Little Dancer!

Lauren had her first dance lesson this week. She was so very excited as I put her hair in a perfect ballet bun. She had visions of beautiful ballerinas as we headed to the dance studio. There my little diva pranced in a tutu on her tip toes. Then she put on her tap shoes and "shuffle stepped" her little heart out. I know I am biased as her mother but the kid did great for her first time. She kept up quite well and made me so proud. She has wanted to dance for months now and I am so happy it is everything she wanted it to be. I love my little dancer! MWAH!

Waiting... takes a really long time!

Its been super warm these last few days...90 degrees! So we picked-up a kiddie pool for the girls. They were dancing around the yard in anticipation as the pool was pumped up. "Is it ready" they would yell ..."Just wait" ...I would reply. Then the hose began to fill the little pool with water. "Is it ready now" they asked...."just wait another minute for the water to fill up" I answered. They watched and waited. And waited... and waited. For at any moment it would be full enough to start sliding in! I hear a loud sigh! Then Maddie said "Mommy this waiting is taking a really long time". Ain't it the truth sweetie! BUT ....good things come to those who wait!

More to get your Getty on!

Here are a few more from the Getty....I know, I know but i can't resist sharing!! The first is the Getty building from the view below in flower sculptured trees. They are really cool iron coils formed into trees and then flowers are planted inside. The patio over-looks Los Angeles and has stunning views. The second is another looking through the garden back at the museum buildings.

Birthday at The Getty!

Its my birthday this weekend and to celebrate I wanted to go to the Getty Museum! I love it there..... its so beautiful and relaxing. I bought a new super-wide lens and had it on my camera to play with. These are a few of my favorites: The second images is.. "the Getty Gardens" aren't they just incredible!! I love the scale of the design as well. The buildings flow down into the gardens so effortlessly. The first is "A Window to the Sky" amidst the museum towers coming together! The clouds had broken and the sky was super blue!! I'll post more soon!

Spring Break!!!

Took this shot at the beach today...what a stunning view. All the yellow daisies were in bloom and covering the hillsides. The kids had a blast and loved playing with cousin Amee. They spent most of their time searching the tide pools for sea-stars and shells. The waves where enormous and Amee (and myself) watched the surfers rip.

Bunny Eggs!!

The Easter bunny came today! Although the kids had an amazing day hunting for "bunny eggs" (as they are called in our house) things were not as I wanted them. As many of you know my mom was hit by a car on Monday and is still in the hospital. We celebrated our traditional Easter brunch but it was lonely without her. My mom is very outgoing and full of life. A room is always filled with her voice and laughter. Its was so quiet without her, so unsettling!!! After the kids hunted for eggs we visited her at the hospital. I brought her this pic of her three grand-daughters.

The Tar Pits!!

We spent this Sunday at the La Brea Tar Pits. Maddie is a big fan of "The Ice Age" movies and this was a chance to see it up close. If you have been before as a kid I can tell you that absolutely nothing has changed since the 80's...lol! However for the little ones, who have never been, it's a fascinating journey. Both my girls had wanted to see the enormous Mammoth and they weren't disappointed. Here is a pic of Maddie posing beneath him. The other skeleton is of a Saber-toothed Cat..very intimidating!

Extremely Sweet!!

Here is my little Miss Madison! Always silly and full of surprises. Things to know about her: Organizes a game of hide and seek at the drop of a hat, loves dalmatians and favorite pastime is eating ice cream!

THE CUPCAKE-INATOR!!!

Here is another cute one from the other day. Lauren is "my little cupcake".......so sweet and girlie! This shot is Lauren is showing off her muscles....whoa baby!

Together we go!

Here is another from my mini shoot the other day! The sun was beginning to set over the ridge. My girls are walking off together hand in hand! Cute huh?

Everyone loves flowers!

Spring has arrived and the flowers are blooming everywhere. The other day my friend Alex and I went to a local park to play with our cameras. The hillside was overflowing with yellow flowers and I couldn't resist taking my girls back later for a mini-shoot. Miss Maddie was "not in the mood" to have her portraits taken. I was bummed since I wanted pictures of them together. Well I gave in to Maddie's refusal since my Lauren was up for the shoot. As you can see they turned out lovely and I can't wait to frame them. The funny thing is that half way through Maddie got jealous of Lauren and wanted to be in the pictures too. Its great when that reverse psychology works. I'll share more of them later!

Little Cupid!

Here is one from my latest shoot. This little angel was born on Valentines day! It's very fitting that she is wearing wings, she was hitting everyones heart strings with her "Cupid" arrows. Gotta love that delicious deep red these roses have going!

The beauty of nature!

