fall family photos : ryan and amanda

Fall . . . when kids are heading back to school, football is in full swing, leaves are changing color, the air is starting to crisp, and the holidays are just around the corner. It is also the perfect time of year for family photos. I started the season with a wonderful couple, Ryan and Amanda, and their three beautiful children. We met at one of my very favorite event venues. Fern Hollow is a beautiful 2.5 acre fully landscaped estate at the base of the Olympic Mountains and just steps away from the Dungeness River. It was the perfect place for me to capture them all enjoying the gorgeous weather and each other. Thank you Ryan and Amanda for having me capture your family in this beautiful setting. It was a truly beautiful afternoon.

stepping out on their own

College is such an exciting time for all those involved. Exciting for the parent as they watch their child embarq upon the adventure and exciting for the student who is stepping out on their own and making adult decisions like what classes to take or what snack foods to keep in the dorm room for those late night study sessions. Parents worry about the decisions they will make, the people they will meet, the grades they will get and so much more.

Recently I was lucky enough to get together with Megan, Mary Beth and Ashley the day before they all headed back to college for their sophmore year. These three would make any mother proud and reassured. They work together to be an amazing support system for each other, encouraging each other to buckle down when necessary, to enjoy life always and to be kind and love others in all that they do. We had an amazing time exploring Pike Place Market and downtown Seattle. Thank you girls for letting me share a little time with the three of you and capture a little bit of your relationship. Best of luck this year and in your future.

1st day

I have come to the point in my parenting life when my oldest doesn't want me to take her photo on the first day of school. As we arrived at school she all of a sudden became super embarrassed and wanting nothing to do with having her photo taken. I of course was taking them anyway and take them I did.

At first it was a struggle, but eventually I was able to snap a photo of both of them without any visual signs that they didn't want me there.

I have two beautiful girls that I am so proud of and I can't wait to see what the year is going to bring. It is so amazing watching them become the independant beings they are. What a joy to be a parent.

a trip to the general store

There is nothing quite like a photo shoot of a 1 year old and Bekah was a fabulous example of why. I met up with her and her mother for an afternoon photo shoot in the quaint little town of Port Gamble. We had a wonderful time. From our trip to the general store . . .

to watering the flowers . . .

Bekah was a joy to photograph.

three blind mice?

We grow up with nursery rhymes. We all know them but don't remember how we learned them. I remember reciting 'three blind mice' as a child and even reading it as an adult to my girls. I always felt sorry for the mice. The mean old farmer's wife who cut off their tails; She deserved to be ran after, didn't she? Well, I began to rethink this logic last night as the girls were shrieking on their top bunk and my husband was hunkered down on the floor by the bottom bunk trying to find one of the sneaky little devils that had been brought into the house by one of our feline members.

At first he wasn't sure he believed there was one in there. He was sure the girls were over-reacting. But then he saw it and he was instantly on a mission, as if letting the mouse win would somehow define him as a father. We couldn't have that now could we? Of course looking back at him hunkered down throwing blankets everywhere and lifting mattresses, I am not sure what exactly he thought he was going to do if he saw it. I think he may have had visions of snatching it with his bare hands. . . right! That would have happened. I wonder if he envisioned it biting him after that?

Turned out that thing was faster than lightening. It didn't take long for my husband's quick wit to set in though. As he was tossing blankets he yelled out to me . . . OK, so I was hiding in the other room. . . "Grab the vacuum." Yes, we resorted to the vacuum. Helpful in multiple ways - suction is faster than those darn things can run, it has a long bar so we didn't have to actually touch the thing, and the most important reason of all that it was the perfect weapon is that it wouldn't kill the mouse. Our girls would have no killing.

With vacuum in hand we were poised by the door waiting for it to try to escape, and try it did. In one swift motion the vacuum bar came out and mouse was sucked into the vacuum.

Daddy - 1, Mouse - 0.

on our way to being 'old macdonald'

If someone had told me years ago that I would have a farm, I would have told them they were crazy. I wanted to be a city girl; live in a high rise, have a job as an attorney in some tall building, dinner parties and late nights out with friends . . . . not exactly how it turned out and I am so glad. Loving my life on the farm for sure.

I love being able to get out into my garden and see the results. I headed out there the other day with my iPhone to play around with my instagram ap. Loving the depth of the results. So much fun. I will definitely be playing around some more with this.

