Memorial Day Weekend

I haven’t posted in a week now! Oh my!

We have been super busy around the house while Jason has been gone. We are on Day 12 of his departure, surviving (although the floor needs some vacuum attention) and still having a good time. On Saturday, The Goat (aka – my father in law) took Maggie and me out to Moclips, WA. I never knew this place existed… but it was BEAUTIFUL! Maggie has been to the beach a couple of times now, but it’s always been so cold. Luckily, Saturday was about as nice as it gets on the Washington State Coast – which is usually cold and miserable – so she had an opportunity to actually PLAY on the beach.

And play she did… it ended with one really wet, sandy, tired girl. But she had a blast.

On the photography front – I’ve been practicing with some new flash/full sun techniques. This was my first attempt and I have to say I’m pretty proud of my accomplishment. I’ll be posting a lot more of this technique this summer as I really am trying to master some pretty advanced lighting concepts!

This was Maggie’s first reaction at seeing a kite in the sky for the first time ever:

Wet and Happy!

It’s a big world out there:

Just happy – having a day with Mom and Goat:

Time to go home:

I Meant To Do That!

One of my photographer friends (who is a wonderful photographer and an incredible person), Kristi Hibbetts, wrote an article on her blog that I just had to link back. It’s called I Meant To Do That! When reading it, I found it to be amusing and insightful – especially to clients and families who may be new to custom portraiture and not exactly sure what to expect.

I do what I do for a reason… I really try to shy away from anything you might find at Wal-Mart, JC Penney or Sears. I want my clients to walk away with something unique, beautiful and special and in order to accomplish these goals, I ‘break tradition’ and do something unique, fun and… well… Whimsical! Most of the time, my crops are because that is what I see when looking at a particular person, subject or landscape in real life. So… to quote Kristi… I Meant To Do That!

Maggie’s Favorite Thing

I don’t see how I could ever post too many of my little girl… but here is another.

No amount of swinging is too much for Maggie. It’s a commitment to put her on the swing now days… expect AT LEAST 45 minutes of pushing!! So I have to fill my time somehow, sometimes it’s talking on the phone, but mostly just taking pictures.

Thankfully Steve is home from New Mexico and you can see pictures as they should be shown now!!

Sunny Days at our house

We have a lot of play at our house on sunny days. We’re finally getting some nice weather around here so we’ve been trying to take advantage as much as we can. (The Hawaiian dress is courtesy of Bill & Amber. They brought it home for Maggie from their Hawaiian honeymoon!!)

Maggie started yesterday by playing with the lock on the shed. She really didn’t want inside, but she knows how to stick the key in the lock to let herself in.

Our day went on with a little bubble play.

Then, since it was getting so hot, it was time to take a break for some water. “Mommy, I can do it myself!!!”

“Uh-oh! I spilled down my dress!”

“Aw… refreshing!!”

My Little Pothead

Ok… I’m a little misleading with that title… but it was still really funny! Tonight, after dinner, Maggie was playing the backyard and found a flower pot back behind the shed. She decided it made a good hat and started running around the yard with it over her head. Hence… our little PotHead!!

And Daddy got into the action too!

When she got bored with the pot, she moved onto a little playing on the playground!

I’ll spare you the photos of us making her come inside after all this play!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all those mom’s out there!

And a very special mother’s day to my own mom. I love you so much mom… you are more than a mom, you are my friend! I love our special relationship; thank you for always being there for me and supporting me in so many different ways. I love you!!

Precious Miss Jenna

I met Miss Jenna and her parents today!

Jenna is a whole 1-week old today and one of the prettiest and precious newborns I’ve had the opportunity to meet. Luckily the cloudy day turned sunny by the time I reached their house this afternoon and beautiful sunlight streamed in through the windows.

I totally fell in love with this beautiful blue/green chair in their entry way. I proceeded to rearrange their entire living room by bringing it into the room and take advantage of the sunlight. Note to all parents: I will rearrange the majority of your home while there. But when the final result is this… you know why I do it!

We only had time to work on one tonight. Enjoy!!

Just waiting for spring to come!

Not much has been going on in the Berman household as of late. We’ve been putting a ton of time and effort into our yard. As I mentioned last week, we had the sprinkler system done, the garden planted and then last week Mabster’s playground was installed. She is now obsessed with the swing; meaning mom, dad or who ever else is around, must push her for hours. And I mean hours…

Luckily I’ve had a lot of work and I spend that time on the phone and making calls. Oh, and the laptop does get wireless out in the backyard, so I can sit at the picnic bench and answer e-mails. It’s not such a bad life.

So we are planning a Hawaii trip!! This year I celebrate my second-29th birthday, and Jason and I decided to go to Maui for a week and then onto the Big Island (Kona) for another week. All in all, we’re looking at about 14 days in Hawaii!! We’re really quite excited, however, we’ve always been city vacationers. In the 5 years we’ve been married and the countless years of dating/knowing each other, we’ve never had a beach vacation. I have NO IDEA how we plan on relaxing… I’m so scared we’ll get there, lay on the beach for 30 minutes and then look at each other wondering what we do next?

So leave me a message… tell me we are going to love Hawaii!!

Little-Bitty Audrey

Last week, I met Audrey and her mom Lauri at the University of Washington campus to capture this little one on camera. She was such a trooper… for about 20 minutes. Then she was DONE with photos. But what we got in those 20 minutes was awesome!!