second cousins

I'm not a big social media person. I mean, yes, I blog. (Every now and then.) But I don't consider that too much social media. In fact, its really me just posting stuff up for the benefit of my own family without being too social about it.

Facebook. Eh. I'm on every once in a great while. (Never mind that I check out Becky Higgins on Facebook every day.) Twitter. Nope. No tweets from me.

But Instagram. Yes. I'm on Instagram lots. I post almost every day. Sometimes not. But I check it SEVERAL times a day. (Just ask my husband who totally doesn't get it.) And I go through withdrawals when I can't check it, like when we go camping or somewhere else without much signal.

Through Instagram I have reconnected with my cousin Christina, and because of it, our kids have connected. It's pretty darn awesome.

They met a couple years ago at a family reunion, but I think they were all a little shy then and there were LOTS of unfamiliar faces so the situation was probably not ideal for making new friends. The second time they met was in June at a graduation party near their house. Both sets of kids hit it off.



The girls are two days apart, but her daughter is one grade higher than Emma. The boys are one year and one grade apart.

This next pic was taken yesterday when they came out for a visit. Pictured are all five kids, including my cousin's oldest daughter. We saw a movie and hung out for most of the day.



But so fun for these two girls. They have become pen pals and email pals. Emma emails her almost every day.




We don't live close so there won't be lots of visiting happening. But I think we can make it work a couple times a year.

Just so fun to re-connect and newly connect.

And I think we have Instagram to thank for it.

workin' on a little project...

That actually is not "little" at all. But well worth my time. And will for sure make these two people very happy when its done. ~

my sis

I hope my sister has gone to bed by now and isn't sitting up waiting for this post... I did promise I would post it before I went to bed tonight. Chances are she gave up, knowing I might be up too late for her.



I am so excited about these photos because they are first of all, of my sister and her girls, but also because I've been wanting to shoot in this location for awhile and my sister was game! I love the way they came out and am totally jealous that they aren't of my family. Someday, right?





My sister really wanted a couple shots of herself which I was so happy to do. I think my sister is so beautiful... And I hope she knows how much I love her and how proud I am of her.


This little girl is not so little anymore. I believe when she first entered our lives she was possibly six. Almost the same age as Emma. Now she's eleven. Wow.


The original reason for doing photos was for this little stinker's third birthday.
I call her a stinker, but seriously, she's a doll and was SO GREAT during our session.

This was Auti's first time at the beach so while she was getting acquainted, we got these super cute shots of Ally and Donna.
You can't see the whole thing, but this old weathered building behind them was the beach house used in Beaches with Bette Midler. How cool is that?

So proud of myself for shooting in bright sun and loving the results ~

And look at the beautiful blue. Sigh......

For more, please go to my business blog. I had to break it up, there were too many. Don't worry, I only duplicated two shots and you may not even notice because they are in opposite colors! Okay, now go and enjoy! Love ya!

cousins

Went back to my May folder and found these ~








Finally getting some cute cousin shots these days. Yeaaaa!


My cutie patootie little niece who had just turned three. Such a smart little cookie, that girl.

My first newborn is now 2!

This is my two year old niece, Autumn.


Check her out HERE to see the newborn and the one year old Autumn. I can't believe my first newborn session was two years ago... She was only five days old. Lots of hair, and dark hair at that! Now she's got this curly red mop that just amazes me every time I see her. She's going to hate it later, but for now we will enjoy how cute it is on her. And she was so calm as a baby. Amazing to see the spunk that has emerged in her!

Our shoot on Friday was funny because she is very shy and clingy with her mom and it takes her awhile to snap out of it.





I know my sister is going to like this shot. Behind them, although you can't read the name, is the restaurant where my sister and husband were married.


We were at the Long Beach Aquarium area taking these photos. After spending some time in the aquarium, then having lunch, we were able to get a much more natural Auti...



All wound up and tired... Hey, it worked!


I love this shot, so sweet.




Haven't taken photos of her in what seems like a year. It probably is. So this was a treat to get these because they are just as much for me as they are for my sister. :) Thanks Donna for spending the day with us. We had such a good time and I hope we can do it more often. The kids had so much fun. Happy Birthday Auti!

