Josiah

I just ADORE my little....cousin?  Josiah's dad is my cousin, so whatever that makes him to me....I just love him!  Josiah and his parents, along with half of our local family, all came over to my place for Father's Day dinner last weekend.  Figured it would be easier to make dinner for my grandfather vs trying to fight the crowds at the restaurants.  Plus I got to play with my favorite little baby that I hadn't seen in over a month already!  Just as the night was winding down and the sunlight was just about gone, I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of this cutie and snatched my camera up and started shooting with a high ISO to capture the little bit of light that was left in my living room.

Here's a couple of the good ones I got...I couldn't decide which one I liked better of this first one - the color or b/w one...so I saved myself the stress and decided to post both. :)

I also had been chatting with Josiah's mom about some of the other pics I had taken of Josiah in the past, and she's been asking me for the pics I took at the hospital when he was born forever now and let's just say I'm an easily sidetracked, forgettable, procrastinator....so although little JoJo is 9 months old now, I just barely sent her the hospital pics the other day....better late than never. :)

I posted this one below on my Facebook page though and she just loved it. :)  She said she didn't have any pics at the hospital of the two of them where you could see both of their faces....I'm so glad I was able to give her this one at least. :)

AJP presents: Cutest of the Bunch Contest!

Are you on Facebook??  Do you have a child 12 or under?  Are you in the Southern California area (or planning to visit)?  If you answered 'yes' to all, then you may want to head to my Facebook page and check out my newest contest!!  I call it "Cutest of the Bunch" - cause it just sounds cute to go along with all the cute pictures!!  I'm swimming in cuteness right now!! :) :)

And even if you don't have a child to enter in the contest - you'll definitely want to head over and vote for the cutest of the bunch!

Rules are below - enter your little ones and start voting!! :)

Sponsored by: Avery James Photography (http://www.averyjamesphotography.com/)

Contest Rules:

- Children 12 and under eligible
- Contest submissions accepted through June 29, 2011
- Voting ends July 11, 2011
- Winner announced July 12, 2011

Voters can “Like” as many photos as they prefer

Email one photo of your child (child will be cropped if other people are in the photo) to crystal@averyjamesphotography.com

Multiple children can be submitted, but an individual photo for each is required.

Include the name (nicknames ok) you would like your child to be noted as. Also include your name as you would like it to be noted on the photo as the submitter.

Photo with the most “Likes” at the end of the contest will win a free mini-photo session with AJP in the South Bay area – includes (3) 4x6 digital images. Session will expire Sep. 30, 2011.

Be sure to send your friends and family over to the contest page to vote! They will have to “Like” the AJP page in order to “Like” your photo as well.

In the event of a tie - there will be a tie-breaker...as yet to be determined.

Good luck!!

- Crystal @ Avery James Photography

Picture A Day - June 20, 2011 - Averyboo Arts

I bought a Groupon a looooong time ago for Averyboo Arts because 1) it had the name "Avery" in it, and 2) it looked like a fun place for my son - you go to their studios, they supply all the artsy stuff, and then clean up after your kid....what more could you ask for??  :)

So I FINALLY got around to making a reservation for Caydan and we went down there the other day over in the Bixby Knolls area of Long Beach.  Very cute little area with lots of fun shops - I had never been over there before but look forward to heading back for their First Friday events.

Caydan tried everything while he was there - he played dress up in a cute police uniform, built structures with Legos wearing a little construction hat, played with clay/play-doh type stuff, drew on the wall and floor with chalk, and painted with both watercolors and acrylic type paints.  We have another hour left to redeem on the Groupon so I think we'll head back soon...they do birthday parties there too which I'm contemplating as the price isn't bad at all. :)

Picture A Day - June 17, 2011

Today's picture was taken a few weeks ago when I was in Orlando, FL...we were sightseeing around the Disneyworld resort area and had taken the Disney bus to the Magic Kingdom so that we could take the boat to the Grand Floridian resort (one of my top choices for lodging if I was going as a romantic couple to Disneyworld) to just walk around.

As we were getting on the little boat, I looked over and saw this row of palm trees that just really screamed "FLORIDA" to me....so I snapped the below photo....we have tons of palm trees here in Southern California too....but Florida's palms are very distinctly "Florida" and just have a much more tropical feel to them.  Have I mentioned yet that I LOOOOVE Florida???  :)

Alessandra - 3 months!

I'm so glad that I decided to offer the Baby's First Year package to clients...it really is so awesome to be able to check back in with parents every 3 months to capture their baby on camera.  They just change and grow so much within that first year especially, it's such an honor to be able to help give the family these photo mementos of their child.  I have 3 clients on the package right now and little Alessandra below is one of them.