My husband and I went for a hike this last weekend. The weather was amazing and everything was so lush and green. ME.....Not wanting to miss an opportunity and LOVING to take pictures..... I had to bring my camera along! I wanted to share one of my favorites from the day. I like the haunting beauty of it!!

Make a wish!

Here she is, the birthday girl, blowing out her candles! We had a small party just family except two friends. Lauren chose a cosmic bowling birthday party....hence the blue glow! We had pizza, cake, bowling, and dancing...very fun! Everyone had a great time!

101 Dalmatians!!!!!

Disney re-released the original 101 Dalmatians Movie this month. They had a special showing at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. Seeing as I live in a house with "Dalmatian lovers" this movie was a huge hit. It was Lauren's 4th birthday so after the movie we celebrated at the Disney Soda Fountain. Everyone sang her "happy birthday" and they gave her a special birthday button to wear. My Lauren, who loves attention, was very happy!!!

The Birthday Girl!!!

My little Lauren turns 4 years old tomorrow! Here she is with her cupcakes for school! As you see Maddie loves her little sister and will be happy to assist in any "cuppycake" eating!

OK just one more favorite!!!

I LOVED doing this session! A great family with a stunning little girl! I cannot wait to meet the new addition!

Beautiful Bellies!!!!

Heres are some more beautiful bellies to share!

Bellies everywhere!!!!!!

Yes, the preggo women are coming out of the wood work and I am very happy to be doing their portraits. I love the fun and spontaneous type of portraits that can come from a relax couple. I love to see how people interact with one another! The chemistry that is unique unto them. On this story board you see him trying to make her laugh and she is trying to keep a serious expression. Then she can't hold in her laughter any longer! Of course we have an adorable belly shot with both mommy's and daddy's hand on the baby belly. We will be seeing the little cherub baby next month. I cannot wait to meet her!

Silent Night!

Here is a shot of our Christmas Tree with all the gifts from Santa. We had a fantastic Christmas!! The kids were in absolute"gift-getting" heaven and their excitement never stopped. I received some wonderful gifts and so did Michael. All in all was another wonderful Christmas!

Anticipation is making me wait!!!

Anticipation is the best and worst part of Christmas. The kids are dying for Santa to come and they are getting antsy. Michael and I are on the other end and we can't wait to watch them open their gifts. Today due to freezing wind we were cooped up in the house. We broke down and gave the kids one of the DVDs we had bought them. Its was "Underdog" and Maddie was so excited she kissed the case...lol. Here is pic of the kids being silly by the tree today!

The Gingerbread House!

We have a annual tradition of making a gingerbread house. We don't do it from scratch but instead buy the kits from Costco. I love how each year the kids become more and more creative. This was the first year that Lauren was really able to put her own style into the house. She was all into decorating the gingerbread man and woman. She really did such a great job. Maddie is semi-pro at this and did great with her roof design. It was lotsa fun and I'm sorry to say pieces are already disappearing from the house...I wonder what little people could be nibbling on our house.....tee hee!!!

9 more Sleeps till Santa

Yeah we are counting down till the big happy guy comes. This is Maddies facial response when I told her how many days were left. She looks giddy in the photo and she was...lol!! Gotta love this age when they are totally into it Santa and you get to go along for the ride like your a kid again. Notice her new million dollar smile? Well it didn't cost a million but around 6 grand in dental work. They pulled out four teeth and did a bunch of work on the rest of her teeth. This is our reward for having a child who was very sick at birth. Illness and tons of medication effected her teeth. Yeah I know...with Maddie everything is always 10 times harder but YIKES!!

My Turkey Man!!!

For all who have been to our place for Thanksgiving you KNOW my Husband cooks up on heck of a turkey! It was so delicious and juicy...so good in fact that there were ZERO left overs. Not even some scrap for a sandwich. I wanted to share some pics from our turkey day!

A peek from my last shoot!

Love this little girls eyes. She reminds me of Brooke Shields when she was little...what a cutie!!!

Turkey Day is coming!!!!

Yes Turkey day is coming and we are gearing up for all the guests coming to our home. So far it will be a party of 13. It is about half the number from last year due to babies being born and Michael's family all living so far away. My Michael has his turkey fryer ready and I am creating my Gooey good Pumpkin Cake!! YUMMMY!!!!! Here is a shot of my baby girl Lauren looking very "fall"! She is quit the bowl of sunshine right now and keeps me laughing constantly!! For those of you who have had not tasted the delicious gooey pumpkin cake here is the link to the recipe. However my secret is to cut the sugar in half. It makes it not so rich and lets you taste the pumpkin more. click here........Gooey Pumpkin Cake!

Gotta Love this face!!!

