Pinstripes & Polkadots

5 kids + 4 adults = FUN!

2008-12-08T07:05:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, I went to play with one of my favorite families for their annual Holiday Picture. I've been photographing Nichole & Scott's family now for 3 years and have really enjoyed seeing the kids grow. This year Nichole's brother, Tony and his wife, Megan joined us for the session. I really enjoyed meeting them and hope they will continue to be part of the sessions in the future.

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from the session (truthfully, I have not finished editing them all and know that I will have many more favorites!)

Nichole & Scott, as always it was so much fun, thanks for lunch and look for the gallery to be up later this week, I'll try to keep the pics to a manageable number :)

Learning About Government

2008-12-04T21:02:00.008-05:00

In September the kids in Mrs. Melton & Mrs. Hanfland's classes were learning about the Government and Mayor Allegood spoke to the classes about the Bill of Rights & Constitution. It was a lively question & answer session with the children asking some very interesting and thoughtful questions.

Mayor Allegood was so impressed, he asked the kids to come and speak to the Board of Aldermen at a City Meeting. Accompanied by Mrs. Hanfland, Mrs. Curran, the principal of Acworth Intermediate School and Mrs. Bagley, the 4th & 5th Grade Guidance Counselor, a handful of students from the classes got a chance to ask their questions in front of the Mayor, Aldermen and a large group of citizens.

Congratulations to Peter, Jacob, Danielle & Kianna from Mrs. Hanfland's Class and Emma, Jon, Kyle & Kaitlyn from Mrs. Melton's Class. You all did a great job! There were some well thought out questions ranging from "What does the Mayor do?" to "What can the city do about the smell from the sewage treatment plant?"

getting ready to go into the meeting

Mayor Allegood & Principal Curran

Mayor Allegood, Mrs. Curran, Mrs. Bagley & Mrs. Hanfland

Emma asking her question! I was so proud of her speaking up!

well deserved applause from the audience!

congratulations from the Mayor on a job well done!

Baby Elizabeth's Birth Story

2008-11-22T07:14:00.004-05:00

For our birth clients we create a birth story slideshow celebrating the journey from pregnancy to new baby. I love making these and sharing them with the family as it is a very personal keepsake that they will treasure. I am excited to be able to share this one with you. (Don't worry it is "Family Friendly") click the image to play the show.

Megan, Ziggy, Madeline & Elizabeth thank you for allowing me to document the journey and I look forward to staying in touch as the girls grow.

Enjoy!

Welcome Baby Elizabeth

2008-11-16T10:30:00.008-05:00

Friday morning I (finally) got the call from Zig that Megan was indeed in labor and that they would be ready for me to join them sometime soon, so I headed to meet them at North Fulton Medical Center to document the labor and VBAC arrival of their baby girl.

I arrived around 11:15 am, just after they got settled in their room, and Megan was doing great, she labored well and arrived at the hospital at 7cm! She was doing great with the surges and Zig was a fantastic support (and counter pressure provider) along with my friend Kate who was their Doula and Hypno Birthing instructor.

After a while things started to get more intense, and she moved to sitting on the birth ball, working the baby down and still doing fantastic!

Then around 2:30 things got really intense and Megan started pushing! At 3:05pm baby Elizabeth made her appearance!

Mom's first look at her new daughter (who has a head full of brown hair). It was love at first sight for all of us, she is just adorable!

When Megan was finally ready, it was time for Elizabeth's first Bath, Daddy did a great job assisting the nurses in cleaning up his little girl. Then it was time for those important statistics... 8# 12.2 oz and 21" long! (and this was supposed to be a SMALL baby)

Since Megan and family live 2 hours away from Atlanta, and big sister Madeline was not at the birth, I stopped in to visit them yesterday at the hospital.

Madeline received a present of her own, a baby doll named Mackenzie ("Baby Kenzie") that she can mother just like mommy. She eats 'Special Milk' just like baby Elizabeth and even has a hot pink car seat for the trip home from the hospital.

I just love the hats for the girls, Megan learned to knit just to make these (I think she may have to make a couple for my prop box :) as I know I will get asked about them!)

