![]() Isabella *She is Beautiful!* On April 20th, my little baby girl will be 5 years old. Whoa. The last 5 years have been a total whirlwind... An emotional roller coaster of love - *sings the Ohio Players 1975 hit song*. When I found out I was pregnant I was in shock. When I felt her kick for the first time I was in awe. When I saw her for the first time I was in love. Isabella is an amazing girl. She is full of expressive energy that can be seen through every face she makes. I have definitely photographed plenty of them. She has a huge heart that shines so bright with every smile! And I just can't get enough of that giggle!! :) Never in a million years could I imagine my life any different than the way it turned out. I feel so blessed to have Isabella in my life. She is my constant reminder that every day is a new day, a special one, and that the same goes for the people we meet. She reminds me to slow down, be patient and always stop and smell the roses! I made this video to celebrate her 5 years of life, and all of the joy she has brought into mine.
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![]() My Mom :) *She is Beautiful!* My last blog post was about mother-daughter relationships. This theme has also been present in a couple of the other posts I've written. This is because I cannot stress enough how important it is to have some sort of mother-daughter bond to strengthen us as we get older. Growing up, I've had a very strong bond with my mom. She is one of the most amazing women I know! Full of strength, full of love, and definitely full of beauty! She has taught me a lot of important life lessons that I still hold true to this day. She is the reason I'm so true to who I am, and the reason I know how to stand my own ground. I'm truly lucky to have an amazing mom that supports and loves me. I hope that one day my daughter will look at me with the same amount of love, respect and graciousness as I do for my mom. So, I would like to say thank you to my mother. Thank you for being such a huge part of my life and always calling me to tell me you love me and your proud of me. Thank you for always being there to make me smile and to kiss my boo-boos when I'm hurt. Thank you for showing me how to be strong and how to love with my whole heart. To all the other moms who are showing their daughters that it's ok to be yourself... Thank you. "Fathers be good to your daughters. ![]() *They are Beautiful!* "How do I look?" - This is a question that we often ask. We are asking others a question we should be answering ourselves. We often seek the approval of those around us in hopes to fit a stereotypical genre of 'beauty' that society is trying to form. What we should be doing is stop focusing on appearances so that we can start focusing on what's important in ourselves, as well as others. I just recently read a quote from actress and mother, Jada Pinkett Smith. After her daughter, Willow, shaved her head she was asked by a reporter why she let her do it. This was her response: "The question why I would LET Willow cut her hair. First, the 'LET' must be challenged. This is a world where women, girls, are constantly reminded that they don't belong to themselves; that their bodies are not their own, nor their power, or self determination. I made a promise to endow my little girl with the power to always know that her body, spirit, and mind are HER domain. Willow cut her hair because her beauty, her value, her worth is not measured by the length of her hair. It's also a statement that claims that even little girls should have the RIGHT to own themselves and should not be a slave to even their mother's deepest insecurities, hopes, and desires. Even little girls should not be a slave to the preconceived ideas of what a culture believes a little girl should be..." What an amazingly accurate statement. This is exactly what this True Beauty project is about. I obviously don't personally know Jada Pinkett Smith or her daughter Willow. But, after hearing her words spoken so true, I would love to one day photograph them for my project. I believe we are all born as a blank canvas. As we grow up and learn from lessons we are molded and shaped into who we will become. The people in our lives have the ability to create art in the form of a human. When we reach a certain age, we are handed the tools and materials we need to continue our own masterpiece. We gain control of the illustration that will be our future. At that moment, we choose what kind of painting we want to be. My family has played an incredibly influential role in my life-canvas. They have been a huge influence in who I am. Let's just say they've dumped a few paint buckets on my life.
There are some people in our lives that are not born into our family, but become a part of our family. (There will be a few more blog posts about these people in my life because there are a few too many for one post.) One family that has became very close with mine is the Wheatley Family. My step-mom babysat all three kids, Samantha (Sammie), Griffin, and Jordan from when they were babies. This family is truly a beautiful one. Kelly and Pat make two incredible parents to their awesome kids. The few things that I love about them is how they let their kids be who they are and fully accept them for it, they always have big smiles on their faces and have plenty of laughs to share. How lucky I feel to know them! <3 ![]() *She is Beautiful!* I met Dani in July 2007. She was VERY pregnant with her first daughter, Abigail. I immediately loved her and knew that she, along with her husband George, was someone to keep in my life. We're two artsy girls with a love for photography, how could we not be buddies?! When I went to visit her in the hospital after delivering Abi, she joked with me saying, "When are you going to have a baby??!". I laughed it off thinking that it was something totally out of my near future. Low and behold, 9 months later, my daughter was born. I'm pretty convinced in her newly mothering state that she had a sixth sense.. The I-can-tell-you-are-going-to-be-a-mom sense. The past 5 years have flown by, with Dani and George having 2 more daughters, Autumn and Avery. They are growing up way too fast! Although we don't get to see each other nearly enough, the times we do see each other are always full of motherly bonding, hilarious children playing, and so much happiness. She is one of the greatest women I know. She has not only been raised as a beautifully strong woman, but she is also raising her daughters the same way. Talk about a role model! One of the most incredible miracles of life is the creation of it. Becoming a mom has been such an amazing experience. Not only am I shaping the life of another, but I now have someone else helping to shape my life. I saw a quote a few months ago that was from a mother to her child that said: "No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you. After all, you're the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside." I think that is a perfect description of what motherhood is like. Megan Megan and I have been friends for seven years now. We went through 2 years of college together, both studying photography. She was there for me after my daughter was born, and now I'm excited to be there for her during her journey into motherhood. She has been an amazing friend and an important part of both my life and my daughter's. I'm so lucky to have a friend like Megan. I took her True Beauty picture when she was about 4 months along. A BIG congratulations to Megan and her husband Dan, on the birth of their beautiful baby boy, Dexter James. I am so excited for you two!! Here is a picture of the adorable Dexter, who weighed a whopping 10 lbs. 4 oz. and was 23 in. long!! Kristy Another (soon-to-be) mom that I was so excited to photograph this past weekend was the lovely Kristy. Growing up, Kristy lived right across the street from my family and was best friends with my oldest sister, Leslie. Since the beginning, when her and Leslie would organize talent shows with all the neighborhood kids, I knew she would make a great mom. Not only does she have a smile that can light up a room, but she also has a heart of gold!
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