Every once in a while I stop and think, WOW.  I’m married.  With kids.  And my friends are, too.  And this weekend really cemented it for me.  Wayyyy long ago, I went to Syracuse University. I am scared to think that it was 10 years ago that I *graduated* college. Eeek. But when I was there, I was in the marching band (no football jokes, please, that was the Donovan McNabb era when we were actually GOOD) as a member of the colorguard. I was one of the flag spinners. To this day I really don’t know how I got in – I had never even held a flag. But my friends were in and they got me in.  And I got free front row tickets to football games.  That’s all that counted.  While I was in the guard I met wonderful people and became very close with several of them. One friend, Lynette was one of my best friends – Lynette, our friend Lara, and I were thick as thieves for a while there 🙂  I even have a picture of the three of us that I would love to replicate with our kids.  Because now, ten years later, we are all married.  Lynette, who I used to get ready for parties with, who I suffered through early Saturday morning run throughs with, who I discussed big life and death issues relating to (what else) boys with, she came to visit me from CT.  With HER husband.  And HER child.  We are all grown up now…

And her daughter, S. is just beautiful.  Absolutely completely beautiful.  Almost 10 months old, big blue eyes, gorgeous hair that Layne was jealous of (seriously, she kept trying to pull it and touch the barrette, someday she’ll have enough hair for a barrette as well) and SO so happy.  She kept doing this thing during the shoot where she would scrunch her face up and flap her arms up and down when she was happy.  And she did it a LOT.  Too bad the camera doesn’t capture video for me as well because it was just too cute.

It was so SO great to see Lynette for the first time in, we think, somewhere around 10 years.  While it’s a little sad to realize that we are truly grown up and will never go back to the days of Woodchuck cider, pulling all nighters and going out on a Thursday (Thursday – can you imagine?!?!!), it is even better to see the people we have become.  The adults.  The wives.  The mothers.   And to see the beautiful families that we have created with our husbands and children.  It makes it all come full circle in a way.  And it’s wonderful.

After a referral from a mutual photographer friend, I met up with K. and her adorable twelve week old son, J. last week for some family photos.  J. is quite possibly one of the cutest, happiest twelve week olds I have ever seen.   And my favorite part as the momma of a chunkamunk – he is a nice solid baby just like I loooove.  Beautiful big lips and full cheeks, and he was a dream to work with.  He let me do whatever I wanted, was content inside and outside, dressed and undressed, he was just SO cute.  We did a bunch of shots of just him and some of him and mom and after a little while dad and his big sisters joined us for some family shots.   We got a great range and he was the perfect trooper throughout!

Now this is a tough time of year for sneak peaks — I have to pick and choose carefully what I am showing since I know they are planning on some shots for holiday cards.  So you are not going to see any of the fabulous family shots or the shots I got of J. smiling because I don’t want to ruin their surprise for friends and family.  But I did throw in a few extras for this sneak peek to make up for it.  😉

L.O.V.E.D. loved his nursery.  It was a complete baseball theme done by the family as a present for K. and L.  You’ll have to trust me, but it looks like something out of a Pottery Barn Kids catalog.  Absolutely gorgeous.  I am having visions of J. standing in his crib with his name plaque behind him, or sitting where he is laying on this shelf or under the gorgeous baseball quote that is on his wall.  Yes, I always plan future client shoots when I am at their session. Totally normal…right?

Gorgeous big sisters.  I told them I am going to come back and shoot them separately for my portfolio.  Not kidding.

Dad is totally enamored of his little boy.  And being a wrestling coach he is quite solid himself so it’s really cute to see him holding this (okay, not too teeny) baby.

And I end with gorgeous mom and one of my favorite momma – baby moments that I have ever caught.  You guys know I am all about getting the emotion of the moment.  I adore posed shots.  But the looks like in the last shot, I really live for that.  Anyone who has had a child remembers these moments, where it is just you and your child and you look into their eyes and it’s almost like the rest of the world just fades away for a moment.  And you ARE each other’s world.

Thanks for having me, K. and family, I had a blast!!  I’ll be in touch soon!

I started my Sunday morning of my Philadelphia trip with this little sweetie:

But that was a year ago – almost exactly a year to the day, actually!  See Mr. C now 🙂

He and his mom and dad made the long drive from NJ down to the Mill for a photo session with me and I am so happy they did!  Once again, it was just great to reconnect with old clients and see how their little squishy newborn has grown.  And he has gotten so adorable cute.  The coloring, the outfit, the cheeks, everything just perfectly adorable 🙂

I love love love his face here.  It is just SO cute.  And so one year old.  And those cheeks – how can you resist them???  Not to mention that this gives a hint at how perfectly mom picked the outfits.  They were a walking What to Wear post – just perfect!

One more Philly session tomorrow and then it’s back to Providence (actually, Easton, MA) I go!

After being in the city Saturday morning, I headed out to my favorite location in the world, the Newlin Grist Mill.  It so happens that not one of my clients from this past weekend had ever had a shoot there.  So while it was old hat to me, it was brand new to them.   🙂  First up was the P. family.  They are the P. family of one of my favorite family shots EVER.  I have done A.’s newborn and six month shots and now that he is getting ready to turn a year old, I got to do them again.  It is SO much fun to watch kids grow up!!  In fact, out of the six sessions I had this weekend, I had done newborn shots for four of them!!  A. just continues to get cuter and cuter even though he wasn’t full of his normal huge smiles this time around.  But you’ll see he is still absolutely adorable!!!