Congratulations to Megan, Ziggy and Madeline and welcome Elizabeth. Enjoy the preview, I am excited to finish up your slideshow and to do a few more pictures, since we did not get to do some of the ones we wanted to yesterday. I hope the ride home was easier than the last trip north :) and that the girls are settling in well.

EDITED: Here's the link to the slideshow!

Halloween Fun!

2008-11-01T14:10:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was full of fun and fantasy. After a quick trip to the store for 2 blocks of dry ice, I had the opportunity to spend the day with Emma at school helping her teacher with science activities with a halloween theme.

The first experiment was to see if you could blow up a balloon with just a piece of dry ice in a test tube. Yes it does, and the longer you wait the bigger it gets!

The favorite of the kids was to put some dry ice & a little water in a cup and put an airtight lid on it, and watch what happened... (note all participants were wearing safety glasses!)

Emma did not have a halloween shirt and made her own, our little fashion designer. She took a sheet of labels and drew on it and then pinned it on securely.

trapped CO2 caused a bit of a bang!

the lids deformed right before flying off, sometimes whole, sometimes in pieces! The kids were a bit sad that we ran out of lids.

Another experiment was to have the dry ice blow a bubble, it looks so cool, but was even more fun in person watching the gasses swirl inside the bubble soap.

if you got too much bubble soap in the dish with the dry ice it made "brain bubbles" that would pop in a puff of "smoke"

Sometimes it would bubble and burst like a swamp in a science fiction movie.

The experiment Mrs. Melton & I were not so fond of, touch a metal object to the piece of dry ice and listen, it was far worse than fingernails on chalkboards! Thankfully, paperclips freeze fast!

We had to have a snack befitting the day... Smoking Pond Scum Punch served from a scary bowl

And cake (yes it was wonderfully good!) that kinda both grossed and excited the kids!

After school it was time to get dressed in her costume and go trick-or-treating. Emma designed her costume this year. She found a pair of black & blue fairy wings and made a tutu to go with them, added combat boots, fishnets and a top and shorts from dance class and you had a "dark fairy". I helped with hair and makeup to complete the transformation.

She had a great time with her friends and thankfully shared the loot! While editing the images, Emma wanted to do some herself, so this is her contribution to the images. A "glamour" version! I need to train her some more so she can help edit images for us!

Megan's Maternity Session

2008-10-15T18:53:00.007-04:00

I had so much fun with Megan and her family on Monday morning. They are expecting a new baby the end of October and are coming up to Atlanta for the big day. So while they were here for a doctor's visit we met at Laurel Park in Marietta for a family session celebrating Madeline's last days as an only child.

At the park we played on the swings and slide, walked down to feed the ducks and play on a cool bridge.

I just love this image of Madeline, she looks so deep in thoughts...

As we were finishing up with the park session, a school bus pulled up. Madeline loves school busses so we asked the driver if we could let her get on the bus. This had to be the highlight of her day! I know she will have a blast one day when she gets to ride the bus to school!

After managing to get her off the bus, we headed to Marietta Square for some more pictures. Megan and Ziggy will be celebrating their 10 year anniversary soon so we tried to focus a bit more on them at the square.

I think she warmed up just a bit and decided that 'posing' was fun :)

She also decided that mommy needed a bit of prettying up

And wanted the her daddy all to herself

By asking her to find something in my bag, I was able to get a few of Megan & Ziggy alone!

There are so many good images from the session, so enjoy the slideshow. (click the image to play)

Megan, Ziggy & Madeline, I can't wait to see you again soon, until then rest up and get ready for the new arrival. I will see you sometime later this month when baby decides it's time.

Bold Red Tent Event

2008-09-28T12:18:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being involved with the BOLD Red Tent Event sponsored by the North Atlanta Homebirth Meetup Group. It was a day of sharing stories and support. The first part of the day was a showing of a film and vendor tables, after a time to eat and socialize the ladies were invited into the 'red tent' to share their stories.

