• children & families,  communions,  occassions & parties

    aidan’s first communion

    Aidan’s first communion is the last one I shot this season, and the last to be shared. A big thanks to his mom for being extra patient waiting for his pictures. Without further ado, meet Aidan and his fantastic family on his special day.

    The little one just woke up from her nap and was not particularly interested in photos. But she has a special place with me as she’s the little baby on the left of the blog header on the wood floor. She’s grown up a bit since then but is still just as cute!

    Loved this mother & daughter. The balloon guy was fantastic- his balloon animals, swords, lightsabers and other things were the best I have ever seen. If you are looking for some good entertainment for your next kid party his name is Edgar Calderon and can be reached at mistertwister260@gmail.com or 917.497.3761Besties. How cute is this face?! Thanks for letting me be there for your day, Aidan!

  • babies,  birth session,  maternity

    jake is born

    Saturday night (actually Sunday reeeeeeeeeally early morning) I had the first of what I hope to be many birth shoots. It was an incredible experience and I am so lucky and honored that Jenn & Scott let me share this most special of days with them. I  am still on a high from the shoot and watching a new life come into this world. Watching what the human body is capable of was seriously awe inspiring. Many thanks to Jenn & Scott for allowing me into their lives at a very private time, to Winthrop Hospital, Dr. Dilenna, Michelle (Jenn’s nurse), Tricia (my on call “in” just in case), Val (Jenn’s mom and other birth coach), and all of Jenn & Scott’s families who kept me awake and laughing in the waiting room during the long haul wait.

    I arrived at the hospital at around 11pm, finally got into Jenn’s room at around 2:30am, and witnessed Jake Martin being born at 3:58am. He was 7 pounds, 7 ounces, 21.5″ long and miraculous!

    Please watch the video to see all the pictures (ok, well not ALL the pictures but everything that was suitable to post on the internet!) of Jake’s birth. Jenn & Scott, I can’t thank you enough!! Wishing you every happiness with your new little family. And I can’t wait for the newborn shoot!!

     

    I just wanted to add that:

    1. I hope you cried or at least got chills during the video. I’d love to hear what you think, please feel free to comment below.

    2. That my favorite picture from the whole night was Jenn having her celebratory lollipop while texting and Dr. Dilenna stitching her up. That is SO totally her.

    and 3. If there are any expectant mothers out there who are interested in a birth session, I’d looooove to do another one. I think I’m addicted!

  • personal

    first pool day of the year

    I know many of you are waiting for the birth session I shot Saturday night. After minimal sleep this weekend, I just couldn’t stay up to edit last night- my eyes were closing while I was sitting at the computer. My goal is to edit those pictures today and have the shoot up tomorrow. Be sure to come back and check them out.

    So two weeks ago when it was brutally hot, we ran (read: drove really slow with the a/c on super high) over to Hempstead after school for a swim to cool off. After picking up 3 extremely sweaty, red children from school there was really no alternative. I still believe school should end immediately following Memorial Day weekend.

    Yay, summer!

    Someone was pretty excited to be in the pool, in the deep end and playing basketball.
    Just floating….here in the pool. 

  • personal,  school

    field day

    Posting this on a rainy, yucky day but field day was beautiful and HOT. Like really, really hot. Like sweating in places that you didn’t think you could sweat, hot. But the kids seemed to have a great time (especially with the new ‘cooling system’ that they put in place) and I was just thankful they had the morning session.  I went over to watch and take pictures of Timmy but stayed the whole time and took tons of pictures of well….everything!

    Can you tell they were all a little hot?The water stations were key. And the water was nice and cold!

    The new cooling system for this year. GREAT idea!! I can’t tell you how much I wanted to get under there but with the camera it just wasn’t happening. The funniest thing was that they were trying to get all the kids under the spray in shifts and were making announcements about who’s turn it was, when all the kids just took off running and screaming under the water immediately.

    Teacher tug of war is always a hit with the kids. Timmy took this one!Timmy’s teacher, the fabulous Ms. Jackson!Timmy’s best girl- Ms. McClain. BBQ time. That’s a LOT of kids to feed!The bbq team- and I have to say that I had a cheeseburger and it was fantastic!Timmy had his first cheeseburger ever and loved it!

  • personal

    couch to 5K

    So, somewhere along the way my friend Heidi and I got the idea that we were going to do the couch to 5K program from beginning to end. This coming from me was a miracle in itself. I was never an athlete. I never could run the track in gym. Couldn’t even make it once around (1/4 mile) before I was so out of breath, heart racing and legs burning. But, I decided I had to do something to get into some kind of shape- a shape other than fat blob.

    The app starts you off nice and slow with walking more than running (you run in 60 second intervals, then 90 seconds, then 3 minutes, then mixing between 3 and 5 min runs, then 8 min, then 10 min, etc) and ends up with 30 min of running. In a row. In the beginning I couldn’t run that 60 seconds without feeling like I was going to drop dead. By the end of the 9 week program (which was probably more like 12 weeks as I didn’t always do it 3x each week) I could run 30 min straight. Very, very slowly and with difficulty, but I still did it. And by the end of the run I look like a giant red stewed tomato. I will never be that girl- the one who’s all pretty and glowy and put together when running. I’m a frizzy haired, dripping sweat, panting, red like going to have a heart attack at any second faced mess. But at least I did it.

    So even after all that, I still don’t like running very much. So for now I decided that I’m going to stick with the running, but not for 30 minutes. I’m going to go back to the intervals for a while and maybe work on my speed cause I’m soooo slow. Like, people walking fast could pass me, slow. I’m figuring that between the run/walking 3x a week and the pilates, something’s gotta work. And for those of you who have asked, there is NO actual 5k in my immediate future. I haven’t decided if I’m ever doing one or not, and I’m only up to about 2.25 miles in 35min so I still have a waaaaaays to go until I’m there.

    I know a lot of people followed my status updates on the couch to 5K on Facebook and a few have started it themselves, which is awesome! Glad that I was able to inspire someone else. And thank you to all of you who sent encouragement my way during this couch to 5k journey. Big thanks especially to Heidi who got me started and pushed me along the way as we did the program (sorta) together, to Karen, Dean, Val, and Eileen who always wrote something encouraging. And of course to John who kept telling me I was doing a good job.

    Oh, and I promised myself that if I finished the program I would buy some new running sneakers so yesterday I did- a new pair of Saucony’s that I got at Runners Stop in Lynbrook. Hoping that those will help with the shin splints I’ve developed in my left leg. It’s always something…