I jumped for joy when the OBGYN who delivered my son, Max, contacted me to photograph her newborn twins.  I’ll chalk my excitement up to the bonding we had over her bringing our son into this world while an unmedicated me screamed, “I can’t do this!” at the top of my lungs.  I mean, how can you not bond over that?!

Allow me to introduce the precious girls, Anna and Ava – 1 week young.

Their “first babies” kept watch over the girls.  It’s always amazing to see how instinctively protective dogs can be.

Thank you, JoAnna and Anthony, for sharing your bundles of joy with me.  I hope you had an amazing 1st mothers day.

I first photographed this marvelous family when Eliana (that’s little munchkin in the middle!) was a week old.  I’m super excited to report that this year I’ll have the pleasure of shooting them twice because a 4th daughter will be making her appearance this fall! (It really is deserving of italics, Ariella.)

It’s hard to believe that these were taken almost a year ago and I never shared them.  But since I’m all pumped up to photograph them again in 2 weeks, I figured better late than never.

The family chose to create a custom storyboard with the following 3 black and white images.  They look just stunning together, don’t they?

These girls made my job easy.

Thank you, Chris, Ariella, Michaela, Naomi, Eliana, and “Grams!”  A house filled with oodles of love (and women – bless your heart, Chris!)  There is no wonder you are making room for one more.

During my in-laws’ recent visit to NH, we watched the movie Parental Guidance.  Billy Crystal and Bette Milder star as the “other” grandparents who, for the first time, babysit their 3 grandchildren while their parents go away on vacation.  We had a good laugh over the contrasts between old school and “modern” parenting – particularly the parts about the technology laden home (know anyone with a house like that, honey?) and the “let’s talk out our feelings” bit.  Comedy aside, the moral of the story is how grandparents are blessed with a second chance at parenthood — an opportunity to do it even better the second time around (and without the sleepless nights, it’s no wonder they can!)

My kids are incredibly lucky to have 4 awesome grandparents (and one super amazing GREAT grandmother) in their lives.

My husband’s mom is, shall we say, a bit obsessed with Ireland, so the tradition of baking Irish soda bread with the kids is kind of a big deal. Max’s first time on the job!

And while I’m on the subject of Grandparents, I couldn’t leave out these photos of my daughter and my dad making volcanos.

These are the kinds of images I bet my children will cherish the most when they grow up.  It’a a good reminder that I need to break out the camera more often when the Grandparents are here.

My client, friend (and athletic idol!) ran her first Boston Marathon yesterday.  I spent all morning excitedly checking my phone for text message updates to track her run.  Since I never got a chance to blog her session from last fall, I spent the early afternoon prepping her post in celebration.  Perfect timing, I thought.  I was in the process of watermarking the final images when I heard about the bombings.  Like everyone else, my heart jumped up into my stomach.  My sister lives on Boylston St. I had friends running the race.  Jamie was one of them.  I’d been tracking Jamie so I knew from her pace updates that she would have been smack dab at the finish line right about then.  I’ve since learned that she was only 0.1 miles from the finish line.  She is safe.  Her family is safe.  My heart breaks into a million little pieces for those who were not.

My first reaction was to scrap the blog post.  It seemed inappropriate to post happy memories during such a tragic time, so I put it away.  Then today I woke still thinking about Jamie – thinking about how tight she must be holding her husband and 2 boys today.  How tight our engaged friends, Dennis and Chelsa, who were separated during the final mile of the race, must be holding each other today.  How millions of people from around the world are holding their own families closer – sending messages of condolence, love, courage and “Don’t mess with Boston!” pride.

So after giving it lots of thought, I’m moved to share these images after all.  They are a testimony to love and family and I thought it would put some much needed smiles on their faces to see again.  Jamie, Loren, Broden and Austin – I am relieved beyond words that you will be blessed with many, many more happy days like the one we had on this chilly October morning.