I was happy to bring my camera along to help document the stories of these women, some of them had amazing stories of strength, courage and inspiration. It was wonderful to see that most of us are very similar. Stories of our journey into motherhood is one that both amazes and bonds us.

As we got started in the tent, we all introduced ourselves while holding onto a ball of red yarn, passing it around the room connecting us with a web of red. (the spiders that decided to join us must have thought the web was for them)

Then ladies took turns sharing their stories, from not so normal hospital births to homebirths, joys and sorrows were shared. Some of stories were just amazing and a number of these women are stronger than I think I could have been.

Being in the tent was fun and Holly was painting some of the women with designs, here she is photographing her design on Amy.

Amy is an artist and does henna work which she was applying to some of the ladies, I will have to have her do some for me soon, her work was beautiful. She even was decorating a belly cast at the event.

Of course the babies needed to be attended to affording me some great nursing pictures and images of some of the darling babies that were there

My buddy, Roman was very interested in the goings on. I can't believe how big he has gotten!

Baby Carly, was excited to get mom's bracelet away from her!

Once everyone that wanted to share their stories had finished, Amy treated us to a belly dance lesson.

It was a wonderful day, It was great meeting up with some old friends and making some new ones. Enjoy the slideshow!

Vivian & Lucas

2008-09-24T22:16:00.007-04:00

I recently had the opportunity to spend a morning with Jamie & Jud's beautiful children Vivian & Lucas. It was a warm sunny day so we played on the front porch of their Atlanta home.

Vivian is a doting big sister and was very happy to cuddle him for a bit, making sure he had toys and posing him for me the way she thought he should be.

Lucas is a very happy baby, and he really loved looking at mom who tried to stay out of the images (for the most part, I left her alone... this time)

The light was just beautiful and I was able to play a bit and capture some artsy "baby parts" images

Vivian is a bubbly girl, very smart and adorable. She has lots of energy and I enjoyed talking to her about books, games and webkinz.

This is my favorite image from the session and I think it may end up as a large picture on the office wall. I wish I could spend my days this carefree!

I told you she has energy!

one final image, she did slow down!

As always there were so many good images... Here are more for you to enjoy!

It was a fun session and I'm really looking forward to our family session later in the fall, it's going to be so much fun!

Noah Is 4!

2008-09-24T17:53:00.005-04:00

It's birthday season at our good friends... It seems like it was yesterday that Noah was turning 3 and we were having his party at the park on our street providing me with all sorts of fun images. This year was no different! He's turned 4 and had a party at Red Top Mountain State Park on warm Saturday morning. The theme of the morning was Star Wars and the kids had a blast playing on the playground.

Here he is with a Star Wars mask on, I think it's Boba somebody...

Just like last year I got to help with some of the party preparations... "Ms. Cat I want Star Wars Cupcakes"... so I obliged with a small cake just for him surrounded by cupcakes with Home Made Cupcake Picks, and black sparkles.

He loved being able to "attack" his personal cake to cut pieces for himself and daddy.

After cake and snacks it was present time, he received a bunch of cool things including the Millennium Falcon and a cool Monster Truck.

And just so she does not think I forgot her... Here is his sister Emmalee who has a birthday coming up soon, so stay tuned for hers!

I hope you all enjoy the slideshow too!

Safe Girls Strong Girls Gala

2008-09-21T08:33:00.014-04:00

Thursday night Mike & I had the pleasure of volunteering our time (and cameras) for Safe Girls Strong Girls at their Third Annual Gala. The Gala was held at the elegant Villa Christina in Dunwoody.

The ballroom was beautifully decorated and the tables featured framed photographs of activities that the girls participated in at Camp CADI. I loved the beautiful light blue sashes on the chair covers it went so well with all the butterflies throughout the auction tables.

Villa Christina has wonderful food and the guests were treated to a wide variety of items and wines for tasting. Had I not been 'working' I could have put away a bunch of strawberries, and yes they tasted as good as they looked!

Safe Girls, Strong Girls is an organization committed to breaking the silence of Childhood Sexual Abuse and to giving girls their voices back. Through Camp CADI, for one week the girls get to be girls again by providing a place for these girls who have been traumatized to heal.

