I have a new cousin who is cute as cute can be!  Baby D came into the World this weekend….a great Christmas in July present for his parents!  Mom and Dad are just full of smiles!  Baby D was less than 24 hours old for his first mini photo shoot.

Isn’t he adorable?  I don’t think Mom and Dad stopped smiling the whole time I was there.  Their faces were shining with that indescribable feeling of meeting your child for the first time.  I am so glad they were blessed with Baby D!

What is it about baby feet that make them so cute? I don’t know, but I am drawn to them.

The bond that Baby D shares with his parents is evident in the way that he gazes into their eyes as they gaze back.  He feels safe in their arms and knows they will protect him from anything that may be thrown his way.  I loved capturing this for Mom and Dad to treasure!

Baby D, when I look at you I think of a Dr. Seuss book titled “Oh! The Places You’ll Go”.  The first page reads “Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to great places! You’re off and away!”  Baby D, follow your dreams and know that you are loved by many people!

Mom and Dad- cherish the moments, the little fingers and toes, the first little smiles,  and yes, even the bonding you will share during those sleepless nights!  Baby D will grow up before you know it!  Congratulations!!

What is MOMI you ask?  A wonderful Boutique for girls! Rachel is the Owner and awesome Designer. Miss A has been proudly sporting her MOMI outfits for over a year now and still loves them.  Recently, Rachel added matching dresses for mommies and daughters.  I decided to try them and I couldn’t be happier!  The dresses are the softest, don’t wrinkle (even after being shoved in a travel bin for a week on vacation) and very flattering!  What do they look like?  Well, my wonderful Aunt took over my camera to get a few shots with me in front of the lens for once!  Thanks Kim!

I hope Rachel decides to add more Mommy dresses to MOMI Boutique! You can check out these dresses and many other beautiful dresses by Rachel at MOMI Boutique!  Now, I’m off to finish a few family sessions I took while on vacation!

I had a fun session with Mr. A and Miss K!  Mr. A loved being in front of the camera, just like last time.  The array of expressions he gave me was priceless.  He had me laughing the whole session!

See I told you he was cracking me up! Now, on to Miss K….. she was shy at first until I broke out the parasols.

They are the most loving siblings!

So loving that while I was shooting, Miss K just reached over and planted a smooch on her little brother!

Thank you for letting me capture these precious smiles!!

On our way to Orlando, we stopped overnight in St. Augustine.  Oh, how I wish we could have stayed the whole week!  We took a horse drawn carriage ride through the old city soaking up the wealth of historical knowledge our guide was sharing with us.  At the end of the ride, my sons knew exactly where they wanted to start out their morning……the Fort!  they woke up bright and early so they could be the first ones in the Fort when it opened!

St. Augustine was first explored and claimed for Spain by Ponce de Leon.  The city was founded in 1565 and is the oldest continuously occupied European city in the United States.  In 1672, construction was started on the Castillo de San Marcos, more commonly known as “The Fort”.

The walls were made from coquina, which is millions of ancient shells that compressed together over the years to form a type of stone.  Coquina is an absorbent material, so when cannons were fired at the walls, damage was minimal.  You can see all of the tiny shells that make up the layers of coquina in this image.

During attacks, the entire population of St. Augustine would fill the Fort along with the soldiers and stay until it was safe again.  The boys may have missed a couple of days of school for this trip, but the hands on history lessons they learned were priceless.  They were able to go into the living quarters, chapel, artillery bunker, prisoners quarters, on the top wall and many other rooms.  I am so glad we decided to stop here!  The view from the very top of the Fort is absolutely beautiful!

After the Fort, we were off to take pictures of the wonderful architecture in the city.  All of the buildings were impressive, but the churches really caught my eye.  The first one we came to was Grace United Methodist Church, founded in 1881.

Just around the corner was the Memorial Presbyterian Church, founded in 1824.  Henry Flagler gave this sanctuary as a memorial to his only daughter, who passed away while giving birth.  Henry, his wife, his daughter and granddaughter are all in a Mausoleum in the church.

A few blocks away is the Motherhouse Sisters of Saint Joseph, established in 1874 by eight Sisters who came from France to educate the recently freed slaves.  The convent currently houses retired Sisters.

