Wow, I’ve been away for a long time! For ten years I blogged frequently, and now I’m writing for the first time in six months. Of course it has been one of the biggest years of my life, and I have tons of photos and stories that I could have written about. Instead I’ve spent lots of time with Daniel, who grows more adorable and fascinating every day. He is now eleven months old, and active, bright, curious, and affectionate.

I’m on extended maternity leave, but I did do a few client shoots this year. I did some family portraits, maternity sessions, and one wedding. But with a baby who rarely slept and a husband with long work hours, I ended up overwhelmed and exhausted. After Labor Day, I stopped doing any photo shoots, and worked only on albums and print orders for existing clients. Nowadays Danny is sleeping through the night and napping regularly, and I feel much better. I finally have a chance to blog once in a while. Hi!

I haven’t decided yet when I’d like to return to work, and what kind of work I’ll want to do when that time comes. I plan to make some changes to my business structure, because my new life won’t accommodate the long hours and frequent travel anymore. I do miss the adventures and creativity of my photography business, though. We’ll see what happens. For now, I’m loving my new adventures.

At five months old, he was learning to sit up.

Fourth of July

We spent the summer enjoying Lake Anne, the Reston neighborhood that we are so happy to call home.

Danny’s first taste of banana.

We took two beach trips over the summer to Corolla, NC. This was his first time in the ocean. He was scared at first, and then he loved playing the in squishy sand.

Tasting his new toy box

In August, Mike and I traveled to Boston to shoot a wedding. We stayed in a hotel on the harbor during the weekend of Hurricane Irene. Here are before/after pictures.

In September and October we went to two UVA football games with my parents. Danny adores his grandparents. He’s not so sure about football announcers, though.

We added a pontoon boat to our happy lakeside lifestyle. Those of you who have been following my blog for years will be shocked to know that my niece Kenna is now 8. 8! Her brothers are 6 and 4, and all three are as sweet as can be.

At eight months old, Danny would pull up to standing, and then grin proudly while checking to make sure I was watching.

Danny and me at nine months

Our happy family on the boat. If you look closely, you can see Ally peeking out, too.

Rogue sock

Danny with his grandmother. My mom took many of the wonderful photos I’ve posted here.

Danny was was a good sport about Halloween, and hammed it up in his costumes for my amusement.

Ten months old

With my dad

Offering a leaf treasure to my mom

In the ten years that I’ve been blogging, I’ve never been so far behind! My sweet little Daniel is an adorable bundle of pure attention hog. He’s totally worth it, of course, but I do miss blogging. Hello, everyone!

I wanted to make sure that I took the time to blog these photos of Nancy and Jack and their family. Their daughter, Susan, has been reading my blog for a while, and now it’s her family’s time to be featured here. They traveled in to the DC area to celebrate her parents’ 50th anniversary with a weekend of activities. The day of our photo shoot was officially the hottest I’d ever experienced, with a high of 106 degrees and plenty of humidity. They were such a happy, fun family that they grinned through the heat. People with a sense of humor are my favorite kind.

Happy anniversary, Jack and Nancy! I enjoyed getting to know you and learning about the adventures and love that have filled your last 50 years.

Happy Father’s Day to Mike and my dad! Danny and I are so lucky to have such wonderful men in our lives.
I wish a happy Father’s Day to all the other great dads out there. Thank you for all that you do.

May has been a big month for Danny, because his grandparents came from England to visit him! Mike’s parents came for three weeks to spend time with their first grandchild, and I loved seeing Danny cuddling and giggling with them.

Danny gets more fun all the time, and four months is a cute age. He’s still tiny (only 13 pounds), so he’s still small and sweet in my arms. Little toes! Squishy cheeks! Light as a feather! But now he’s at a stage where he still feels like a cuddly newborn, with much more of a personality. He is cheerful and fascinated with everything around him, so I take him out everyday to see the trees, geese, flowers, and people. He loves colorful picture books and sitting at the dinner table. The best part is the giggling. Those open-mouthed, toothless giggles.