Founder, Amy Barth and Rachel one of the counselors from a recent Camp CADI both spoke to the Gala attendees about Camp and how it has helped the girls and themselves.

The event also featured music from Audrey StClair who has an amazing voice as well as many other talents. (I can't wait to get her new CD to enjoy while traveling to shoots this fall.)

During the time before the live auction, there were a pair of artists doing caricature drawings. They were fantastic and the attendees loved them.

The Master of Ceremonies for the night was local TV & Radio Personality, Tom Sullivan. Who is currently the host of Atlanta and Company on 11 Alive.

Before the live auction, Amy Barth spoke about the mission of Safe Girls Strong Girls and Camp CADI. She is very passionate about the mission and about the girls that they are helping.

Rachel is a nursing student and worked as a counselor at the camp this past summer, she gave a heartfelt view of what it was like at camp as one of the staff.

One of the girls that was lucky enough to be able to attend Camp Cadi was there to talk to us about what getting to come meant to her. She is amazing, I had the opportunity to talk to her a bit. I wish her good luck in College and know that with the support from Amy and Safe Girls Strong Girls, she will reach her goals!

Here are some of the items that were up for the silent auction. The items ranged from baubles to trips and even included autographed items from all sorts of celebrities! I so wanted some of the things. I know Mike was wanting the Robert Plant Guitar and I would have loved to get Emma the autographed picture of the Jonas Brothers, but they quickly went out of our price range, maybe next time.

There was also a live auction, which Tom did a good job with. Some of the popular items were Dinner for 10 with Chef Yanni and a African Safari Trip.

All in all it was a great night and the funds raised will send more deserving girls to camp next summer. I hope you enjoy the slideshow of highlights of the night! (click below to play!)

Amy and all the volunteers did a great job with the event! Mike even had fun helping me and as usual made some new friends!

Would you like to help Camp CADI & Safe Girls Strong Girls? Here's a fun way... We will be donating 10% of our sitting fees through the end of the year to help send at least one girl to Camp CADI next summer. Contact us for more details!

StCyr Family Session

2008-08-15T08:53:00.007-04:00

Fun in the park was on the menu for the family on a sunny (and very WARM) Sunday morning. Brandon & Deanna and their darling kids Emma & Tristan met us at the Covered Bridge Park in Euharlee. This spot is becoming one of my favorites as there are lots of fun spots to shoot in. It was a fun morning, Mike was my assistant as I was still too sore after my accident to carry my gear so I took him along and ended up with more than enough pictures!

That being said, I had a tough time editing their session as I did not want to overwhelm them with lots of pictures and in the end had almost 200! Here are just a few of my favorites...

Here are some that I did artistic edits on to enhance the image or to add some interest to them.

This was such an enjoyable session, they are a great family full of love and it shows in their images. I had a great time and hope that you enjoy the slide show of even more of the images!

Happy Birthday

2008-08-02T18:30:00.008-04:00

We celebrated Georgia Birth Network's (GBN) 4th Birthday today with a picnic at Red Top Mountain State Park. We had such fun with everyone. It was great to meet some new people and to catch up with some old friends.

As usual I had my camera with me and captured the events of the day. Though it was warm and humid everyone had a great time. Thanks to all that came out and all that donated door prizes. We had a lot of prizes and lots of FREEBIES for all.

Emma helped out by donating some prizes for the kids and doing a lot of face painting, she had fun and was really excited to see some of her friends.

Here are some of my favorite pictures! Including the cake (before it melted! which I did not get a picture of)

The rest of the images are in the slideshow below (click the image to start it playing!)

The images in the slideshow are also in a gallery at www.pictage.com/520440. I hope everyone had a great time! I can't wait for next year!

Ouch!

2008-07-29T09:29:00.006-04:00

Not having a studio makes it easier for my clients to be comfortable in their own environment and not have to lug the kids across town. So I drive a LOT and have a "zippy" little tealish green Honda CRV that I dearly love! I've even discussed with Mike getting it image wrapped or painted with my trademark polkadots :)

Well I may be closer to that thanks to my afternoon yesterday... while headed to a session and stopped at the light "zippy" was hit from behind and had her back bumper "re-designed".

