8 months & 28 years

June 20th is probably one of my favourite days. I have always loved having a summer birthday, like really loved it. My childhood parties always consisted of crafts, lots of delicious food, friends, camping in the backyard under the stars and most likely swimming and lounging outside. While I was in high school, it typically included an exam or two, but those days are long gone. I also love the fact that it is half way to Christmas, the presents are evenly spread out over the year,  what more could you want?!

Well, not much has changed. Other than now I have the most beautiful, happy, perfect human being to share it with and I am hanging out on a few fancy shmancy boats and having some adult beverages instead of Kool Aid.

 

(yes, I did photoshop the balloon purple if you must know)

 

All of these photos were taken with my crappy iPhone because guess who brought her camera and forgot that both batteries were at home charging? Yup, you guessed right, me.  

 

 

 

As per tradition, my mom invited over the usual peeps (grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousin, besties...you get the picture) and Lucas drove all the way to Toronto to pick up Mercedes (and our new really awesome bathtub) and brought her home! We had a typical 5 course meal which included my fav fresh homemade manacotti, and ice cream cake. 

As you can see from the photos, my poor baby has not been feeling well. She was such a good girl for the party although I'm sure she was wishing she was at home snuggling with me instead. 

Friday morning we left for the cottage. We met up with some friends for a couple of apps and drinks at the bar and then off we went. When we arrived the first thing we did was hop aboard a friends yacht, yes, I'm going with the word yacht here. This thing is amazeballs. Like 3 levels, with TVs, bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, living room, disco lights...you know, all the essentials.  huge and ridiculous. Larger than some peoples houses kinda big. Anyways, we cruised around then went back and just had a super fun night hanging out by the water. 

supermoon sparkling on the water was so pretty

Saturday was a humid and rainy day. Our good friends bought a new boat, so we spent some time on that, ate lots of food, hung out on the covered porch while it poured rain and relaxed. It was great.

view from the back of the boat into the fog

 

It was the first time leaving our baby for 2 nights! I missed her soooooo much, but she was a little angel and my parents and sisters had an amazing time looking after her. 

Such a great weekend. Thank you to everyone who sent me super sweet texts, calls, emails and messages. You guys rock my sandals off. 

xoxo

I am writting yet another post today...how unbloggerly of me. I apologize in advance. Dolly is on her 3rd hour of napping, because she isn't feeling well and hasn't been sleeping the greatest at night, so I have to do this stuff when I can. Ya know?

I love the process of building a new house. I hate moving. I have moved homes quite a few times in my 28 years. My parent's built and sold and built and sold. We lived in the same home for 11 years while we were all growing up and then the building and moving commenced. It was fun though, seeing it go up, a new house, a new adventure. It wasn't a huge, life changing adventure, considering we never moved out of our lovely little town and didn't have to change schools once. Which us girls much appreciated.

While Lucas and I were planning our wedding, we were also in the process of building our first house. Lucas designed it and contracted it out. He was there a couple times a day to oversee everything. He did an amazing job. The house had 4 bedrooms and I had lots of hopes to have a beautiful nursery in there. That never happened. We moved out of the house and stayed with my parents for a bit, bought a lot (which we will be building on in a couple years), moved into a little rental, had a baby, and are now building another home.

We knew what we wanted to change from the last home. I definitely wanted the kitchen to be WHITE, and the floors to be waaaaay lighter. Those damn dark wood floors look pretty, but sure are a pain in the ass to clean. I spent most of my day with a mop and hardwood spray in hand, because you could see every damn footprint and piece of dust. And the entire house was hardwood. So it took a long time. I am a lover of LIGHT and WHITE and although this house was nice, it was far too dark for my liking.

The NEW house is well underway. We should be in by August 1st, which is both awesome and terrifying. I have a lot to do before than.

The street. I LOVE it! We have never had friendly neighbours and this made me sad, because I love meeting new people and making friends. Our last home, and this one, no one wanted to be a part of that. I'm not too sure why.   I have already met quite a few of the neighbours here and they are SO NICE and inviting! We even received an invite for a Saturday Mojito party. I think we will fit in perfectly. 

We are also going to have a much larger property and a big fenced in back yard for Piper to run around and for me and Dolly to play. 