Sleeping is still a struggle. It’s easy to get him to bed at night nowadays – he goes down contentedly, and sleeps for about five hours before needing to eat. The hardest part these days is the napping. He refuses to nap, and when he does, it’s only for half an hour. I can spend an hour or two trying to get him to nap for just 26 minutes. It’s amazing how much of my day is devoted to nap efforts – I thought naps were supposed to give me free time, but it’s quite the opposite.

I love cuddling with him during his last feeding before bedtime. He gets sleepy and snuggly in my arms. We expect that someday Daniel will have a little sibling, and I won’t have as many moments like that where it is just him and me. So I appreciate those evening cuddles, because like everything else, they won’t last forever.

With Mike’s parents

With all four of his grandparents

Mike with our niece and nephews, playing with his remote-control sailboat

At the Udvar-Hazy air and space museum

With Mike’s parents and a space shuttle

With my mom

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Hello, wedding planners! I know that lots of you are busy putting together the final touches for your weddings, so I thought it was a great time for me to return to my regular Wedding Ideas posts. I have such a huge collection of photos of wedding details that I love to use them to help inspire people for their own wedding planning.

Here are some helpful links for wedding ideas:
My favorite wedding details of 2010
My full collection of wedding details

The big color of the moment is purple. I saw tons of purple last year, which of course I loved, because it’s one of my two favorite colors. (My own wedding’s color theme was blue and purple.) Here are some photos of purple weddings, with great ideas for dresses, flowers, decorations, and favors. Enjoy!

Bridesmaids in sage green dresses with dark purple shawls

A lavender bouquet for the mother of the bride

An embroidered ring pillow in dusty purple and ivory satin

A flower girl with a purple sash and matching ribbons on her basket

Blue and purple bouquet with roses and hydrangeas

Purple beaded bracelet for the bride

Bridesmaids in purple strapless dresses, with calla lilies tied with purple ribbon

Purple and white bridal bouquet

Purple candy buffet

Wedding invitation in lavender with a monogram and an illustration of the venue

Bridesmaids in indigo blue dresses with purple bouquets

Wedding reception with purple chair decorations

Purple hydrangea wedding centerpiece

Pink and purple centerpiece in a tall glass vase

Flower girls with purple sashes

Horseshoe place cards tied with purple ribbons

Dark purple bridesmaid dresses

Purple and white flower girl pomander

Centerpiece lantern with reddish-purple candle and rose petals

Curly willow centerpiece

Bridesmaid with purple bouquet

Flower girls in purple dresses

Bride with purple sash

Purple flip flops for the bridesmaids

Purple, pink, and orange bouquet

Ring dog in purple and orange formal attire

For more ideas, be sure to check out the Purple Weddings page in the Wedding Ideas section of my site!

My friend Heather is having a baby this week! Heather has been one of my closest friends for 23 years, and together we’ve gone through high school color guard, college parties, post-college poverty, and professional accomplishments. And now she is having a baby boy just a couple months after I did. Now that I’ve moved back to Virginia, she and I are looking forward to our little boys’ second generation of friendship.

Heather’s adorable daughter will be turning three later this year, and I photographed her family back in 2008:
Maternity portraits
Baby Eve portraits

Last Friday I photographed Heather with her second baby bump. She looks so beautiful at 39 weeks!

Ah, Virginia in springtime! Look at those pink dogwood blossoms

!
Heather and I strolled around Fields of Flowers, a pick-your-own-flowers farm in Purcellville.

I think she looks so pretty here.

That belly contains my little nephew!

This little guard dog followed us around to make sure we didn’t get into any mischief.

Heather says that Fields of Flowers is a popular place for brides and bridesmaids to pick their own flowers. I love that idea.

Heather is one of the funniest people I know, and she and I are constantly laughing.

And now a few behind-the-scenes moments:

It was Danny’s first photo assisting gig!

I pushed him through the fields in his stroller, and he happily napped while I shot.