Now our farming doesn't stop at the garden, oh no. Last year we decided it was time to add chickens to our family and add chickens we did. We now have 8 lovely hens and 1 rooster we could quite possibly live without.


And our family of hens wouldn't be complete without Lemon Drop, and all of her feisty glory.



Not only is having a little farm fun because of all that our girls are learning and the stress relief we get by working in our garden, but it allows us to share the overabundance with family, friends and even those we do not know. What an amazing thing we are able to teach our children!

signs of life

I have been holding back. Not wanting to come right out on my blog and say it. The more I think about it, the more I wonder why. Everyone knows it. So here goes. This summer, the good 'ol Pacific Northwest has left a little to be desired in the weather department. I will jump on the "gorgeous place to live" bandwagon, but it has been a difficult one to ride this spring/summer. Last night I exclaimed to my husband in response to him telling me it was our friends' anniversary, "No, that is in July." Ooops. I guess I hadn't looked at my calendar lately.

Once I came to accept the fact that we have probably seen our summer, I decided it was time to focus on what the highlights have been. By far, the brightest highlight of this season has been our two baby hummingbirds we have been blessed to watch grow from little itty bitty babies to full fledging flying birdies. It is amazing. I am not sure what more glorious sign of spring life there could be than watching two baby birds take flight for the first time. I was like a proud mama giggling with glee as the they took off and flew towards our porch. These photos don't really do them justice. The next is about the size of a silver dollar and about 3/4 of an inch high. So tiny. Opportunities like this remind me of why we live where we live. Love it!

Janet Evanovich

I decided to take a break from non-fiction books. Actually I decided to take a break from any novel that I had to put too much thought in to read. I needed something light and airy that would make me laugh. I was able to find that in Janet Evanovich. Her novels are a little quirky, but definitely funny. Are they for everyone? Definitely not.

At this point I have read all of her Stephanie Plum series, all of her Full series as well as select others she has written. One of the difficulties with her novels I find is that if you haven't read previous ones in a series, it would be difficult to fall into later books as they all tie together. Even some of her separate series connect in some way or another. That said, they were the perfect solution for what I was looking for.

I am currently finishing up the last of her novels written with Charlotte Hughes in the Full series and am then moving back to some more advanced pieces of literary work. I may actually read Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time. Stay tuned to hear what I thought.

Gayle Blais Designs

My sister has an amazing artistic eye for design. Actually, she just has an artist everything. Most recently, however, we have been blessed to see her artistic abilities extend into designing childrens dresses. She has made dresses for my two girls over the years, taking paterns and adjusting them to the girls as well as to her liking. After doing this for a little while, she started to get a ton of ideas of her own and patterns just weren't cutting it. She began to draw up some of her own designs. Now, all of her designs are 100% hers and they are nothing short of AMAZING. One of her first models, other than her own lovely daughter, was my oldest. The dress she decided to make for Olyvia was perfect for her.

A Fabulous Day. A Fabulous Family.

Not long ago I had the great pleasure of spending some time with a beautiful family. We wandered around downtown Poulsbo admiring the creatures along the shore as well as the magnificent boats docked in the harbor. A true pleasure to see a family so full of life and love.

Elya

Fun! That is what I had spending time with Elya to take her senior photos. I first met Elya in 2006. I was going to be leading a group of high school students on a mission trip to Puerto Rico and she was a team member. My first impressions were of her quiet nature and respect for herself and others. The more I have gotten to know her I have seen her outstanding moral character, courageous attitude, fun loving spirit and impeccable kindness. My girls have grown to love her and I know when she goes off to college this next fall, she will be missed by my entire family. Elya, I know you will do magnificent. Thank you for letting me capture a little bit of you in these photos.

dicey's song by cynthia voigt

After reading this much talked about and honored book, I must say I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be. I admit that I read it without having first read Homecoming not realizing that this novel picks up where that one ended. As I began the book there were a lot of questions I had that weren't answered until I did a little research into the content of Homecoming.

That said, the book was a pleasant read. Not overly complicated which was refreshing. Although character development was light, I have a feeling some of that was done in the previous book. The story picks up with 6th grader Dicey and her 3 younger siblings as they are taken in by their grandmother after having been abandoned by their mother in the previous book. Dicey spends the majority of the summer caring for her siblings and upon connecting with their grandmother now has a new role to learn.