Here's a close up of the dented bumper and wheel well

Thankfully she is still drivable and the gear in the back was not damaged. I did hurt my back and knee and will be moving slowly for a while but no major damage. Now to deal with getting things fixed and dealing with the insurance companies.

Family Fun

2008-07-28T08:24:00.007-04:00

I recently had the pleasure of meeting and photographing a wonderful family. In February Sarabeth and her family were nominated in our Capture the Love contest and we finally were able to get their session in as they live a ways away from us and at the time they won Sarabeth was busy with the arrival of baby Gloria.

Sarabeth and James are wonderful parents of beautiful girls. Faith is 4 and is a very active and extremely bright girl with blonde curls and eyes that sparkle. She kept me on my toes with all her antics. She is a performer and loves to sing, dance and play music. The fireplace is her personal stage and is perfect for tapping her pink heels! Gloria is 4 months old, starting to develop her own personality and well loved by all.

I had so much fun playing with them, here are a few of my favorite images from the session.

We went outside to play and Faith came down the slide and it was a hair-raising experience!

Faith loves to read and is looking forward to school starting in a few weeks. She is hoping to go to a private school that has a cool zip line that she got to ride on the day before. (I think I'd like this school too, it sounds like they have fun there)

Gloria was so cute and really puts up with her sister 'loving' on her, she has such a cute smile

Mom & Faith playing in the office/playroom

Faith can sign and we had fun spelling back and forth a bit... Here's a composite picture of her spelling her name!

There are so many fun images of the family, I had trouble picking them for the slideshow. I hope you enjoy!

Sarabeth & JAmes, I hope you like the images as much as I do, there are even more in the gallery as I could not edit them down any further :) Take care and I hope to see you again.

Roman & the Snail

2008-07-22T07:36:00.005-04:00

Last Saturday I spent some time with one of my favorite families for Roman's 3 month session. He is really starting to get active and now is much more animated, though I'm sure that mom and dad think he's been animated since the beginning :)

We put him in his exersaucer and catching the snail was his mission, it was fun getting these shots and I just love the looks of concentration on his face.

Here are some more of his many 'faces' he's so cute and the wild hair reminds me of my son at this age.

Here is one of my favorite nursing images from this session, we were playing with a new style and I love the moodiness of this image.

I'm getting spoiled with this family! Scott, lunch was wonderful as was the company. I can't wait till our next session, Bella, Sophie & Lilly, I'll bring the tutus to play with and I'll bring Emma to play with Joey and we'll have a blast! Until then, enjoy this time with Roman while he's still a baby.

Baby Bridget

2008-07-20T16:30:00.006-04:00

We met little Bridget almost a month ago. I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with the Mills family last weekend to finish up the Baby Story Package that Elaine's friends at ICAN had gifted her with. (what a great baby shower gift this was!)

Clare is getting used to being a big sister and I found out that she loves helping mom and dad out, except maybe the diapers. I also heard that Bridget makes noise :)

Here's Clare helping out... I love the look on her face

Here is the best picture of the whole gang, Liam was such a "silly" boy that day.

Clare decided that Elaine NEEDED to talk to her, I thought this was so cute and it made me remember my Emma at this age as she would do the same thing.

It looks like she's saying 'What about me?"

Liam gets in on making faces for his baby sister, I hear he is VERY good at it...

One more of Clare watching mom with baby Bridget.

Such a snuggly baby!

we tried hard to get the over the shoulder shot, we did but I like this one much better!

I loved the baby fingers... Here are more Artist Edit Images with vintage texturing effects.

Hope you enjoyed these! Elaine & Family, I will see you soon!

Birthday Boy

2008-07-19T10:18:00.004-04:00

I heard through my sources that one of my favorite subjects of late is celebrating today. In honor of his 5th birthday here are 5 of my favorite images of Liam being his fun, goofy self from a recent session.

