Little Miss S

I had this amazing opportunity to photograph a gorgeous baby girl earlier this week. She was so sweet and even let me try out the new flowers that I made. She posed like such a little lady throughout the entire shoot and was just the perfect little model! After photographing lots of little boys lately it was fun to switch it up and play with this little lady. Even her cries were girly! She just cried softly enough to get her point across and then snuggled right up for some sleepy pictures! One of my favorite pictures from this shoot was of the little lady with a little stuffed bunny. The bunny was also her Mom's when she was a baby and if you know me, you know I am a HUGE sucker for the sentimental things in life. My Joey also has my bear from when I was a baby that was ALSO my Mom's when she was a kid. I think sometimes the oldest treasures are the best treasures! Not to mention, Big Brother "M" was so sweet with his baby sis, he sang her "Rock a bye Baby" and even borrowed her bassinet for batman's nap time. He is already such a great big brother and quite the little character! Thanks Kelly, Jim and M for letting me come into your home and hang out with your amazing new addition! You have two beautiful children and I can't wait for you to see all of the photographs from our shoot! Introducing, Miss S!

Alex's Lemonade Stand-Poff Style

After weeks of preparing, the big day finally arrived and the plans were put into action. We decorated the table in the lobby of the elementary school and we made lemonade. We had candy and literature out on the table. We had Joey and his friend standing front and center with their "selling" faces on! It couldn't have been a bigger and better success. We sold about 200 cups of lemonade and made $241.62 in sales. Adding that amount to our other donations, we have officially raised $671.62!!! Pretty amazing considering our original goal was $300. I am so impressed by the community and so impressed with my son. He helped me prepare for a month and helped me sell lemonade at the stand with a friend and his family. Grandma and Pop even got involved. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing child and to have the most amazing family that always supports me in both good and bad situations. I think they usually see one of my ideas coming and probably want to run for the hills because they know it will mean collecting supplies, getting donations, volunteering and extra work! But they never turn their backs, they are consistently the back bone of my "stay busy" lifestyle. I don't know what I would have done without them! I had a lot of people ask me tonight why I wanted to do this or what got me involved. The honest truth is that I just can't believe how blessed I am to have such a healthy and wonderful little boy. My heart truly breaks for the children and parents and families that have to go through something as devastating as childhood cancer. The most unreal part about it all is that a child could actually be born with cancer. Cancer! I just can't fathom it. I can't stand the fact that so many illnesses and syndromes affect innocent children everyday. I am so blessed and lucky to have a healthy child! Now, if I could only figure out a way to raise money for every illness out there, I would feel like I could rest! Until then, I will have many, many more lemonade stands in Alexandra Scott's honor and do just about every walk and "thon" out there.

So, what started as an idea about two months ago turned into an amazing charity event that even had reporters and photographers in attendance! Amazing! I am so thankful that Joey's school principal is SO fantastic that he too let me take an idea and run wild. He even approved a second round of lemonade sales for tomorrow nights open house! So, tune in for the final total! Here are so photos from tonight! Thank you, thank you thank you to all that donated, bought and pitched in tonight! We did a great thing!!

Well, I guess this month has been a rough one for the ol' blog. I've been forgetting to write or remembering when my head hits the pillow, which doesn't do me much good. So, I owe the blog about 6 posts. Which might mean doubling up for the next few days!

This weekend we have Jason's family in town and it's been so much fun catching up with them and with friends that have visited as well. I think tomorrow morning I will sneak off with my little nephew and snap some pictures when his Momma isn't looking! Plus this weekend has been busy, busy with soccer and hockey. It sure is nice to have two days off in a row with my little guy and family and I am embracing it to the fullest. Some relaxation with Jason, some qt with Joey and some People magazine reading for me. Also, getting ready for Alex's Lemonade Stand that is right around the corner! We have filled glass vases with giant lemonheads and created signs and flyers for the stand. We've decorated the vases with yellow ribbon with white polka dots too! We might even have Dr. Mooney in on the idea that this could be a monthly event at Poff Elementary. Too amazing! We've already surpassed our $300 goal by 105 bucks! So, now we are moving our goal up to $600 and I know we can do it! :) Joey has loved that he is getting so many kids involved and excited about Alex's Lemonade Stand. He tells me everyday if someone brought in supplies for the stand!

