Christmas Stuff

Just wanted to share some pictures from Christmas. This is not one of my favorite holidays to photograph. I can never really get pictures that I LOVE and not much has changed as far as that goes this year. They are "ok" but nothing "great" Anyway~ I share with you... guess who? yup... Andrew, Kaleb and Ella. Oh and one picture of Emma.

Andrew & Ella checking out her new Baby Einstein book.

Kaleb got a new camo jacket from Cablea's just like Daddy and Poppy!

Ella got a new kitchen... she loved playing with all her new utensils.

just wanted to share this one because it makes me smile!

played with this one a little... and i like it!

Finally~ I leave you with my girl... miss Emma. when no one else will listen to me... she does! love her!

Today......... I'm 31

It's hard to believe but yet another year has passed and now I'm looking @ my 31st Birthday! So today I've been thinking about my life and where I am at this point... to my surprise I'm totally in a GOOD place. I don't really have any complaints and I have TONS to be greatful for... actually I'm feeling pretty darn lucky at this point.

First, I have this great boy that I get to call MINE, ALL MINE! I don't have to share him with anyone... well okay maybe with my mom & dad... and not to mention Kaleb might have something to say about me not sharing Andrew since Kaleb seriously idolizes that kid. Regardless~ I think he's a pretty cool kid and I'm pretty proud that I get to take credit for him.

Second, I have an amazing family... I know everyone has amazing families too, but for me I'm not exactly the easiest person to deal with and my family is just fine with that. They love me for me and theres no in between! I'm not sure what I would do without my sister, my brother-in-law (whom I prefer to call my brother, but I guess that would be weird since he's married to my sister!) and my Mom & Dad~ I'm sure I make them crazy but they are always there for me... and Andrew.

I could totally go on and on...so one last thing... okay maybe two more things. First, those godchildren of mine... boy have they changed who I am. I can't imagine life without them~ It's actually hard to remember life before them. They've changed me in so many ways and i wouldn't change one thing about them! Lastly, my buddy Kimmy Chang! She's the best~ she's the one person (that's not family) that I never get tired of. I can simply be myself with her... she's my person! (ok, so Bill is my person too but who's counting. can you really have too many people?)

So, Happy Birthday to me... and thanks for reading all my mushy blabber!

Some Thanksgiving Pictures...

to share with you. For the most part Thanksgivng is not a big picture holiday for my family. But I did manage to shoot a couple this year that I was particularly happy with.



I had a great holiday... it was very relaxing... a much needed "recharge!"

this is...

what Ella looks like when she hears the word "no!" Oh my God, it totally cracked me up when I took these pictures. Of course it was NOT Aunt Stess that was telling her "no" cause we all know that that word is simply not in my vocabulary when it comes to Ella and Kaleb (at least most of the time)... this time it was Mommy that was telling her no, I was simply documenting it... then I was quick to snatch her up into my lap... cause she does no wrong in my book!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you have lots to be thankful for!

Misc Stuff...

So, once again it's been quite a while since I've had the chance to update... so here goes.
This weekend I went to the Temple vs. Penn State Football game with this bunch of nuts...

Kimmy Chang was there too... just not in the picture of course. We had a really fun time... the funniest part of the story is that NONE of them went to Temple... and collectively NONE of us went to Penn State either. You might be asking yourself why we where there... the answer my friend is because we wanted to be there. Basically we were freezing most of the day, but had a great time regardless.

In other news... as always i'll share some of my Ella pics. I could totally take pictures of this girl ALL DAY. The best part is that she loves when I take her picture... once i take it she immediately runs over to me to check out the screen with her picture on it... and then proceeds to laugh hysterically. It's one of the funniest things (one of the many funny things she does). I think everytime she does it I laugh harder.

This is just one that i loved... she looks so innocent... love it.

And in case you were wondering... Yes, Andrew is still alive. Here's some proof. (don't mind the fact that a bunch of this picture is totally out of focus I was playing around with some of my settings... but still liked the picture.)

I think that about catches me up. Looking forward to the weekend, as usual.

Tinkerbell...and a very sick Buzz Lightyear

This year's Halloween didn't go exactly as planned... the night before, Kaleb started to not feel so good... in the morning he was feeling a bit better and decided to go to school for all of the Halloween festivities...well by the time he got home he was again exhausted and not feeling very good at all. He actually went to sleep in his bed and asked my sister to wake him up when it was time to trick or treat... because he didn't want to miss it, even though he didn't feel good. That being said... Kaleb looks less then thrilled in ALL of the pictures I took, but I can't blame him. Meanwhile... Ella was running around like a nut with her glittery green shoes on (how freakin cute are those shoes?).


oh and please excuse the hideous flash bouncing off of the fireplace glass. I just couldn't get enough light for the indoor pictures without using the flash :(

Holy Crap...this makes me laugh!

