baby sequoia | three-months-old

I love this girl. Sequoia has already made an appearance on my blog, and I expect you'll see plenty more photos of her this year! Isn't she precious? Last Saturday, I had the chance to visit Matt, Ashley, and Suki, and it was such a treat to capture some images of their family. Here are just a few of my favorites...




Sweetest little ballerina.


love.



Anyone who knows Matt and Ashley knows that Sequoia isn't their first baby. That title belongs to Kingston...





I almost deleted this last photo. It's out of focus and overexposed, so I almost didn't give it a second look... I'm so glad I saved it. It feels timeless to me.

Matt and Ash: I can't tell you how much I love walking through parenthood together. You're doing an amazing job. Love you!

my family twelve times | february

(This post was inspired by Tara Whitney. Read about it here.)

February | at a glance.

-- I admit it... This photo was taken at the beginning of March. Baby steps! (P.S. Thanks for the photo, Lashelle!)

-- Maggie's obsession with ballet dancing has grown to include all types of dancing. The other day she threw one arm in the air and began to twirl around saying, "Shake your body! Shake your body!" Tim and I just looked at each other. He blames me. I'm pretty sure those words have never left my mouth.

-- Due to a blizzard here in Warrenton, Tim didn't go to work for almost the entire month. When he had to go back I was a little depressed.

-- Caleb has started to really make his voice heard. He will coo so loudly that it often sounds like he's yelling at the T.V. I like to imagine that he's just as confused as I am about this season of LOST.

-- Maggie's favorite book is currently Goldilocks and the Three Bears. When we get to the part where the bears come home, she likes to take over... complete with different voices for Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear. Adorable.

-- Caleb rarely cries. It's amazing. When he does cry, often times all it takes to make him stop is for Tim or me to pick him up. I'm not annoyed by this. I actually think it's profound, this need to connect. It's so sweet.

-- I went and saw Valentine's Day with two of my dear friends. I loved it. But I must admit that I was so happy to get out with two friends, I probably would have loved going to see any movie. Even Hot Tub Time Machine.

-- This month (for me) was so wonderfully full of the Olympics and Pandora.

-- Tim and I have started the daunting task of potty training. I use the term "started" very lightly. Actually, we told Maggie that we'd give her one M&M every time she successfully uses the potty. Now that she knows we are constantly in possession of M&M's, she often goes around the house screaming, "I need candy! I need candy!" Has she successfully used the potty? Nope. Not once.

-- Caleb likes to cuddle.

-- I ordered my first Heart Piercing Card for my Valentine. My friend Stephanie makes these amazing cards, and I'm totally hooked. Her blog is just as lovely. It has become one of my favorite things to read. So inspiring.

Thanks for reading! March is full of some fun engagement shoots, so check back soon! :)

a new hat | a sunday afternoon

I didn't originally intend to blog these photos. I took them so that I could send a few to my friend Nichole (see post below!) who made Maggie's beautiful hat. But... I looked at the images, and I couldn't believe how big she looked. And grown up. And (somehow) wise. So, I decided to share them.

Love.

caleb grey | three months!

Something surprising happened last week. I feel like I blinked my eyes, and suddenly Caleb was three months old! All at once, I feel like he's been a part of our family forever, and I also can't believe that three months have gone by. These past three months have passed (somewhat) in a haze as Caleb has learned and then quickly forgotten how to sleep through the night! But I don't really mind... because after I figure out who I am and why I've been woken up, I enjoy those quiet early morning moments. It's the only quiet time I have just with him. And I love it.

I can already see traits in Caleb that make me smile. He is very laid back (this may be in response to his crazy older sister) and he smiles easily. He also likes the sound of music and doesn't mind when Maggie presses her face up into his in order to "explain" something to him. He's a joy. Here are a few shots that I grabbed of him over the past week. It's hard to get a shot of him smiling when Tim isn't around... mostly because I think he's confused by my camera! But I was luckily able to get a few...



This hat was a Valentine's present from my dear friend Nichole. (She made one for Maggie that's equally as adorable!) Cute.


I had to include this one because it makes me smile. He was grinning a split second before this was taken, but his expression quickly changed when I pulled the camera to my face. I like imagining what he's thinking...


Love you, buddy.

girls just want to have fun.

For the past few months, I've been incredibly lucky to have Lauren working as my intern. We first met at my brother's wedding a little over a year ago, and she asked if she could intern with me just a few months later. She helped me finish out my wedding season (when I was incredibly pregnant!) and since then, we've been meeting to go over the details that go into running a portrait and wedding photography business. I love seeing how excited Maggie gets whenever Lauren comes over! It's so cute.

