I wish they would sing and dance with reckless abandon forever! Carefree. Confident. Rockstars!
Yes! We rocked it didn’t we?!
Elia – 10 Months
See those fingers? She can SNAP like a grownup!!
She gives the BEST stinkeye on the planet! We get it all the time.
Lael – 4 and 3/4 as she likes to say
2010 was a BUSY year for me and blogging took a back burner to all the exciting shoots, family fun and the biggest news of the year – our ‘new’ baby girl – Elia Chelle! Why it’s taken me 4+ months to introduce her can only be summed up by saying I’ve been soaking up all the delicious moments with my girls and my computer has been collecting dust most days. I knew going into baby number two that the time would fly by and I was determined to slow down to enjoy it all. Once again we have been blessed with a laid back, sweet, sweet baby and I couldn’t be more grateful. I am LOVING my time home with my girls and am looking forward to getting my photog wheels turning for the spring and summer season (available sessions are limited for this year so I can continue to enjoy these two beauties so if you are hoping to book with me catch me early to be sure you get in). I have some fun shoots on the horizon and a ton in the archives from last year and have my fingers crossed and big intentions of getting some blogging time fit in…
In the meantime below are a couple snapshots of the accordion style announcement we sent out and a couple recent candids of the girls from last week.
The November rain was a Godsend for me – all the warmth allowed me to shoot outside in the snow and Lael just had to have a shot of her new sis in her snow cave…
Enjoy my little lovies…
(far right of the second spread is the front panel of the card, the spread below is the inside and the rest of the bottom spread is the back – accordions are confusing).
Her baby blues are so sparkly…
Lael LOVES her little sis and we couldn’t have had an easier transition! Elia gets no fewer than 50 kisses a day, they are so stinkin’ cute together! Elia crosses her feet like this all the time.
We took a couple quick trips while my in-laws were in town from Texas. Our first adventure led us WAY up north to Coldfoot, Wiseman and Adigan Pass. And what an adventure it was! The temperatures varied from 60 in Fairbanks to a windy 20 degrees in the pass. We saw caribou, sheep, moose, incredible rock formations, the ice jam on the Yukon and the treacherous and famous Adigan Pass the truckers brave on their way to Prudhoe Bay.
We met a lovely family in Wiseman and stayed at their cozy bed and breakfast called the Arctic Getaway. If you are ever headed up North look them up – the cabin is immaculate and has all the comforts of home and they’ll cook you an incredible breakfast to boot. Wiseman is beautiful, quiet and full of history and I am so happy I got to see it.
Us girls were prepared to have dinner at the Coldfoot truck stop and were so surprised when we found out instead we’d be having a late night king crab feast at the cabin what a great Mother’s Day treat!
Just before our family went home we took a day trip to Denali and Cantwell. We have a piece of property in Cantwell that we feel incredibly blessed to have found. The last two shots were taken a couple minutes from our property on the Jack River. We feel ‘at home’ there and cannot wait to be able to build our cabin there. After playing in Cantwell for a couple hours we went 30 miles back into the park then out to dinner in Denali. We had an awesome day!
What a day we had…we woke up that morning and I told Lael we were going to find some puddles to play in and that we would go to the new tea shop to have tea together. Later that morning she grabbed my face and told me “you’re the best momma…we go to the tea shop together momma?” It doesn’t matter what could have come up to change our course – with sweetness like that how could I even change our plans?! So, we went to Fairbanks’ newest treasure Sipping Streams Tea Company to have tea and lunch, then we were off in search of puddles.
If you haven’t visited Sipping Streams Tea Company you’ve got to check it out! It is in the little mall building by Gulliver’s Books on College Road and it is an absolutely adorable shop that features tasty handmade teas, amazing Hong Kong style steam buns, Chinese rice soup, Alaskan Fireweed Honey, homemade baked scones and muffins and many other delightful treats. Jenny, the owner, would love to have you stop in and stay awile. Spread the word and give her new business a try, you will be pleased you stopped in. Enjoy!
