My beautiful Sophie...

I have completely been failing in my blog challenge the last few days. To be honest, it's been hard to get out of the house this last week as we have been working on my baby girl's naps. It's a whole long story, but it's very hands-on, so it's hard to get out for more than 30 mins to 1 hour at a time right now. Hopefully as we continue on with this, her naps will get better and consistent, and I can once more venture out into the world. We feel like today was a pretty good day actually, so we're hoping that we've made some breakthrough!

So I'm postponing my current blog challenge and seeing if I can come up with something else right now that won't require me to leave the house!

During one of Sophie's awake times last week I was able to do another little shoot with my darling baby. She seriously is the light of my life and her smile makes my day. I never knew how amazing it would be to be a parent and have so much love for such a small bundle of cuteness. She's so much fun! Here are my favourite pictures from the shoot (in case you didn't already catch them on facebook!):

a portrait a day... Day 10=Samuel

And so concludes my nieces and nephews!

Samuel is about to turn four years old in February and he is quite the sweetie. He has gorgeous long eyelashes and like to jump off of things, onto things and into things! He speaks slowly annunciating every word as if he is making sure to say everything he wants to say correctly. He's such a sweet cousin to Sophie, holding her hand and touching her very gently. He's such a sweet little boy.

a portrait a day... Day 9=Noah

When I started this blog challenge, my newest nephew, Noah, wasn't even born yet! He was born 4 days after I started it on Jan 20th, at 7:25pm, exactly 4 months after his cousin Sophie. His full name is Noah Robyn Daniel and he loves to sleep and cuddle with his mummy and daddy. He is still getting used to the world and just celebrated his first week birthday. He has a cute little newborn squishy face which to me definitely has a good mix of Stebel-Burtness elements. He is excited for when his cousin Sophie and his Uncle John and Aunty Marie come visit soon. I took this photo via Skype when we met him for the first time. I just love technology.

a portrait a day... Day 8=Jaidan

Have been falling behind in my blog.... have had a few busy days.

And realised I didn't blog about my nephews on John's side of the family. So I present Jaidan Piercey! He is 7 years old and is a big goof. He loves to play Super Mario Brothers on the Wii and loves cuddling his first cousin Sophie. He was really quite the sweetest cousin to her over Christmas time wanting to hold her and wanting her attention to be on him only! He likes things to be organised and wants to do things in order. He's a pretty smart kid, is already reading pretty well and knows how to play Monopoly Deal! He's a lot of fun.

Blog Challenge no. 2 = 100 steps from our mailbox

Here's my blog challenge no. 2. I walk 100 steps from various locations around Redding, stop and take photos of what I see.

This afternoon, I went for a 2 mile walk with John and Sophie to Cash and Carry to buy yummy syrups to add to our coffee beverages. We bought caramel, vanilla and pumpkin pie. This last fall season got me buying lots of yummy pumpkin flavoured lattes. So good. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, the perfect temperature, and we had a great time pushing Sophie in the stroller and getting some good connecting time. Walking to shops or parks or restaurants is one thing I miss about living in Europe where everything is so much closer together so it's easier to walk more.

After not finding a whole lot the first 100 steps, we decided to walk another 100 steps where I got a few more shots. The first 100 steps:



I couldn't resist posting this of my gorgeous baby:



The second 100 steps:









Sophie fell asleep like this on the way home:

a portrait a day... Day 7=Sylvie

Sylvie was born just 2 months before Sophie so she is around 6 months old. Again I feel so lucky that Sophie has another cousin close in age to her. We were able to go up and meet little Sylvie when she was 2 weeks old and I took this photo of her. She now has a crazy amount of hair, so long that they can put it in pigtails and she looks a lot like her older brother, who likes a lot like their mum, Tracie. We're heading up to Tacoma again to visit the family in February and we're all so excited to put the little cousins together to hang out!