Buddy, have a great birthday! I can't wait to come back over and play trains with you. (and of course visit with mom and your sisters)

Fun on a Saturday

2008-07-12T21:56:00.005-04:00

I've been playing with textures and some new backdrops.... I had photo sessions with Elaine, Nichole and my daughter Emma and here are some of the images that I have tested out some texture effects. (Elaine & Nichole, your previews are coming early next week, but enjoy this little glimpse of your session)

Here are some images from Elaine's session with her new baby girl Bridget, Clare and Liam.

Here are some images from the session with 3 month old Roman and his mom, Nichole, Sophie and Lilly.

and last but not least, my daughter, Emma. She even helped with the processing on this image. She is becoming a good helper, but has her heart set these days on being a fashion designer.

I hope you all like them. I will be offering this type of processing for select session images... Our clients can request Artist Edits on images, these are perfect for gallery wraps as the texture of the canvas adds to the vintage textures of the processing.

Little Ballerinas

2008-07-07T22:33:00.007-04:00

Last week Emma's dance teacher asked me to help her with some images for her new studio brochure. Deborah had 5 of her students come and play with us at the studio. She ran them through a 'class' and I took lots of pictures. (I forget how cute and quick little ones can be!)

Here are a few of my favorites from the session...

After the class part I had each of the girls, give me a few minutes to get some close ups while they were still.

I've been playing with textures and actions in Photoshop and some of the images just lent themselves to some vintage coloring and texturing.

Stay tuned for more dancers as I finish processing the recital images. You can find out more about the studio at Teaching Little Children and you'll see more of these images there as we add them to the website for the fall.

Celebrating The 4th

2008-07-05T21:33:00.005-04:00

Mike and I took Emma to Chattanooga this week for some R&R. While our older kids were at Grandma & Grandpa's Emma got a chance to be an 'only child' and pick the activities she wanted to do! So we packed the car and headed north to spend the night in a hotel with a pool (her main requirement)...

Friday she wanted to go to the Creative Discovery Museum so we went exploring... Her favorite activities were the bubbles and squishing pennies.

After a trip to the gift shop to add a polar bear to her webkinz collection, we had lunch at the Blue Plate. After perusing the menu, Emma and her friends enjoyed a lunch of chicken fingers and fries followed by vanilla ice cream...

Then it was back to the pool! She is well chlorinated for the moment and had a blast with her new mask.

We're sorry we missed seeing some of our friends in the area, but we will be back, especially if Emma has her way. She's already planning the next trip which I am sure will include penguins!

Happy Birthday Tristan

2008-06-18T11:30:00.009-04:00

Here's another Father's Day Baby! Tristan turned one on Sunday and his family and friends celebrated on Friday evening with a small party. I loved being invited to meet everyone and photograph this milestone.

I first met Tristan and his big sister, Emma, last summer at Noah's Birthday Party. He was so cute as a baby and is growing into such a cute toddler. I am excited to be doing a family session with them later this sumer as well.

Here are a few of my favorites from the party and a slideshow with even more as the kids were WAY too cute.

I love this image of Deanna and Tristan, he's a special boy and is loved VERY much.

Don't you just love kids and birthday cake... Once he got going Tristan loved the cake made by Grandma.

"I am not smiling for you" (I had to work hard to get some smiles from him, but thanks to dad I now know some tricks!)

The kids helped open his presents and he got some great toys, some actually made no noise at all :)

Tristan received this cute toy guitar and Emma wanted to play with it, he made it clear that she was to keep her hands off, by pushing her away.

Colby enjoyed playing with all of Tristan's toys. He is also a charmer and has a big sister to keep in line.

Colby's big sister, Lindy, playing on the baby piano. She reminded us of Schroder in the peanuts cartoon.

The kids found a 'old' favorite and took it for a turn on the steps...

SLINKY... SLINKY... It was even the old fashioned metal one too. Lots of fun.

It was dress up time! Noah as the vet and Emmalee as a princess bride, aren't they cute! Tristan even got to play, as Emmalee shared the jewels with him... not sure if he's happy about it though.

