Well, the first two are mine anyways. That is Ms. Amelia, age 18 months, feeding bug-the-dog. The second is my Elijah, age 5, though he is six now, and his best friend Robertito. How cute are they? They are almost always that sweet-except when they are crying and telling each other they are not best friends anymore. But that is how you roll when your six, right? The rest are children from the neighborhood.

On nice days, we sit outside in the sun and watch all the children running around and I *usually* have my camera with me.  For those of you who have not heard it a million times before, we live in cohousing, which is a little near-utopian neighborhood where all the kids can run outside and in and out of everyones houses, having fun and being safe. The whole community is based on the idea that we have lost that essential need in our lives to have supportive people around us-especially as we are raising kids. Ameila basically has a second mother here. Elijah has a bunch of different adults he can go to for different things. Like he will go to one person when he needs help with a science experiment, another who teaches him gardening, and one that kicks the soccer ball around with him. So all that pressure that we have as parents in our society today is a little bit alleviated. And I really needed that last year when my baby was almost too much for me to handle on my own. It is really wonderful, and I feel so grateful to live here. Oh, and no one cares if your 1 year old is walking around with no clothes on:)

I will no doubt be posting tons and tons of photos of these kids this summer. It is just too hard not to. I am a children’s photographer, and the kids here are so free and happy, and the houses are all different wonderful colors and we are right near the foothills. So, I feel like I have to take pictures.

Expect lots and lots of blog posts next week. I have 6 sessions this weekend(4 of them are mini sessions:).  Cross your fingers that this snow that hit Boulder today is gone by tomorrow!

So, I do not talk about it that much. I usually don’t tell my clients about my other business, as I do not want to seem spammy.  Photography is truly my first love. Other than being with my two little ones, I am never happier than when I am behind the camera and capturing moments that really mean something. But, six years ago, after my son was born, I created the Karma Baby Sling. It is a super easy to use baby carrier that allows you to carry your newborn, infant, or toddler in 5 easy carrying positions (can you tell how many thousands of times I have said THAT sentence:). We make them in organic and designer fabrics, BUT, we are moving towards all organic.  We were asked to feature our slings on Zulily.com, and realized it was the perfect opportunity to move out all of our old non-organic inventory and begin to manufacture ONLY organic slings.

It has been a super exciting morning. A good sales day on our regular site would be to sell like 15 slings. Zulily is selling 1 every MINUTE! It is crazy! They are very discounted, and that is why, but still. I am sitting here watching the sales behind the scenes and my jaw keeps dropping. I am excited to see a thousand new babies being loved and carried in the sling I created.

So, here are a few of our first images for Karma Baby. That first one is of Elijah, 8 months, and I. He was such a sweetheart! The third one is of Elijah and I when he was 2 years old. We wore him in the sling ALL the time until he was about 2 1/2. He was just the kind of baby that loved being close to me all the time. Amelia, my second, is the kind of baby that loves to be down and roaming around-and getting in to things. Though, to be honest, at 18 months now, we still have to put her to bed in the “night-night sling.”

Either way, I just wanted to share this other part of my life with everyone today.

xoxo stacey

*photos 1, 2, & 4 by David Dieneer. 3rd photo by Andrew MacLean

So here is my sweet Amelia. Creative idea, I know. I got it from my very favorite photographer, Jinky Art, whose work is just amazing! I thought I should just post one photo today, as I have had a super busy week of shooting and will be gone for the next week for a photography conference. So excited! So much to learn. So, for now, here is my sweet baby.

Yep. This is MY baby. And I love this photo.  So many songs come to mind… “I’ve got the whole world, in my hands,” I’m on the top of the world and looking down on creation,”It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears.” Anyways, I tried to do my own kids Christmas photos VERY last minute. Got them all dressed, grabbed a few things, and it was WAY, way too cold. Like crazy cold.  They lasted a minute and we had to leave. I will try again this week, though, as it is supposed to be 60 all week, whoot! So, more to come of my beautiful little family…

Well, this little collage has been sitting on my desktop for TWO months.  Seriously, I do not know why, but one blog post takes me like 1-2 hours. Amelia is already 14 months, and we are quickly moving into winter, so I thought I would get at least a few up before it was too late and I never would. We had the BEST birthday party. Everyone came-family, former clients, neighborhood kids, friends from college. We had the slip and slide and dress up and cake. Life is good.

And tell me Amelia is not just beautiful? I love her so much, I am not sure there is enough space in my heart for it. She is so rambunctious, full of life, ALWAYS testing me, pushing boundaries. She is going places. I did buy a leash for her. I will try not to use it too much.

My favorite one is of her in her tutu, hands up lackadaisically on her head, foot pointed upwards, flirting with the older boy. This is a glimpse into my future. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the baby in the belly in the last photo is almost two months already. Sigh, at least I got these up!