Since I'm technically on maternity leave, we haven't had the opportunity to shoot any portraits together. So, last Friday, Maggie's friend Caroline came over and we followed the girls around while they played in the snow! Isn't Caroline adorable?! I'm in love with her beautiful red hair. In just a little over one month, Caroline is going to welcome a baby sister, and I can already tell that they're going to have a blast! Here are just a few from our fun shoot in the snow...

snow day | my life

The amount of snow that we've seen this winter has been more than a little overwhelming. I wasn't sure we'd be able to dig our cars out after the blizzard that hit us last week! And now, even as I write this, more snow is falling. Very inconvenient, for sure.

That being said, I'm here to tell you that this snow has made one little girl very, very happy.





The snow doesn't dampen this little guy's mood either. Not one bit.

If you're getting pretty bored, you should pass the time away by taking photos outside! What an amazing backdrop. And if you aren't used to shooting in the snow, here's a photo tip: If you've noticed that your images look a little gray (and you're shooting in manual mode) "overexpose" the photo a stop or two. Since there is so much white in the photo, the light meter doesn't give an accurate reading. I hope that's helpful!

If you're looking for something else to do while you're stuck inside, connect with me on Facebook! I'm going to start posting things there that may or may not ever make it to the blog. Hope to see you there!

my family twelve times | january

If you've never seen Tara Whitney's work, you need to check her out right now. She's amazing. My absolute favorite portrait photographer of all time. Her images are so authentic and true to her clients... I can't get enough! And her family is absolutely adorable.

On her blog, she just decided to post a photo of her entire family once a month and include some things that are happening in their lives at the time. She invited her blog readers to join her in the endeavor, and I love, love, LOVE the idea.

So... Here's our first family picture. I'm actually cheating because it was shot in December for our Christmas card, but I'm going to allow myself to cheat for the first month! Getting myself into the photo is always tricky...

January | at a glance.

-- Maggie has started saying things in three's. It's adorable, and I have no idea where it comes from. When I tell her she needs to wash her hands, this follows: "Are they dirty and dirty and dirty?" Yesterday, when Tim asked her to sit down (instead of jumping up and down on her seat) she said: "I'm just being silly and silly and silly!" Cute.

-- Caleb smiles pretty easily, but any time he sends a grin our way you'd think we won the lottery for all the screams that we let out. Maggie is the loudest. "He smiling at me! He smiling, Mommy!" So sweet.

-- Tim finished two incredibly hard things... Graduate school and our basement. I'm so proud of him! I'm also relieved.

-- Caleb sleeps through the night. Most of the time.

-- Every night before bed, Maggie requests to pray for three friends. Jack and Rowan and Brandon. Every night. She also picks out several books for us to read to her, and right now she enjoys reading about ballerinas. She practices her ballet during the day. She calls it "Baa-yay".

-- I celebrated my 29th birthday. This year I'm making a resolution to cook more often. I love it, but I rarely give myself enough time.

-- Apparently, Maggie is incredibly proud of Tim and me. Whenever we complete a task, like brushing our teeth or putting away the dishes, she claps her hands and says, "Yay! I'm so proud of you!"

-- Caleb and Maggie are really cute in the morning. And the first words out of Maggie's mouth in the morning are always the same. "Are Caleb's eyes awake?" Every morning. But it actually sounds more like this: "Are Cayub's eyes wake?" So sweet.

-- After all this snow, we're getting pretty excited about the Spring.

-- Thanks for reading! Do you like this idea? If so, you should do it too! For me it's really easy to blog about my job, but I end up forgetting about the new things that are going on in my family. I love the idea of bringing them both together.

maggie's first haircut | my life

It took Maggie over a year to grow any hair. Seriously. During her first year of life, I kept daydreaming about putting her hair in pigtails. So... when her hair actually started to grow, cutting it was the last thing on my mind! It actually made me a little sad to think about cutting her hair because it just confirmed a fact that I can't ignore... she's not a baby anymore.

A couple of weeks ago, Maggie, Caleb, and I were visiting Ashley and Sequoia, and I told Ashley that I needed her to cut Maggie's hair sometime soon. (Ashley is an incredibly talented stylist.) Anyway, I said sometime soon because I thought I should put the idea out there in order to get used to it. But Ashley volunteered to do it that day, and I had to accept her offer. I mean, Maggie could barely see because her hair was always in her eyes! So... the following photos are what followed...

Maggie looking a little unsure.

Ashley had just the thing to make her feel more comfortable!

I love these next two.



The final product. So cute!

Caleb and Suki are becoming best buddies.

Sweet.

Thanks for sharing your talent with us, Ashley!