We also had a big day with soccer. Joey had a goal that almost knocked over the entire goal, that's how determined he was to get that goal. He's such a great kid and loves playing sports. Especially today when he had a cheering section of 9 people! I think we were a little loud and so proud but hey, that's us! He seems to love soccer and love being on the same team as one of his school buddies. I swear, this child has a fantastic social life. Birthday party last night, woke up for Hockey this morning, soccer this afternoon, over to a friends around 1 and the same friend came over here around 3 until about 4. Talk about social butterfly!

Here are my two favorite baby boys! One of my closest friends and my someday sister in law had baby boys, within a month of each other!

Here are two of my favorite bigger boys!

And the "dream team" walking back after a big goal!

I feel like every blog post lately should be titled, "slacking." I don't even know if I would call it slacking. Lately, I am trying to stay busy all day that I forget I miss Joey and forget to blog! I'm mostly staying busy because I know that as soon as 4 pm rolls around, Joey will be home from school and I will go off to work and I will come home and he will be asleep already. It's completely depressing and on days like today when his bus is running two minutes late and I don't have the time to wait for my child to get off the bus to do the "kiss and run" as we've named it before I have to leave, I hate it. I fight tears walking into work because I know I haven't seen him since 8am and I won't see him for a full 24 hours until he wakes in the morning. I can't do it. I just want to crumble and never go back to work especially if it is work with nothing to gain except money. Especially if it is working at a place that I truly have come to loath and a place that I can't even feel like a fraction of the human that I want to be. I just can't justify going to make money and missing out on the most important thing in my life. So, I have decided that if I don't give up on that job soon I will hate myself. Today was Joey's picture day and I didn't get to ask him how it went or razz him about how he smiled. We joked over cereal this morning that he was going to pretend to think about the little girl he has named his "lovebird" when he got his picture taken and I showed him the spot on the school years frame where his 1st grade photograph would go. With the exception of that conversation, I didn't get to talk to my little man today and there isn't enough money in the world to keep me from that. Granted, I have about 1000000000000000000000000 photos that I have taken that are completely and totally better than the posey school photo that he will bring home but it's still a big day for him and I feel like the worst parent on Earth that I didn't get to talk to him about it or about what his special "lovebird" was wearing on picture day. I just miss my kiddo and I miss my Jason and I need to ditch working at nights and focus on what is truly important to me. Otherwise, I am going to miss the big moments and before I know it he will be walking off to get his drivers license, college and getting married to that "lovebird."

The One with pencils, notebooks and cameras.

Well, ladies and gentlemen I did it. I found the perfect class for me. I signed up for a few continuing education classes and landed myself in a photography tips class. I get to play with my camera the entire time and it is not strange or frowned upon to take pictures throughout the entire class. It's fantastic. Hands on learning with every opportunity to ask as many questions as you want which can be a lot because the class runs from 630 until 930pm. I'm looking forward to making Tuesdays my day to explore what I learned the previous evening and learning more about my camera. It's actually perfect because at home it is sometimes difficult to find the time to sit and play with my camera and learn all about it but in my 9week tutorial class I have 3 hours each Monday dedicated to getting to know my Canon and Jody's Nikon too! It's also interesting because there are people from all different age groups and everyone has a different camera. Even after watching the younger girl mess with her film slr and struggle to keep up, itmade me want a SLR with film. Or at least an old camera for prop use! Here are a few photos from tonight's class.

Busy, busy!

Ever have one of those weeks where you have so much to do that you don't know where to begin? I am there! However, these are all wonderfully fun and amazing things that I have going on so I can't complain! This week is my prep week for Alex's Lemonade Stand that debuts at Poff next week. Which begins with me giving a little talk to Joey's class and getting them ready for the lemonade stand. It's also my 1st week of class and I can't wait to see where it leads me. On top of that I have to play catch up. Editing, editing, editing! I need to rock out the Summer Classic photos and photos from my shoot with the sweet baby Jacob to get back to his Momma! The week will end with (hopefully) our gorgeous baby nephew and family coming to visit! Fingers tightly crossed that everything goes according to plan there! Then on Saturday I am doing a Senior picture shoot with Bella Luma Photography! So many exciting things to accomplish and I am loving it! However, maybe just a tad bit overwhelmed. How about you Buddha?

The One with a lot of sports!