a portrait a day... Day 6=Isabelle

Isabelle is now almost 5 months old, she was born 3 and a half weeks before Sophie. It was really fun being pregnant with my sister-in-law, Beth, and now we have little babies less than a month apart. She has an adorable little smile and an amazing blonde mohawk. She makes cute little cooing noises and even has the cutest cry. This picture of her is when she was just a few hours old. I was honoured to get be at her birth and take the first photos of this gorgeous little girl.

a portrait a day... Day 5=Sophie

I wanted to do Sophie today as today (well, yesterday, I'm a day late) is her 4 month birthday! I can't believe she is 4 months old already. As everybody was warning me, it really does go by so fast. She is the light of my life and my little angel bear. She is super friendly and will smile at anyone. She loves to be out and about looking at lights, and likes to be held up high in the air. Her cousins, Emma & Adi, will tickle her until she giggles and she loves to interact with them.

I've posted this photo before but I just love it. It truly is her personality.

a portrait a day... Day 4=Chloe

Day 4 is my niece Chloe, who is 4 and a half years old. She makes her fingers come alive and uses them as toys. She loves to twirl and dance and wear princess dresses. She plays with her older brother really well and is quite the little cuddler. She has the cutest voice and reminds me a lot of our mum who passed away 9 years ago. To me, she is definitely a little Bonjour. She is joyful and mischievous, and will always give you a great big Chloe smile.

a portrait a day... Day 3=Adi

Adi is 4 and a half years old. She loves to wrestle and wear princess dresses. She has the cutest little lisp and loves to live life at her own pace. She loves to cuddle and run her fingers through your hair (which is John's favourite). She lets me take pictures of her and her cute infectious smile. Her blue eyes capture the light amazingly and make such a pretty combination with her platinum blonde hair. What a cutie.

a portrait a day... Day 2=Olivier

I enjoyed so much blogging about my niece, Emma, that I decided to change my blog challenge and to blog about each of my nieces and nephews with photos that I've taken of them recently.

So for day two, I'm blogging about my nephew, Olivier. He turned 6 a few weeks ago and is just one of the funnest little kids. He'll run around looking at everything around him and will also play quietly with lego for ages. He is super creative and is one smart kid. He is a bundle of energy and loves to learn. I took this photo of him when we were visiting my family up in Tacoma. We spent the day in Seattle and sat by the sea and let the kids run around. I think he was spinning around when I took this shot. Love this kid.

a portrait a day... Day 1=Emma

In order to challenge my photography and my blogging, I've decided to set myself up with some challenges for the weeks and months ahead. I'm starting with a week of portraits, where I take a new portrait every day for a week.

I'm starting with my niece Emma...

She will be 6 in February. She just lost her first tooth (bottom middle) and is the cutest little thing. She loves tickling my baby Sophie and making her laugh and smile. She is really intelligent and will talk your ear off. She likes to plan and organise and is full of smiles and giggles. I love that she lets me take photos of her and when I took this one, I just called her name, and she turned around and gave me this smile. Love those dimples.

Here is Emma:

Jan 2011 Favourites

This lens is the one I use almost exclusively and I love it. It's a really simple one but has improved my photography in huge ways. I love my SAM DT 1.8f/50mm lens:



I am SO lucky to get Photoshop for free and was able to upgrade to CS5! This really is a huge part of my photography business so I'm super grateful for this. I love all the fun actions and being able to batch resize/edit hundreds of photos with the touch of just a few buttons.



We just bought this diaper bag two days ago and I love it. It is a Skip Hop design, which is a company run by a couple who are parents, and so they really have amazing ideas. It has great pockets, is completely waterproof, has handles so you can strap it onto your stroller, and is huge, but has an outside zipper that makes it smaller. We flew home yesterday using the bag for the first time and we were able to put all of Sophie's things in it and MORE!



My husband bought me this super cool MacBook Pro Incase cover that I've been eyeing for a while and it's in my favourite colour. I love it:



We also just got this remote for my camera and we are having so much fun with it. It works up to 100 feet away and has 16 different RF channels:



And finally, my goal for this year is to purchase a Canon 5D. I've been saving money from my shoots and I'm just over halfway there to being able to buy a used one.