Happy Halloween :)

I'm super excited about taking Caydan trick or treating tonight :) He should have tons of fun! :)

His daycare/preschool did a Noah's Ark day (it's a Christian preschool so they have a religious flair on most events they do)...and so the kids are supposed to all dress up as animals for this event (thus the Noah's Ark theme).....

So I didn't have an animal costume for Caydan as he is going to be a pirate this year...so my friend Sheryl let me borrow her son's costume from last year which is an adorable dalmation!! (She is super creative as last year her son was a dalmation and she was Cruella DeVille...how cute is that??!!)

So I left work today to go to Caydan's event at school, brought the costume with me...changed him into it minutes before the event....he looked absolutely adorable!

I would like to mention that only about half the kids were actually animals, and there were about 5 spidermen (one was actually a girl)...so Caydan could have wore his pirate costume after all...obviously some people don't listen well...

They then gathered all of the kids outside to sit in chairs...once they were all sitting, they had them all get up and go sit out on the pavement in the hot sun (my best guess is that they had them sit in chairs to make sure they had all the kids...? Maybe there were enough chairs to seat all kids...about 50 of them I'm guessing)....then they read a Noah's Ark book (which no one listened to)...then they had them go back and sit in the chairs again....then they each got up one by one to hit a pinata (this took FOREVER)...and mind you, it was probably about 80 degrees outside and Caydan's costume (along with a lot of other kids) was a very fluffy and HOT costume, plus he was wearing a long sleeved turtle neck and long pants underneath the costume....so after they broke the pinata, then picked up candy, I took Caydan back inside and changed him back into his clothes.....he was SOAKED with sweat (I'll wash the costume Sheryl, promise!)....the poor guy had to have been dying in there.

Overall, it was a great photo op and I got a few on my camera....I am posting one below that I took with my iphone though as I haven't had a chance to upload the other ones from the camera yet.

And I would like to add that I am so impressed with Caydan...he was such a GOOD boy...while the majority of kids were running around yelling and crying and just being rambunctious...Caydan listened to directions, went and sat in his chair, didn't move a muscle...when all the other kids started going out to the playground for the story, he had to actually be told to get up and walk after just about everyone else was already out there....during the story and the pinata hitting he just sat there and didn't talk or move or do anything.........extremely impressed with my little boy :)

Plus, there was this adorable little girl that kept trying to talk to Caydan, and she even scooted over next to him at one point during story time and put her arm around him for a split second.

Too cute :)

BTW - Addition to my last Halloween post

By the way...for those of you who knew Johnny Lujan, that is his gravesite near the top of the last picture that's all decorated as well....I believe it's his mom that comes and decorates his gravesite during all the holidays and it's always nice to see his gravesite all dressed up along with Avery's. :)

Halloween...a look back

I haven't had a chance to upload any recent Halloween pictures yet...we've taken Caydan trick or treating at Disneyland so far and so I have tons of pictures from that event, and we also have pictures from the cemetary as we decorated Avery's gravesite last weekend....but they're all still on my camera......

BTW - If you want to see the decorations for Avery, we have to take them down this Saturday, so be sure to stop by before then :) Otherwise you can just see when I post pictures.

So instead of sharing THIS year's Halloween moments...I'm going to take a look back at Halloween over the past few years...

Unfortunately my shutterfly account no longer works from my work computer for some odd reason, so I can't access anything that I don't have on my myspace site already unfortunately........and I don't have anything from Avery's first Halloween, nor do I have anything from Caydan's first Halloween (except some from the cemetary below)....

What I do have though is both of their 2nd Halloweens where they both were Tigger :)

This is Avery as we walked to the Halloween Carnival at Wilson Park...a memory I have from that day is when these two Asian women who didn't speak very much english asked if they could take a picture of Avery because they thought he was so cute! So somewhere out there, two ladies that i don't know have a picture of Avery somewhere....if you're reading this, please send! :)




And here is Caydan...I really wanted him to be Tigger as well, but I didn't want him to wear all of Avery's costume...that way it would always be AVERY'S costume....but Caydan did wear the Tigger pants with his costume here, which is absolutely adorable :)



And here's a snapshot of Caydan, me, and Mr. Simpson :)



And one more of me and Caydan :)




Halloween 2006 was the first time we decorated for Avery at the cemetary...my sisters and grandfather joined us and we put Caydan's costume on and took pictures....cute little Caydan was Batman that year :)





And look how cute widdle Caydan is here! He looks like he's trying to fly like Batman!





And then here is a picture from last year's Halloween when we decorated...we tried a little different of a tactic for all of our decorating after that first Halloween because we realized that they water the grass even while decorations are up (duh) and everything gets wet.....so anything you don't want wet or that can't withstand water (i.e. paper and fake spiderwebs) probably shouldn't go out there.

Although, I don't think you can see it in this picture, but we carved a pumpkin for Avery and brought it out here as well...but by the next week when we came back, the pumpkin had rotted and molded to almost flat and green and it was REALLY disgusting...and stuck to the grass until it grew out. Also not a good idea.....

So this year we painted pumpkins instead of carving them and I painted a purple one for Avery and we took it to the cemetary for him :)




So this year, Caydan is going to be Captain Jack Sparrow...and we got his costume straight from Disneyland so it's as authentic as it gets...he absolutely loves his costume and even kept his hat on the entire time at Disneyland...and we got him a little sword as well which he carries with him every day and even brings it to bed...too cute :)

A few new pictures...

I just wanted to share a few of my favorites from a recent photoshoot. They asked that their name not be shared in my portfolio, but I can tell you that they're a great family with an adorable little boy!

Take a look for yourself :) :)

The Circle of Life...

A strangeness has been in the air recently....

