menu a bit though.

Xavier was in-motion from the moment he hopped out of his car and into the park area — climbing, running, hanging, swinging, sliding, and playing with his beloved tractor.  I must have burned 1,000 calories chasing him around! I have had the absolute pleasure of photographing Xavier 6 times so far: capturing his sweet baby features at 3 months, his sitting-up stage at 6 months, his cruiser stage at 9 months, his walking stage at one years-old, then 2 years-old, and this last time at 4 years-old.  Thank you Connie for giving me the opportunity to capture your baby as he grows!

Last night was Johnny’s awards dinner for the end of the Monroe Milers running season. What a great year for him! We saw a huge change in his stamina and running times. He participated in three races and gained a lot of confidence.

Just gotta work on that camera smile.

This little love is 3 months-old and as precious as they come. His parents brought him to the studio for his first photo session last weekend. They also brought his big brother to me for baby photos when he was an infant. I love being their family photographer.

(New blog. First post. Shouldn’t I be wearing a party hat or something? You are reading a continuation of my previous blog…)

This was presented to me Sunday morning (run through mom’s spellchecker)

Eden’s Christmas List

1. PSP or DSi. Purple.
2. Felicity the American Girl Doll. So cool.
3. A new snowglobe for my snowglobe collection
4. Hannah Montana the Movie CD or movie
5. Princess hair accessories vanity
6. My own laptop. Pink laptop. Cute!
7. My very, very, very own Kaboodle
8. A very bright pink, dark pink rug
9. a light, light, light pink notebook
10. Wii Fit
11. DS. Pets Nursery game
12. Imagine Sweet 16 DS game
13. Littlest Pet Shop DS game
14. Splaster game

end.

I support any and every kind of physical activity for kids (as long as it is safe). I do no think that any activity is “the best” for every child. However, I do believe there may be an activity that is best for each individual child. I also believe that all kids need to be active. While many kids may prefer to play video games, watch tv, or just abstain from physical activity that simply should not be an option. Parents ensure their kids brush their teeth, wash their hands, go to bed on time, and eat their vegetables, but many stop at promoting health with physical activity.

There are plenty of kids who may not enjoy gym class because of unpleasant experiences including nerviousness or embarrassment. For that reason and more they may not want to engage in any physical activities. There are also plenty of kids who are struggling with emotions for various reasons which influence their entire life including their motivation to do anything. They become unhappy without knowing how to become happy again. As parents, relatives, and family friends we all want to help, but often we don’t know how.

While I have not done exstensive research on the topic (which is why I can only make a suggestion) I have read many articles and I have seen many examples of how physical activity can help improve a child’s life. What comes to mind when parents want to get their kids moving is typically sports leagues, karate, and gymnastics. All great physical activities that also teaches life skills, but also not for everyone. There are endless opprotunities, organized and recreational, including walking, hiking, biking, kayaking, swimming, and yoga.

I found this article about yoga for kids today on CNN. I love to read about positive influences on kids, to see alternative ways to inspire individuals to be healthy, and I love it even more to share them. Yoga, just like sports leagues is not for everyone, but it is another option that should be considered to keep kids healthy. It provides physical activitiy, teaches coping skills as well as disipline, channels energy, and gives kids something to look forward to, even if things are challenging in other parts of thier life.

We have several yoga studios in the area. As far as I know they do not provide classes specifically for kids, but many of them do allow older kids to join the class with thier parents (if you are a yoga studio or know of one that offers kids classes let me know. I will add it to the site). There are also many programs run through the local parks and recreation that provide special kids yoga classes, so check our you county park and recreations website. 

Tuesday is my day off, so I almost always get to spend the morning with my little brother Benjamin, who is in kindergarten. Today when I went upstairs for my daily bowl or cereal and a cup of coffee, Benjamin got on a stool to get a box of cereal to join me.

To my surprise he started sifted through the boxes to get to one in the back. I asked “mmm Cocoa Crispies,” to which he replied “no.” So I said “oh, Cookie Crisps?” and again he said no. He said “I am going for these they are for sports.” I said “oh, Frosted Flakes. For sports huh?”  I could not help, but be proud of my little brother. He set aside Cocoa Crispies for his love of sports. *tear*

The Frosted Flakes box had sports pictures on the back and that was the sole reason for his decision to reach for that box. He did not even know the name of the cereal. To me this is great marketing and perhaps some credit is due to his wonderful role models.

