anthony and heather, sittin' in a tree...

i had the priviledge of shooting an engagement session last sunday afternoon. anthony and heather are getting married in september! here's a handful of my favorites. we're still on the lookout for a good graffiti-ed wall though...





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a few favs from our time at the beach...

sand dollars everywhere.

sandy toes.

elijah rode the little four wheeler all by himself...and had a grand ol' time.

sand dollar season.

we went to pismo for a few days last week. we wanted a mini-vacation before the baby comes and while pismo wasn't really my first choice (little cabin in the woods maybe?), i knew the boys would have fun. and despite my reluctance to sleep in a trailer at eight months pregnant, it was well worth the trip. we pretty much had the beach to ourselves...amazing! the boys got to ride dirt bikes/four wheelers and get dirty while i got a ton of knitting done, got to hang out with some wonderful friends and really didn't worry too much about anything. i really appreciated that john got to relax too. it's not very often that he gets away like that...
apparently, it was sand dollar season while we were there. our first morning on the beach, we walked down to the shore break and found a few while we were puttering around out there. a few days later, i took a stroll (ALL BY MYSELF! unheard of opportunity!) down the beach and found hundreds. the beach was simply littered with them. thankfully, i took a bucket with me and brought about five pounds back up to the trailer. i told john when he questioned the necessity of the amount in my bucket, "i just couldn't stop picking them up!". i brought the best ones home with me and have since cleaned them up a bit. i think i'm going to paint a canvas and attach them to it somehow. i'll post pictures if/when i get it done...
all in all, it was an enjoyable trip...one that i'm sure we'll do again.

the pinata story.

this is one of those stories i don't want to forget...that i want to remember and retell when elijah is in high school.


we went over to john's uncle's house on a sunday afternoon for a birthday party. it was a last minute decision to go...it was right during elijah's naptime and both john and i were tired from staying up late the night before (at his birthday barbecue). but, we went anyways. mainly because elijah LOVES going over there. john's uncle has an acre lot (unheard of here) with lots of trees and places for a little boy to play like a little boy should. after we consumed plenty of yummy tacos, the pinata was brought out. elijah had never seen a pinata before but it was bright and colorful so, of course, he was interested. i explained to him the gist of what was going to go on and once it was safely up in a tree, he got to have a whack at it. he was a little shy about the whole thing, so i helped him with the stick, then handed the stick off to the next in line. e and i stepped back to watch from a place i thought was far enough away from the action but close enough to grab some candy once it fell. several kids had their turns, then it was time for the birthday boy (one of them, the party was for a set of twins). he dutifully donned his blindfold and gave the thing a few good whacks. while he didn't break a hole in it, he did succeed in knocking the pinata off the hook it was attached to. there was a mad scramble to put it back up and once it was back in the tree, one of the dad's grabbed the stick, stuck it up into the gut of the pinata and punched a hole in it. (he did this mainly because the pinata didn't look like it would stay put long enough for anyone to whack it open). candy spilled out, flying in every direction, even ours. i got a tootsie pop to the head so i instinctively put my hand over elijah's head to protect him from the same fate (note: tootsie pops coming down out of the sky from ten feet HURT). apparently, my hand wasn't big enough to cover his noggin and he too, had a piece of candy bounce off his head. needless to say, he wasn't too thrilled with that. he cried and cried in my arms, completely missing any and all of the mad candy dash. he was given a bag by a kind-hearted older cousin (who had too much anyways) so he didn't leave empty handed. but this was not the end of the pinata. all week long, he talked about the pinata, getting hit on the head with piece of candy and how much it hurt. so, when i mentioned to him that his cousin jackie's birthday was coming up (it was the following sunday), he insisted that she have a pinata too. i think he wanted to try the whole business again. i was completely out of gift ideas for jackie (what do you get a 17 year old that doesn't cost $300?) so i jokingly mentioned that maybe we should get one for her. of course, elijah loved that idea. that is how a 17 year old ended up with a tinker bell pinata at her birthday party. we let elijah whack it as long as he wanted to. there was no way he was going to break it open though (those things are tough!), especially since the only stick we could find small enough and light enough for him to swing was made out of bamboo. after he had his fill, jackie stepped up to the plate, armed with a bat, ready to do battle. just a few whacks and the pinata gave up its booty. elijah filled his pockets and ate entirely too much candy over the next couple hours. a happy end to his first pinata experience.

just some things on my mind...

