When my goddaughter was born 16 years ago, it was my first experience with a newborn. At that time, I was a mere 28 years old and , quite frankly, knew nothing about babies. I remember getting the phone call that my sister was in labor. I was teaching at the time and after the last bell of the school day rang, I left the school and drove straight to the hospital to meet my parents, who were already waiting there. I can remember sitting in that waiting room for what felt like an eternity and then finally hearing the news that she was born. There are not many moments in my life that are etched as clearly and vividly as this moment, but I will never forget walking down the hospital corridor to the glass paned nursery and seeing that tiny little miracle for the first time. I didn’t know much at that age, but I knew that she was the embodiment of love and God all in one…and a true blessing.

Now, here I am 16 years later and she is a stoic and beautiful young woman. It is like I blinked my eyes and here we are. There is not much this girl can’t do. She is a stellar athlete and scholar, a master baker, crafter extrodinaire and, above all, she is kind, patient and strong beyond compare. We are all so proud of her.

We purchased a 1969 Playmor canned ham style camper back in 2018. When we found her, we knew we had uncovered a true gem. We spent a little over. a year renovating her and it was worth the work because we enjoyed many trips in our little beauty. You can see what she looked like when we first purchased her in this post and the renovation process here and in this last post.

While on camping trips, I am always amazed by the amount of compliments we get from fellow campers who drop by our campsite for a quick tour of the interior. In the age of modern technology, most of the RV’s you see on a campground are modern and massive. Although our camper is tiny, she still attracts a lot of attention.

It has been many, many, many years since I celebrated my 21st birthday, but I can still remember the anticipation and excitement for the huge milestone birthday. It is a moment that is pivotal for young adults and is one that should definitely be commemorated.

I can hardly believe it, but my niece is about to turn 21. It feels like yesterday that I met her for the first time at my husband’s block party. She was the sweetest and most adorable child and it as been a pleasure to watch her grow into a kind and beautiful young lady.

I have always taken the safety of my clients very seriously, but now due to the recent findings of COVID-19, I have heightened my safety measures. I am a mom of two, so I know how nerve wracking it is to be a new parent. I always want my clients to feel comfortable, confident and, most importantly, safe during a session with me, so I have instituted new safety guidelines for my business. To see the new safety measures I am taking, you can click here to view my post on those guidelines.

In the midst of the “stay in” during the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been many moments of anxiety and fear. To helps assuage those fears, I have opted to focus on the positives during the last few weeks. For example, I am enjoying this relaxing time at home, nurturing bonds with my children, reading voraciously, creating art and catching up on some blogging. When I choose this perspective, the situation actually seems more like a vacation than a quarantine.

Speaking of vacations, we traveled to Florida in early February for our annual trip to the Florida Keys. This year, we spent a few nights in Orlando and visited Walt Disney World. Although we visited Disney in 2017 and 2018, this trip was extra special because our youngest is currently princess obsessed and both girls are now old enough to really appreciate the trip.

We are now almost through the second week of the quarantine in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. While we all want to do our part to flatten the curve, this time can be stressful and anxiety producing. Like most of you, I have felt a wide array of feelings over the last two weeks, including fear, anxiety and anger. The first few days of this situation awakened anxiety in me that I have not felt in many years. Thankfully, a conversation with my seven year old daughter changed my entire viewpoint.

At bedtime this past weekend, I asked my oldest how she was feeling in response to the stay in. She happily exclaimed, “I love it!” That night, I reflected on how our past week was going. My daughter is prone to explosive tantrums and meltdowns and in the last two weeks, she has experienced barely any. She is happy and does nothing but laugh and sing all day. When I asked her why she was so happy, she said simply, “because I am home with mommy.” It is that simple for a child and the moment truly put things in perspective for me.

My brother and sister in law recently gave birth to their first baby and she is an absolute cutie.. Our family is absolutely thrilled for them, but we are also super excited because it has been about five years since we had a newborn in the family. We are all eager to spend time and cuddle with the newest addition to the family. In fact, I recently had the opportunity to spend the morning with her and photograph her in my studio space.