Ella has the funny smile that she does and i sometimes say she looks chinese when she does it... but everytime I see her do it I laugh harder and harder. i just love it!

On another note... we did some pumpkin carving this weekend. Kaleb had a lot of fun with this and did a great job all around. Every once in a while he had to take a break cause he said his arms were tired! :)


Also took some classes with Karen Russell this weekend... had a great time and was totally inspired to get out and shoot some new stuff again. Now I just have to find the time to do that... this week i have midterms at school so it may have to wait until this weekend or sometime next week :(

One more thing from this weekend... I met with a spiritual reader this weekend... and holy cow was that interesting. I've always been on the fence with that sort of stuff, but boy did she have some interesting things to say.
i think that's it for now...

A self portrait... sorta

Yesterday I went to the Pumpkin Patch with my sister, Kaleb and Ella. (andrew was busy working... yup he has a job!!!) So anyway, I NEVER get in the pictures but today decided to turn the camera onto Ella and I... and this is what we got! It's not perfect but it's us... together... and that's all that matters... right?
The weather was beautiful and we had a great time picking pumpkins. Kaleb was our official picker... he always does a great job with this. He even pulls the wagon around with all the pumpkins in it!

Then the nice guy that worked at the patch offered to take a picture of the four of us... which also is a rare occurrece. We never get to ALL be in the picture!!!

Still here...

just not really blogging these days. School has been extremely time consuming. I'm taking a lighting class right now and WOW is it way more challenging then I ever expected it to be. Maybe as the class goes on and I get a little more confident with the pictures I'll post some shots on here.

right now I seem to be consumed by fall tv in the evenings and one of my guilty pleasures is Dancing with the Stars. My main obsession with the show is Maksim. Holy Cow... is he beautiful. I seriously could care less what happens on this show as long as he is on it. I totally think he should be nominated as the next Bachelor. (which is another show that I have been sucked into as usual.) Anyway... here's some Maksim eye candy for you to enjoy.... i think i heart him!

So... the boys won!

The game was great last night~ it's really pretty cool to be down at the park with all of the playoff excitment going on. Now we can only hope that they can hold on for these last few games and get some help from some other teams as well!

In other news... I've been addicted to Etsy for a few weeks now and find myself making purchases on a regular basis. Here's a little something I picked up from Elsie's site...

She arrived in the mail a few days ago and I can not wait to get a frame to put her in and hang or place in my room!

Well~ TGIF! and can't wait to get some scrap time this weekend.

Going to the Phillies Game!

Okay, so I'm not exactly the biggest baseball fan and to be honest I have no desire to watch the sport on tv at all! I finally made it to a game for the first time this year and must admit I really liked it a lot! That being said, I'm heading to my third game of the season tonight... and I think I have a little baseball crush on Chase Utley. He's my baseball hero!

Let's hope Chase and the boys can win again tonight and help secure a spot in the playoffs. GO TEAM GO!!!

Okay... So it's been a while~

since my last post... i really don't have any excuse for not posting, but for those of you that actually read this little blog of mine I apologize! I'm currently on fall break from school, but getting ready to go back on Monday. As usual I only like to post when I have pictures... so I share with you some pictures from my final week of classes last quarter. (as usual, andrew was one of my models)


These were two of my favorites, I'm so lucky that he still lets me take these pictures. I sometimes feel like I have to make up for all of the pictures I missed when he was younger and it never occured to me to pick up a camera. (at least not as much as i pick it up these days)

This weekend I'm looking forward to getting some crop time in. It's been a while and I'm really looking forward to it. So, basically that's all i got. I'm sorry I don't have any other exciting news. :)

Kim's boy has a beard...

On Friday night Kim and I saw Rocco Deluca again...no silly not in Philly again, in Baltimore of course. The show was great (as usual) but this time Rocco was sportin' a full-blown lumber-jack beard!

Other then the concert this weekend has been consumed by getting ready for finals this week. Oh, and I babysat for my sister last night, they had a wedding to go to. This was supposed to be a rather challenging night for me... it would be the first time I was putting Ella to bed~ all by MYSELF! That said... she was an ANGEL...PERFECT! She didn't cry at all and simply went to sleep like the perfect princess she always is for Aunt Stess!

On another note... THANK GOD football season is back! LOVE IT!

Pictures from the weekend...

I've been meaning to post for a few days... but of course life happens! So, that being said, I'm coming up on the last few weeks of this quarter at school, so I've been busy with assignments, Andrew's getting ready to go back to school too. Things have just been busy... nothing life changing, just the usual. So since I don't have much to report... I share with you some recent pictures.




Of course Andrew was out and about all weekend with his buddies as usual... so no new pictures of him!

this makes me so happy...

