bikes {santa monica, ca}

 

i think it would be so much fun to rent bikes and ride along the beach pulling the kids along behind us!

beautiful {santa barbara, ca}

saw these beautiful plants on a walk in santa barbara last month…i love these colors! i think they’d be perfect for a baby shower…

evan is one {manhattan beach, ca children’s photographer}

 

I have photographed this beautiful family twice before (maternity and newborn), and I can’t believe that Evan is turning one in a couple short weeks! He took a few minutes to warm up to me (and the ocean was really loud and scary!) but we got some great shots. I have a love-hate relationship with shooting on the beach – I LOVE the photos I get, but working in sand can be tricky, to say the least. These three were such troopers with the wind, noise and sand, and I’m so glad they chose this location. It’s such a beautiful place (the Manhattan Beach Pier), and since we were there in the early evening it wasn’t too crowded. I brought some balloons (I am so glad I did this – they added fun color and were festive!), and mom and dad brought a cake (those photos will come in a later post, after his actual birthday!). Florence and Alex, thank you for sharing your little man’s first birthday shoot with me – I had a blast and I hope you did too!! 🙂 Happy Birthday, Evan!!

He wasn’t sure about the basket at first, but started having fun!

They’re planning to go to Disneyland for Evan’s birthday, so I brought some mouse ears! 🙂

I found this little chalkboard at Michael’s and had Florence and Alex think of some of their favorite parts of Evan’s personality and write them down. I think it would work for any kind of shoot, and I’m excited to use it more!

gavin samuel, eight days new {thousand oaks, ca newborn photographer}

 

This sweet baby belongs to two friends of ours, and I loved photographing him! He loved my basket, was so calm and happy to be photographed. Not sleepy, but I love alert newborn photos!!

happy birthday hailey! {agoura hills, ca child photographer}

 

Hailey is one of Benjamin’s friends and she just turned five! We celebrated with her at the park with a garden party, complete with flower pot painting/planting flowers, butterfly/bee/dragonfly/snail cakes, and a piñata!

The birthday girl:

 

 

I love this – fruit on skewers! There’s a head of lettuce in the bottom of the flower pot, covered with kale – looks perfectly garden-y!

 

She was very proud of her first lost tooth:

 

The boys wearing the ladybug antennae might have been my favorite part:

happy birthday joey! {beaumont, ca child photographer}

 

Jen and James have been friends of ours since college (not that long ago, right? right?!) 😉 Now we each have two boys, and it was a blast to celebrate their older son’s fourth birthday this past weekend! He requested a spider party (and she added a bit of spiderman too). There were gigantic spiders all around, a piñata, YUMMY cake pops (should have grabbed more of those on our way out…), and lots of fun!

baby edyn {agoura hills, ca newborn photographer}

 

 

i love that my friends are having babies, since it gives me super cute subjects to photograph! edyn is two weeks old, and sweet as can be! she was falling asleep as i arrived, but the changing woke her up – no matter, we got some sweet awake photos!

i love love love baby hands, toes and ears!!!