River at 9 Months...DC/ Alexandria/ NoVa - Family/ Child/ Newborn Photographer

I can't believe she's already 9 months. She is a constant moving target which makes my photo sessions with her more of a workout than a photo session. It's amazing that I even caught this shot.

 
Here are a few more that made the cut.

Neutral Nursery - DC/ Alexandria/ NoVa, Family/ Child/ Newborn Photographer

This is River's nursery.  When Hunter was first born, I put into a lot of attention into decorating his nursery.  Everything had to match and be perfect and of course be completed before he was born.  Well, with the second child, it was a bit harder to get everything so perfect.  And of course, she was born and her nursery was not complete.  It was a constant work in progress.  It took me over a year to collect all the pieces that I needed to make it just right.  I had all these ideas for color.  But in the end, I went for a cream neutral palette and Voila!!  In between feedings and nap times, I managed to finally finish it.  

And of course, the nursery wouldn't be complete without the beautiful baby girl it was designed for.  Her smile just melts my heart every time.  

Growing up...so fast! DC/ Alexandria/ NoVa, Family/ Child/ Newborn Photographer

I recently started regretting not keeping a journal of Hunter's growth and development over the last two years.  Then as I was editing some recent pictures of River, I thought, why not use this blog to keep track of all of that.  Hopefully blogger will still be around when my kids get older so that they can read it all.
River will be 8 months in less than a week.  She is my sweet girl who, along with her brother, makes my life all the more fun and hectic.  Where is the time going because I can't believe she will be 8 months very soon.  She is eating lots of solids.  She thoroughly enjoys eating which is a great change of pace from having a toddler who is a picky eater.  She started crawling right before she turned 6 months, and now she keeps trying to stand and cruise on furniture but her poor little legs keep buckling on her.  I call her my littler overachiever.  She makes raising babies a breeze.  So much so that I contemplated having a 3rd child.  But reality slowly set in, and I decided...maybe not.  hahaha

 

Wedding PaeBaek - DC/ Alexandria/ NoVa, Family/ Child/ Newborn Photographer

This was a very busy past week for us. First we drove up to the Pocono Mountains and went on a short ski/ water park family trip with my sisters. The kids absolutely loved it!!! Though I think I may have enjoyed the water park more than my 2 yr old, Hunter. River as always was very compliant with everything that we did; even if it meant being lugged around in my Ergo wrapped up in a puffy infant snowsuit in 30 degree weather. She is seriously my dream baby! Then after that, we celebrated my sister-in-law's wedding. It was quite a celebration. I have to say that even though I didn't know about 95% of the people there, this just might have been favorite wedding. It's all because of this great band named Touch...or The Touch. They were awesome!!! I mean, beyond awesome. Any band who can sing Gangnam Style and can sound exactly like PSY even though they are of a completely different race, is a true talent in my book. So there is this old Korean tradition called a PaeBaek where you get dressed up in traditional Korean garb and do all kinds of silly things like tossing chestnuts and going on piggy back rides and drinking tea. I won't bother explaining b/c it would take up half my post so I'll leave it up to you to google. And since pictures mean a thousand words, I'll let my pictures do the talking. 

 Congratulations Susan and James!!

New Year...New Baby...Welcome Ian! DC/ Alexandria/ NoVa, Family/ Child/ Newborn Photographer

Ok, this photo session happened almost 2 months ago.  My sister gave birth to her first son, Ian.  He was born exactly on New Year's Day!!  I actually drove up 4 hours just so I could photograph this little guy.  He was so tiny.  I actually forgot how tiny newborns are.  He was a dream!!!!!!  I know I've only photographed a handful of newborns, but he was seriously the best!!  He never once cried, which made me want to never stop, but his mom wanted him back eventually.  I hope to see you again soon Ian!!

Mom refused to take pictures, but I twisted her arm to take this one.  

Growing Up - DC/ Alexandria/ NoVa, Family/ Child/ Newborn Photographer

Lately, I've been reminiscing about Hunter's infant stage.  As I've been organizing all our home videos, now that we have two kids, I have been looking through a lot of Hunter's baby videos.  I had no idea how much he has grown and how quickly time flies.  This reminded me that I must take a lot more pictures and a lot more home videos of our kids.  B/c I don't want to miss out on a single inch of growth and development.  Here's to our kids!!

Hunter at 2 yrs and 3 months

River at 5 months and 2 weeks

This girl just loves to laugh and I'm so glad that I have pictures of her beautiful smile! 

Lighting

So a few months ago, my wonderful husband got me a light setup as my push gift.  I know...someone women want jewelry, but no...not me...I prefer camera gear.  haha  At first, this "gift" sat in the garage for a while.  Then one day I had the courage to bust it out and start shooting with it.  Mind you, I know absolutely nothing about lighting so I was a little scared about teaching myself something new, yet again.  Fast forward a few months and I'm still using my 2 yr old son as my guinea pig.  But it's getting easier every time and every time I'm learning something new.