ocean swim

It's been 2 years since I took photos of our last family swim.  You can never see how your kids will grow older, you can barely fathom the thought of them ever being older than they are at any given moment.  2 years later, they've grown into their teeth or their teeth have grown in, their hair is 5 inches longer or 5 inches shorter, their bodies have trimmed off more baby fat, and one of them is half a head shorter than you while the other grew 2 heads taller...

life has been busy... seemingly in 5th gear since the end of April.
it's been great, workwise.  we were able to pay our monthly bills and managed to save enough to cover the dreaded PROPERTY TAX.  of course that means, everything else is frantic as we try to juggle the rest of our life.

summer is here.  in fact, it is half-over now.  tomorrow is August 1st, BC Day weekend is around the corner once again.  with so many projects on the go (including our own home projects...), we haven't had any time for any quality family time outside of having dinner together.  i've soaked up the sun at Centennial a  bunch of times this summer already, but only in the morning/early afternoon when the tide was way way out.  aching for that warm ocean water, i shooed us out of the house after dinner for the first ocean swim of the year.  it was 7:30pm, but it's also summer, and i knew it would be worth it.

it was.

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winter was so very very long, i am hanging onto every ray of sunshine and every bead of sweat just so i know i made every bit of summer count when the cold rolls in again.

summer forever

 


Fête Carnival 2018

It's the time of year again!  Pumping out a little more time and energy into making our Carnival Fundraiser a success.  This year we donated photobooth as well as built the clown game, the latter which was as popular as I had hoped it would be!  Tonnes of games, BBQ and Coffee, Book Sale, Silent Auction, Cake Walk, and running around on a gorgeous sunny evening with all your friends.  I miss and loved these school events as a kid, running around high on candy and winning handfuls of little prizes, totally some of my favourite memories.

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Munroe

It's going to be pretty interesting to see what life is like in 20 years.  I am in the time of my life where so many friends are starting or growing their families.  Our parents did not have social media to maintain contact with every single person from high school and beyond.  Today, even if we don't hold long conversations or meet up with everyone we have added from high school or post-secondary, we scroll through their life on a daily basis.  We are in a time where we literally are watching everyone's lives every single day, and probably maintain this network long enough to see each other's kids childhood and teenage years.  I don't think we will ever be leaving Tsawwassen in this housing market, so I am constantly imagining how all these kids are going to grow up together in the tiny community of Ladner/Tsawwassen.  How did I get to this?

Ah yes!  Thinking about how long it has been since I have known Steve + Serena.  I met Steve and Serena about a year or two before I had Moses which is a whopping 9 years ago.  Over the past decade, they have been the ones watching me stumble through parenthood. They have seen me and my kids grow together, they have read my ups and downs, and they are hopefully a little more prepared than I was with what to truly expect when you are expecting.  They spent the last couple of years travelling before hunkering down to start their family, and are now proud new parents to Baby Munroe.  

As is always the case, I was thrilled to photograph them in these early days of parenthood and I am excited to follow them on their journey!

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Congratulations!  Welcome to the club!

Sophie Evelyn

2018 began with new babies!  Back to Back babies for people I know from back in highschool who happen to be friends and live in neighbouring condos overlooking beautiful False Creek.  I love how life comes full circle.  I love how highschool is a petri dish of hormones, bad decisions, blind immaturity, and closed-mindedness, that nobody can see who and how the future might bring people back together.  I guess this isn't necessarily true of all experiences, but I love that it is mine.  I love being able to re-enter the lives of those with whom I share history (great or small), see who they have grown to be and witness the love for their young families spill out like liquid gold. It's a beautiful thing to be vulnerable. I love connecting with people and I love being a part of so many people's special moments. There is so much beauty in how we live day by day, in just who we are, in our humanity.

A few special moments with little sister Sophie and Mama Jess. 

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Baby Wren

My last family session of 2017 was with a sweet trio I met through my cousin Nik.  They moved up the road and across the Tsawwassen/Point Roberts border into a sweet little rancher to start this new period of their lives.  Like us, they moved into a new place with a new baby and renovations to be had.  This pushed our newborn session to a 3 months old session which, honestly, was just as delicious.  At 3 months, new Mamas have developed a system and babies have plumped up into juicy morsels asking to be bitten all over...

I met them in their new home on a beautiful sunny afternoon the first week of December.  Everyone was in a cheery mood, including little Wren who was all big shiny eyes and bubbly gurgles of laughter.  It's hard to know these days are gone for me.  After waiting what seemed a lifetime for babies, I have somehow already birthed 3 and they are all no longer these tiny helpless creatures covered in down with sweet breath.  It is a wonderful thing to be able to revisit this preciousness through my work and I am so grateful to pour my hindsight into creating memories that will shine through the foggy memories as they grow older.

A select few from this warm cozy collection...