Since the one thing that we are changing quite a bit is the kitchen, we need a new table and chairs and a few other things. The old one...

We bought it well before we were married, over 4 years ago, and since I had never lived on my own, I didn't really know what I liked. I sure do now.

Chairs and table from Zone

Stainless farmhouse sink

Kenmore fridge/freezer

What is your favourite room in your home? Mine is probably not the kitchen, since I fail quite miserably in the cooking department. That gene skipped past me, which sucks.  I do enjoy a nice looking kitchen for when I am baking though ;)

Cali Part I

We left for Cali on Monday May 27th. Ellia was an angel and slept almost the whole time. The first flight was 1.5 hours and the second 6.5. It was a long day. All 7 of us piled into the Suburban we rented and off we went to meet Mercedes and her boyfriend TJ who were already there. 

We did a lot of relaxing and hanging out in the pool and hot tub. We ate a lot of delicious food and went shopping.  It was glorious. 

Poor Ellia was a little off with the whole 3 hour time difference and woke up A LOT during the night. It's okay, we were in paradise and everyone was playing with her and helping out during the day. She loved the pool and basically sang and danced with her Auntie Mercedes the whole time. 

I didn't take too many photos, which always annoys me when I get home. When your full time job is holding a (really heavy) camera all day, sometimes you just want to put it down and give it a break. Well, I do anyways. Here are some of my favs from the first few days.

 

My daddy in the pool is huge, he hates water and can't swim (even though he always had a pool growing up)

OMGEEEE I LOVE this place...wish we had one.

 Okay guys, that's enough of a photo overload for one day. But stay tuned for some lame photos of our mini photoshoot. Also, the day that we got to meet a lovely Instagram friend and her gorgeous little lady.

California - Where the love affair began...

Anyone who knows me, (or follows me on IG) probably knows that I L.O.V.E southern California. I have been going every year, once or twice since my first year of university in the winter of 2004. My best friend Katie's wonderful Daddy and step mom live there and have a gorgeous home in Dana Point. That's in OC, really close to Laguna Beach for those that don't know where it is.  Every year Katie, Alex and I go for a week, we shop, we go to the beach and the pool, we eat delicious food and drink lots of cherry Coke Zeros. 

We had a lot of amazing times...

 Like photoshoots by the pool...

 

 on the boat...

 on the balcony...

 in the house...

The time that we went to Beverly Hills and stayed in the house that was once owned by marilyn monroe and joe dimaggio (and is now owned by some family members of Katie's step mom)...

                then we went to a bar and hung out with Wilmer Valderrama and made lots of friends...

 

went shopping...

bought a few pairs of Uggs...

went to Vegas...

 

didn't pay for one drink or wait in line...

 and went for the 4th and had a photoshoot in the park wearing matching outfits and used a tripod to take photos of the 3 of us together. 

I have so many incredible memories of California with my 2 favourite people. I love looking back and seeing how lucky I am to have such great friends and to have had all of these wonderful opportunities. 

I wanted my whole family to visit too so they could see how awesome it was and then want to move there. So a few weeks ago, we packed up Ellia, my parent's and sister's came with us, and we had an amazing time. That's all for the next post.

update time

Well, it has been over a month since I blogged. Mega FAIL. 

Between working so much, our California vacay, preparing to move AGAIN and my poor babes not sleeping well and being sick, I haven't had a whole lotta time. 

On May 25th I shot my first wedding of the season. I made the decision last year when I found out I was pregnant to only shoot 3 weddings this season. I basically chose 3 ladies who had contacted me, that I already knew, and I couldn't be more happy with my decision. I love weddings. I love going to them, photographing them, decorating them...you get the point. But it's a lot of work. Not only is it a 12+ hour day, it's hours and hours of loading files, going through photos, editing, posting galleries, making albums and I knew it would be much more difficult with a baby, and it is.

I have known Caitlyn since we were 4 years old. We went to school together until grade 8 where we then went to separate high schools and universities. Living in the same town, we had run into each other now and than and always chatted. I photographed her sisters family numerous times and was over the moon excited when she booked me for her engagement photos and weddings. She met her super handsome groom Ross while visiting Ireland. It is truly one of the best love stories ever, and these two could totally be in a movie about it. They are GORGEOUS!

I can't wait to edit this wedding and post all of the gorgeousness.