Marie - Portait

Marie is my future sister-in-law. She's awesome. She is from England so she has this totally sweet British accent. Everything sounds better when she says it, especially anything having to do with cake. I'm not a huge cake person, but when I'm around Marie and she starts talking about it, I just have to have some! She makes it sound so good!

Marie and her husband Ken (Mikey's brother) are expecting their first child in March. Right around my birthday! Yay! I'm sooo excited to be an aunt again and I think it's so cool that they're waiting to find out if it's a boy or a girl.

Here are a few photos I took of Marie during our mini photoshoot when Mikey and I were visiting them in New Jersey :-)





Here is one of both Marie and Ken.





Even though it was pretty chilly, we snuck outside for a couple of shots.



This last photo is my favorite. I love how Ken is wearing shorts and it was like 20 degrees outside. He apparently only ever wears shorts - can't stand actual pants. And I just love the way their dog Josie (who wins the prize for cutest and best dog ever in New Jersey, btw) is staring at them. So cute!



:-)

Ashley & Francesco

Yesterday my mom hosted a shower for my cousin Robbie's soon to be new bride Samantha, so all the women in the family got together and it was just a blast! After the shower, my cousin Ashley and I grabbed our cameras and did little photoshoots of each other for fun. Yay! Here are two I took of Ash and her boyfriend Cheech, errr, Francesco (but we all call him Cheech).

Happy Monday everyone! :-)

Jean & Tim (& Tadpole Leonard) - Portrait

Jean is my oldest and dearest friend ever. Growing up we always said we were friends since 4th grade, and best friends since 5th grade. Those details are totally important! Well now we're all big and grown up and Jean is having her first baby with her amazing husband Tim!

I take all the credit for Jean and Tim getting together in high school by the way. We were all a part of the same group of friends and one day Jean confided in me that she thought she had a crush on Tim but made me swear not to tell anyone. So of course that afternoon while driving Tim home I told him everything! Haha! Man, writing it out it sounds so bad, but I just knew they were meant to be! Tim played it off all cool, but he was totally giddy (that's right Tim, I know you were giddy!). And after that they were all flirting and in no time were "boyfriend/girlfriend". Haha. So I like to think I gave them the little nudge they needed to start things off, and now they are expecting their first child together! Hooray!



Jean and Tim live in Pasadena, but they came home over the holidays and I got to do a little photo session with Jean before her bridesmaid dress fitting (Jean is one of my bridesmaids! Yay bridesmaid team!). Afterwards we met up with Tim for a few photos including him!

You may be wondering who the heck Tadpole Leonard is. :-) That is what Jean and Tim have taken to calling their unborn child. haha! I hear they have a much better name in store once the little guy (it's a boy!) makes his debut, but until then, he's known as Tadpole Leonard. :-)

Jean's due date has already passed and I know she is getting mighty anxious for little Tadpole Leonard to come on out. Let's go T.L.!!!











Isn't Jean beautiful?







Yay Jean!

So after our dress fitting we met up with Tim. Tim is an incredible artist and is currently in school for illustration and design out in CA. He's going to be big and famous some day, so you better go check out his blog now so you can say you knew him when. :-)

Here are a few shots of Tim and Jean :-)













I love that last one. :-)

Jean & Tim, I love you guys and I'm just soooo excited for you! Yay Tadpole Leonard! :-)

Valentine's Day :-)

I just wanted to take a second and wish everyone a wonderful Valentine's Day! I personally plan on eating as much candy as possible. Yum! :-)

Actually, I'm planning on making a very yummy dinner for Mikey and me, so keep your fingers crossed that I don't burn anything or catch the oven on fire, which has been known to happen. For real. But this time my mom has personally written out all the instructions so hopefully our Valentine's Day will be filled with a delicious filet roast, mixed veggies and some sort of potato thing my mom promises me I can make. Woo! Fingers crossed.

Here is a photo I dug up of Mikey and me from last summer at a BBQ. For some reason I have an extremely large head. Also, I really need to stop making this face.



Have a Happy Valentine's Day everyone! (And think happy thoughts for my cooking!) :-)

****Update: While the potatoes turned out mushy, the broccoli somehow fell apart into lots of little mushy broccoli bits and the meat was very well done, Mikey still managed to gulp down every bite and follow it up with a big "MMmmm! This is delicious!" every time. :-) Now that's love. :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!

As you may have been able to figure out, today is Katie's birthday! Yaaay!

We celebrated Katie's birthday on Saturday night with a Tour of Italy party which included lots of Italian food, Italian music and of course Italian wine. Yum! My job was to bring the lasagna, which I ordered from a caterer. haha! My Nonna would be so disappointed. But alas, the lasagna was delicious - much more delicious than I could have made for sure, and we all had a blast!

So in honor of Katie's 27th birthday, here are a few shots I took of her last friday when we were hanging out. :-)







I love this one.








Isn't she a pretty model?? HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!! :-)

Jillian - Portrait Session

I used to babysit for Jill when she was just a wee babe. She was naughty and would sneak out of her crib and crawl all around while I thought she was fast asleep. And then I would panic and find her like on the basement steps or something. Fun! haha. But before everyone goes and freaks out about my childcare skills, I would like to point out that I was like 13 at the time. I've much improved, I swear!

Anywho. This is Jill. Jill is absolutely, drop dead gorgeous. And what is so awesome about her is that she has no clue how gorgeous she is! She is interested in pursuing acting and I don't think being this pretty is going to hurt when it comes to her dream. She actually has the role of Eponine in her high school's musical this spring, Les Miserables. She's totally going to rock it out!

I was so excited to do this photo session with Jill because I really want to get into doing more high school senior portrait sessions like this. While Jill isn't a senior yet, I thought she was a perfect subject to get the ball rolling! So if you are a high school senior, will eventually be a high school senior, or know a senior who would LOVE their own personal photoshoot, drop me an email and we can set it up! It's the perfect gift for graduation, and I promise it's tons of fun! :-)

So here are a few photos of Jill from our recent photoshoot! :-)















I couldn't decide if I like the photo below better in color or B&W. I'm leaning toward the b&w because I feel like it has a film noir vibe, but I decided to post both for the heck of it. :-)





We stopped by this construction site because I had been eyeing these colored tubes for weeks, and thought they were super cool!













This last one might be my favorite :-)



Jill, I had such a blast! Thank you so much for being such an awesome model! I hope you enjoy the photos :-)