Either way, the day before school started, I took my cute kids in their sassy new outfits out to a beautiful field nearby and got some Back to School shots.  “The Desk” (used in my kid’s Back to School pics last year, as well as my cousin Hiedi’s Kids) has once again made it’s appearance. I think we will be taking their Back to School photos with this desk until they are Seniors in High School!

Here’s my “little boy”, Asa, who is now going into the second grade:

And my “baby” girl, Arianna, is going into the third grade.  *sigh

Don’t let the next few photos fool you into thinking they are all sweet to each other…they did it for the camera because I was nagging them, and also because they were a little cold and were using each other to stay warm.

Kiddos, I love you…and STOP GETTING SO BIG! 

We met the Matter Family at the Firefighter Stairclimb 2010.  Their 10 year old son Colton was one of the Honored Patients at the event and the whole family came out to watch 1,500 Firefighters climb 69 flights of stairs to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Colton has Leukemia, and the amazing thing is, Colton had recently had a Bone Marrow Transplant only 2 months before.  He almost couldn’t make it to the event, and his doctors weren’t too thrilled that he was going, but they broke the rules anyway to be there.

Sam and I fell in love with this kid within seconds.  He radiates such a sweet spirit, and even though he was visibly sick, you could tell that he hadn’t lost his spark for life.  We grabbed a few shots of Colton and his family, and couldn’t resist offering to do a family photoshoot with them. They are just the kind of family that you want to know, to be a part of, to be friends with.

We met up a few weeks ago in Seattle for their photoshoot. I’m happy to say that Colton is doing REALLY well…you would never know that he is sick.  He’s as goofy and silly and sweet as any other 10 year old boy.  What an amazing kid!  His family is just as amazing…I’m TOTALLY in love with his brother, Case, who is just as goofy and silly as his brother.  Plus, I LOVE his freckles.  As for Colton and Case’s parents…They are amazing. They have stayed strong and happy through the whole ordeal, and did it with class and humor.  I am just soo honored to know this family.

Ok, enough sap and storytelling…on to the adorable Matter Family photos!

I told the boys to act like Superheroes…Colton is obviously Superman.  No one is really sure who Case is, though. HAHAHAH! 

Mom and Dad are HAWT, yes????

These boys LOVE each other!  Sam got the next 3 adorable shots of the two of them:

Seriously, I wanna adopt these boys…they are SO FUNNY!!!!

Case is cracking me up in this photo…he looks like a leapfrog!

Guys, thank you SO MUCH for letting us get to know you.  We love every individual person in your family, and I can only hope that one day I can not only have the strength you guys do, but the kindness and love that you emanate as well.  We love you TONS!!!!!

Today only, ANYONE who donates $35.00 or more will get a FREE 8×10 PRINT of one of the following photos:

You can choose any of these photos, OR if you’ve seen something else of mine that you’d just love to have printed up, I can do that photo instead.  The choice is yours!

Donation must be received by TONIGHT, August 28th by MIDNIGHT SHARP!

And don’t forget, the highest donor wins a FREE ONE HOUR PHOTOSHOOT with yours truly!

P.S. If you’ve already donated over $35.00 and would like to receive one of these prints, just shoot me an email and it’s yours!

Thanks to everyone who has come together to help our cause…you are all making a difference in the lives of people who are suffering from this horrible disease!!!!

In case you are looking for the link to our 5K Breast Cancer Fundraiser page, go ahead and go HERE to donate!  If you’d like to read about what we’re raising money for, go HERE.

Our race is on Sunday, so you only have today and tomorrow to donate! The highest donor receives a free one hour photoshoot with me, and all the money goes to those suffering from this horrible disease!  What could be better than that???

Check back tomorrow for a special “last minute dash” offer!

Thank you to those who have donated so far…our team is the top fundraiser of the race!

Keep those donations coming!

Thanks from our team,

Laura and Shay are not only as sweet as can be, but are quite the eye candy, too!  That, combined with perfect lighting at the beach made for an amazing photoshoot!

I love love her nose crinkle here…Kudos to Sam for this adorable shot!

…and yet another great shot by the hubby…

I’ve been quite addicted to sunflare lately…I can’t help it!

Sunflare and rings? Can it GET any better than that?  Sam TOTALLY rocked this shot…

RAWR!!!

