My Nephew!

Announcing my nephew!

Giovanni Zaccai Torres was born at
7:18pm on Friday November 5th, 2010. He weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz and
was 18 1/2 " long

This is a big deal for my side of the family! He's the first boy!

I was blessed to have been at his birth. I was able to serve my sister as doula throughout her labor at the hospital. It was a beautiful natural labor. She is an amazing mamma!

These are my girls' hands feeling his sweet softness as they met him for the first time. Rosie is holding him in this photo. She is especially enamored of him. She has been wishing for a baby boy in the family. She is so wonderful with babies and really prides herself on her baby holding skills!

Art Show

I have been invited to show some of my recent photographs in an art show at Destination 1111 next weekend. I will be hanging some of my hipstamatic prints. If your in town, come out and see!

Here is a link to the woman's blog who is putting the show together. She has a nice write up on each of the artists.


Artist Statement:
I am a wife and momma to three beautiful little girls. I have worked as a photographer for over 10 years and I am also a professional Doula and Midwifery apprentice, which is a whole lot to juggle and I am always working at maintaining some kind of balance. Our family is living back in the city after an adventure living on a farm together last summer, learning to live more sustainably and interconnected to our local food supply. This year we are growing food in our neighborhood community garden and have been visiting local farms to pick fruit and most of my recent artistic work is based around these activities. I am learning and practicing old techniques of food preservation. Because as a mom, my hands are always full, I have taken to often photographing my life with my iphone as it is always in my pocket. I made these photographs with a vintage camera application that mimics photographs from toy cameras from an earlier era. I apprietiate the irony of using such a modern technological tool to create images that explore old ideas and practices that my generation has become so disconnected from.

Lily is 7!

...and I just can't get my mind around it. Time keeps moving faster and faster. How is my baby seven years old??!!...

my teeny little 6 pound baby I used to bath in the sink

My toddler who'd spend hours playing in the water "doing the dishes"...

the little girl I couldn't get out of her pink flannel nightgown once for over a week and who wore a leotard everyday for a year?

the kid who celebrates Halloween everyday...

and can always make you laugh...

the most photogenic child I ever aimed a camera at...

is 7 years old.
She's growing up.

She's always been a very intense child, with a VERY strong will and full of energy! None of that has changed, but she is really learning how to channel her energy in a more productive way and she has matured so much in the last year, it brings me so much joy.

Just as any mother's first baby does, Lily has changed my life in every way and I am so thankful for her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY!!

Ayana

Just wanted to share a few pics of my adorable niece Ayana!

I went to my sister's house to take these. There's something so precious about a wet baby! I just love it when they still fit in the sink! That's how I always bathed my little ones.

I've been taking lots of pictures lately and really enjoy working with natural light theses days. These are in her room:

She LOVES her sunglasses!

Uncle Rich

the girls

I finally took some pictures of my own kids. It's been on the to do list for a long long time. Taking pictures of other people's kids is much easier though, somebody else has to do the work of getting them clean, dressed and brushing their hair and then I get to do the easy part! We started with a bath which took all morning...


Poor planning on my part, I got everybody bathed then realized it was lunch time. So we had to get clean again!

Lily

Rosie

Daisy

The really hard part is getting all three of them to look at the camera at the same time. Here they are laughing at Rich who is behind me pretending like I stink.

This little piggy...

Laura and Wayne's Wedding

My middle sister Laura was married on June 20, and it was a beautiful day!

Please visit:
www.grandriverimaging.com
and enter
event code: 48524-June20
to view the online wedding photo gallery.

Me and all the girls were in the wedding, Rich and Amy were photographing and I was helping with the photography as well, so it was quite a day. The day before was horrible weather and it rained a huge amount, so when we got up Saturday morning to start getting ready the farm was one big mud puddle. Can you guess where I am going with this? I'll save the explanation and just share the photos:

and this is before the worst of it! By the time we finally wrangled them and got them into the tub, they were covered in mud from head to toe!

But we all managed to get cleaned up and we all had fun.

I really liked my dress....and the girls were so precious. Getting all dressed up had a mesmerizing effect on them. They behaved like perfect angels all day! Maybe I should dress them up more often!

What a beautiful day. Everything turned out wonderfully. Congratulations Laura and Wayne!

An Amazing Easter

This year was one of the most memorable and meaningful Easter holidays I am sure I will ever celebrate.

I know that I keep saying it, but it has been a long winter for our family filled with lots of viruses, tiredness and sadness. We really seemed to identify with the dark season of advent season this year. It is the season of waiting. We looked forward, with much hope, to Easter and the season of renewal. We longed for Resurrection... waiting and waiting. Hoping and praying. We knew it would come, but it felt like such a long wait. We were waiting for warm weather and sunshine, waiting to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, waiting for healing, and waiting for new life.

Jenna and Brian were waiting for the arrival of their 3rd child and first daughter. I was anxious for her arrival too, especially since I was to be at her birth. Jenna was growing tired and uncomfortable and we knew the day must be coming soon. Saturday afternoon, Jenna called to tell me that she thought things were happening and by late that evening she called to let me know she was definitely in labor. Amy and I met her and Brian at the hospital at 12:30am Sunday morning. Easter, what a beautiful day for a birth. After about 4 hours of much hard work, (I am leaving out so many beautiful details here, because it's not really my story) Jenna gave birth to Solaya (from the french word for Sun) Jubilee at 4:30am in the darkness just before the dawn on Easter morning. I have been so blessed by the whole expierience and I am so honored to have been invited to such an intimate event.

Solaya Jubilee Chisholm
Weight: 6 lbs 6 oz of sweetness
Length: 18 inches

So at 7am I finally snuck into my bed, praying that I would not wake my children and hoping for at least an hour or two of sleep before it was time to get up for church. I was exhausted, but I made it to church at 10:30am and sat with Amy and her Father, who one year ago was dead. He had a heart attack and was pronounced dead. Then he came back to life. It was a very emotional Easter. The resurrection is here and feels close and very real. The LIGHT of Christ shown brightly!

After church we got together for Easter dinner with Rich's family. The kids played Red Rover outside in the sunshine and we had a very fun egg hunt. I found myslef praising God for my beautiful children, my neice and nephews and how much they have all grown over the past year.

Daisy

Rosie

Cody, who was born last January weighing only 3 pounds and spents weeks in the NICU

Lily and her cousin Brieanne

I hope that your easter was a memorable one too and that you are enjoying this new season!

Welcome to the World...

Our good friends Stacie and Sunny just had their 3rd child. He's so stinkin' cute I just had to share the photos I took with you all. Babies are by far my favorite thing to photograph, especially when they are brand new!

Ayo Emmanuel

January 9, 2009

Watch the slide show to see even more of his cuteness!

Fall photos

Here are some photos I took of the girls the other day in this beautiful fall weather. We have been spending as much time as we can outside, trying to soak it all in while we can.

It's very hard to get a photo of Daisy lately, she just doesn't stop moving now that she can walk and she is so serious when she is exploring!

We have been inside for the last couple days though. Lily came down with a sudden case of Pneumonia Sunday night. We ended up in the ER till about 7am. They gave her an injection of an antibiotic and sent us home with an oral Rx. She is doing much better today. Please pray that she would continue to recover quickly.