I can only hope that my little brother has been influenced by our entire family encouraging him to play sports, my enthusiasm for fitness, and the hype about Fit In NJ Magazine within my house. It is easy to see little kids want to be just like the people they look up to. Their “heroes” are their heroes simply because they are their brother, sister, mother, father, grandpa, or grandma and no other reason. They don’t care what it is you do they want to do it too. Today, I was reminded of how positive this tendency can be.

 Too often we see little kids who want to ride a motorcycle, who say “oh S**t” to be like mommy and daddy, or say things like when I get older I want a belly button ring or tattoo just like sissy. We also hear a lot of positive things like I want to be a police office, firefighter, or basketball player. It is not too often we hear kids who say I want to run in races, I want to eat healthy, I want to be fit, or I want to go to they gym. At five kids may not know what some of those things are (even if they know all of the curse words), but I bet if they say mommy and daddy doing it, they would want to do them too.

I was surprised by Benjamin’s decision today, because he wanted to be healthy (even though he did for the love of sports). He wants to play sports now and when he is older. At five he is willing to eat a certain cereal to be able to do so, even if it was not the one that tasted the best.  This is the key. When parents and relatives can encourage healthy habits at every age through the power of influences kids are sure to follow suit. It’s far too common to see overweight kids because their parents have unintentionally introduced unhealthy habits.

Benjamin missed the mark a bit, choosing Frosted Flakes, but his intentions were misled by the box. He is smart for 5, but not that smart, plus like I said little ones are easily influenced.

What all this is about is that your little brother, sister, your son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter learns more than you know from you. When you take that in consideration you can take full advantage of your little buddies desire to be just like you by glamorizing healthy habits. So here’s to passing up the delicious cocoa pebbles for the sports cereal.

Over the weekend I photographed this family in Tiburon on a perfect day.  Elizabeth was utterly charming and loved having her picture taken, and her little sister, Alexandria, was a real trooper by giving us lots of smiles even though she was ready for her nap. I had the best time capturing these darling girls at their home where they felt most comfortable.

I have had the absolute pleasure of photographing Tai 3 times and am excited to do one more in November.  This particular session was for the Christmas card with her wearing a beautiful velvety dress.  To help Tai be on the same page with us we would say things like, “think of pictures mom and grandma would like,” and I would give her direction on where to look, etc..  Tai  got it and gave us what just what we needed, but each proper pose was followed by an outburst of comical hilarious ones afterward.  Love this girl!

Nothing more fun than a pile of leaves!

This is the 4th time I’ve photographed this lovely Foster City family.  We met at the center of the city, Leo J Ryan Memorial Park, a place that is sentimental to them because they spent time there as children.  It proved to be a great location and I was glad to have learned about it from them.

This sweet family has come to me for family  photos I don’t know how many times, and each session Ella captivates my heart and creativity.  She is 100% girl and 100% firecracker all tied up in a big bow. And now they have handsome little Michael who is 10-months old and already walking. Watch out world here they come!

Right after a crushing playoff loss in cold, windy weather, the football coaches of my son’s youth team gathered the kids around for the usual post-game talk.

The season is over now, there’s no getting around it. This is the end.

After 13 weeks of practice six hours a week … after 9 games … after all the team-building that results from good leadership of 25 ten-year-old boys who love football and get along well with each other … here we are now. Done. Over. After all that effort, and all that investment, suddenly, it’s all over.

Some of the coaches got choked up trying to put their intense emotions into words. Just like last year. And listening to them, and watching them, so did I. Just like last year.

And this was a totally different set of coaches from last year.

Two seasons of football, two different sets of coaches, but two identical scenarios at the end of the season: a tough loss, and an emotional message.

Two sets of good people connecting with our young men, doing a wonderful thing for them, and for us. Two sets of dads who throw themselves into coaching with great dedication and desire. with a sincere and earnest wish to teach football to 9- and 10-year-old boys. For nothing. Well, it isn’t really for nothing: the coaches get to spend a little of their own money, and a lot of their own time, energy, and emotion.

Some kids aren’t so lucky, I know, and end up with jerks for coaches, who ruin an entire sport for them forever, but we’ve been lucky enough to go 2-for-2 in the Good Football Coaches category.