With Auntie Heather

I’ve been up since 5am, watching William and Kate’s royal wedding. All morning I’ve been reliving my own fairy tale English wedding. Such happy memories.

My photo shoot with this adorable family was my first client session since my baby was born earlier this year. It felt great to be back! I’m still choosing to spend most of my time at home with the baby, but I am starting to schedule occasional sessions as I return to work gradually.

I absolutely wanted to make time for April and BJ’s family. They are preparing for BJ’s deployment to Iraq in May. It always breaks my heart to see families separated by deployment, and it’s especially sad that BJ has to leave only five months after their daughter Sophie joined the family. I took their portraits in their home in Alexandria, and then we walked around Cameron Station. April mentioned that she particularly loves black and white photography, which is a great format for the mood of several of their photos.

April and BJ, thank you for asking me to photograph your family during such an important time for the three of you. I hope these photos will help to bridge the distance over the coming year.

Wow, I haven’t blogged in ages! I think this is the longest that I’ve neglected my blog since I started it back in 2000. When Danny was six weeks old, I wrote that I was going to start posting regularly again, and now two months have passed and I’m finally getting around to it. Sorry about that!

Danny is now three and a half months old, and he is still a happy, easy-going little guy. He is so much more fun now that he’s old enough to start interacting with us. He smiles a huge, open-mouth grin throughout the day, and giggles when his dad makes funny faces. He has even started smiling at the dog, which is sweet, because Ally loves her little human brother. She is always trying to give him little licks on the head and feet. Janie the cat barely notices that he exists.

Daniel at Three Months:

Likes:
Riding in his stroller
Meeting new people
Cuddling
Listening to nursery rhymes
Dancing around the living room
Grabbing at the danging animals on his play gym
Watching his dad be silly
Looking at leaves, flowers, children, and birds

Dislikes:
Sleeping through the night

We’ve been sleep-deprived around here lately. Starting at 2 months, Danny starting waking up three times a night to eat. He’s a slender little guy, at only the 26th percentile in weight (70th in height), so when he’s hungry, he really needs to eat. Night weaning just isn’t happening, unfortunately. I’ve deepened my love of coffee over the last few months.

It helps a lot that when we wake up in the middle of the night, we have a gorgeous view of a lake outside our window. Mike and I couldn’t be happier with our new house and neighborhood in Reston. It’s absolutely gorgeous here, especially with all the springtime dogwoods and cherry blossoms. April in Virginia is sublime. Every day we take Danny and Ally for walks around the lake, and often we stroll to Reston Town Center for coffee or dinner. Reston has a wonderful trail system. We almost never use our cars anymore.

I owe Danny a three-month portrait session, but for now, here are some snapshots of our family over the last two months.

My mother with Danny and my niece Kenna. She is seven and a half, and a loving big cousin.

My dad with his three grandsons: Robby (6), Timmy (4), Danny (1 month)

Danny with Kenna’s baby, Sandy

Danny’s first time at an airport. When he was 2 months old, my father and I took him to Dallas to meet his great-grandmother.

My grandma was so happy to meet her tenth great-grandchild.

A treasured photo of four generations

Age 2 months

Napping in his swing (which is what he is doing as I write this, but he looks a little bigger now)

Most of the time I just take iPhone snapshots. It’s difficult to manage a huge camera while carrying him around. But moments like these are beautiful, even when the image quality isn’t.

I spend a lot of time sitting right there, cuddling with the baby. I’m sitting in that exact spot right now as I type this.

With his grandma

Fist bump

Walking around Lake Anne, with Danny napping in the carrier. It’s a lot warmer than this now, and there are leaves on the trees. I’m very behind in my blogging!

Ally, getting to know the neighbors

11 weeks old

13 weeks old

He looks so serious, but he’s really smiley! I need Mike to help me with a portrait shoot sometime soon — making Danny laugh is a two-person job. He’d much rather smile at someone’s face than at a camera. Hopefully I’ll have some adorable smiley photos soon.