1. i'm so annoyed with maternity pants right now. why don't people make maternity pants that fit petite people? seriously. i am so over constantly pulling my pants up. grrr.

2. there is something in our backyard (or our neighbor's backyard) that i'm ridiculously allergic to. every time i go out there, i'm overcome by sneezing and snot. so gross.

3. i finally have enough baby clothes for this baby to do a load of laundry! lots of creams and browns with oranges, reds and greens. trying to stay away from the typical yellow/green combo or too many duckies. it's been hard but i've found some cute gender neutral outfits...enough to last the first month anyways.

4. speaking of baby...i'm completely overwhelmed with the amount of options i have for cloth diapering! oy. i think i'm down to four brands...but how do i know which one i'll like if i can't try them out? these are the ones i'm thinking of: gdiapers (i did these on e for a couple months so they're familiar territory), bumgenius, mother-ease or happy heiny's. each has their good points and each has their bad points. i guess i could just buy one or two of each and see how it goes. but i'd rather not do that...it kinda seems like a waste of money. still thinking on it. not much time left though!

5. more about poop...elijah seems to be suddenly interested in potty training. after seeing our friends' boys, conner and dylan, using the toilet all last weekend while we were in pismo, he seems to think that it's the cool thing to do. lots of encouragement on that front. lots of accidents too. hopefully he won't get bored with it...




6. kinda saddened by this picture when it popped up to be edited in lightroom the other day. this is not the face of a my little boy...oh he's growing up so fast!

a post about our trip to pismo is coming soon...just as soon as i get the pictures edited. also...planning a post all about baby and my bump. hopefully coming this weekend...

baby samari

i had the privilege to shoot a sweet newborn session yesterday. meet tiny samari! she was born a few weeks early and though she's grown quite a bit, she's still itty bitty! and oh so sweet. here's a sampling of my favorites from my time with the webster family.

father and daughter.

just wanted to share this fun shot i grabbed of our neighbor rich and his youngest daugher, kymber. love it!

a sad day in the anaya household...

ok...in the scheme of things...there are sadder days in the world. however, last monday (the 2nd), elijah had his first haircut. those little baby curls on the back of his neck really just had to go. my mom did the honors while john held elijah and i, of course, documented the occasion. we were all a little sad...but it does look better. he really did not enjoy the scissors on his neck; he kept saying, "it burns! it burns!". silly boy.

and yes, i did save the trimmings. :o)

small town carnival...

last weekend was the annual almond blossom festival here in ripon. good times.
it started on friday (well, technically thursday night) but we didn't head over until friday afternoon. elijah, my mom and i walked (elijah rode his bike) over to the park to check out the carnival. e was content to just tool around on his bike; thankfully, he doesn't really get the whole point of carnivals yet, so we didn't have to stick around very long.

saturday morning was the parade, which elijah enjoyed, despite the lack of firetrucks. what's a parade without firetrucks? seriously. after his nap, we all headed back over to the carnival with john so that e could ride some rides. turns out, he wasn't tall enough for any of the ones he wanted to ride (like the motorcycles) so he just rode the train once with daddy and we called it good. i think we got out of there spending less than ten dollars! pretty impressive considering the cost of everything. honestly, e just wanted to ride his bike the whole time...and we were happy to let him. kind of a fun little small town tradition...

ah...bathtime.

good ol' bathtime.
i love bathtime pictures...
but i rarely take them...
for lots of reasons.
mainly: it's the end of the day and i'm tired.
but also because the lighting is bad (the photographer in me)...
and mixing camera and water is never a fantastic idea.
every once in a while though...it has to be done.
like last night.
we let e play with his pretend shaving cream (the greenish soap in the pictures above)...
as in, we didn't stop him when he basically emptied the entire container into the tub.
good times.

look who's here...

that's right...baba and uncle luke are here for a little visit! so, in advance, pardon my blog negligence.

baby peyton.

two newborn sessions in a week! whew. here's a few of my favorites from a session i did yesterday with little peyton.

baby kylie is here!

you may remember troy and rachelle from our photo shoot several weeks ago. their little girl, kylie, was born shortly after our session and i had the privilege of doing her newborn session last weekend. though she wasn't too interested in sleeping much, i was able to grab some sweet shots. here's a few of my favorites...