Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

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With packing up and moving this past month and a half, I had a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn't have enough time to take the dumplings out for a quick photo shoot for our Christmas card this year.  Well, my suspicion was correct; time was not on my side.  But I didn't want that to keep me from sending out cards this year.  The end result? A simple card with images from one of our summer shoots when I was practicing my homework for Ashley Ann's Snapshops class.  I love this series because it truly embodies my photography style.  No fancy clothes.  No dramatic location.  Just every day play clothes, our (old house) front yard, and the playground.

This year Gina taught me that the most important moments in our lives are the ordinary ones, and if you take the time to embrace them, they can make your heart swell.  Ashley Ann's class taught me how to stop and recognize them and to try to capture them in a way that's not so ordinary.  This year has been one of tremendous growth for me, both spiritually and "photographically."  (I can't say professionally because I'm not a professional photographer! lol)  And, well, I'm grateful to the Lord for this growth.

I'm thankful for His birth many moons ago, and I'm thankful for the chance to celebrate His birthday with the family He has so graciously blessed me with.  May your Christmas be filled with lots of love and laughter.  And would you please continue to keep Will and the kids in your prayers. This is their first Christmas without Gina, and her 34th birthday, which would have been on Dec 30th, will also be celebrated without her.

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!!!!

NYC Days 2 & 3: Into the night

Before I share more about our trip to NYC, I would be remiss if I didn't express the pain I feel for all of the families affected by the tragedy in Connecticut.  I can't imagine the enormous loss they must be experiencing right now.  Death is never easy, even when you're prepared for it.  To have your loved one taken from you without the chance to say good bye?  Well, the hurt goes deeper still.  

Tragedies like this, and Gina's death, continue to remind me that my most important goal as a photographer is to capture the every day moments.  As I've said before, most of our lives are made up of these ordinary moments.  Don't let them slip by without documenting them.  Stop what you're doing and grab your camera.  You'll see in the images I'm sharing in this post that, while some of them scream Big Apple, some of them are quite ordinary.  And I couldn't tell the whole story if I didn't include those small, simple ordinary moments too.

Now on to the photos, which are a mix of big girl camera and iPhone shots.  Last time we went to NYC, we kept things low key at night because Madeline was only 2 1/2 years old.  Being that she's 4 1/2 now, we thought we would attempt some night time entertainment.  That meant keeping things low key during the day.  So the dumplings played with their stuffed animals and watched movies on the iPad.  

I had every intention of doing a wee bit of school like we did last time we visited the Big Apple, but the excitement in the air kept this teacher from focusing! lol

Since we missed seeing the tree at Rockefeller Center the night before, we decided to head over there on the second night.  It was a pretty short walk from our hotel.

I snapped this quick shot of Patrick with the kids on my iPhone.

And then Baba insisted  I pull my big girl camera back out of my bag so he could play photographer and snap a shot of me with the dumplings. Looks like I'll be turning him into a photographer sooner rather than later.

We love eating at Wu Liang Ye for dinner when we visit the tree at dinner time because it's simply delicious Chinese food.  After we finished up dinner, we headed back to our hotel room to freshen up.

And then we walked right back out the door and across the street to the Minskoff Theatre to see The Lion King!

We absolutely loved it!  And I was impressed with how well behaved Madeline was during the show!  She really listened carefully and kept quiet throughout the performance.  I was shocked. lol.  She's always so loud.  The costumes were incredible.  The only downer for me was that the character's lines were too similar to the movie.  It was a little bit different than the movie but not by much.  Oh well.  It was still a winner.

So, as I mentioned earlier, we really thought Caleb was going to lose his top left tooth.  So I snapped this shot of his "old smile" one last time, or so I thought.

Day 3 went on like Day 2....very low key during the day.  Then when Patrick finished up his meeting (oh, I think I failed to mention this part yet; Patrick was in meetings all day), he wanted to head back over to the tree because his iPhone had died the day before, and he wasn't able to capture a photo of the kids in front of the tree.  So we headed back there again....this time in the rain.

We passed by the Fox News Studio as we headed back over to Rockefeller Center.  That's Bob Beckel in the suspenders, and Dana Perino is the blonde to his left.

And since it was still raining, I snapped the dumplings in front of the tree with my iPhone too.

It continued to rain as we tried to catch a cab on our way to the Upper WestSide, but we had no luck, with the cab or the rain.

We stopped to get Caleb a pretzel to hold him over until dinner.  Unfortunately, it was like a hockey puck.

Well, we weren't just going to stand there in the rain and hope to eventually catch a cab during rush hour.  So we walked all. the. way from Midtown up to Lincoln Center in the Upper West Side.  Well, three of us walked..in the rain.  Patrick carried Madeline, and Caleb was a trooper.  We planned on grabbing dinner around there and were thankful that Bar Boulud had a table for us!  I was thankful that the food was delicious...and the atmosphere was loud!  Great.  Madeline fit right in.  I'm beginning to think she was made for the city. lol.  Anyway, after dinner we headed over to Lincoln Center to catch George Balanchine's The Nutcracker! 

