One More Makes Four

My Mom-friends and I like to try out a new park every Monday, to change things up for the littles and keep them guessing. I found a gem of a park just a mile from my house, complete with a donkey corral, a small creek and roosters crowing all day long. It's a park in the middle of Palo Alto, but you feel like you're on a farm in the mountains. The minute we got there I knew this park would be a great location for a photo shoot. And I had just the right one in mind :).

My friend Rachel has a little one that is about a year and a half old and she is expecting her second in a few months. We wanted to get some fun family photos and a lot of good belly documentation. Rachel has an amazing pair of cowboy boots that we used to inspire the shoot, and we even found a few old tractor parts around the park to get into the pictures! Perfection :).

You can click on any of the pictures to see their whole gallery!

Oh The Places You'll Go...

I have about 12+ pregnant friends at the moment and we've been waiting for all the bumps to grow round enough to photograph well. My dear friend, Kathleen, is having her second and her beautiful baby bump was prime for photos. I was aiming for a quiet, intimate and whimsical feel. I had a beautiful subject and we had a wonderful time. Here is a glimpse at her photo shoot, click on any of the pictures to see her full gallery.

Balmy Alley

I did this shoot a while back with some wonderful friends up in San Francisco. We went to Balmy Alley in the Mission District, the most concentrated collection of murals in San Francisco, and made use of some brilliant colors and fantastic backgrounds. We made it there before the tours started and got a few pictures of just the family, but we wanted the shoot to have an urban feel to it, so once the tour groups came it was so fun to catch the people in the background of the photos. I love how it gave the feeling of one-amongst-many, that the family was a singled-out, special entity in a place teeming with people. This is some of what we got...

Mendocino

My husband and I got our first weekend away together and he, being the awesome husband that he is, planned it all and kept the location a surprise until we were driving there. I am a lover of cold beaches; give me a blanket, a big sweater and a hot cappuccino and I'm one happy girl walking on the cold sand under grey clouds. My husband knows this and though he himself would rather be on a warm, sunny tropical beach, he planned a weekend for us in beautiful Mendocino. 

We stayed at the cutest little bed and breakfast on a cliff over-looking the ocean. It was perfect! We spent the weekend sleeping until we wanted to get up, drinking yummy coffee, hiking on the bluffs, exploring the surrounding trails and eating some great food! 

Here's a glimpse of this beautiful area. I HIGHLY recommend a visit!!

Bubbles

My girls hit the 18 Month mark last week. Though it's technically not a birthday, it's a pretty big milestone on your way to two-years-old. Since their first birthday they've started walking, running, climbing, and growing a significant amount of hair. They're using words, trying spoons, carrying as many baby dolls as possible and chattering in some unknown baby language. Experiencing a baby moving into toddlerhood is busy, wonderful, fulfilling and enough to drive the most patient, understanding person to the edge of their sanity ;).  

To commemorate this big milestone I set them loose in a yard full of bubbles and it was awesome!!

Here's to speaking English and figuring out the spoon!!