This might be the most beautiful GAP ad I've ever seen in my life! Words cannot express how beautiful Johnny boy looks in this picture! The picture was taken by the ridiculously talented Annie Leibovitz... she is amazing and that's an understatement to say the least! as far as a post for today... whelp, this is all i got! Enjoy the view!

Birthday Girl!

Saturday was officially Ella's first birthday... so birthday cake was obviously a no-brainer! Once the cake was put before her (the WHOLE cake that is) it didn't take long for her to have the icing everywhere! She was so content just sitting there making a complete mess and even taking a few tastes here and there. Happy Birthday Princess!

It's hard to believe...

my sister's baby girl is turning ONE tomorrow! The time has just gone by WAY to fast. I feel like I want to put her on "pause" for a little while so I can keep her just the way she is... at least for a little while longer!

It's funny when I look back and remember how convinced I was that she "should" be a boy, just because I thought boys were easier, more convenient, but mostly because we already have Andrew & Kaleb in the family, so I guess I just thought it would be too hard to break that mold, that "mold" in my own little head that is!

So, one year ago Miss Ella Grace came crashing into my world of "boys" and I couldn't be happier to admit that "I was wrong." I totally needed this little girl in my life. So, here I am, the Aunt/Godmother who was convinced that I could only be good at boys...funny how so much can change in one year...thanks to one little girl!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Dave Matthews Band!

Went to the Dave Matthews Band concert last night with my sister and as usual it was AMAZING! These guys or i should say "gods" can do no wrong for me. Thanks to Marie we were lucky enough to be sitting in the 8th row. Needless to say, I'm paying for it today, i'm so exhausted.

I'm off to the farm this afternoon to shoot an assignment for school, if there are any worthy of sharing I'll do so tomorrow.

Kimmie Chang + bottle of wine= Ricky Bobby

This weekend I was at Rollie's SAVE event, where I was supposed to be getting some scrapbooking done... needless to say, not much scrapbooking got done, but plenty of laughs were had.

here are some pictures from the weekend.

Kim getting creative... at the golf course in a sand trap!

Kim cooling off at the mini-golf course... in her defense it was pretty hot out and she also wanted to wash off some of the sand off. (sorry, I can't figure out how to turn that picture around the right way.)

Finally, I leave you with Kimmie Chang and the infamous Ricky Bobby!

getting ready...

Tonight I'm getting ready to go away once again. This weekend I'm heading off to SAVE for some scrapping and hanging out with my girlfriends. I'm really looking forward to this event, it's been a while since I had some serious creative time.

Tomorrow heading out to catch Kim's "boyfriend" Rocco DeLuca @ the TLA. I'm pretty excited for the show myself, these guys are great live and they're finally headlining the show!


I guess that's it for now, not much to report just busy, busy, busy! Must finish packing!

my boys of summer...

Well, our annual trip to LBI has come and gone... and needless to say it never goes down without a catch. This year I was lucky enough to be taking Kaleb to the beach with me and this was his first time away from home without his Mom & Dad! (at least longer then just an overnight.) This was a milestone in itself.



does this look like a child that is homesick?.... nope, I didn't think so. He was so excited to be at the beach, and I was just as excited to have him there with me!



Andrew has been coming here since he was a baby. Now at age 14, he still looks forward to the week with his cousins just hanging out on the beach. And the bonus is he still lets me take his picture, no matter what!

Anyway~ on to the "catch." Sunday night we headed to the basketball courts which also is a nightly event when we're at the shore only this time I managed to score myself a trip to the Emergency Room. I thought I was going to be fine, but the next morning my knee thought otherwise, so Kim and Erik took me to the ER... basically they did some xrays, found nothing broken which I kinda figured. Their assessment was that I had a sprain of some sort in my knee with possibly some ligament issues going on but they would need to do an MRI to come to any conclusion. Long story short... my regular doctor did his exam and concluded that I did not need the MRI, but simply needed some rest and possibly some physical therapy. So I guess this is my first sign of getting older, huh?

Now, I'm going back to that happy place....

not much going on...

So, sometimes or I should say most of the time Andrew is subjected to me and my camera. I have several weekly assignments and in most cases he is the "chosen one!" My very own, in house model... does it get any better? He's actually a pretty good model, mostly does what I tell him to do even if it is against his better judgement. Well anyway, this week one of my assignments was to shoot "skin." Yup, that's right skin. So I told him to put on his model face and take off his shirt!




I really love the first picture... just because that is SO him right now! That one probably won't make the cut for the project but the second one has potential.

Other then work and school there's not a whole lot going on. I'm getting ready for LBI this weekend with the family. I'm sooo lucky this year I get to take Kaleb to the beach with us! Can not wait, he's going to have a blast, and Gwen & Erik will get a little breather! Oh and I almost forgot... John Mayer Concert on Friday.... so cannot wait for that!