My Little Girl is a Teenager

Thirteen years ago today, after 24 hours of labor, my little girl came into this world. Then I held the most beautiful little girl in the world in my arms for the first time. I named her Mikaela Taryn.

Looking back, it's hard to believe that 13 years have gone by. It has been such a great journey watching her grow to the young lady she is today, passionate about writing, about art, about her close friends. This Saturday she has invited only her closest friends to celebrate with her in a Girlfriend's Day Out.

Tonight we will be celebrating with her favorite type of cake that Ean and I will be making today ...a dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate icing - she definitely inherited her taste from me! ;)

She woke up this morning and asked to open just one gift before school started. She decided she wanted to dress up for school today, too, something she doesn't normally do.

I'm just so proud to call her my daughter.

Family Fun - Celebrate Earth Day at the Jacksonville Landing

Looking for something fun to do with the kids this weekend? Stop by the Jacksonville Landing this Saturday, April 19th, from 10am – 4pm, and join kids and families all across Jacksonville in celebrating Earth Day with an Ecology Fair!

There will be more than 100 booths of learning and family fun! There will be children’s games and activities, music, face painting, prizes, educational information and two stages of live entertainment. Children’s activities include craft projects with recycled and reused materials and live animal encounters. For the adults, learn what you can to help the environment.

And best of all? Entrance and all activities are FREE!

Hope to see you there!

Wow! OMP - Image of the Day

I just received a message on my MySpace page from a model I know congratulating me for the Image of the Day on One Model Place, one of the model sites that I have a portfolio on. I was SO surprised! It's such an honor to have one of my images featured on this site as there are thousands of photographers who also have portfolios there! The image is one of my newborn clients, sweet little Carson, who was just four weeks old when he was photographed in this image.

I'm just so excited I had to share!

Congratulations Ada and Oswaldo!

I was so excited when I opened my email up this morning and saw a note from one of my recent maternity clients telling me that their precious daughter, Ariana, has arrived!

I am so very happy for your family and I can't wait to meet Ariana!

Renaissance Beach Workshop

It's always fun to get out and do something different and Wednesday night I did just that, along with about 20 other photographers from the Professional Photographers Society of North Florida, of which I'm actively involved. The workshop was held at the beach in Ponte Vedra and what made it different, was our model was dressed in a Renaissance period dress and joining her was her beautiful horse.

With this many photographers, it isn't always easy to find a spot where you can capture the image as you envision it as well as make sure there aren't a lot of lenses appearing in your shot! But, that's what's fun...challenging and discovering unique approaches to get a shot that you can proudly post.

Below are a few of my favorites!

Exciting News from a Client - Nuestra Belleza Latina

I absolutely love to hear from my clients when they have exciting news about their family! One of my recent maternity clients, Ada and Oswaldo, contacted me the other day to tell me that Ada's sister, Génesis, was selected as one of the 12 finalists for the Reality Show, Nuestra Belleza Latina (Our Latin Beauty), shown on the Univision Network on Friday nights at 10:00PM! I had the opportunity to meet Génesis during her sister's maternity session and the entire family is just one of the sweetest I have ever met!

Nuestra Belleza Latina is a show that combines the glamour of a beauty competition with the excitement of a reality show with the finalists representing the most captivating Hispanic women from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

While these ladies do compete and are judged each week by the panel of judges, it's not all in their hands - their fate also rests in the votes of supporters across America! So, if you would like to help Génesis Seguías out, please consider sending her some votes!

You can vote by text messaging on your cell phone. The number to send your text message is 8803 if you have AT&T. Just write the word VOTE on the body of the message. You can vote as many times as you want, but normal fees for text messages apply. You can vote via text message up to two days after the show airs!

And check out her belly dancing (click here)! We wish you lots of luck Génesis!

And, Ada and Oswaldo, I can't wait to hear from you when you're sweet little girl arrives!

Our Morning Adventure

Today I took the day off from the studio to spend some time with my kiddos. This morning, my little man, Ean, and I decided to embark on the birding adventure (see next post down) at the Tillie K Fowler Regional Park. What fun it was!

There were about 20 little ones from ages 1 to 7 who came to learn a little about birds and enjoy a beautiful morning! First activity, after passing around a few feathers, was a fun Cat in the Hat story, Fine Feathered Friends: All about Birds that was read to everyone. Afterwards, each child was given a pair of "binoculars" (okay, really two toilet paper tubes taped together) to decorate with the many markers that were available. The parents then tied string to allow the binoculars to hang around the neck. We were all given an important tip on how to correctly use binoculars! What is it? Use your eyes FIRST to find the bird, and then lift your binoculars to your eyes! Makes a lot of sense rather than scanning the sky with your binoculars and not being able to see anything! We also listened to different bird sounds from those cute little stuffed birds you can find at the zoo gift store and even JoAnn's.

After we had our little lessons, we headed outside to look for birds! So, how do you make sure you can find birds when you have a whole handful of little ones? Well, you strategically hang photos of birds along the trail and then the kids can discover them as they walk along! And, the birds don't fly away as the group moves in closer! Very cool! Aside from the photos of birds, we did see a live hummingbird and a woodpecker as we walked the trail.

When we made it back to the Nature Center, we all spent some time discovering some of the amazing little creatures in there -- live snakes, mice, frogs, lizards, and many fossils, bones, skins and some taxidermy animals, too! Then, a quick peek outside through the window revealed a live raccoon walking through the garden area!

What a great morning and here are some snapshots to share! If you have the opportunity to attend this event in the future, I would highly recommend it for the kids!