I knew I was missing these photos from the blog.  Last fall I was so sick I only posted about half my family portrait sessions. But there is no way for me to go back to see which ones because when I do post, I post every day or almost every day.

So I am glad I found these, because he was such a happy little guy at this session. I got about 200 photos of him just laughing and smiling-he was in that great of a mood. Here are a just a few of my favorite photos.

Today was a good day overall. I am feeling really healthy and good today, though my doctors are still messing with my meds so who knows? I saw my beautiful friend’s baby Indira today and SO wanted to take photos of her, but realized I left my camera in Boulder. If I could have a session every night, I would be a happy photographer. If my office manager could come back from vacation (only two more days!) then I could actually shoot every day and not go crazy. During the holiday, I actually do end up shooting seven days a week some weeks. Sometimes 10 or 12 a week, it is that crazy in Boulder. So, I just have to be totally healthy by then, and hire a live in maid and nanny and I will be all set.

Hmmmm, what good news to share today? I guess my best news is when I have something to talk about that gives me fire in my belly, and I didn’t have that today. So I would say the happiest part of my day was cooing and loving my best friend’s 8 week old baby. Yeah, babies are good news.

xoxo stacey

Just a super quick post tonight. Yes, I am going to bed at 9pm. I had a great and busy day. I wore myself out. I made a new friend, showed our house to a few people (we are renting out our gorgeous, light filled, 4 bed/4bath, north-central Boulder home which is like a treehouse if anyone is interested), talked with a bunch of my clients, answered emails, played with my two little ones, and then this. All in all, a good day.

I am feeling better, seeing a lot of doctors, and shooting a bit (being a photographer is what makes me happiest, well-my children make me happiest of course and then being a photographer, but that really does go without saying).

I have been photographing this family since Matthew was a baby. For some reason I did not post his two year photos, but I remember doing them, so here are his 10 Months photographs and then 2 more here and here from this session. I will have to dig up those 2 year photos and post them tomorrow. Anyways, I love this family, and love seeing Matt grow up.  I can’t wait to see what he is like at four. He was pretty serious at this session, but we still got some giggles out of him.

That’s all for tonight.

xoxo stacey

First off, this is the BEST family. I love them. They are so good to me and always think of me first. And they are so in love. Each one of them with everyone else. I have posted several photos from this session already, but really, it was such a fun session and the photos are so beautiful because there is just so much love, joy, and happiness here. And the children are pretty cute, too. And mom and dad are also gorgeous:) I am so happy they came to Boulder to do photos with me and I hope you guys come back again next year! Maybe with a new baby…? That’s just a hint, I just want to see you have another one:)

So I am feeling MUCH better. Healthy and good and way too thin but that is not the worst problem to have. I tell myself I look like a gorgeous model and that makes me feel better about it.  It is nice in a way, because my illness makes me not want to eat. At all. I have no appetite. It just isn’t there and when I eat I have to make myself, which is not often. So I do a lot of protein smoothies and Green Machines. And the only food I actually like eating right now is oatmeal and yogurt, and that is good for my tummy, so I have that going for me. Seriously, am I a Zen master at always looking at the positive of everything or what? I heard a quote recently by Wayne Dyer:

“Loving people live in a loving world.

Hostile people live in a hostile world.

Same world.”

That’s my motto for the moment.  Choosing the world that I live in. It is a great feeling.

Ok, so I have done a few shoots with this family and it is always fun to break it down with links so you guys can see the photos from all their previous family sessions (and one commercial photography shoot).

1 year of Elodie

Commercial Photography shoot (Holly was totally pregnant for these and you can’t even tell! I gained 55lbs with Amelia)

Maternity Photos (I love these, some of my very favorite pregnancy photos in my portfolio)

Incredibly stunning Elodie (this is from this past family photo shoot-I love the wind blowing back her hair like we staged it with a fan, yet we did not. I am totally serious. No fan.)

Gabriel and Daddy loving each other and having fun (also from this last family session-just a series of the same exact photo yet each photo tells its own unique story about the two of them)

I thought there were more blog posts but it is too late to look for them. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to bed now, at 10:30pm, what do you think of that?

Ok, lots of fun photography family shoots coming up! But the thing I am MOST excited about is a birth I am photographing at the end of the month. Birth photography is such a passion of mine, and I really wish more people valued it. I give a super duper discount for photographing births just because I love it so much. I am also a doula, which I think helps me capture the raw emotion of it all, you know? You should see my birth photos of Amelia by photographer Kim Rodgers, they are stunning.