** A heartwarming & uplifting summer afternoon read.

spring is here - new school style

Yay! We may not be able to tell by the weather we are having, but spring is officially here. This last weekend my husband and I ignored the blustery rainy weather and got out in the yard to get some stuff done. And get stuff done we did. All the pots are planted, vegetable seeds are started, the fence for the old garden space is removed and ready for recycling and the concrete pavers are moved and have reestablished themselves as a nice little patio in front of the chicken coop. Other than the small little mishap with the tractor tire, we did rather well this weekend, and I am excited to get the garden built next weekend. I will be sure to share some photos of said garden once there is something to take a picture of.

I probably cannot bring this post to a close without mentioning the little mishap with the tractor and what we learned from it. Hmmm? What did I learn? I learned that old school is for the birds. Our tractor is by far the best purchase we have made and it continues to pay for itself over and over and over. However, one sharp turn with a bucket full of concrete pavers and the result, a flat tire. :( Although a little bummed, I jumped into problem solving mode and said lets just call and see if any place is open to get it fixed. We were of course 10 minutes too late for that option. I didn't let that deflate my mood and was quick to suggest moving the pavers old school style with the wheel barrow. I tell ya, after one trip moving about 10 one foot square pavers approximately 100 yards, I am so new school. The remaining 44 pavers were moved by way of Dodge truck.

Happy spring every one!

how i planned your wedding

Invited by my mother, I went to Eagle Harbor Books on Bainbridge Island to hear Susan Wiggs and Elizabeth Wiggs Maas read from their new collaboration. As many of you know, I have always loved weddings. Every part of them from the engagement to the planning and execution. I have an especially fond love for capturing these most amazing events so that they can be reminisced over for years to come. So, even though I have been married for over 14 years and am not in any way planning a wedding I was excited to go and hear the perspectives of this mother and daughter as they planned Elizabeth's wedding. At the time of the reading I had only heard excerpts from the book that my mother had read to me as I had not myself purchased the book yet. Since that time, I have acquired the book and read it in its entirety.

How I Planned Your Wedding is a exceptionally well written fun read. You get to hear Elizabeth's voice and Susan's voice as they encounter the many areas a bride unfolds during the process of planning her wedding. Hearing both the perspective of the bride and that of the mother of the bride adds a new dimension to this book that I believe will be well received. It reads like a story, but is filled with all the great information a bride is looking for as if told to her by her best friend. Oh, and it is hilarious.

*** I give this book a three star rating because it is very audience specific. If you are in the midst of planning a wedding, about to become engaged, or recently married you will love this book. I highly encourage you to pick it up either as a great tool as you embark upon the wedding industry or as a reminder of all that you went through while planning your wedding. The sneak peak we get as readers into the mother daughter relationship that is shared is wonderful.

the true and outstanding adventures of the hunt sisters

According to Merriam Webster, a sister is, first and foremost, a female who has one or both parents in common with another. Later in the lists of possible definitions Merriam also says that a sister could be a girl or woman regarded as a comrade. Curious, I then wondered what Merriam would say about a comrade. Turns out a comrade is an intimate friend or associate, see companion. So I did. Merriam informed me that a companion is one that accompanies another. Now I realize that for each and every word there are multiple definitions available and for these words I did read through the lists of possible definitions. But none of them embodied the definition of a sister more than Elisabeth Robinson's book 'The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters." The love hate relationship that surrounds all sisters. Whether you are yearning to be like your sister or struggling to be your own person, you have a deep rooted relationship with this person. A relationship so rooted that if something devastating were to happen to them, you would forget about everything and give up everything to be by there side.

In this wonderful, easy to read novel, Robinson takes you on an adventure many sisters hope to never have to see. Written as a series of letters from the perspective of the older sister (starting the year of her sister's birth and then picking up 20 years later) the novel chronicles their lives as Maddie fights a fight of all fights, leukemia. It is a peak in on their relationship, reading Olivia's private thoughts as she pours them out onto paper in letters to her sister, mother, father, business partners, best friend, ex-boyfriend and lover.