I suppose it started a few weeks ago when a co-worker in my office went on leave because both of her parents were very ill...her father ended up passing away a couple of days after an initial email went out regarding her situation....

And then over this past weekend...

Saturday specifically...Dan and I had a lot of running around to do in the daytime and we initially noticed a LOT of really careless drivers in the area...people cutting us off or almost running into us or into someone/something else...moreso than you normally see on the road......

I remember thinking something felt strange....then all of a sudden there is a really bad car and motorcycle accident that had just occurred within minutes of us passing it on a regular street.....couldn't tell if anyone was hurt, but it looked pretty bad...

Then later that evening on the freeway there is a car completely burned and gutted on the freeway...again, couldn't tell if anyone was hurt, but it didn't look good.....

And then Sunday, my good friend Kristen texts me and lets me know that her grandfather passed away in his sleep unexpectedly....an extremely hard loss for her and her family, especially coming out of the blue with no indications that anything was wrong....

And then on Monday there starts a cycle of new life...I come to work and find out that my boss and his wife had their baby a week early on Sunday night and had spent the night in the hospital and will be there most of this week....a little boy named Jack...

And then today I receive a text message from my friend Amanda who says that her and her husband just found out that they are now pregnant and expecting their first child together (they each have a child separately already)...!

Exciting news....that follows such sad news and loss....the circle of life...this morning I just wrote Avery's birthday tribute for the Compassionate Friends December newsletter....and I was overcome with tears as I wrote that it would have been his 5th birthday had he still been here with us...and that the memory that has been playing in my mind a lot lately is the day that Caydan was born and the two met each other for the first time...how sweet he was with Caydan, without jealousy, only pure love and amazement.

And as I write this, a song that always makes me teary-eyed is playing on my Pandora account - Here Without You by 3 Doors Down.

If you haven't listened to the song on my 2nd post in this blog yet - Homesick by Mercy Me - I encourage you to do so....it touched me very deep when I heard this, and anyone who has a religious faith and has lost someone will be able to relate closely with the song...and perhaps find comfort in the fact that other people share similar losses that run deep.


P.S. I wanted to add two other instances that I left out that add to my post even more...my cousin's fiance's uncle passed away in a violent death just a couple of weeks ago as well...extremely sad and heartbreaking....
...and my friend Jen's little niece was born on Oct. 27th as well.....

Very sad passings, and very exciting new births are everywhere.....just moreso inmy life and those around me lately for some reason.

Caydan...modeling?

So I have been debating for a little while on getting Caydan into child modeling...should I? Shouldn't I? I think few would disagree that he is an adorable little boy...



I mean...I look at some of the toddlers on websites and catalogs and say...Caydan is that cute...possibly cuter! (of course every mother will say that about their own child)...why shouldn't his adorable-ness be shared with the world?



I'm not completely sure he has the right personality for the world of child modeling though...he's not as big of a ham as some might think he is...he's actually extremely shy and timid, and doesn't do so well around strangers...he gets very clingy to me or Dan when around other people.

But I do think he's starting to grow out of it a little bit more every day. He just needs a few moments to warm up to people.

Then I wonder about the introduction of a "Hollywood lifestyle" for him....not the best environment for a child....but it's not like I want him to grow up and be the next Mary Kate or Ashley Olson...he doesn't need to be a Hollywood child prodigy and money maker....I would just love for everyone to be able to see how darn cute he is......




Plus...I would love to be able to quit my job and shuttle him around to auditions all day...I could spend just about every waking moment with Caydan and that would make me happy. I could also find more time to work on my photography business if I was with Caydan ALL the time....right now I work 9 hours a day, then come home and want to spend time with Caydan, so it's hard to work on photography then....but then the weekends we're out doing family stuff since it's the only full days we have to do things......so when do I find time to work on pictures (let alone the other 5 million things I do?)...?

I think I should try it....just a little worried about jumping into it head first....especially with the economy the way it is...I think I need to keep my job and keep a steady income.....why are we faced with so many forks in the road???

Caydan and Jordan

Here it is...Day 2 and I'm posting another blog.........I'm going to really try to utilize this blog to the full extent :)

The hard part is figuring out what to write about.....should I write about my personal thoughts and ventures as well as photography? Or am I just supposed to stick to photography? I'm not completely clear on that yet....

Well for now, I'd like to share a few of my favorite pictures from a recent photoshoot......a very good friend of mine from work, Sheryl, hired me to do a photoshoot of her family....her son Jordan and Caydan get along so very well and are just absolutely adorable when they're together.

So I stole the opportunity to take a couple of pictures of the two of them together at the beach during Sheryl's photoshoot, and this is what I got. :)

Homesick....Mercy Me

I came across this song recently and have decided to designate this as my life theme song........I can't figure out how to embed it into my blog so it plays whenever my blog is viewed (I need the mp3 file I believe)...if anyone can help, please let me know. :)

The first....

My first blog on my new blog site.....

Not sure yet that I'll be able to keep this up, but I sure will try. :)

I've noticed that a lot of photographers have blogs....it must be "the thing to do"...so I will follow suit.

I believe the goal is to give YOU an inside look into ME, as well as keep you up to date with my work and give me a running journal of my experiences in the photography world. Knowing me, I'll probably throw a couple of non-photography related instances in here as well...because that's what I do. :)

And be forewarned...I tend to OVERUSE smiley faces :) :) :) :)

So if you are the type to look at smileys as an equivalent of nails on a chalkboard....then this blog may not be suited for you. :)

Please feel free to leave me any comments, questions, suggestions, hate mail, your own pictures, or whatever it is that you feel so inclined to share with me...I will read it, I will internalize it, and I will appreciate it.

Thank you all for your support and please subscribe to catch the newest updates on ME :) (and my photography business of course!)