This is Ms. Emma and she is quite the little thing. She is extremely shy and doesn't make much eye contact with the camera. At the same time "very firm" about what she wanted to do and didn't want to do. Also Ms. Emma was unwilling to give into the pleas and demands of her parents to "smile"........lol! I admire that she is her own person and has a strong personality. I love how this shot turned out. She chose the spot and I guided her to relax where she was. She is looking at me (finally) being all herself and doing the pictures on her own terms. Gotta love a strong lil woman!

My New favorite!!

Did a shoot recently with one my foxycropper friends Colleen and her beautiful daughter. This ones is my favorite so I had to share!!! Isn't she just stunning!!!

Its Fall y'all

OK OK I know it only feels like fall one day out of the week. But I try to enjoy it anyway. If you're like me you've got your summer stuff and winter stuff in the front of your closet. Anyway on one those "fall-ish" days I took the kids to the park to enjoy the leaves and cool weather. Maddie was willing to let me get a few shots of her playing. lauren...not so willing!! lol

Bed of Roses

Just gotta share this amazingly sweet baby sleeping on a bed of roses. Did her photos the other week and she was just perfect. At 4 days old she is already set to be a supermodel.

A little rain must fall!!

Yes we had the first rain of fall 2007 and I must say it was nice. It went from 80 degrees and clear blue skies to ...a cool 70 with thunder storms and heavy pour down. The kids were in heaven. How long have the waited to play in the rain again......um somewhere around over six months. Yeah I think it was March the last time it rained here ..lol So I let them loose in rain coats with a umbrella to play. It may be hard to see in the picture but it is coming down in buckets and the girls are getting ready to run out into it.

Flight of the Conchords- Business Time

Little Angel!!!!

This is picture from a recent shoot. This adorable little girl, Riley, has such beautiful eyes!!!!

This shot is part of the tutu collection and will be shown on my new website!!

Dog days of Summer!

Well I just wanted to share a sweet picture of our puppy. This is "Mr Itchy" our younger basset hound ( you can sort of see Mr Valentine behind him) taking a nap on the porch...very basset-like behavior. I love his eyes ...he is sucha sad puppy huh? I just love him!

Check out my Slide Show!

Butterflies Alive!!!

OMG what a amazing sight! Imagine your self in a garden filled with 800 butterflies!!! Yes that's what we found on our trip to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History this last weekend. Their incredible exhibit called Butterflies Alive lets you get up close to this enchanting little creature. 70 different species... all brightly colored... fluttering around you....so much fun! If you held very still you were sure to find a beautiful Monarch butterfly sitting on your shoulder. The garden was so full of butterflies it looked like the flowers were dancing. We were all having a great time and I wish we could have stayed longer. Check it out for yourself and click the bolded names that are links above!

Summer Lovin

Yeah summer is crazy and fun! My kids are lovin the kiddie pool and slide we got them. I love seeing them play and laugh for hours. They will take a quick Popsicle break but other than that its pure adrenaline. Then they spread their pruned skinned little selves across a towel to dry. Its at that moment when they are quiet from the shear exhaustion of playing that I love most. The look so content laying in the grass and warming themselves in the sunshine. Inside we go and for an afternoon movie and snack. Just a another sweet memory in their summer vacation.

I think I'll keep them!

Summer is always hard for me. Trying to keep the girls entertained and free from boredom. Sometimes I want to "sell them to the Gypsies" ( as my grandmama would say) from the constant bickering and complaining that goes on. But then those days happen that change your mind those days when they are sweet and loving to each other. Those days like today and then you say...yeah I think I'll keep them a little longer!

Slide Show of my latest shoot!

Chic a La Tutu style!!!

Heres another beauty from my tutu collection shoots!

I love how this turned out!! Delany's facial expression and dimple are just too cute! I will be putting them on my website soon!

I just had to share my favorite image from my photo shoot yesterday. Isn't this a beautiful picture! I just love how sweet that pregnant belly silhouette looks!! I have a bunch of new stuff on the website so feel free to check it out!!! I will be posting my Tutu Collection stuff here soon. But the promotion is already on the website click here to take a peek. http://www.thinkpinkincphotography.com/

Shes gotta Ticket to Ride!!!

Yes that's my Maddie with her Fourth place ribbon riding her horse Carosel!!!

What an amazing day at the CALNET horseback riding competition. We have been training for only a few weeks but Miss Maddie rode into the ring like it was no big deal. She turned to wave to Mom and Dad and the took the competition by storm. The judges later told us that if they were judging by cuteness alone Maddie took first place...lol You never saw a more proud lil girl that day. She stopped everyone she new and didn't know to show them her ribbon. All and all an AMAZING Day!!!!