As for the mini session sneak peaks, those are coming! I know, people have been waiting. My vacation set me back quite a bit, and now it seems like every single person in Boulder has this awful cold. Including my own kids. More to come later today, though!

Well, Mexico was fun, and relaxing. Let me tell you though, it is not easy to travel with a baby. Well, not just any baby, MY baby. She is just so full of life and energy, which is fabulous, but does not fair well when traveling on a plane. In the middle seat. When separated from your husband and other child. I can not figure out why on earth U.S Airways would put our five year old son in a totally different area of the plane than us. I see a disgruntled email coming their way soon…

Either way, we made it there, and once we were there we were able to let loose and have fun. Elijah was obsessed with swimming in the pool. All day, every day, we sat by the pool and watched him doggy paddling around in his little swimmies. So sweet. He did not care for the beach or ocean though. Amelia LOVED the ocean, and would run along the beach whenever we gave her the chance.

I did an awesome zip lining/repelling adventure with my dad, and that was incredible! As I walked up to the first VERY deep and long canyon I was shaking. I was not sure if I could do it, but I knew I just had to go for it. The photos do not do it justice, but it is was HIGH. And FAST. And a ton of fun. We floated over jungle, repelled down waterfalls-it was amazing. Adam was supposed to go with my dad, but ended up getting his foot smashed by a 300lb boulder while on a jungle hike the day before, so I got to go. I do love stuff like this. I have jumped off 70 ft cliffs in Greece, I climbed the first flatiron and repelled down the back in a lightening storm-I am scared, but I love to do it in spite of my fear.

As for the photos, thanks Gino for the great pics! And no, my shorts were not that short, they just got hiked up. Yes, my flip flops are taped to my feet. What are you gonna do? At least I look hot in the helmet.  Anyways, you must do this if you ever go to Puerto Vallarta! Such an adventure.

I am just having a hard time time. We knew this was coming. Freckles is such an old dog-15 years old. We got her two years ago when my mother in law passed away. And we knew several weeks ago that this was it, but I am so sad today. We will be putting Freckles to sleep this evening. I have been trying to do research all morning on how to help her die, how to help my five year old with this transition, and overall just how to get it together. I read that dogs can pick up on their owner’s emotions during euthanasia, and I want her to go peacefully. We are having the vet come to our home, and I hope we can make it a decent experience for her.

After school I am planning on spending time with Elijah coloring pictures for Freckles and writing her a letter that we can read out loud to her before she passes. It you have any other ideas please email me.

Anyways, I am slipping further and further behind with my work and am just not going to worry about getting back to people today. I just need to give myself some space with this and let myself grieve. So, if you have time to think about Freckles around 5pm today, please send her some good energy.

xoxo

stacey

Thanks Kim for the beautiful photo of Freckles. It captures just who she is. Isn’t she the sweetest dog?

So, I did not update you all in my last post (since it was oh-so-very-long) about what ended up happening with my birthday. As you may remember, my husband did not really remember my birthday. Even though I reminded him about 10 times bc I am so tired of having a big fight every year when he forgets.

He scrambled around the day of, and was not able to find a babysitter for that evening, so he told me he had a “big surprise” planned for Saturday night. I asked my nanny that day if Adam had called her to ask her to babysit, and the answer was yes, he did call her on my actual birthday. Okay, whatever, he had 3 days to plan something fabulous and to get me that great gift. Did anyone call him and tell him I wanted the 85mm 1.4? No. No one told him. And he did apparently did not remember that it is customary to get gifts for the love of your life on her birthday. He just totally forgot. He is REALLY bad at this. To be fair though, our lives are just crazy right now. We have a very active 1 year old, a five year old, a new house, a house we are renting out, he works like 50 hours a week, and I have two businesses I run. So it may not have been in the cards to have the best birthday ever.

We ended up going to Denver, had a great dinner, then went to a dive bar and played darts. No gift. We *almost* bought me an Ipad, but I decided against it, I just don’t think I would use it enough. So in the end, this will not go on record as the best birthday ever. Maybe next year I can just plan the birthday myself and we would be a lot happier.

And bc no post is complete without a photo…

…they are mine, and I love them.

We went on a hunt for a praying mantis that I had seen earlier in the prairie during the maternity shoot I did today. We did not find it, but Elijah and I are now planning an entire habitat now for a praying mantis and hope to catch one soon. Either way, a good time.

I have the most beautiful baby in the world. She really is, I just adore her. She is such a bright part of my life, how did I get so lucky? And we live in utopia. Really, I think we are some of the luckiest people in the world. This is our front yard-filled with sunflowers and vegetables. Our front yard. I don’t know, I just feel like I really lucked out in this life. Not just where I live (Boulder is good), but my children, our friends, my husband, my ability to take photos that people like…I got really lucky this time round’. Hope I can keep up the good karma.