On our way out of town, we stopped at the Lighthouse.  I can’t wait to go back to St. Augustine!  It is a Photographer and History Buff’s paradise!  The best part was watching my sons eagerly soak up all of the history and beauty around them!

Since Miss A was ready to just play in the sand and water at the end of the last shoot, we took some time out to shoot on Shell Key a few days later.   Charter services drop huge boat loads of people off on the front of the island to search for shells all day long.  The beach on the front of the key is pretty busy with those searching for the perfect shell.  At the suggestion of a “local”, we went to the back side of the key to explore.  Wow!  What a difference!  There was only one other family back there by us.   The beach was so calm, peaceful and beautiful!  Thank you for the suggestion Dave!

When I saw the beach, I knew this was the place to finish our shoot for My Sweet Chickadee!  In case you missed the last post, Shari, owner of My Sweet Chickadee, makes the most beautiful clothing.  All of  her pieces are lined, professionally finished and gorgeous!  These cute ensembles would be perfect for a birthday party or summer social!  I had a hard time getting Miss A to change out of the skirts because she loved how they twirled.

The next dress can be worn alone or with the shirt underneath.  There are 2 adorable pockets for a little girl to keep her favorite things close to her.  This dress also reminds me of a happy party!

The last piece reminds me of a warm summer day- you know- the kind of day you put the top down on the convertible and head of to the beach.  It can be worn alone or with the top underneath.

I hope you enjoyed our fashion show!  Please stop by My Sweet Chickadee and check out all of the other beautiful clothing Shari has available!  You won’t be disappointed!

I had the opportunity to work with an awesome designer/seamstress.  Her clothing is available in her Esty store, My Sweet Chickadee, which can be found here.  I cannot say enough about how well made Shari’s pieces are.  You can tell she takes pride in her work!  They are very stylish and “girly”.  Miss A LOVED their twirl factor!  If I had to pick a favorite, I would say every piece!  While we were in Florida, we stopped at St. Augustine Beach for a photo shoot!

Last summer, I searched high and low for the perfect Beach Portrait Dress.  Well, I finally found it!  I love this dress! Miss A can also wear the sash in her hair instead of on the dress.

Shari has a second white dress in her store that would also be a perfect Beach Portrait Dress.  You can add the sweet pinafore for a 2 in 1 outfit!  All of her pieces are lined and professionally finished!

Another beautiful dress in the My Sweet Chickadee store is this gem!  Miss A couldn’t stop twirling in this dress!  She liked it so much that she left it on for the rest of the day, including a stop at Disney World!  The dress can be worn alone or with the shirt underneath.  Both are available from My Sweet Chickadee.

Miss A hadn’t been to the beach since last summer and had cabin fever from being cooped up inside for our snowy Ohio winter.  She modeled one more dress, then wanted to play in the sand.  I have to say, she was quite the trooper watching her brothers play in the sand and water while she was doing a photo shoot!  The last dress for this session is a happy little dress.  You just smile when you see the bright happy colors and print! You can wear the dress alone, or with the shirt underneath.  Both are available!

We saved the rest of the outfits for a shoot on Shell Key and will share those pictures in the next post!  Please stop by My Sweet Chickadee and check out Shari’s awesome clothing!

We spent our Easter Break in Florida again this year.  We figured we couldn’t deny our baby girl of seeing the most magical place on Earth and the Princesses.  We did however, only spend one day with the Mouse this year instead of every day.  We decided to try something new and rented a boat on the Gulf.  We boarded the boat and took off for the Gulf with our destination being Shell Key, which is only accessible by boat.  On the way out of the intracoastal to the Gulf, we were joined by quite a few dolphins.  Not a bad way to start out your morning!

We anchored off the key and waded in to begin our shell seeking journey.  The boys searched for the perfect shells, but the perfect shells all contain live critters.  We took pictures, then put the critters back in the water to continue their journey.

The boys stopped fighting long enough to get a good shot!

We went to the back side of the key and found calm, warm water with a nice sand beach.  My youngest son tried out his snorkeling gear for the first time.