Between Hockey year round, baseball in the spring, basketball in the winter and soccer in the summer we are always on the go. I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm lucky I have a child that is healthy enough to play all of those sports and excited that we are fortunate enough that we can provide all of the memories for him. This Saturday we had hockey in Bloomfield at 9am and Soccer in Hampton at 11am followed by Soccer pictures at 2:45. We were constantly on the go! (Which is why I am blogging today for yesterday!) I love watching Joey get better every practice and every game. Really, I love watching the entire team get better. His soccer games have actually become entertaining and at one point, Joey made play that gave me chills. The same kind of chills I get when I watch an insane play in a Steelers game. Here are a few pictures of Joey rocking in both his sports yesterday! :)

Alex's Lemonade Stand

Alexandra Scott might have one of the most incredible stories I have ever heard. "Alex" was eight when cancer took her life but she left behind this amazing foundation that she began with a single lemonade stand. After receiving many treatments and countless hospital visits the little girl pulled together enough strength to hold a lemonade stand and raised $2000+. The little lady didn't want to buy a fancy toy or anything like that, she wanted to give the entire sum to her doctors so that they could continue to help children fighting cancer. September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and after reading this little girl's story I am inspired. I am motivated to inspire others around me too. I am so fortunate to have a healthy and happy child and can't imagine going through something so difficult as a parent or as a child. So to start, I wrote a letter to my son's principal asking if we could hold a lemonade stand at Poff Elementary in Hampton during their open house. After clearing it with the school board Dr. Mooney gave us permission to head start the 1st Alex's Lemonade Stand hosted by the Poff Elementary 1st Grade!! I can't tell you how excited I am about this foundation and that I can teach my own son a little bit about donations, volunteering and helping those in need. On top of it all, I have already had an incredible amount of support and help from others in the community and from my family and friends. I set a goal of $300 for our first stand and I am incredibly proud and excited to say that we have already reached the goal before we have even sold a glass of lemonade! Maybe we can double our goal! The Lemonade stand will be held at the Poff K-2 Open House on September 29th from 6-8pm. Stop by, say hello and buy a glass from the fabulous 1st grade class! Only 50 cents!

Thanks for reading! :) Here are a few photos on what to expect!

Slacking!

The reason for my "break" was because of the madness that has ensued in my life. Since my last post, I have shot 2 consecutive days of horse shows. I have edited and made all of the product that were ordered from me there. I have shot a beautiful baby boy who at 10 days young was the tiniest and sweetest baby boy I have ever photographed. I edited that session. I have tried to prepare myself for an amazing lemonade stand that I am starting with my sons school to raise money for childhood cancer. I have consumed more "junk" food in the process of being so busy I feel like I need to take ten Zumba classes in a row combined with some serious hot yoga. Speaking of yoga, I have also convinced the lovely Meredith Ward of lululemon pittsburgh to let me do the ambassador photo shoot for the new Pittsburgh store! This might be my biggest excitement! So, where to begin?! How about the beginning?
I shot two days of horse shows for the Northwestern PA Summer Classic. I feel like I had to take two days to recover from the two days of shooting. It was a freelance job so I ran around like crazy trying to get as many shots as I possibly could. More shots I took, the more I could sell. I think that the hard work paid off because I left there quite happy. Happy and tired! Here are a few favorites from the show!



Next, I shot a beautiful baby boy, 10 days young and a total snuggle bug. He was so content in his Momma's arms and remind me of my little Joey. He will probably eat her out of house and home someday like Joey will do to me, He was a little piglet! I was so happy I got to do this shoot because there is something about a fresh little baby that just puts a smile on my face. I could snuggle a sleeping baby or a screaming baby all day and be completely content in the world, well as long as I could snap a few pictures every now and again! Here is Baby "J."



So now hopefully very soon I can follow with some lululemon yoga shots and some pictures from our amazing lemonade stand. You can donate to our lemonade stand here. September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month!!! Get involved!

Slacking!

Wedding Bells

So, in the past month about 15 girls that I know have gotten engaged! So excited for all of them and even more excited some engagement sessions in with old friends and hopefully start booking some weddings with Bella Luma for Summer 2011 and Fall 2011! Hint, Hint! Honestly though, Summer weddings do book pretty far in advance and if you want the venue of your choice and the photographer of your choice, there isn't always too much time to spare. So mozie on over to Bella Luma Photography's website and contact us about your wedding and let us capture the biggest day of your life!

