These beautiful girlies belong to my good friend, Carrie Sandoval. Twins, almost 10 years old – They could not be more different but could also not be more lovely in their own unique ways.

This is my gorgeous nephew, Keegan, who is now a whole 8 weeks old!!! He is so scrumptious I can barely stand it. Look at that smile! I am pretty sure there is nothing sweeter than when a new baby starts to actually smile and respond to you. It is so pure and honest.

I am so looking forward to watching this guy grow and taking SO many more photos along the way.

Happy Wednesday everyone!!

My friend, Carrie, with her girls.

These three adorable kiddos are the nieces and nephew of my good friend, Carrie Sandoval (who can be seen in the last photo on this post with her three girlies). I took these photos the day before I left California to head back home to Atlanta. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much out of two almost 4 year olds and an almost 2 year old but they totally surprised me! They are such fun, amazing kids and gave me the perfect going away present.

Thanks guys!

Last week I posted the first part of my visit with my friend, Leah Zawadzki, and her family. As promised, here is part two! We all went for a little walk that afternoon with photos and a little lizard hunting in mind. I just love California. The light and landscape are so beautiful and most of my favorite photos are taken there. It takes all the strength I can muster up some days not to pack up and move back right now. Maybe one day…

Thanks for the visit “Z” family. I’m looking forward to the next one.

See Leah’s shots from this day here and some here.

xo

These photographs were taken during a lovely visit with my good friend, Leah Zawadzki, and her fun little family a few weeks back. Shown here are her twins who just happen to turn 7 years old today!! What a perfect day to blog their photos, right!? I had such a great time with these guys. They definitely made me work hard for these images though and I mean that literally. I  jumped on the trampoline with them for a good few hours in exchange. Talk about a workout!  So totally worth the tired, noodley legs though. I feel so blessed to have so many friends in amazing places all over the world who invite me into their homes and allow me to take photos of their gorgeous kids.

Happy 7th Birthday, K+J! I hope the day is everything you could wish for and more. xo

Stay tuned for part two of my weekend with the Z family. I am back in Atlanta now and have a good number of sessions on the calendar in the coming months so I am hoping to get caught up on the blog before then!!

This peach orchard is right down the street from my mom’s house. Every year I want to take photos there and every year I am out of the state when the trees are in bloom. This year I was determined not to miss it so once I saw the blooms were out I called up my cousin and she headed over with her 3 little girls.I know these aren’t perfect but I am so glad I was able to get something before they were gone. Maybe next year I will be in town longer than a day during peach blossom season  :-)

My sister and her husband welcomed their second child and second son into the world on February 27th at 9:22p.m.  I was on Gavin duty (their 3 year old) so I was unable to be at the hospital and was literally about to burst open with excitement when they called, ok – truth be told – they texted, to give me the news. I simply could not wait for the next day to arrive so I could go and meet my new, squishy little nephew. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning.

Honestly, being able to witness Gavin meeting his baby brother for the very first time was one of the most beautiful moments I have ever experienced. What an incredible journey they have in front of them as brothers.

I can not wait until we have proper photos taken of little Keegan, this Sunday, when my friends Carrie Sandoval and Brittany Woodall of Baby as Art travel here to capture him. What an awesome gift that will be.

Welcome to the world little buddy. Your “G” ( that is what my nieces and nephews call me) is already completely in love with you. <3

I saw this quote many, many years ago and fell in love with it. I have no idea where it came from or who said it but I believe it describes the way I feel beautifully. I absolutely love to go and see and experience. Every time I return from a trip I begin the planning of a new one, undoubtedly much to the chagrin of my family members who wish I would just settle down and perhaps find a “real job.”

This past November I was given the amazing opportunity to travel to Australia/New Zealand for 5 weeks. I traveled around for 2 weeks with my good friends (and part-time employers) from Baby as Art, Carrie Sandoval and Brittany Woodall helping out with their workshops in Melbourne and Sydney. Then a magnificent two week visit with my awesome ex-pat friend, Rachel Devine and her beautiful family. THEN a completely awesome visit to Wellington, New Zealand to visit another awesome friend, Peta Mazey. I have been trying to figure out how to share the many, many photos I took while on this incredible adventure and have decided to just post them per day of my visit. It may take a while but please just bear with me.

These photos (taken at Melbourne’s Brighton Beach) were the first I took, 3 days after arriving in Australia (the jet lag was atrocious). I have never been much for taking landscape or sunset shots but I just could not get over how simply breathtaking it was.

Enjoy…and stay tuned.
 

Ok – I am blogging a little out of order here and will come back to my CA posts soon, but I had family that was really wanting to see these pics!

I am so lucky to have some of the cutest kids in my life! Now, if only those cute kids would be willing to let me photograph them all the time

My niece, Peyton, is 4 years old and is my brother’s youngest child. They live a pretty good ways from us so I was super excited when they came up for a visit AND she let me snap a few pics of her. The only time we had was around noon on a Sunday – and we all know that noon light can be tricky. I think we pulled it off though!!

My nephew, Gavin, is 3 years old and is my sister’s only child (so far). He lives closer to me so my camera is on him quite a bit and lately he has not been a fan of it at all!! But on these 2 days depicted above he was being so sweet and such a little poser. Could just eat him up, especially when he is like that

Ok, oddly enough, I don’t have any photos from the actual party. Lame of me I know, but true.  I did however grab a few shots that day of my nephew and cousins.  Be prepared: the last shot might be the cutest one you will ever see  Even though there are no photographs from the party I will be able to look back on these images and remember the exact day they were taken and exactly the reason we were all gathered at my mom’s house that day.

This is Aaron, Aidan and Andrew – our 5 year old boys.  – another reason to celebrate 5 years

Magic hour was gorgeous that night and all of the other kiddos were just sick of me. haha. So I grabbed sweet baby Lily after she finished her dinner and took these shots of her. She was SO patient with me. I have had a pretty rough year and I can honestly say that she has been the brightest spot of that year. thankful for her and thankful that she still tolerates my incessant photo taking