My Mom and my husband found 2 huge Whelk’s.  Once again, the good shells still had living critters, so they were put back in the water with their friends after their photo shoots!

While they were snorkeling, swimming and shelling, Miss A and I had a little photo shoot to do.  During the photo shoot I heard my husband tell the others with us a big fish was coming and would be swimming between them.  It turned out to be a Stingray!  How cool!  Now, back to the photo shoot….. I had the pleasure to work with a talented Designer and Seamstress.  Shari is the owner of My Sweet Chickadee.  Her work is stunning and very well made!  Here are just two of the outfits from the shoot.  My next post will be all about her wonderful clothing, but here is a sneak peek!  You can browse through her shop here  http://www.etsy.com/shop/mysweetchickadee .

Stay tuned for more of our Easter Break photos!  Shell Key wasn’t the only fun thing we did!  Don’t forget to stop into Shari’s store My Sweet Chickadee on Etsy!!

When my oldest son was a toddler, Veggie Tales was a popular cartoon.  We watched all of their episodes and listened to their music.  One of their Easter songs was about eating too much Easter candy, a chocolate bunny in particular.  To this day, I can’t see a bunny or think about the Easter Bunny without hearing ” the bunny, the bunny, woh I ate the bunny, I didn’t eat my soup or my bread just the bunny, the bunny…..”.  Well, today was the annual Easter Egg Hunt and now I have that song stuck in my head!

My oldest thought he was a little too old for the festivities, so he didn’t end up in front of the camera.  My middle child was digging the Easter Bunny!

This year, there was a special golden egg for each age group.  Well, since there was only one golden egg out on the floor, I figured it was probably worth something special.  I walked over and told my middle child “Be quiet about his like a secret, but when they say go, run out and get the golden egg”.  He whispered back “Ok, I see it!”  Then he yells (mind you my ear is right by his face) “Why should I go after the golden egg?”  So much for the secret!!  Finally when it was his turn, they made them stand facing away from the eggs, hid the golden egg and yelled “Go”.  He turned, quickly scanned the eggs and took off running as fast as his little body would go.  Score!  He made it to the Golden Egg first! He took first place for the amount of eggs collected and got a special prize for the Golden Egg.

His little sister wasn’t quite sure about the Easter Bunny, but enjoyed the egg hunt.

This seems to be the magical year for all of her holidays.  She was a little too young last year to fully enjoy them.  She didn’t win any prizes because she was too interested in telling us the color of every egg she picked up before putting it in the bucket.  After looking through her eggs, she was off to get a pink bunny painted on her cheek!

I look around the room at the smiles on my 3 children, the bunnies painted on 2 of their cheeks and the big chocolate bunny my oldest won and think Life Is Good………and………”the bunny, the bunny, woh I ate the bunny…..”.

I had the opportunity to capture some family memories for one of my childhood friends this weekend!  She has a very happy little son who was a perfect little model…….

…..and a cute daughter who was a little shy at first, but eventually opened up!

I had to get some mother son shots because I am a sucker for capturing moments you will want to look back and remember many years from now…. like the unconditional love you feel when you gaze into your baby’s eyes!

While we were shooting the little man’s photos, his sister ran off to play with my daughter- just like their mother and I used to almost 30 years ago!  My, how time flies!  Their mother and I grew up out in the country with very few houses around, so we spent a lot of time together as we grew up.  It was like old times watching our girls hit it off and run of to play together!

As Easter approaches, I remember hunting for Easter eggs with their mother outside at her house.  Spring also meant the bikes could come out of the garage.  We had to have spent hundreds of hours just riding up and down the road!

After the photos, we were able to catch up on years gone by while the girls played together.  Thank you for letting me capture the precious smiles of your little ones!

I wish I could say I trudged through a marsh to find this duck, but the truth is, he’s a parking lot duck!  Just feet from him was a parking lot…complete with trash floating around him.  He had a girlfriend with him, but she was camera shy.

He had beautiful coloring, which would have sparkled even more if it had not been a rainy, dreary day.

Do you know what the best thing about the parking lot duck was?  I didn’t have to leave my car to get his picture.  I didn’t have to get wet, muddy or cold.  Thank you parking lot duck!