High in the sky, well, ...

It was so warm yesterday, it felt like a summer day! Our neighbors Rosie and Daphne invited Jude and me for a walk around the Tualatin Park.

Jude went on his very first swing ride there and I think he really enjoyed it! I got lots of smiles and excited looks out of him.

I love that in these photographs I can see "life" in his eyes. What a joy he is! And I can't believe my little man is turning ONE next week!!

Hollie + Tommy

I had the pleasure of meeting Hollie and Tommy today! They are both students at Boise State and I get to photograph their BIG DAY this May when they say their "I do's".

I really enjoyed getting to know them both today. They are full of personality and full of love for one another.

Here are a couple pictures we snapped at a park nearby the Starbucks where we met up at today.
I'm sure I'll have more to post tomorrow. :)

Morning Dew and Sweet Kisses

Josh has been doing a lot of work around the yard this weekend and the place is shaping up nicely! He is discovering his green thumb and has developed a new excitement for landscaping. Today he put a couple new plants outside my kitchen window for me to look at and placed two large rocks nearby that bring it all together. Thanks baby!

He was weeding the backyard this morning and so I joined him back there and photographed the colorful tulips coming up. They've just begun to show their colors, but haven't opened up yet.

I think flowers are so beautiful with a little bit of morning dew and Oregon rain sprinkles on their pedals. These ones stood out to me.































I also had to throw in two more pictures from my time with Dustin and Sheri downtown the other day.
A couple of Kissy photos! :)

Sunny Afternoon Downtown

What a good lookin' pair!

Josh, Jude and I got to spend the afternoon with some close friends of ours, Dustin and Sheri. These are two people who love life! They are a bucket of fun and always have me laughing! (see last photo!) We walked around downtown, enjoyed the sunshine and strolled through the Saturday market.

I had a blast taking these pictures. And Dustin took the one of me laughing. :)

Thanks you two, for a wonderful afternoon!!















































































I think their joy is contagious!

Friends for almost a year

Couldn't resist putting this up tonight before bed. Today Kaylie came by to play with Jude for just a little over an hour. They are practically the same age and will both be celebrating their first birthdays next month.

They each sat in the dining room, facing one another, eating their snacks for the first 30 minutes. Then they unloaded a basket of toys together for the next 30. It was pretty priceless to see them there working on their "little project" as friends. Had to snap a quick one.







Kaylie eats a Cheerio while keeping an eye on Jude. :)

Babies on a blanket

Jude and I always look forward to our Thursday morning's "Mom's Group" at my friend Annie's house. There are about eight of us mom's that get together weekly to hang out together, let babies play together (well, between all of the napping and eating and changing) and there's usually some sort of food involved for us moms, thanks to Annie's gifted hospitality.

Yesterday we said goodbye to one of our good friends, Katie, and her beautiful daughter, Abigail. Katie's husband serves in our military (thank you for helping to protect our country!) and she and Abigail were going cross country to be reunited with him. (Yay!) It was bittersweet. (photo of Abigail crawling in Annie's kitchen)

Annie thought it would be a neat idea to photograph the kids together before they left, so we "plopped a bunch of babies" on a blanket in the front yard and did a quick 5-10 minute photo shoot. :) (Don't you just want to kiss their little cheeks? They're all so adorable!)
Photographing several babies at one time is no easy task! I think the whole neighborhood heard us moms hollering at the kids to "look over here!". In these photos you mostly just see the babies all looking in one direction (with some occasional smiles) so the pics kind
of lack spunk. But Julia is one of the happiest babies I've ever met and she was just smiling away! :) (Isn't she sweet?!)

Also, I learned a lot from that little mini-shoot about my lighting. I was dealing with harsh sunlight (almost noon) and I made a terrible mistake of back lighting the kids in our first pictures. I figured I'd deal with it later because once you get 8 or so babies on a blanket you don't want to say to all the moms, "hmmm, do you mind if we move everyone over here?" We did eventually turn all the babies around, but I should have had everyone face west and I should have pointed my camera east. Live and learn. That's what I'm here to do. :)
























Here are Cade and Jack. They are good buddies. Both about 2 1/2 yrs. old. And they are both great big brothers to their siblings.

Below is Johanna. She has so much personality! Here she is showing off her clapping skills and hamming it up with her mom Katie. So many cute babies!!

The Girl Next Door

Yesterday Jude and I took a walk with our neighbor's Rosie and Daphne. We had a wonderful time talking and enjoying the sunshine.
Spring has arrived and it is beautiful around our neighborhood! Well, everywhere really. And I can't go anywhere without my camera these days, nor should I! Imagine all I could miss! :)
Here are some photos I snapped of Daphne. She is 15 months old, knows about 30 signs (sign language), likes cheese, is a sweetheart, and is very independent. She's "the girl next door" and a doll she is!
(Click on any of these to see them larger)






















































God's creation amazes me! This little flower (below) was just one of thousands of little blooms on a single tree! So much detail and beauty in this tiny perfect flower. What thought and creativity in one little bloom.

Shooting in RAW

I've finally transitioned over to shooting in RAW and I'm loving it!! I'm amazed at the detail I was missing before. Since getting home from our California trip, I've barely been able to separate myself from my camera. I've been wanting to capture everything (in RAW) and test out my new skills in Photoshop CS2. It's almost overwhelming how much I still have to learn, but that's okay. Each day is a step closer.

Josh is the most supportive husband when it comes to my photography! There have been many days when things here at home go undone because I'm on a photo cloud and can't get down. He encourages me and supports me, inspires me, and puts up with me always saying, "can I just get a few family pictures to practice on?" And then during the photo shoot, "Oh, just one more. Oops, that one wasn't good. Just one more..." :)

These two were snapped last night after getting home from errands. I'm so blessed! Thank you Lord for my Josh and our Jude.

Flowers!!

While Jude was napping and Josh was working in the yard today, I was snapping away! The tree in our front yard is blooming and the little flowers have been calling out to me for days, "Shoot me! Shoot me!" So here are some snaps of those sweet little blooms.
(Feel free to click on a photo to enlarge it)