By intermission the kids were exhausted, and I wasn't sure if they were going to make it through Act II.  But they perked right up.  Every time Madeline saw a costume she adored, she whispered in my ear that she wanted it.  It was so precious.  Caleb remarked that he liked baseball more than ballet.  lol. He was a good sport.  He did enjoy the storyline; it was just too much dancing for him.  Again, Madeline really surprised me with how well she behaved.  Madeline does not know volume control very well at all.  She's on or off.  So I was so impressed that she actually whispered!!! lol.  Anyway, we truly had a lovely time at the ballet.

And to top off the night, I got to meet up with an old friend from childhood, Alex, and his beautiful and sweet wife, Ileana.  Alex and I went to summer camp together as teens.  We all used to sit around the piano at night as he played song after song, mostly Billy Joel.  We called him our own Piano Man.

We knew back then that Alex was a pretty talented musician, and we had no doubt that he would make it big in the industry.  Well, twenty years later finds him quite accomplished on Broadway. He's won Tony's and Grammy's for his work on In The Heights, and other recent works include Bring It On and Wicked.  Oh, and he's also played for the President, as in President Obama.  Not bad, eh?  We knew he would make it someday, and boy, has he made it.  We're so proud of ya, Alex!

And our trip didn't end there.  We had one more big day in the city!  Stay tuned for lots more photos.  I told ya I took a bunch!

Way to go, Team Gina!!!

Last week, 80 plus members of  Team Gina came out to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to celebrate Gina and the amazing woman she was.  The race began at 8:00, but we all met up at 7:00am because it can take a while to gather that many people together.  Thankfully, the sun chose to show itself at sunrise because it was a chilly start to the morning!  Okay, maybe the mid 50s isn't chilly for most, but it sure is in our neck of the woods.  It was the coldest morning to date this fall.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take any shots while I was walking because I had to push Madeline in the stroller.  Last year, my sister and Andy took turns pushing both Madeline and Leah in their strollers.  However, Andy carried Josh in his arms because he's bigger now (and they only have one stroller.)  So that left me pushing Madeline the entire walk.

And unfortunately, this was the best Team Gina shot I could get.  I didn't have time to move all the extra strollers out of the shot before the group decided the previous photographer's shot was enough. So everyone started dispersing.

Will and the kids had special shirts made.  Will's said "My wife", and the kid's shirts naturally said "My mommy."

I'm not gonna lie.  It hurt to do that walk without Gina.  My heart was heavy, and no doubt, I was not the only one.  This entire month has been difficult.  She is missed by so many people.  Will and the kids are doing as well as they can.  They are all in counseling, and they now have a nanny living with them, who has been a tremendous help.

We all hung around for a little bit, enjoying the breakfast foods provided, including cupcakes as the evidence below demonstrates.

And this is what happens to your tutu when you sit in your stroller for the entire walk.

Here's a closeup of the back of Lexi's shirt.

Not only did my sister Deb make the girls tutus for the walk, but she also made some for the both of us.

Like last year, I also took a photo of the POPS girls.  Debbie (middle) and Donna (right) also worked with Gina and my sister at the same pediatric outpatient surgery clinic.  It breaks my heart that Gina is not in this photo.

Most of the team headed home after the race, but the POPS peeps headed into Brighthouse Stadium to see all the fun freebies folks were giving away...stickers, pens, paper, cups, scarves, etc.

Then I figured it was about high time I embraced the camera.  That's me on the right with my twin sis on the left.

I love this shot of Madeline with a pen and pad in her hand, sporting her bunched up tutu and the "leggings" I made her. This girl loves to write. So very Madeline, indeed.  And yep, you read that right.  My sister made the girls' tutus, and I made leggings to go underneath.  Since these "leggings" were my first attempt at sewing with knits, I went with an easy interlock, which you're not supposed to use for pants.  And I already knew that, but I wanted "easy".  So I did it anyway.  Well, they don't have as much stretch as leggings typically do.  So they're more like "skinny" knit pants.  But hey, I'm pretty proud of myself for figuring out how to add those cute ruffles on the bottom.  I had to whip out my walking foot for these pants, especially the ruffles.  Knits are not like wovens at all. They are very different.  But I'm eager and willing to learn.  Anyway, I can't wait to make more knit garments because knits are just so comfy to wear.

Well, our little crew finally decided to pack it up and head back to Deb and Andy's place.  The kids played together for a little bit before we headed back home.

It was great to see my sister, Andy, and Leah.  And it was great to see a lot of Team Gina members come out and show their love and support for Gina, her family, and breast cancer research.  I sure do hope a cure can be found soon.  So many ladies are being diagnosed these days and earlier too.  Cancer is a truly horrible disease.  And despite all the ups and downs during Gina's journey, she was like a bright shining star, always full of encouragement.  And it is the goal of her foundation, the Gina McReynolds Foundation, to provide encouragement to other families who also find themselves battling this awful disease.

We love you Gina, Will and family.  We hold you close to our hearts and will continue to lift you up in prayer.