Here are more of my favorites in the slideshow. Enjoy!

Deanna & Brandon I had so much fun meeting you both and getting to know you better, I'm looking forward to our family session at the park in July. I hope you enjoy the images and that they captured the fun and joy of the evening.

>^..^<

~Cat~

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-16T03:39:00.004-04:00

For Elaine & Matt it was an eventful and quite memorable Father's Day! I am so honored that I was able to be there. I got home about 2:30am and just had to post a preview as there are a LOT of people wanting to see the pictures! So here are a few highlights to hold everyone over...

I got the call around 7:30pm that they were at the hospital and Elaine was at about 5cm. No rush, but get your gear ready. Around 10pm we decided I would head towards the hospital and wait for her to want me to start photographing the birth. I made downtown and was exiting the highway when Nichole calls to say get here as fast as you can! I arrived at the hospital at 10:50pm and Elaine was starting to push. Dr. Tate did a wonderful job working with her and talking her through pushing. This was a VBA2C for her and the first time she had pushed a baby out so in many ways this was a first birth situation.

Dr. Tate talking to Elaine and reassuring her that she could push the baby out, it would just take some time.

Pushing... Pushing... Pushing... for what I am sure Elaine thought was hours and hours. But at 11:53pm on Father's Day, Sunday, June 15th she successfully VBAC'd and baby Bridget Mary arrived!

Elaine was overjoyed and on 'cloud 9' as they put her on her chest!

As Elaine & Matt got acquainted with their daughter, Dr. Tate went and made a quick post on the ICAN message board and some of the members who were up reading posts were quick to congratulate her. He brought her a printout for her to see.

So here she is...

Bridget Mary

June 15, 2008 11:53pm

8 pounds, 7oz 20" Long

Elaine & Matt, get some rest and I will be in touch once you get home and we'll finish up the story as Liam & Clare get to meet their little sister. I hope you enjoyed the preview, I'm off to bed now as I am finally getting sleepy.

Congratulations!!!

>^..^<

~Cat~

~Griffin & Audrey ~

2008-06-14T10:39:00.003-04:00

Last weekend I visited with Griffin and his big sister Audrey for Griffin's 1 year old session. He was a bit tired from the party the day before and was not really into the session this time at all, so Audrey made sure I had something to take pictures of :)

I had fun chasing them around and trying to get Griffin to stay put for a few images. Here are a few of my favorites from the session.

I look forward to the next session later this summer as we get ready for Audrey's birthday!

>^..^<

~Cat~

~ Aria's Birth Story ~

2008-06-11T10:34:00.000-04:00

Aria arrived just about 2 weeks ago and I spent some time with the new family last week and got to see her all dolled up. I even got to meet Nekesha's mother who was visiting.

Aria is darling with lots of curly hair. She is just as beautiful as her mother and I can't wait to see her personality develop. Here are a few favorites from the session...

With Nekesha's mom

I love this image of Grandma holding Aria's hand while in Mom's arms

In Daddy's Hands

Just for fun, I played with some texturing to give this image a artistic look

As promised... here is Aria's Birth Story Slideshow. Enjoy! (click on the image below to start the show)

Nekesha & Antonio, enjoy your little one, I look forward to seeing you again soon.

>^..^<

~Cat~

~ Elaine's Maternity Session ~

2008-06-07T15:10:00.000-04:00

I have known Elaine for a few years through the Georgia Birth Network but we have only met in person a few times. She is a volunteer for the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) both on the national level and is the Atlanta Chapter Leader. This week her friends provided me the opportunity to spend time with her by purchasing her a Birth Story Session as a baby shower gift.

On Tuesday I spent the afternoon with Elaine, Matt, Liam and Claire. They are so much fun and her children are adorable. I even got to meet her mother who I found out lives near me. I am so looking forward to getting the call that she is in labor and baby #3 is on the way so I can help her document her successful VBAC!

Here are some of my favorites from the session...

Clare was playing with her favorite baby and Daddy asked if she needed to feed the baby... This was her response, I guess mom needs to help :) not the reaction that was expected.

