Here’s a shout out to Melynda who may or may not be reading this (considering she’s due any second!  How exciting!)… but if you are, I hope that your upcoming birth goes fabulously!  I’ll be thinking about you!

they are such a happy couple!

please note that all the cool shots are thanks to Justin

another great shot by Justin!

I love the next 4 photos of Melynda… she’s a beautiful preggo!

I have no words for most of these photos.  She’s just too adorable!

Daddy’s going to have to try real hard to resist these little eyes… ha!
Only 11 days after giving birth and Christine is looking mighty fab.  Yes you are, my friend!

Every baby needs this shot for their album!

LOVE!
ohhhhh little hands & feet… you just make me melt!

We laughed so hard at her little toe… apparently just like dads’!

I have to finish with my favorite shot… Momma was trying to calm Leah down and it was just too precious!

We love you Baby Leah

I think Ellie is going to be the best big sister ever!  She’s been waiting for this day as long as mom and dad!

beautiful!

sweet little feet…

Aralyn Rayne

She loves swinging her arms around… maybe she’ll be a dancer like her aunt Bronwyn!

and a little sneeze…

Welcome to the world Aralyn Rayne!!

If you’re anything like me, you haven’t been informed simply because you haven’t needed it or known anyone whose needed it.  Well, that changed last Saturday when I met this young girl named Alysha.  She is a 6 year old girl who was diagnosed with Leukemia at age 4.  Long story short, Alysha has gone through chemo, radiation, the whole bit. Last year she had a stem cell transplant from a cord blood donor at Sick Kids. It didn’t ‘take’ like the doctors wanted, but it put her in remission and she has stayed in remission since then!  And as of now, she is actually doing fantastic. (Thanks God!)

Anyway, I have a friend Lauren who messaged me about taking photos for a blood clinic she was running in honour of Alysha.  It was going to be their 3rd clinic but had no photos to show of the previous events.  I said “yes” with the thought that “it’ll be great to help them out”.  Well, needless to say, my eyes were opened to the need of these donations… and with the upcoming birth of Eli, I realized I needed to inform myself a lot more about donating the cord blood.  Even though, it is way to expensive for most of us to store our own baby’s cord blood stem cells, I also know that if our little guy needed some of that in the future I’d be real glad that I donated…

To sum it up, I learned that donating blood is really not a “horrible” procedure.  I had thought that for so long.  But after asking many questions and seeing so many people do it that day, my previous thoughts/fear went away.

Thanks to everyone who came out to give blood… I’m sure it matters to people like Alysha more than we could possible know!

Here’s Alysha showing us her dance moves!

Alysha & her sister Amy helped the nurses… it was so cute to see how seriously they were taking their “job”

Yummy snacks provided for everyone donating. I may have had some baking… maybe.

It was a big deal for me to see everyone giving away their blood… but for Alysha it’s such a common thing.

Here’s Amy holding all of Alysha’s beads.  Every bead represents a “procedure” that Alysha has gone through.

So inspired by this man who’s given blood 25 times!

I think I ate enough chocolate eggs that morning!

Here is my friend Lauren just about ready to donate

me and the sweetie

This photo makes me laugh!  Alysha: “No Justin you can’t have anymore chocolate”.

Lauren & Sarah… the amazing girls who helped put this clinic together!

This is Sharon Delisle.  She works at the Guelph Blood Donor Clinic and can definitely help answer any of your questions (519) 837-4564.   She was so awesome in answering all of mine!

Alysha, Mark, Amy & Karen… what a lovely family

Thanks to Lauren, Sarah, Alysha & family, and the Guelph Blood Donor Clinic for letting me be part of this special day!

If you’d like to know more about blood donation, bone marrow donors and cord blood donors than you can check out their organization: Operation Alysha.

So as a birthday gift to herself, Candace came over yesterday morning with a few of her favorite outfits (I’ve never met someone so prepared… it was awesome)! And we took a few photos to celebrate her life

On his Starbucks run, Justin bought a little “gift” for Candace  Isn’t he sweet?!

Candace, I hope you had a fantastic birthday!

Thanks Alicia & Dylan for trusting me with some important family memories!

They were so brave for bracing the COLD!

Ellie didn’t mind the weather so much, she was having a blast!

Alicia and her gorgeous preggo self!