The key thin I’ve learned over the last two enjoyable seasons is that football builds bonds like no other sport that I’ve ever seen up close. The investment of time and emotion is so big. SO, so big. And with all that investment comes bonding: boys with other boys, coaches with boys, parents with each other.

It all comes together, slowly, over a period of weeks. At some point, it turns into a team, a real team, where everybody works together for a common goal, without concern about who gets credit.

And it hurts when that finally ends. It hurts a lot. It hurts because you’ve built something real.

There is a very real sense of grief for the end of that bond. Maybe it hurts the adults more than the kids. In fact, I’m pretty sure about that.

And then we drag ourselves back to work, school, or wherever it is we put in our time each day, but we do so as changed people.

We’ve been transformed. Literally, transformed by the power of connecting with other people and working towards a common goal. It’s an amazing and beautiful thing. And I’m pretty sure this is one of the most powerful draws that keeps players coming back to play football, and keeps coaches coming back to coach it, at least in our local youth program.

Football is a great sport outside of all other considerations, but when you add in the teamwork and the life lessons, the character-building, the elevation of team over self, football becomes transcendent.

Someday when I’m old, and Jacob is grown, we’ll talk about the good times we had when he played youth football, and how much we both enjoyed it, and how much we both learned.

Life is mostly about building memories, and it feels good to know you’ve just built another great memory. It feels really, really good.

I’ve avoided discussing Roman Polanski’s recent arrest for skipping bail on his 1978 statutory rape charge, but I’ve been watching it from afar. And I really don’t believe some of the public comments some people have made about Polanski, and about his 13-year-old victim.

I’m stunned, frankly. And now we can add one more lunatic to the pile: Gore Vidal.

I like to poke fun at Hollywood and the entertainment industry. It’s easy, and it’s fun, because these ridiculous people bring it on themselves. Despite that, the media refuses to criticize any of them, because the media depends on access to these yahoos for much of its content. They are, quite literally, “off limits”.

But what we’ve seen lately really ought to make some of us sit up and pay more attention to the types of people who produce our television shows, our movies, our books and CDs, and our newspapers. Because if their recent comments defending Polanski’s disgusting crime truly reflect their vision of right and wrong, then we should probably confront some ugly truths about our star-centric culture.

The list of such people is long, and disturbing. I’m not going to bother digging up links to all of them here and glorify their ridiculous statements.

So the big picture here is that it’s easy to dismiss cultural influence as unimportant, but I think that’s a mistake. A really big mistake.

And if the fact that Gore Vidal is an amoral twit with nothing useful to tell us wasn’t clear before, then it is pretty damn clear now.

But he’s like 145 years old, so who cares? Here’s why it matters: his outlandish, insane comments in this Atlantic interview a couple of weeks ago didn’t cause any kind of public backlash in the media.

This tells us just about everything we need to know, about both the media and Hollywood in general. And what it tells us is not good.

I’ll break it down for them: it’s ok to come out in public and criticize creeps that drug and rape and sodomize 13 year old girls. Really.

Give it a shot sometime.

Wow.

Notes left behind: Six-year-old cancer victim Elena Desserich’s heartbreaking messages of love to her family

These are the heartbreaking notes a six-year-old cancer victim hid for her family to find after she died.

Elena Desserich was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer when she was just five years old.

During her nine-month struggle with the illness, Elena, from Wyoming, hid hundreds of notes between the pages of books, in cupboards, drawers, bags, and clothes stashed away for the winter.

What a sweet little angel. They’re still finding the notes, more than two years later, and have written a book about it called “Notes Left Behind” as a tribute to Elena and to help little sister Gracie remember her.

“Gracie” … a nickname for “Grace”. Sounds like there is a lot of Grace in the Desserich family.

While the Desserichs were forming their own tribute, Elena was secretly writing notes and tucking them away in nooks and crannies in her house and the houses of relatives.

‘She was a child who was wise beyond her years,’ said Mr Desserich. ‘I hate to think she knew she was dying but I think she did.’

‘I think the notes were her way of telling us that everything would be OK,’ added Mrs Desserich.  ‘It feels like a hug from her every time we find one.’

[...]

‘We don’t ever want to find the last note,’ said Mr Desserich. ‘I hope we keep on finding them for years to come.’

In fact, both parents have saved one unopened note from Elena which they carry with them in their briefcases.

‘It’s our way of saving the last note,’ said Mrs Desserich.

Our sincere condolences to them on their loss.

Please go read the whole thing.