Visiting "grandma's house"

On Sunday it was eleven years since my mom passed away. With every new year I am amazed that I ever got through it. Those first few years were incredibly difficult. I never thought I would get past the first few months, much less eleven years worth.



Emma says that we are visiting Grandma's house. Each year she puts more pieces of the puzzle together as I continue to tell her and show her who Grandma Bailey is... the "other" grandma - the one she will never see in real life. How confusing for a child. When we made the trip out on Sunday to the cemetery, I brought a picture along of my family when I was young so she could look at her grandma's picture and have a better idea of who we were visiting. She's starting to ask questions. When we stop at the flower shop that is right next to Rose Hills, I let Emma pick the flowers out for grandma. She is very thoughtful with this task and picks them out very carefully. I think this makes our visit special.



This is the first time Ethan has run loose while we were there. Man, that kid is trouble (and I do say that with a smile). He was too funny... My mom is at the bottom of a hill and so we have to be careful about letting him walk around where we are because if he fell he would literally fall into the gutter. :) So instead he fell everywhere else.


It was just too funny.. he'd keep falling and falling because of the slope. You really had to be there and I really should have taken more photos. :)

Ethan thought it was fun to sprinkle grass all over the place so here he is making our flowers even prettier.




This was the best I could do of the kids...


I so miss my mom.

Thanks for letting me share and I hope this wasn't too sad of a post. It really was a good day - very few tears and lots of smiles.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with my family at my sister's house. Never got a group shot and I would've really liked a pic of just the kids, but it was just too hard. There was no way we were going to get Ethan to stay still for that one. But here are some of the kids opening their gifts.


Emma makes me so proud when she opens gifts because she gets truly excited over anything given to her. This was the first gift she opened and it was a lightweight jacket from my dad. She loved it!


The dude was not into opening gifts this year. Still a little too young for it.


Emma loves her new princess nightgown. Daniel doesn't get why she would wear a nightgown, but isn't it funny when you think back to when we were kids and we wore nightgowns all the time? When my sister told me she was giving one to Emma I knew she would love it. It's like playing dress-up to go to bed!


Autumn is now closer to two than one... She's getting so big! And get a load of that hair! Every time I see her I'm just drawn to all those curls and the practically RED hair. Not even my hair was that curly when I was young. And why does it seem like she's always missing one sock or one shoe? :)


Here's Emma opening another gift from Grandpa. She was squealing, literally squealing, with delight!


Here she is at the same moment doing this happy dance she does lately with her feet. Funny girl.


And one last pic of Emma and Ally.

I think this is it for our Christmas photos. I really hoped to have posted them all before the end of the year. But aside from missing that mark, can you even believe how much I've been posting? I'm so proud of myself. For one thing, it means I'm looking at and editing some photos, which means I can easily print them, and secondly, I'm sharing with friends and family which makes me happy too.

Thanks so much for stopping by... Have a good day!

What a difference a year makes

My niece, one year ago... And now...
She was so beautiful when she was born, but isn't it amazing how much they can change in one year? And how they only get more beautiful? She takes my breath away. She has the most gorgeous eyes. Big and brown. With curly auburn hair (we decided she must get the curly hair from me... oh, heaven help her! and I'm sorry Auti!). She's a doll. I feel so priveleged to have been the one to capture her first year in photos (we did photos every month). So thanks to my sister for allowing me that joy. Thanks for sharing your sweet Auti.

My first wedding

Okay, again I am behind on sharing photos and just blogging in general! I just can't keep up. I was caught up with proofing sessions and I don't know what happened because things are piling up again. I better get with it because May is looking to be super busy - I will be overbooked in fact. Nothing to complain about, but I will admit that I'm struggling a bit.

These photos are from my first wedding that I did for my cousin back in December. How awesome to have the opportunity to shoot a wedding for someone you know who is just happy to be getting photos at all. And let me just say for the record that I am not officially in business to do weddings... I am NOT a wedding photographer. It's the big time and it's hard work! There is no way I'm ready for this as a regular thing. But I am truly grateful for the opportunity. It really opened my eyes to what the expectations are and what I need to work on as a photograher - which is a lot! I was pleasantly surprised with what I got. I think one of the hardest things to do was trying to be creative when so much of doing a wedding seems like you're just trying to get all the must-have, traditional shots. And then to switch over and allow yourself to be creative... This was difficult for me.

Here are some of my favorites: