I will be pretty sad when Veronica gets bigger.  Or, actually, when her parents sell their place.  It has this great blue wall with a white coverlet on the bed and the perfect window…sigh.  I used it for their clean and simple newborn photos HERE and then again this past weekend when we visited.  It’s great to work with friends – you just tell them “Actually I want her undressed on your pretty white blanket”  And they say “Okay!”  (Fine, if we’re being honest I would say it to a client as well.  But it’s a lot more comfortable when it’s friends.)  We went back to visit John and Rachel and see “baby Veronica” as my daughter calls her.  My has she changed!!  So much bigger with the most adorable little rolls.  I think she is just about the cutest seven month old on the planet.   No, I’m not biased at all!!!!  ;)  But can you honestly look at these and tell me she isn’t?  Those cheeks, that dusting of red hair, those lips GAH!!  Perfection!  We even got to go outside for a few minutes and use the pram that was Rachel’s when *she* was a baby.  I have had plans for that since I saw it at her shower.  Ideally it would have been about 60 degrees warmer but I’ll take what I can.  She is perfect as are her mommy and daddy.  Much love to you guys!!  (And just remember, I need a blue wall in the new place, too.)

One baby is fun at a session.  Two is really really fun but really challenging.  When mom called me for this next session, I admit, I was a little bit nervous.  A family of four with nineteen month old twins and at the end of November outside!  So many things could have gone wrong with this shoot.  But it all came together beautifully.  And I mean ALL.  The weather was stunning.  November 20 and it was 61 degrees and sunny.  The family – absolutely gorgeous.  The kids – adorable and so so well behaved and just so stinking CUTE.  The hand-knit sweaters on the kids – perfection.  It was seriously so much fun.  And never in one session have I had as many family photos as I came away from this session with where everyone is looking!!   As an added bonus I also definitely got my cardio workout in.  ;)  We met up at Lincoln Woods for my first time shooting there – an absolutely fabulous location!!  The family took me all around and showed me the good spots.  And we did the usual Amy Ro session things until the sun set – sang lots of songs, quacked like a duck, jumped up and down, said the word “poop” a lot.  ;)  All the good stuff.  But clearly, it paid off.  :D

It goes without saying that as parents we love our kids.  Whether it starts the moment that stick shows a positive sign, or the first kick a mom feels, or the first moment they are placed in your arms, or when adoption papers are signed, we love our kids.  They truly are our hearts walking around outside our bodies.  But every once in a while you meet a family who reminds you just how lucky you are to be parents and shows just an extraordinary amount of love.  Meet the H family.  Their baby girl decided to come in an unconventional manner – an emergency c-section.  And after all was said and done that day, the doctors told them that she probably was not going to survive.  But the next morning, she opened her eyes for the first time and continued to heal and get better.  For 20 days she stayed in the NICU and then was able to come home with her mom and dad.  And in the nine months since then she has defied doctors, early intervention specialists, everyone.  And she has thrived.  And she has been loved.  So, so loved.

When I met up with this adorable family of three on Saturday morning at slightly chilly and windy Colt State park I knew they were going to be special and fun – mom’s excitement in her emails to me had almost jumped off of the page.  But spending an hour and a half with them, watching them snuggle, make complete fools of themselves for smiles, seeing the looks, the kisses, the touches, it was truly special.  By the end I felt like the lucky one.  :)

Thank you for a delightful Saturday morning, guys!!  I will be in touch soon!

Just about a year ago, J&J contacted me to setup a maternity and newborn session for them.  Little did I know their session would become possibly my favorite newborn session EVER.   The image below is hanging as a 20×30 canvas in my office and is probably one of my best known newborn images.  LOVE.

So earlier this fall, they contacted me to do a session with them again, this time a family session for their eight month old.  No more teeny newborn but still absolutely a gorgeous baby and family.  We met up on a Sunday evening and sweet baby girl did not disappoint.  Lots of smiles and SO many wonderful expressions.  It was so wonderful to see how she had grown…I hear mom has quite the plans for her first birthday and knowing her, I don’t doubt it.  :)  It was SO great to see you guys again; she is still as absolutely perfect as she was when we first met!!!

This image started a an outtake but I love it so much, especially the more I look at it.  :)  Totally going in their gallery.

There are some clients you just immediately hit it off with.  And when mom and baby greeted me at the door and the first thing he did was give me a huge, gummy, double-chin, drooly smile I knew I was in for it.  (Doesn’t hurt that mom is a Steelers fan.  We Steeler fans must stick together here in Patriots land.)  We had a great session and mister L was just about as perfect as perfect can be.  He gave me all sorts of facial expressions, tons of smiles, lots of drool, lots of chub – lots of everything a girl can hope for.  :)  I was saying yesterday that I am seriously going to be depressed when I am done with this session because every photo is making me smile!!!   I was so great to meet you D family!  He is absolutely perfect (as long as you raise him to be a Steelers fan).

I love this family.  That is all it comes down to.  One year to the day after their youngest was born, we met up for a family session on the beach.  You probably saw the one year cake smash session a few weeks ago on the blog. Now – the entire family.  On a gorgeous sunlit evening beach in Newport.  Perfection.

So as I said in my previous post, I don’t normally do birthday sessions or cake smashes.  It’s not really my thing.  I don’t have studio space so there is nowhere to set it up.  But cake smashes have become all the rage so when a lovely past client came back asking if we could do one in the park I certainly could not say no.  :)   So here we were at miss A.’s newborn session one year ago…

And here she is nowadays:

We had a great time setting up in the park for the shoot.  Mom had done SO much work ahead of time.  She made, by herself, not only a gorgeous giant cupcake cake but one that was vegan due to A.’s milk allergy.  Absolutely amazing!  She had also put together tissue paper pompoms and gotten balloons as well as stuff for a tea party with her other daughter.  So we had a tea party in the park followed by a cake smash.  A. was a little timid when it came to the smashing but she did love the taste of the frosting.  :) 

So we had a run of some rainy, cool, yucky weather.  Actually I think it has been like that since January.  Anyway.  We postponed this mini session two times before finally being able to shoot this past weekend.  Normally I am very strict with where I shoot my sessions.  These were originally to take place in a park.  But since it was Father’s Day weekend and since I could get a babysitter  for a date night afterwards, I allowed this session to be done at the beach and dragged my husband along with me to gorgeous Sachuest beach in Newport.  And I am so happy we did it!  Little L. couldn’t quite sit on his own yet (though we did wedge him in some sand ) so lots of family shots happened – which I don’t really mind at all.  LOVE when the moms and dads want to be in the shots!  Only two today because it was a mini.  But you can see how stinking cute he was!!

I met up with these lovely girls early Saturday morning for a session.  We had gorgeous weather and three beautiful little girls  :)  Though it was definitely a challenge getting them all together (not a surprise at all with one year olds and two year olds, that’s just how it is!) we still had a ton of fun.  Lots of songs, lots of silly animal noises – I think they paid off.  ;)

You might remember this shot from last year.  I loved it, it made the top 12 of my year in fact.

Well what a difference one year can make!!  I went back to Connecticut to visit Liz and Sean and catch up with baby J.  He’s a bit bigger now as you can see…

We started at the house specifically for the tree shot and a few additional ones and then went to gorgeous Wickham Park where Sean and Liz got married a few years ago.  Absolutely stunning scenery – coupled with the fact that they were coming back for pictures with their child – all made for an amazing time.  :)  Even though little J. had been too excited for the session to nap fully, he did a great job all the way through the end!!

Please note that the last shot in this series is due to the magic of photo editing.  Never ever set a small child on a ledge over water and walk away.  Mom was right there next to him and was edited out in post-processing.