I just realized that I only blogged one photo from her newborn session...I must have just gotten sidetracked...I'm adding a few more of her newborn session photos at the end of this post. :)

This past weekend I trekked down to Orange County to meet with Alessandra's family for her 3 month pictures.  We got a nice variety of moods from this pretty girl...she smiled a bit, she quizzically stared a bit, and she even gave us the most adorable sad face ever...I know we don't typically like to see sad babies, but when they look this cute I think it's just as amazing as the smiley, happy faces! :) :)

And I just LOOOOVE this photo of Alessandra and Mom..I wish I had a photo just like this of me and one of my babies, it would definitely be huge and on my wall. :) :)

And as promised, here's some of those newborn shots from our first session :)

Picture A Day - June 12, 2011 (Terranea Resort - Palos Verdes, CA)

I feel silly even calling these posts "Picture A Day" posts considering they're more like "Picture a Month" posts...or even Bi-Monthly....but I guess I'm just being stubborn and determined to someday get back on track doing these daily, lol. :)

Since I've been back from Florida, June Gloom has been in full effect here in Southern California.  It really sucks.  I've seen nothing but gray fog and clouds all week and have been so bummed.  Then today, the sun decided to show itself and I was so excited that I headed straight to the closest beach there was....which isn't really much of a beach, it's like a sandy plot of land with a rocky beach at the water's edge....but it's absolutely BEAUTIFUL here and one of my favorite places to go.

"Here" is the Terranea Resort.  A little hidden treasure of the South Bay.  It's a new resort on the cliffs of Palos Verdes, CA that has public walking trails and a public beach at the bottom of the cliffs.  There's this amazing cave down there too that I've never ventured very far into.

Here's two pictures I snapped today while we were hanging out on the sand.  My son is growing up to be such a handsome little man. :) :)

My 2011 Florida Vacation!

Hello Blog World!

It's been awhile, but I have a good excuse this time...I was off celebrating turning 30 in the tropical paradise of Florida!!  I just got back two nights ago.  This was seriously the BEST vacation and birthday I've EVER had.

My son (Caydan) and I left Los Angeles for Florida for 3 weeks.  We stayed with a friend in Naples, FL for a few days, went boating and just had so much fun catching up and hanging out with her family.  Then we went to Orlando where my friend from L.A. flew in to hang out with us for 5 days...we explored Sarasota and Siesta Key (best beach EVER!!), Cocoa Beach, Downtown Orlando, and the Disney Wilderness Preserve.  Then after she left Caydan and I headed to Busch Gardens for the first time ever, explored the Kissimmee and Celebration area, then headed back to Naples again for a night with a stop in Siesta Key again along the way.  After Naples we went to Miami to stay with another friend who lives there and got to explore the South Beach area and catch up with my good friend. :)  THEN after all that, we headed back to Orlando where we gave up the rental car and hung out at Disneyworld for a week while I turned 30!  Absolutely AMAZING trip.

I couldn't begin to tell you all of the super fun things we did and saw...BUT I can show you.  I made this pretty awesome (if I do say so myself) slideshow from our photos and videos....it's a combination of 3 different cameras (horrible quality point and shoot, really neat underwater camera, and my big, fancy professional camera) with pics taken by both Caydan and myself.  Yes, my 5 year old son is becoming quite the photographer. :)

I urge you to check out the video, especially if you're thinking about visiting Florida - there's lots of fun stuff highlighted in it. :)  And it's got some great music to jam to while you're watching. :)

ALSO - if you are thinking about planning a Disney vacation (World, Land, Cruise, Adventures, etc.) I'm friends with an absolutely wonderful Disney travel agent who helped to book my trip and was so helpful.  Much better going through her than having to go directly through Disney like I did last year.  She did all the leg work for me and made sure I had everything I needed. :) :)  Here's her contact info:

Melissa SonnySingh - Disney Travel Agent

Email: melissa@everaftervacations.com
Phone: 919-332-5955

Let her know that you found her through my blog!

Here's my video!!  It's a little long, but super fun to watch. :) :)

And just to leave you with a picture, here's one from the Disney Wilderness Preserve near Kissimmee, FL.  We learned that those funky things growing out of the ground are called "knees"...well, technically a "Cypress Knee" but we just called them "knees" everytime we saw them. :)

P.S. There was an alligator hanging out here with us too!  He jumped in the water when we walked up and was just chilling in the water watching us from a distance...it was pretty creepy!