Truly, I love weddings. I am such a sap, I get a little teary no matter how many weddings I attended. I love everything! I love watching all of the bodies in a room turn toward the bride as she walks down the isle. I love tapping a glass with my fork to see the kiss! I love watching the father/bride and mother/groom dances. I love the cake fights and the first dances. I love the drunk bridesmaids or the rowdy groomsmen. I love the sweet little grandparents. I ADORE the flower girls and ring-barer and I love watching the little relationship that they develop with each other by the end of the evening. I couldn't think of a better job than watching two people come together to start their lives together and getting to capture it all with a camera! How's this for a bridesmaid and a rowdy wedding guest? :) Props to Jason and Allie on this one!

GRR!

Well, Blogger has me stumped and I am beat so this is what is going to happen. Tomorrow, I will figure out a way to upload a video onto my stinking blog. Until then, you can check it out on my facebook! :) Lame. I know. But happy watching!

 

As Summer comes to a close (yes, I know the kiddos have gone back to pushing pencils but I refuse to admit Summer is over until all of the margaritas have been consumed and the calendar says so, darn it!) I have been reminising about all the amazing memories from the past few months both for my family and as a photographer. I feel so lucky and so blessed to have so many amazing friends and family members that have let me use them as my "models" to build my portfolio. I've put together a little video of some of the shoots from the summer that really touched my heart. Hopefully, I will continue on this path of amazing opportunities that God has led me down and will be able to put out a "Fall 2010" video too. Hint, hint! Book some photo sessions NOW! :) I am so excited to be working with Bella Luma Photography throughout the Fall and Winter months and can't wait to see where that leads! This Fall has so many fun and exciting things in store for me and for my family and I can't wait to put my dear friend Mr. Canon (my camera! ha ha? good joke...maybe?) to good use at all of the events we have planned. I can't wait to see my beautiful nephew be baptised in October and my little man dominate in another 100 or so hockey games. I can't wait to spend my birthday with my very best friend, Shelly, as we do every year! I can't wait to photograph my amazing cousin in her maternity glory! Oh, and have I mention Halloween? I'm pumped! :) So, stay tuned for a Fall of love, laughter and smiles!

Slacking

After feeling like "poo" for the past few days and totally slacking on my blog among other things, I have finally gathered enough strength to sit at the computer and try to update my sad blog today. While rocking a serious sinus infection that makes me want to remove my nose entirely I have found out a few things. With the exception of actually having to go to work this weekend I didn't do much else. In fact, someone else helped me and did everything else. My Jason did the grocery shopping, the cooking, the cleaning, the getting of the medicine and fluids. He worked his tushie off on my account which is probably why I am feeling a little bit better today! He has always been willing to help me in one way or another and I am so grateful for him. When we got into our "situation" about 7 years ago he was never negative about it. We knew that we were going to make it work because we were going to do it together. A lot of people wonder why we aren't married or question that we have a child, live together and we aren't married but then I look at the relationships of some of my married friends and I wouldn't trade this relationship for the world. (Note to Jason: This does not mean that I do not want to get married. Simply that we rock, married or not.) Don't get me wrong many of my married friends are amazing too! I'm a lucky girl because I have Jason and Joey. Jason makes just about everything easier and I can't believe that I was blessed enough to find him the summer before 11th grade. He's been such an incredible Dad and such a good "boyfriend" and not just when I am sick. So, even if I totally slacked on my blog, my house doesn't look so bad and my child was well taken care of and so was Buddha. Thanks to my lovie. So hopefully in the next few days I will be feeling 100% better and can get back to the daily grind because my friends and family are delivering babies left and right and I need to get in on the action and get some newborn photos!

