Today my little lady turns one, she is no longer a "baby" and is now a toddler. (these are some pics of her newborn session.) To celebrate her birthday I decided to do a smash the cake photo session.  I spent hours on Saturday making her cake, it probably would have taken anyone else about an hour, but I didn't use enough batter... the cake broke in the mold, and I had to "glue" it back together with icing.  The plan was to do the session the following day, on Sunday.  I had another shoot on Saturday, and when I got home I checked the weather.. rain, all day Sunday.  My cake was holding together by a thread.. we were 15 minutes to bed time, and Sunday was no longer an option.  We decided to just go with it, she was in a great mood so we dressed her up, took her outside and put the cake in front of her.  In my head, this was a brilliant idea, these were going to be the most perfect pictures in the history of photography. HA.  Little lady and I were not on the same page.  As I took the pictures, and she cried, and pouted, and tried everything in her power to get off the blanket to play in the grass, I thought to myself "there is no way I can put these in my portfolio!  I don't want potential clients to think I make babies cry!"   While I went in the house feeling completely defeated, I decided to download the pictures and see just how terrible they were.  And while no, they are not the "smily, happy, sunshine, and rainbows" pictures I had hoped for, I think they turned out perfect none the less.  Little lady has always been our "spirited" child, if something is pissing her off, EVERYONE will know, and in this case, the cake was really pissing her off.  It was a real lesson in parenting, we can plan plan plan all we want, it is really the little people that call the shots.  My little lady is sometimes difficult, she is stubborn, she has the loudest scream I have ever heard, but I would not have her any other way. :)

After our not-so-happy smash the cake session, I decided to try again.  I stuck little lady in my wedding dress, threw some jewelry boxes around her and just started shooting away.  I was really happy with the way these came out, it shows the sweeter side of our little screamer :)

This is her "no" face

A big happy birthday to the littlest love of my life <3 p="p">

Holly, Seb, and Kids. Part II

You may remember Holly, Seb, and the beautiful kids from this  post.  Well, its been 10 whole months, and the kids have gotten so big!!  I was super excited to have the opportunity to photograph this beautiful family again, and you can see why, they are freakin adorable!!  Ava is insanely beautiful, I see modeling in her future, and Max is just the most hansom little man!  I am going to miss these guys more than words can say when we move back to the states, so before I go into a tear-ful sob fest here, I am going to leave you to the pics :)

Glenn and Kellie tie the knot :)

This past weekend was a big one for my family, my dad got married!!  He and his lovely bride got married at their beautiful house in Monroeville, NJ.  It is way out in the middle of no where, but it is an absolutely beautiful place for a wedding (I should know, I got married there almost 4 years ago ;) )  I was incredibly honored to be able to photograph their wedding, Kellie is an amazing woman, and she and my dad really compliment each other perfectly!  The could not have asked for a more perfect day, after threatening to rain all week, on Friday the forecast changed to 75 and sunny, thank goodness!  The ceremony was a perfect mixture of laughter and tears, there is no shortage of love between the two of them. :)  

A big congratulations to my Dad and Kellie, we are so happy for you!!! :)

Kellie's son Christian gave her away, how cute is that!?!

They were having a tear-ful moment and my dad messed up on his vows, haha, then apologized to the audience haha. 

Love the sass

I didn't take this one (I am the tall chick in center) but this is all of "the kids"

Hey Girl

This is my submission for the I Heart Faces contest "Hey Girl".  I just love my little lady's crazy hair and silly faces :)

My Future SIL :)

This little cutie pies parents are very good friends of ours.  Stacey and I always joked that we were going to be pregnant together, and our kids would be best friends.  We decided that we were both going to have girls.  As luck would have it... we ended up being pregnant at the same time, just within weeks of each other!  When we found out that Stacey was having a boy, and not a girl (as we had planned).. we then decided that we were going to have an arranged marriage on our hands.  I SO enjoyed taking my future son-in-laws pics.. I mean look at him!!!  He has to have the most bite-able cheeks out there!!!