could fall in love here! The University of Virginia campus was beyond gorgeous and we had a lovely relaxed time strolling around, snapping some shots and making memories. Here's what became of it.

the first dat of Spring and even though we had such a mild winter, it is a huge sigh of relief knowing that we are heading into sunshine and out of the darkness. I photographed a beautiful pregnant belly of an expectant Mom and it was so sweet and simple. A great way to come into the new season and celebrate new life to come. 

I have been long putting off publishing this personal post of our family trip this winter. It's so personal and meaningful to me and I knew that when the time was right I would post it, well that time is now. This winter we had the chance to take our first family vacation out to visit my sister Melanie in her new digs in New Orleans. Sadly, I feel like I have been putting this blog post off because I wanted to speak openly and be myself but the story behind this is really hard for me because it makes me feel like the worst sister in the world. A year out of school my sister took the leap and moved across the country to follow her dream of becoming a make-up artist in Los Angeles. I never once was able to visit her there and I feel really bad about it. The first thing she said to me when we arrived to her new home was, FINALLY!! I immediately retaliated by pointing to the two litle ones at my feet, saying, I was a little busy! There were no real hard feelings and she had been back to the East Coast countless times to visit us, but it was a hard hit in the beginning. 

It meant so much to me that we were able to take the trip and that my sister opened up her home to us. What was so important about getting away was that out lives to this point have been a speeding train and for those of you that know us well wou can understand completely. Ten days off with just the four of us in a magical peaceful place was exactly what we needed to recharge and reconnect. We aren't extravagant in the least bit so the things that we chose to do were very simple, like go grocery shopping, cook meals, talk, look at each other, laugh, hug, and nap and walk, lots of walking. Every day we headed in a different direction and onto a new adventure. On the last night my sister and her boyfriend and I headed out by ourselves and went to a hip little side of town where I photographed them and their new love. We got to share a Thai meal without the kids and talked over drinks and reconnected as sisters, something we hadn't been able to do in a long time. It was special and a good memory and I will hold onto it forever. 

this picture that I had captured the true essence of her at this time in our life, even down to the poofy, purple, polked-a-dotted jacket of hers. Everything about this image sums up exactly how I feel about this winter/year and being able to post it on leap day helps me appreciate even more that we have an "extra" day this year to enjoy our lives together.

and photograph them in the comfort of their home. I loved capturing Lila at this wonderful time in her life too- learning to read and write and take on the most important role of all as a new "big sister". She truly embraced her role with such ease, I just love these girls to pieces!

Happy Valentine's Day xoxo

Check out the family when is was just the three of them. 

time I was able to catch my breath (besides the trip we just took to NOLA, I'll tell you about that soon) was somewhere back in July. After our move we ironically had to evacuate for Hurricane Irene, since we relocated closer to the shore. Then Kindergarten started and then the busiest Fall wedding season EVER was upon us!! All I can say is I'm glad I am able to look back and smile because during it all it was not a pretty sight. Well, it all was good but somedays the glass was half empty and other days half full. One of the biggest adjustments for our family during all of this was that Cameron, our 5-year-old spent the summer preparing for a nap-free full-day in Kindergarten (saying he was grumpy is just being nice). Then when school started the entire family had to adjust to a 6.15am wake up call, something we were not used to, (we're more of a 7.30am kind of family, not anymore though!). The positive side of it of course were the tears of joy on the first day of school and the amazing sense of reward that I got from having sent my first baby off to school. The other half-full days were full of joy and happiness. I was able to document, alongside my partner Rich, some of the most beautiful weddings. We worked our butts off and you will soon see that on the Blog. I also started freelancing for a couple local magazines as an event photographer and have found it to be greatly rewarding and a nice change of pace from MY photography.

I know there are no regrets in life just lessons and boy did I get a schooling! My biggest "regret" was not writing as much as I would like on the Blog and that is going to change this year. In my recent downtime I was actually able to pick up on some reading and there was a particular lesson that I walked away with...

Sometimes you need to live a little before you can move to the next phase in your life.

Sometimes you need to experience, taste, smell and breathe instead of the normal everyday race that it seems like my life has become.

With a booming business, a partner, small children and a home to take care of sometimes I don't have a chance to stop and take a breath.

So I am not going to be so hard on myself because I know that while I wasn't necessarily blogging as much as I would have liked, I was living. I do know that life is good and it's only getting better and I grew so much this year that I am so excited to see what the new year brings! It was only appropriate that 2011 ended and the New Year started in such an amazing way. We, for the first time as a family, were blessed to be able fly to New Orleans to visit my little sister who has been away from the East coast for far too long. I will be soon be blogging about this and don't want to spill all the beans, because FIRST I badly need to post some of the weddings from from the fall season. 

To add to the amazingness that was the start of this year in NOLA, just when I thought reality was starting to sink back in I had my first session of the year in New York City. I am still pinching myself because it was truly a blessing and I just feel so lucky to be going into 2012 knowing that I have some very awesome clients whom I was lucky enough to have received the official tour of NYC from since I hadn't really visited the city since college.

I met Summer and Nkosi for the first time at a coffee shop in Delaware after they already booked me for their 2012 Delaware wedding. It always feels like a blind date the first time I meet my clients and I have a feeling we are thinking the same thing, "please let them/her be cool, nice, and down-to-earth people". And that they were. We ended up chatting for two hours and set the date for their engagement session for the ewek after I returned from New Orleans. Since they are both in separate medical residencies in different states, this trip was quite an orchestration. I drove up to meet Summer and we caught the train to NYC and met Nkosi. We completely lucked out with nearly 60 degree weather on a January day and had such an amazing time talking, getting to know each other and having an adventure finding cool, meaningful spots for them across the city. Not only did I gain two new very cool people as friends and clients but I for the first time in my life feel like I could travel to NYC on my own, now that they have given me the insiders tour. Here's to the start of a great New Year starting out with an engagement photography session in Manhattan.

I see the love that is around me and am reminded what is truly important and that keeps me going, and it pushes me to work that much harder to grow and be the best person I can be. Not only does my own family remind me but my clients remind me as well and that makes me one lucky girl. 

Happy Holidays, see you refreshed in the New Year!

Peace and Love.