Haiti

After the Earthquake that rattled everyone in Haiti and those watching the terrifying aftermath on television everyone went to work to help. Text messages went out to donate, telethons were put into action, people went and did everything they could to help. Children came to the United States and other countries too. Many people act as though after the news stops reporting it, everything goes back to normal. But normal in Haiti won't exist for a long time, if ever. "Normal" is going to turn into a make shift homes and knowing more than a handful of people that are orphans, lost a limb or are homeless. That will be the new normal and it totally breaks my heart. I know that Haiti isn't the only place where people are suffering but for some reason Haiti really gets me thinking. In February and into the spring Haiti was faced with another challenge. As Haitian's live in make shift homes and sleep on the ground, the rain season came and washed so much of their "normal" away again. Then as they get back into a daily lifestyle and the rain has stopped June comes with a hurricane season in the brinks. I can't imagine living in this and as a Mother bring my child up in a world where I don't know where we are going to sleep from night to night. I can't imagine living in Africa where child militia is an issue not to mention the amount of disease that is spread so easily. I can't even think about living in a state of war and not knowing if my child will go out to play soccer and if he will come home or not. Normal to me is so far from the "Normal" that other nations face. I feel so blessed to be an American and so blessed that I have a job and a place to live and food on the table and shoes on my feet. The fact that I complain about little things just disgusts me and I am going to try to stop and realize that before I complain about anything trivial again. This Labor Day weekend, I am happy I have a job. I am happy to be a working, thriving, healthy and blessed American. I hope someday that I can make it to Africa and Haiti and so many other places because I want to experience as many cultures as I can, and I want Joey to do the same. I'm not posting a picture today, I'm posting a link to Jeremy Cowart's site. He went to Haiti and did a photo journal that is without a doubt the most moving one I have ever seen. Check it out here.

What goes up...

What goes up, must come down? Really? Well let me tell you, I spent practically the entire day yesterday trying to explain this concept to Buddha. Yes, the dog. He can go up the steps but has not been very successful in going down the steps. He can get up onto the couch(ask me if he is even allowed on the couch..!) but cries until someone helps him off of the couch. So, we are really working on the "down" part of life. Cute as a button, smarter than a 5th grader yet he has to be carried down the stairs. I'm really surprised by him though. I'm not the type of person that is typically an animal lover. Give me people in all shapes and sizes but not so much dogs and don't even show me your cat because they really creep me out! However, Buddha and I seem to have an understanding. I walk him, feed him, run him and pat him on the head occasionally and he gives Joey lots and lots of love! Okay, I have been having a little bit of fun playing catch too. And, we are working on "Paw." Now, if I could just figure out how to get furball to walk down the steps because he is now almost 35 pounds and I can't carry him down the stairs forever!!

Dinner is Served

Yesterday can be categorized as "One of those Days." After just about everything I attempted to do simply didn't work out I decided to make myself a NeaNea Margarita and call it a day. An early one too. Which lead to a few of my girlfriends sitting in our back yard drinking margaritas until about 9 o'clock, perfection. I tried out a new recipe last night too which was scarier when there were more than my usual taste testers. This one was pretty good, "York Chicken." Well, that's what I am calling it because a friend of mine gave me the recipe and his last name is York. ha! So, anyways we served this sweet honey chicken with garlic ranch roasted potatoes and sautéed zucchini. Zucchini is usually our fall back veggie because Jason and I love it. So, dinner was served and it turned out pretty good. The sweet crust that the honey and dijon mustard put on the chicken was just right. I think next time we might bake it instead of grilling it because the chick is butterflied and cooks faster than we expected on the grill. All in all, it was yummy! AND it went perfectly with our Margaritas. :) Sweet chicken with sweet and sour margs. Bliss. Plus, Mr. Joey finally felt brave enough to hold Sweet baby Elijah. Even if he did give me a stink eye during the picture...because, you know there had to be a picture of it.

Back to School...

Journalism aside. Which is what I went to West Virginia University for, I am now onto Photojournalism. Sounds a bit redundant I know. However, I am so excited to be continuing my education in this way. I start my first few classes on September 21st and I am overly excited about the entire thing! The first thing that I am excited about is getting to know my camera a little bit better and eventually getting a bigger and better camera and going on from there. It is so easy to be overwhelmed by DSLR cameras and without carrying around the SLR Cameras for Dummies, which I have seen pros do, I can't always keep it all straight. I'm also excited for an editing workshop I signed up for. We're talking 9 hours of classroom time learning the ins and outs of Photoshop and another workshop on Lightroom. Yessss! I can't wait. Going back to school is something I have been wanting to do for a long time and putting off for countless kiddo activities. Since I have been going with a "No Time like the Present" attitude lately, I've come to find that this has to begin with Me. I am the only one who can change my tomorrows and I am not about to wait around and see if there is a way my tomorrows can change without effort from me. I'm also hoping to take in countless seminars on newborn posing and on-location shoots. Looking forward to heading to Hartwood Acres tomorrow with the pup and getting in some good shooting. How about you Buddha? Ready for a photo session?