LOVE this series of shots!

Enough of Mom… now it’s Ellie’s turn  She’s a princess with her “real princess crown”

Look at these three… can’t wait to meet the fourth!

Ellie made us laugh with her lovely dance moves!

My favourite of the day.  Hands down.
After some hot chocolate, we headed to the studio for a few more shots.  Thanks to Ellie for helping me test my lights

beautiful moment

Loveliness.

Many blessings in the final stretch of this pregnancy!!  Can’t wait to meet Aralyn xox

We had a super fun time with our friends Chris & Christine… since we’re both expecting babies in the next 5 months (and our lives to change drastically), we figured that we would have one last “baby-less” trip  But I guess I’ll stop rubbing that in!

On another note, if you’re in the Kitchener-Waterloo area and you’re an engaged couple looking for a wedding planner, you’ve probably heard of Christine Martin from Pure Potential Weddings.  If you haven’t heard of her you may want to head to her website.  She’s usually the one behind the scenes making everything run smoothly for you… But this time around, it was her time to be in front of the camera.

One late afternoon, just before the sun went down, we headed down to the windy beach and took some beautiful maternity shots of her and hubby.  I hope you enjoy them because these two look super fab!!!

There are so many from this series.  I couldn’t narrow it down!!

On our way to the beach, I found this row of small houses.  And it so happened to be an awesome location!

LOVE it!

so fun!

As we headed towards the beach, the wind got FIERCE… so we used it to create some fun shots!

I over exposed this shot and they both really loved it!

Chris really enjoyed fishing off of this pier!

After our ‘a la carte’ dinner, we took a few more night shots to end the session!

If you’re looking to have some casual maternity shots done similar to these, send me an email!

Catherine & I go way back… to when she first booked me to do a Christmas family session at her parents house (2 years in a row).  Then I recently photographed her best friends wedding (Melissa & Adam).  She was eager to get her own session in and booked it with us early this summer for September.  She was hoping to potentially hit the water in her wedding dress.  BUT, when the rain started and then the cold…  We scratched that.  Finally, almost a month later, everything fell into place – weather, time, location.  But NO dress this time (just a little too cold).  Maybe next summer?

These two are so fun and great for each other.  I think you’ll agree when you see these photos.  Enjoy!  (ps. Justin’s working on their short film, but I really couldn’t wait to post the photos)!

This not Catherine nor Bart, but their dog Chewy

I’m so loving the next few photos

MY favourite of the bunch… Justin’s shot!!

The neighbour across the street thought we were breaking in to this building!  Ha!

Thanks you two for your patience with the weather… I think it was well worth the wait.  You guys look HOT

Here are a few photos from her surprise family shoot!

Love that smile

Balloons are really popular this season!

They even brought badminton rackets because they LOVE to play.  And YES she even played in her dress!

If you’re interested in SURPRISING someone with a photo shoot… send me an email

I knew this was going to be a unique family shoot when Natalie (Donna’s daughter) first contacted me.  She went on to tell me that since her aunt passed away, Donna (her mom) has taken over the role as everyone’s mother.  So I was pre-warned of the amount of people involved and I was so looking forward to meeting this beautiful family.  On top of that, Natalie informed me she was bringing bubbles and RED balloons for the kids… I KNEW we would get some great photos with those fun props!

Let me tell you, children photography is no easy feat.  It takes an incredible amount of patience and a fun personality to be able to have fun with them while shooting… because it really is all about going at their pace!

I hope you enjoy this short lifestyle film and these fun-filled, colourful photos!

I love this shot!! Here’s Donna giving the kids a little bit of an incentive to behave for the next 3 hours!!

Donna’s smile says it all… “I’m so rich”

I think that’s everyone

Oooooh so cute.  This little guy wanted to “see” the back of my camera!!

You’re NEVER too old.

bubbles = joy

I pretty much fell to the ground laughing when I took this photo…

As he was karate kicking the bubbles he was singing “everybody was kung-fu fighting”

One VERY popular mom

Precious

the oldest of the kids… and a really big help!

Justin’s shot!

I was wondering why this little one kept on leaning over… but then her mom told me she was actually copying me and my angles!

this is what your kids do when you’re not looking!

cousins

Isn’t she lovely with her beautiful smile