When I get fun new things for the studio it’s so great to have a built in little model! Enjoy.
My Auntie Dee Dee and Uncle George live a beautiful life. They live on a quiet little farm with an amazing mountain view in Wasilla. They take in abused or unwanted horses and give them a fabulous place to recuperate and train them so they are able to be ridden again. I think my Uncle George is a horse whisperer – he can calm a wild stallion or an abused mare with his presence alone. Look at the way that horse is calm against his gentle touch or the way he lights up just talking about his work!
Auntie Dee Dee is a passionate about everything she does whether it’s rescuing animals, teaching her little nieces about baking, make-up and dressing up, loving her babies and husband with a fire others have trouble expressing or her dedication to being the best teacher she can be. She makes those around her feel special and loved in a way I’ve seen from few. She is fabulous and I am so happy she has made such a wonderful life in Wasilla. I just miss her so…
The boys weren’t around so I wasn’t able to capture them on our visit, but they are two beautiful boys who are almost all grown up and who have been raised to be confident, hard workers, incredible horse riders, awesome soccer players, and most of all they know they are loved, loved, loved!
They have a beautiful life in Wasilla and I’m so happy they have found it. I am only sad to say we don’t see them enough and I miss them while they are away. I want my little ones to know them and to see how special they have been in my life. I want to visit more often so that my kiddos have memories carved out in their childhood from spending time with them like I do.
Thanks for so many sweet memories, I sure love you guys!
This visit was last August and I’ve been meaning to blog about it so we can show just how great our little visits with them are. There are lots of photos, Enjoy!
of mice and men often go awry…
So I had this plan to shoot some fun pics of Lael and me while testing out a new contraption for one of my lights. I did my make-up all fun and smokey, put on some heels and cute jeans, I set up the tripod, camera and lights, ran the trigger button up my pant leg to hide it and fired a couple shots of Lael playing with ‘her camera’. I checked the shots (there was backdrop and lights showing in the test shots so I was sure I had plenty of wiggle room). So it was go time, right?!
So we get ready for the first shot I wanted…a fun shot of me in my jeans & heels with Lael peeking through my legs – I got it – sort of…
On to the next fun series…Since I spend so much time in the studio working in my chair with my little munchkin climbing all over me I thought I’d throw in the chair and get some fun shots to catch us the way we are most days…(minus the heels) 
Well I’m not sure if there are little mice living in my house that know how to operate the camera and tripod, but that seems to be the only explanation for the shots we ended up with…They are so not what I was going for, but funny nonetheless. Look how fun these tie shots could have been!
With every visit with my Dad I am reminded of all the little things that often go unnoticed all around us. For instance as we were watching this amazing sunrise he noticed the way the edges of the clouds were being blown smooth on the edges because of the nearly 100 mph gusts of wind happening 1000 feet above our heads. Or how he showed me how to distinguish wolverine tracks by watching for the marks its long hair leaves in the snow. Because of him I notice the sound of the birds when I walk through the woods and know to listen closely to hear the grouse beating their wings on the ground in the distance at the cabin. Life is full of so many little moments that make each day special and my Dad has done an incredible job of teaching us to enjoy them as they pass through our lives. He is down in Juneau and just knowing it will be months before we will see him again is heart breaking. Our family isn’t whole when one of the pieces is missing and it’s those little things we miss out on each day that makes the distance unbearable.
As I shot the photos of the sunset I looked up and Lael had her head on his shoulder and he was pointing out at the sunrise and though I didn’t get that shot I had to capture them. In watching him hold and talk to her I was brought back to a thousand memories of him showing me the little things all around us and I knew at that very moment he was sharing one of those little things with her.
The plague flu has been haunting us for the past 10 days and I’m confident that we are finally on the mend. We have been hibernating together and it’s funny how something so icky can bring a sense of peace and closeness to us. Times like this remind us of that for better or worse, in sickness and in health part of our vows to each other. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life…and I’m blessed to have these two.
