spring photos (babies & families)

it's spring!!! which means the sun is out and i am loving it and everything is blooming and it's a time for babies... so how about some photos of babies...and some family photos!  april has been a crazy month and it's only half over.  i've been super busy with work and also really fortunate to have been recommended to several friends of friends to take their photos.  bevin and heather who i blogged last in my 'beautiful bellies' post both had their daughters and i did their newborn photos.  i went out and did a family shoot in the texas bluebonnets and full hot texas sun. as i count down my last days in my twenties i'm grateful for a lot of things in my life and i'm also so grateful to have people that believe in one of my passions! and that's a good segue into a quote by one of my favorites....

"passion rebuilds the world for the youth. it makes all things alive and significant"  RWE

 

 

little mara (babies)

i had the hardest time picking out which photos i wanted to blog of mara.  the day i took her photos i couldn't stop snapping shots of her.  she was born on march 19th weighing in at over nine pounds.  her mom will attest that is a big baby at birth but she still seemed so small and fragile to me.  once she ate she was perfectly calm and i think i could have put her in anything.   heather is amazing and let me (almost a complete stranger) hold and pose her little one at less than a week old.  together we learned some things about what to do and what not to do when taking newborn photos. 

thank you heather and david for welcoming me into your home and allowing me to photograph your growing family.  you're all so wonderfully easy to take pictures of!  

'only love can be divided endlessly and still not diminish' - lindbergh

beautiful bellies (families)

things come in waves....all of your friends get married and then they all have babies.  my friend jen is working with a lot of pregnant women (something is in the water and she needs to start drinking it again...haha) and luckily i am photographing some of them.  they say there is nothing more beautiful than a woman about to give birth and i would agree.  heather used the word "hot"...i love that i could capture her in this beautiful state.  

"a moment in my tummy....a lifetime in my heart" anonymous

 

i adore the pure honest love between bevin and dan and that they waited to find out what they were having.  there are so few things in life that are true surprises and i think the birth of your baby would be a phenomenal surprise!  

congratulations to both of these beautiful families and their new little girls!

it's beginning to feel a lot like christmas...in march {families}

so this is what i get for being so busy this winter...it's already march and i have no idea where the past three months went.  so here i am catching up on my blog, revisiting these great holiday photos and loving every minute of it.  


"rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life" - einstein

 

fall foto fun {babies}

this past fall i photographed three of my friends and their adorable daughters.  i took a break from blogging and never had a chance to upload these.  i'm hoping this spring to photograph these girls again!  they are all growing up so fast!   

"the soul is healed by being with children"

       

 

 

europe trip: beer, wine, arcade fire, castles, countryside, new friends and old {travels}

 “to awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” 
- freya stark 

so i wasn't entirely alone...i had the lovely cortnye and paul for parts of it but we did go to four different countries and many new cities and this quote definitely embodies much of what i felt on the trip.  it had been a while since i had traveled internationally.  this trip was big for me in terms of adding to my list of the 30 international cities i want to reach by april 23rd. this trip is way past due for blogging!  

brussels was quaint and beautifully quiet.  cortnye and i were able to meet up with a friend of mine (mark that i met in fiji).  he is completely insane at times..but in a good way.  the first day i think we only tried out different belgian beers, waffles and fries. i am not complaining!!!  we met some great people and much appreciated the history and architecture in this old city.  you can see most of what you need to see in brussels in two days and we did just that.

   

and then we were off to the netherlands.  after a quick train ride we arrived in the city of bicycles to meet up with paul.  there are more bicycles than there are people in amsterdam (fact).  the juxtaposition of amsterdam compared to brussels was almost too much to handle.  all i can say is what you see there and what happens there most certainly stays there.  one day we took a boat tour of the city that was both educational and allowed us to start to grasp the breadth of it all.  this was the first place that we saw arcade fire play on this tour.  they definitely rocked it but the dutch weren't having it for some reason.

we also took a tour of the holland countryside....it was beautiful and well worth it!  we went to a cheese farm and a wooden shoe farm (yes they call it a farm...)

from there we went to scotland.  i wasn't prepared for the awe inspiring beauty of scotland and edinburgh (ed-in-burr-a).  having been to ireland i thought it would be similar but it was not.  the first morning we woke up in edinburgh was like a dream.  i just wanted to wander for hours with my camera.  the castle in the middle of city perched up on top of this hill is majestic and out of a fairy tale.  this was the second place we saw arcade fire.  they played inside the castle grounds!!!  the show was phenomenal..again we met some great people.  we walked ALL over that city up and down the hills...the hills are INSANE and at one point i thought my legs would fall off.  we toured the queen's palace and hiked up arthur's seat.   the views of the entire city from up there almost don't compare to anything else i have seen.  after a few days in the city we ventured out into the countryside and went to see nessie.  i didn't get a great picture of her but it was worth the trip to try to find her and hear the stories of the lochness monster.  overall we were sad to leave scotland.

but we were off to paris....the first afternoon we went to the market and had wine and cheese in the park across from the eiffle tour.  then we met back up with mark and also the other mark.  i met mark and mark in '09 while they were traveling around the world for 10 months.  there is nothing better when you're traveling then meeting up with old travel buddies.  paris is another city that you can just spend days wandering aimlessly around and never know what you are going to come across.

  

overall it was a phenomenal trip.  i'm lucky to have spent it with some wonderful people.  
until next time....