Laura and Shay were such good sports about everything we asked them to do…even when we asked them to go trekking around in marshy, gross weeds…then made them SIT DOWN…they never complained!

We wanted to make sure that we got some beautiful individual shots of the both of them…with these two, it’s hard to get anything BUT a beautiful shot…

Guys, we just love the both of you and cannot WAIT until your wedding on Saturday!  WOOT!

You may remember sweet little Hailee from her Newborn Shoot back when she was only a week old. Here she is again at 9 months old, and even though I didn’t think it was possible, she’s just getting more and more beautiful!!!

Meet Tim, Julie and Baby Hailee:

How can her parents even resist this face?  If she were mine, I’d end up giving her anything she wanted…

She tried over and over and over to pull that darn hairbow off her head…she hates it!

I brought my 8 year old daughter, Arianna, with me to the photoshoot as an “assistant”…she got these next few shots, and even processed them herself in Photoshop.  Methinks she will steal my business from me someday.

Julie and Tim had fun posing for Arianna:

After the park, we went back to my house to do some photos with my little rocking horse and old trunk, given to me by my cousin Hiedi.

She sort of lost it at this point…she was sick of the hairbow on her head, and was very mad that Mom had told her to leave it on…

..but then she managed to calm down enough to get these next few shots. (You’ll notice that the hairbow is OUT of her hair…)

Thanks for letting me photograph your family again, Julie and Tim…I look forward to many more future sessions with you guys!

Aren’t they BEAUTIFUL?

Here’s Mike and Danielle’s disc…they had a TON of pictures, so they got 2 discs:

And here’s Tommy and Whitney’s disc:

Just a little something for you brides to look forward to…

Aren’t they hawt???

One of my fave shots from the day…doesn’t she have the cutest belly?

So yeah…those jeans Danielle is wearing? They are totally her PRE-PREGNANCY jeans.  How much do we all hate her now???

They are so sweet together!!!

Guys, thanks for being so much fun to photograph and for helping me get back in the swing of doing maternity shoots. And congratulations on the birth of your sweet baby girl!!!!  Love you guys!

The best part about jogging?  Hanging with my girlfriends!  What started out with my cousin and I has now morphed into a bunch of my girls, our kids, strollers and wagons all out there on the trail (taking up the whole trail, mind you). We usually have a group of 4-5 girls, at least one stroller, and 6-7 kids on bikes and scooters at any given time.  You should see the looks on the faces of some of the pro joggers or bikers that pass us by.  It’s pretty funny to see them weave their way past our group…

Our little jogging group has decided to RUN a 5K race.  Yes, we will be finishing our training in about 2 weeks, and on August 29 we will be jogging in the Alki Beach 5K Walk and Run benefiting Breast Cancer Research through the Northwest Hope and Healing Organization.  I never thought I would be able to say the words “Oh yeah, I’ve TOTALLY run in a 5K race.  No biggie!”  What a surreal feeling!!! Plus, to be able to raise money for Breast Cancer is a pretty good reason to run if any!

Our team name was created by one of our team members, Sarah.  Check out our logo:

Cute, huh?

So here’s the lowdown: If you’d like to join our team, we will have two teams: a walking team, and a running team. Feel free to join either one by going to our PAGE and clicking “Register for this event” at the top.

If you can’t run or walk with us, we would LOVE any donation you can give.  Our team is trying to raise $1,000 dollars, and we need your help!  You can go to our PAGE and donate there. 

You can also check out our Facebook Page.

Want some incentive to donate?  How about this:

THE HIGHEST DONOR WILL RECIEVE A FREE ONE HOUR PHOTOSHOOT WITH ME!!!!

Yup! A free shoot, AND your money will go toward a fantastic cause.  How rad is that? You will be able to use your photoshoot for any type of shoot that you want- Family, Boudoir, Newborn, Senior or Head Shots…it’s your choice!

If you can’t join our team OR donate, then you can at least come cheer us on at the race…it should be fun!

Hope to see you guys there!!!

Anyway, on to the cutie boys…

One of my fave shots from the day, mostly because I totally did NOT tell the boys to look back at me.  Little models, right???

Jackie’s face in this shot cracks me up!

Yeah, I totally didn’t tell them to play pat-a-cake…they just started doing it.  SO SWEET!!!

Check out our gorgeous moon!

Jackie, your boys are just the sweetest things ever…thank you for letting me do your photos.  You guys are such a blast!