My niece was born a few days after Christmas, so I knew we had to incorporate some type of subtle nod to the holiday in her session. I also have a wreath obsession, so as soon as she was delivered, I knew exactly what set up I would use for her portraits. She was a little over two weeks old on the date of her session, but we were still able to coax her to sleep and capture some beautiful polished portraits. What is great about the family studio newborn session is that baby only really needs to be asleep for those posed portraits. She can be awake for all of the family photos and even for swaddled photos. I love that this provides parents with a diverse gallery that includes those squishy sleepy images we all love, as well as awake and alert images in which you get to see a tiny bit of baby’s personality. Furthermore, it allows for the session to move a bit more quickly. Typically, a family session will run around 2 hours, sometimes 3 hours if the session includes toddler aged siblings.

Some of you may recall my blog post from last Summer about our newly purchased 1969 Playmor canned ham style camper. We have been busy working on the camper and are nearly done with the renovations. During the Fall and Winter, we worked mostly on the interior of the camper. I detailed some of those renovations in my last post. Over the last two months, focused on the exterior and also adding some necessities to the interior of the camper.

When we first started renovating the camper, I wanted to replace the fold down table with a butcher block style table. I searched a few of my favorite vintage shops over the winter and could not find what I was specifically looking for. So, Tim decided to make the table himself. I really love the way it came out and it really completes the design of the interior of the camper. He also installed a retro style microwave that matches the retro mint green fridge we added over the winter. Tim also added an air conditioner to the camper, which was super important because the camper gets really hot when sitting in the sun on an open field.

My baby girl turns four on Saturday and I can hardly believe it. These last few years have gone by so quickly and this year has been the most fun yet. Like most three year old girls, this has been the year of the princess and my little one has princess fever. Miss V goes through several wardrobe changes a day all of which include shoes, tiara and matching accessories. She wears her dresses to school, on Trader Joe runs, to bed and even over her bathing suit. She forces daddy to play princess with her daily during which time she either loses a shoe, needs a kiss from a prince, is swimming under the water to save a prince, or marries the prince.

Those of you who follow me know that I often stress the importance of having your family photos taken. I don’t say this only because I want you to hire me, but I say it because I truly believe it. Our children grow so quickly and as they do, the nature of our family evolves as well. It is is important to document that change for your children and for yourself. Even though I take tons of professional images of my children, there are very few that show the dynamic of our family interacting as a whole and even fewer that include me, which is why I hire a photographer annually to capture our family.

Some of you may recall my blog post from last Summer about our newly purchased 1969 Playmor canned ham style camper. Although I have not posted in quite some time about the camper, we actually began renovations in the Fall and are nearly done with the interior of the camper.

Tim did all of the renovations himself. He added a hot water heater and rewired the camper to add electric so that we could utilize the hook up services available at most campgrounds or a generator. As far as structural repairs, we were fortunate enough that most of what we needed to do to the camper was cosmetic. Tim had to fix some rot at the back of the camper and reseal the windows, but other than that, the camper was in great shape.

Ever since we started dating, my husband, Tim, has told me about his love for camping.  As a child, he and his family spent many weekends camping with their pop up camper. He recounts these stories with so much love and appreciation for his childhood and the gift that his parents gave him extends well beyond those years.

II have come to the realization that the older I get and the older my children get, life just seems to get increasingly chaotic. Most of the time, I am able to embrace the chaos of life and roll with it, but like most working moms, I often find it extremely challenging to pause, remain present in the moment, and enjoy the simple things in life. Sadly, there are many times that I put off doing things with my children because I have deadlines to meet or am caught up in the day to day routine of being a mom.  Compounding to this problem is the fact that I am a Virgo and, therefore, by nature I find it difficult to deviate from my work and routines and tend to be strive for perfection. 

I have been absent from social media lately because I was away on my annual family vacation to the Florida Keys and Disney. I love our vacations for a multitude of reasons; not only do we get to escape the cold of winter, but it allows us a time to unplug from technology and our jobs and focus solely on our children and each other. It is so important to have this family bonding time and I treasure every second of these days.

Now that the rush of the holiday season is over, I can catch up on my personal photography projects, which includes documenting my children. My approach to my own family photography is a lifestyle and documentary approach.  This is my favorite way to photograph a family, as it will capture the most personal and authentic images. I love capturing little moments and details that seem so mundane, but I know years from now will be priceless. 

t is no secret that I am a Summer girl, but I also truly love the Fall. One of my favorite Fall traditions is our annual outing to the farms out east.  We try to get out there twice in the Fall, once for apple picking and once for pumpkin picking. These outings are especially important during this time of year because it allows me to have uninterrupted time with my girls during the rush of my peak holiday season.