I hope you enjoy your slideshow with more of the images. Click the arrow below to start the show!

Stay posted for her birth session images, she's due on the 16th so I should be getting the call to head to the hospital with her very soon.

>^..^<

~Cat~

~ Welcome Baby Aria! ~

2008-06-02T10:48:00.000-04:00

I got the call from Nekesha's midwife at 12:45am on Thursday morning, that she was in labor and to head her way. So after gathering up my gear I arrived at Nekesha's around 1:30am and found her laboring on the couch and doing well.

Soon after, she got in the tub to labor in the water, Antonio was great support as the contractions increased in their intensity. He also turned the lights down and lit candles so she could labor in a peaceful environment with music that was relaxing and beautiful. The love between these two was very evident as he helped her through the contractions.

Charlotte the midwife looks on and gives advice as the contractions get stronger and she feels like it's time to push.

After trying to push in the tub for a while, and it not working as well as Charlotte liked, Nekesha used the birthing stool and pushing was easier

And at 4:29am on Thursday, May 29th, Aria arrived and Antonio helped her into mom's arms

I love this look on Nekesha's face as she holds her daughter for the first time, the pain forgotten and the anticipation is finally over!

The new parents are in awe of this beautiful baby girl.

Antonio makes sure to record her first moments and first feeding!

My view of her first feeding... I love the fingers!

Daddy getting to hold Aria for the first time. Timid at first, but got the hang of it quickly.

Nekesha is jut beaming as she watches the two of them get to know each other.

After a bit, Aria gets her first check up and we find that she is 8 pounds 12 ounces, with very little moulding of her pretty head, 21" long and pretty perfect. She was so alert for the exam and looked all around.

I love the little fingers curled around moms...

Before I left I caught Antonio and Aria snuggling together in the candle light.

As usual it was an honor to be part of such a momentous event and witness the birth of this little one. I am always in awe of how the process works.

I can't wait to see her next week as we finish the birth story images and meet Nekesha's mother who was to arrive later to meet her grand-daughter.

Nekesha & Antonio, thanks so much for asking me to photograph the birth for you, I hope you enjoy this preview of the images, there are many more in the gallery. See you soon!

>^..^<

~Cat~

~ Baby Tristan ~

2008-05-26T20:42:00.000-04:00

My friends Steve & Sheila introduced me to Heavlynn, Jon and their son, Tristan, by gifting them a photo session. Last Saturday I spent the morning getting to know them and photographing two month old Tristan.

They were so much fun, Heavlynn was preparing to go back to work after being on maternity leave and I was glad to be of some help and comfort as she prepared to be a working mother. They are learning to be great parents and you can just see how much they love this little one.

Here are some of my favorite images from the session. I can't wait to see how he grows and his personality develops.

Heavlynn said he loves his changing table and ceiling fans. I love his room which is decorated in a Noah's Ark Theme with lots of stuffed animals!

Heavlyn & Jon, the gallery will be up soon, but in the meantime here is a slideshow to enjoy! Just click the images below to start the show!

~ Welcome Baby Carly ~

2008-04-26T14:02:00.000-04:00

Jennifer & Russ welcomed a baby girl last night after almost 18 hours! She was born at home in the water attended by Debi & Nichole. When I left very early this morning, mom, dad and baby had settled in and she was sleeping in mom's arms. I have a lot of pictures to go through but I wanted to introduce you to her...

Carly Rose

April 24, 2008

8 pounds 4 ounces

22 inches long

Here are a few more pictures to hold you over till her birth story slideshow in a few days....

Just after arriving, cuddling up to mom still in the pool

She made sure we knew she was breathing and needed us to pay attention to her

Her first feeding (of course, I HAD to stay for this!)

and lastly.... my favorite... baby toes!

Guys, I hope this preview holds you over for a few. Jennifer & Russ, I'll see you in a few days to finish up the story session. I hope Ben & Elly were thrilled meeting their new sister when they woke up this morning!

See you soon!

>^..^<

~Cat~