Maybe more tomorrow, we shall see.

xoxo stacey

Ok, so like I said, if I don’t post every day or almost every day then it probably means I am in the hospital, which I was, and just got out and am fine and lovely and all is good so no need to worry. It was just a side effect of a medication I was on for my old evil witch disease (Crohn’s), and so I am not going to take that med anymore.

The best part, though, of coming home from the hospital, is how enthralled and in love my children are with me and I with them. To work out some of the unconscious worries of mommy being in the hospital again, we made a full out hospital room.

We got one of those tall, stand up fans (as the IV stand) a spatula taped to the top of the fan as the bag of fluids holder. A Ziploc bag filled with dirt as my water and potassium fluids. A piece of dental floss to connect the bag to the spatula,  Then we taped a zillion straws together to be the tubing that went into my arm, and a piece of tape to hold it in place. There. Mama is all better. Tomorrow Dr. Elijah will be patient Elijah and I will take care of him.

He was so sweet, he even massaged my feet with lotion and wrapped them in saran wrap (long story, another side effect from that awful medication).

So right now I am sleeping in my own bed with my two sweet babies and am happy and content and feeling better.

If you have called or emailed me in the last week, now you know why I have not responded. But will try to catch up quickly (but not too quickly) in the next week.

xoxo stacey

ps. how gorgeous is this mother and her sweet little newborn Mary Claire?  And how sweet and chubby is that little baby girl? As always, I will post more when I get some time but here is one of the photos from the mother’s maternity portrait session, which I will, too, post more photos of soon:)

Oh, I am so loving the break in the Boulder heat wave. It is making me feel so much better and happy and alive and just good, you know?  I am so ready for some photography sessions.

Life is good now. The heat got to me more than I knew. I am spending the weekend with my babies and catching up on old work and creating new work and looking forward to some photography sessions coming up. I love how each one brings something totally new and unique and special to that family. It is on the top ten list of things I love as a photographer. I will write that list someday. Not today, but someday.

So meet Lily. She is a beautiful 5 year old little girl whose parents love her to death (can you tell?). She is so happy, vivacious, full of energy, fun, excitement-everything a five year old should be. Go mom and dad. You did something right.

No matter how many times I scold myself for letting my kids watch a movie rather than baking cookies with them, I know that I am doing something right because they are these happy, wonderful little beings that bring joy to whomever they are with. Like Lily, that have that aliveness-that quality of childhood that I see lost in so many children today because they are not getting the time or presence they need from their parents.

Someone told me the other day that she tells everyone that my children are like little angels-with their blond hair and beautiful faces and the kindness that comes from an authentic place-not a place that desires to please someone. I can’t disagree. Could YOU as a parent? I know, I talk my kids up. But I have to. That is my job as their parent. I need to think they are the most wonderful, incredible little people in the whole wide world. And I DO think that. I know every parent does, but for me it is true:) (for those of you that don’t know me, I am just kidding, but not really).

Ok. get off the computer and go enjoy this Boulder weather!

xoxo stacey

ps these photos were taken at Chautauqua in southwest Boulder-It is THE spot to take photos. On any given Saturday morning you will see about 15 photographers out there doing their thing. I ONLY do weekdays there, that’s for sure.

pps, I DID say I woud post more of her photo session and look! I have:)

I am still here! I am not in the hospital, just resting, enjoying the break in the awful Boulder heat wave. Who remembers it being THIS hot in Boulder in June? I DO realize it is July now, but still, even Boulder’s July weather has never been this bad. And who gets hit the hardest? The youngest, the oldest, and those that are sick, sigh.

Anyways, feeling TONS better now that the weather is sooo nice and that stomach bug I had went away and I have a million beautiful photos to sort through and edit and present to my photography clients. I just love it when they see their photos for the first time and sometimes they call me crying because they love them so much. That is on the top ten list of why I love my job.

There are a TON of gorgeous photos from this maternity/family portrait session, and I WILL post more photos (I always promise that, don’t I?). But really, there is this amazing set of photos with the little girl and her big dog in the mountains.I can’t wait to post those.

But I wanted to put up these photos now because they really exemplify what it is like to have a second baby. You get a moment of peace and then you have a little creature crawling all over you.

Don’t get me wrong, it is perfect-wonderful-magical-amazing to have two children, but that moment of peace you see there in the first photo-that really is all it is-a moment. The love from them makes up for it all, though.

Okay, go out and enjoy the 80 degree Boulder weather this weekend-I heard it is supposed to get down to the 60′s even on Monday in Boulder. I can’t wait! More soon, I won’t let so much time pass between photo posts this time.

xoxo stacey