Happy Valentine’s Day!  I had such a fun time taking pictures of my own valentines that I couldn’t resist sharing a few.  Or considerably more than a few.  Forgive this photographer as she slips into adoring mother-mode:).

The baby valentine (On a side-note, is it weird that my barely 5-month old thinks he can crawl and sit up?  He can’t quite manage it completely, but he sure thinks he can.):

The little valentine (She is beyond excited to hand out her valentine cards at church today and roams around the house randomly bursting out in exclamations of, “I love you more than chocolate!“):

Okay, the one on the right just kills me:).

The middle valentine (Super sweet, and so hard to get a real expression out of now.  We caught a couple, though.):

The big valentine (So beautiful, but so, so crazy for candy.  We managed to tame a little valentine sweetness out of her for a second.):

And a little more like reality:

Yep, that’s my girl!

If you made it this far, I commend and thank you!  Hope your Valentine’s Day is full of sweetness, hugs, and, kisses–candy or otherwise.

…and this is pretty much how we all feel about it:

When I asked baby girl at the airport if she was excited to go home and sleep in her own bed, she answered with a resounding, “No!”

“Well, where do you want to go?”

“I wanna go at another Hawaii!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Ah, baby girl, I don’t blame you.  We had a wonderful time visiting with my parents on Kaua’i.  We almost didn’t make it, as our itinerary changed without our knowledge and we missed our flight out.  Five hours, many phone calls, and a couple of really helpful employees of both United and Alaska Air later we were on our way.  We stopped over in Seattle and stayed the night at my parents’ home (we got to see some old friends and my little sister for a few hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and arrived in Hawaii 24 hours late, but not too worse for wear.  The girls are all great travelers and Jack slept much of the various flights.  Even so, the return trip home was a little brutal–leaving Hawaii at 11:30 p.m. Friday night and getting in to Albany at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday.  I was feeling pretty much done with travel for a looong time.  However, walking out to the car in 10-degree temperatures had a little part of me thinking, “I wanna go at another Hawaii too!”

I’ve just now had a chance to catch my breath and am starting to return phone calls and emails.  A couple of galleries are due to go out, and they should be up tonight or tomorrow morning.  I am excited for all the babies I have coming up this month and can’t wait to meet them.  Keep checking back for both newborn yumminess and the little bit of warmth I was able to capture and bring back from our trip!

Despite the cold, it’s good to be home:).

I just wanted to give a heads-up that I will be on vacation for the next week.  I will have access to email and voicemail, so you four mamas who are due any day now are welcome to give me a call as soon as your little ones make their arrivals and I will get back to you right away.  All other emails and phone calls will be returned the first of February.

On a side note, my littlest baby girl turned three today.  I do not know where the time has gone.  What a pure delight these past three years have been.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you two is terrible–two is pretty much the honeymoon period of parenting–goofy faces, silly sayings, burgeoning independence, something new learned everyday.  Three, on the other hand, well… let’s not think about that right now:).

Anyway, what’s a blog post without images?  Well, boring, but that’s probably best left a rhetorical question.  We snagged a few quick shots before running out the door this morning.

I can almost hear the giggle in this one:

JuJuBe, just love you more than chocolate!   Happy Birthday, big girl!

Oh, Baby Boy! I just love you so much–from your tippy-toes to your cute little chin (all 3 of them!). I had a session Saturday, stay tuned for a sweet 6-month old little girl in my next post, and decided to leave my equipment up so I could do a little mini-session with Jack. I cannot believe he is 4 months already. I can hardly stand it.

Just wanted to share the sweet face I find staring up at me all too often at 12:00 a.m. And 1:00. And 2:00. And… well, you get the picture.

Love this little giggle!

We have just discovered how fun toes can be:).

And, oh, I cannot tell you how utterly happy this last one makes me.  That’s my sweet, squishy, smiley boy!

Love you, Peanut!

Sooooo happy.  Giddy, really.  Almost inexplicably so.  Just a silly, goofy grin every time I walk by my little Christmas present to myself:).

I had this image of Jack printed as a 24×36.  You can see said goofy grin in this snap my darling husband took for me:

Yes, Jack’s head in the photo is 3+ times bigger than it is in real life right now.  And yes, I was a bit nervous it might look strange or minimize his tininess at the time, but it really doesn’t.  It’s just beautiful!  For all the anxiety that printing big can sometimes cause (Do I have enough wall space?  Is it going to be overpowering?  Will I regret ordering a print that big?), I can honestly say I have never wished I had printed smaller.  If anything, I just get more excited to order more prints.  That reminds me, I have 4 or 5 more large images that are all ready to go, but never seem to get ordered in between placing client orders… :).

On another note, my husband and I first saw this little piece of genius when our first sweet girl was almost a year old.  Every time I have another baby, it comes rushing back to me and pretty much defines my life right now.

I am doing the best I can to function on super-limited sleep (let’s just say that despite his myriad wonderful qualities, Jack is NOT a sleeper), but I appreciate patience as I continue to occasionally do things like send emails and forget the attachments.  At least the majority of my wonderful clients are experiencing the same phenomenon, and most of the others remember it.  Let’s call it a bonding exercise, ‘kay?

Oh, I just realized I included two self portraits in this post;).