Down Syndrome Awareness Month {Arlington, VA Photographer}

It's Down Syndrome Awareness Month, so my family participated in the Down Syndrome Buddy Walk for Northern VA this weekend.

My girls had a blast.

Ellie's highlights were petting and hugging a llama, then taking a selfie with it*, jumping in the bounce house, and receiving a medal as a VIP which she promptly shared with her new goat friend.

Caroline's highlights were dancing and then being super sleepy in her stroller and missing the rest of the fun.

*The llama may be an alpaca.  Not sure.

Another Family Share.

I'll be back later this week posting sessions with clients, but for now, a couple shots of my own kids picking apples.  We went out to Homestead Farm and had a great time, brought home about 16 pounds of apples, and have been busy making apple pie/apple sauce/apple chili/apple butter/apple everything!

Enjoy this taste of fall!

A Special Connection {McLean, VA Family Photographer}

A not very secretive secret: I have a special place in my heart for babies with Down syndrome.

I have an extra-special place in my heart for babies with Down syndrome and lots of medical needs, because once upon a (long) time ago, that described my now

healthy

daughter with Down syndrome.

I was excited to capture this sweet family of five, with whom I'd originally connected through our local Down syndrome group.

They are beautiful and wonderful.  And dealing with a lot of medical equipment for their baby.  But someday, they'll have a child free of tubes and wires, probably flushing toys down the toilet or tattling on her siblings, and they'll look in wonder at these pictures from this time and wonder how they got from point A to point B.

This family was so warm and affectionate toward each other.  The big kids both treated their baby sister so gently.

"Of these, three remain.  Faith, hope and love.  And the greatest of these is love."

Thank you so much for a wonderful session, for welcoming me into your home, and for letting me capture this season.

Look Out Kindergarten! {Arlington, VA Children's Photographer}

Here comes Ellie!

After three years of pre-K, she's off to Kindergarten in September.

She has grown up so much since she started preK at just two and a half years old!  We dropped a health form off at her new school earlier in the week and the entire walk there and back was a chorus of "Kindergarten!  I'm ELLIE and I'm going to KINDERGARTEN!  Is this Kindergarten?  Where is Kindergarten, Mommy??"

Make sure those milestones don't sneak by without photos.

No one will miss what year this photo was taken, either - note the Dory shirt.

Booking now for the rest of 2016 - just

email

me!

Snow Days.

We are totally snowed in.

Two feet of snow in our street snowed in.

We live in a cul-de-sac and aren't likely to be priority for early dig out snowed in.

So I've been photographing my girls, although mostly in our house.  When we're outside, I'm too busy prepping sled runs and building snowmen and lugging around little people who can't walk through snow up to their waists to carry my camera.

This is my house these days:

Pre-dawn coloring with my oldest.  Caroline, the baby, was set to be baptized on Sunday, but we couldn't get to church.  She wore her dress just for fun on Monday instead.

Contact me via email or the contact form to schedule your indoor winter lifestyle session or your spring session outside with flowers and sunshine!

Lately + Snow.

I'm opening my schedule for family photography in February and on, but until then, I'm enjoying photographing my own sweet kids.

And keeping it real, with more lifestyle photos that winter seems to require.

Days spent inside, cold weather, kids either happy to play or frustrated with each other or laughing.  (And mostly pictures of the baby - Ellie prefers to be behind the camera these days!)

But real.

Along with my regular outdoor family, child, and high school senior portraits, I'm booking a few lifestyle sessions in Northern Virginia this winter.

And if you want photos with this snow in the background, contact me ASAP!  All snow sessions are dependent on weather/plows/roads/snow melt.

Happy snow days, local friends!