**** I am going to give this book 4 stars. Kind of a high rating for a pretty simple novel and one that only took me a few days to read. I chose 4 stars for a couple reasons. First, I think the way the author chose to write the book, as a series of letters, really allowed you to get inside the relationships in the story. This is HUGE in a book that really is about one of the most magnificent of relationships that can exist. For those that are sisters it was like a reality check and for those of you that aren't it is a clear glass window into what it is like. Second, as a sister myself, it was wonderful to put a literary picture to a relationship that is so hard to put into words. If you are a sister, pick up this book and get ready for the possibility of an overload of emotions. This is a great book to remind you how important it is to remind your sister you love her. Kristin, I love you!

two days is not enough

I want to know who's idea it was for the 5/2 split to a seven day week. Was any rational thought put into it? I realize a mother's work is never done but it is ludicrous to think that two days is enough to catch up on housework, go through your kids rooms to see what they have stashed in there throughout the week, do all the grocery shopping and meal prep for the upcoming week, wash and fold all the laundry, balance accounts and pay bills, help with the outdoor chores including stocking wood sheds, gardening, cleaning animal pens and the list goes on. This isn't even taking into account any time spent relaxing, rejuvenating, and getting refreshed for a new week.

This weekend definitely started off on a high note for me. I was naively optimistic on what could be accomplished and in all reality I should have known better. Saturday morning I woke up to two bouncing girls in fabulous spirits and decided to take advantage of that attitude and head outside to get some wood stacked while Robb was working. With an eager tone to my voice I told the girls we were going to have a great day, to get dressed and grab their coats and shoes because we were heading outside to surprise daddy by stacking some of the wood he had split the previous weekend. Out we headed. My youngest was quite excited for what she exclaimed was a helping adventure. My oldest started being excited but had not heeded my previous suggestions to bring a coat and therefore within minutes of being outside was "freezing" and demanding that she be allowed to go inside. I calmly informed her that was "not" going to happen and away I went stacking wood. All our neighbors know how she took that. As if the demands weren't enough, she insisted on screaming them at the top of her lungs in a dramatic exercise of her willpower. Again, ever so calmly, I explained to her that we were staying outside and I was bummed that she wasn't having any fun with us.

Obviously having missed the signs, after lunch the girls and I embarked upon the Bermuda Triangle of grocery stores (Costco, Wal-mart, Central Market). It was now my Ellie's turn to kick it into full gear and proceeded to see how patient I could be. Between waiting until we were at the back of Costco on a busy Saturday to exclaim that she "had to go potty right now" to the repetitive complaining that she didn't want to be in the cart nor did she want to walk while we were trying to make our way through Wal-mart. Three and a half hours later we finally pulled into our driveway. Now to unload all the groceries, get them put away, make casseroles for the freezer for the week and get dinner on. Oh, and I need to switch the laundry.

The weekend has come to a close and almost all the laundry is washed although not all of it is folded, there are bills that need paid, checking accounts to balance, tax documents to pull together and I would still love to steal away some time to read. This brings me all back to my original thought, who's idea was it for a 5/2 split to the seven day week?

the gravedigger's daughter

After many tough months working my way through this literary work, I can happily say I have finished. It has taken me a little while to wrap my head around what I actually thought of this book. Was it well written? Yes. Was it good enough to suggest to any of you? It really depends on what you are looking for in a book when you pick it up to read it.

This book follows the story & life of Rebecca Schwart. She is the youngest child in a family of 5 who escape a Nazi ridden Germany to arrive in the United States with high hopes. Many, if not all of these hopes are thrown aside year after year as tragedy after tragedy overtake this young girl. This book brought many tears to my eyes and I don't think there was any point where it brought a smile to my face. I was never able to rejoice with Rebecca as she was never really given anything to rejoice over. As an adult woman she continually struggles with her past and never seems to be truely happy although she does seem to achieve contentment with where her life ends up.

*** I give this novel 3 stars for literary genius alone. I find Joyce Carol Oates overly tragic and at times down right depressing. Would it have been too much to ask, to bring some true joy into this woman's life? That said, the ability to draw on history and establish a very true character was amazing. I do not doubt for an instant the truth in Rebecca's character. Ms. Oates' ability to establish her characters in a way that truely represents the psychological impact of the events in their life made this book a worthwhile read.

with us always

Here we are, in the middle of winter, and I find that I must continue to remind myself every day that God is in everything. He is in the fun, sun and glorious warmth of summer and yes, he is in the cold, wet, and cloudy skies of winter. He is everywhere, always and at all times.

a fabulous gift

Recently was given the opportunity to photograph a brand new little princess. My girls are 5 and 7. Seeing as it has been awhile since I have had a little infant in the house, each and every infant session is so special. Devany was a delight and her parents were wonderful. Thank you for asking me into your home to capture these fluid moments for you.