Wow.  It’s been a busy week – Luckily I have an awesome husband who really kept it all together when things got a bit crazy!

Monday I got to hangout with an awesome family down by the beach on a beautiful sunny afternoon.  These guys were so much fun I wanted to stay and play all day!  They have the best piece of driftwood on their beach – they tell me it’s been there for years and the kids love to play on it – I loved it! I love that Trey had a perfect little seat

This is one of my favorites – Such a great moment for Dad and Trey!

And Ms. Charlotte sweet face!

Adorable, right!?  I love how they are holding hands and they both have that sweet little smile and those cute little piggies!

I can’t wait to show you the rest of your gallery guys – We’ll be in touch!

Next up – Senior Session with Nick.  We headed out to Conomo Point and it was per-fect.  The light was beautiful and we had the best time!  I forgot what it was like to ask someone to sit in a spot and stay there

Love love love this one – As soon as I pushed the shutter I knew I loved it!

This picture makes my heart happy -  It also makes my heart melt.  I love that they will have this picture to look back at and hold onto to remember their relationship just before Nick headed off to college.  It also makes my heart melt because I know I’m going to wake up one day and this is going to me Jackson and I. Yikes.

One more of my favorites.

Nick – It was so great to spend the afternoon with you.  You are such a great guy and I look forward to shooting your horse jumping pictures soon!  We’ll be in touch.

Neeeeext is Ms. Callie.  Sweet Callie is unique in that she is outside of the 14 day window when I typically only shoot newborns.  After hearing the craziness her Mom and Dad had been through just before and after she was born, I am so happy we found time to capture these fleeting moments — they totally deserve it!  Because she was a bit older, she was much more awake and even though her Mom and I were wishing for her to just give in to sleep – she had other plans and kept those beautiful little eyes open all but the last 2 minutes of our session!  Don’t you worry – we got some beautiful shots despite the wide-eyed sweet baby girl!

Livin’ the life!

See! She  did fall asleep!

I love those little hands!

Thank you Paul and Maddie! Can’t wait to see you again soon – And I hope you get some rest too!! oxox

Friday Morning was a our little cousin Rylies shoot!  He is so squishy and snuggley I just wanted to pack him up and take him home with all my gear…Unfortunately, I think his Mommy and Daddy would miss him too much so we’ll have to settle for just visits He even got to rock one of the new hats in my collection — check him out… Don’t say I didnt warn you – These newborns this week are adorable!!!

Sweet little smile… I’d love to know what they dream about!

So squishy!

He was out!

Can’t wait to look through the rest little man!! We’ll be over to play soon… we love you! xoox

After Rylie I came home – downloaded the pictures and got ready to head out to another session – yep, it was a busy week!

Anyways, I headed to meet another sweet family.  Justin (who wins the-best-husband-birthday-gifts-for-his-wife- award!!) called me a few weeks ago to book a session.  He surprised his wife with not only a surprise birthday party last weekend, but a surprise family photo shoot too!  What a perfect gift, don’t you think!! He was sent to use from our sweet friends who we love! Justin, Barbara and baby Caleb had the perfect afternoon for a session.  Although it was a tiny bit cold as the sun started to set, we had some beautiful light to play with.  I can’t wait to go through the rest of their gallery!

Check out this little face:

I love how his Mommy is looking at him and Caleb is laughing at Daddy.. so sweet.

And last but not least — the boys! Such a beautiful family!!

Justin and Barbara – Thank you for spending your Friday afternoon with me -I feel like we’ve been friends forever!  I hope your trip this weekend was great and we’ll be in touch soon.  We look forward to see you again soon with baby Maya   xoox

Whew, and now its Sunday morning.  This week flew by so fast but it was filled with such great memories!  I definitely have the best job and the best clients — I am so blessed.

We’ll be in touch soon guys! Thank you for filling my days with happiness.

****And don’t forget — If you haven’t booked your Mini Session there are a few spots left so be sure to email or call me asap before they are gone!!!

Much Love,

The News:
I’m so excited to announce the popular mini sessions are back for this holiday season.  The mini sessions will take place on two Saturdays – Oct 17th (raindate Sunday Oct. 18th) and Nov 14th (raindated Sunday Nov 15th) at two locations -  Tuck’s Point in Manchester, MA (in the morning) and at Lynch Park in Beverly, Ma (in the afternoon.)  With requests for both locations last year, I decided to offer both locations this year as well.

The Info:
Your mini session fee is $375 and will include a 20 minute photo shoot with 8-10 images in a private online gallery, 25 beautiful press-printed custom designed holiday cards OR one digital file to be printed at the printer of your choice (tinyprints, shutterfly etc.) and a $200 print credit to be spent on the images from your session! Awesome

Every year I have offered mini sessions, I receive a lot of emails asking what is different between a mini session and a full session.

When is a mini session a good fit?

Well, sometimes you are in between sessions with Sweet Whispers Photography.  Maybe your newborn is now almost a year and you would love to send a nice updated photograph to family and friends.  Perhaps your college kids are home for a weekend and you can snag that family photo, finally! Or maybe you would like to share your favorite photographer with your friends and family — so tell them to book a mini session and they will see how much fun we have!

When is a full session a better fit?

If you have a milestone approaching (i.e. a first birthday or a newborn!) or if you want to capture special moments of your children or family playing, interacting and just being together, a full session is often a better choice as we have time to really get to preserve those memories.

Other Notes:
If you have recently had a session and would like to order custom holiday cards from your session – please email me before Novemeber 7th to be sure your order is complete in time to be mailed for the holiday season.

If you are interested in booking a full session with Sweet Whispers Photography – there are only a few weekends open before the end of the year! (Hard to believe its almost 2010!)  There are two weekend openings in November and two weekends in December (although holiday orders may not be delivered in time.)  Weekday sessions are open on a limited basis so be sure to give us a call to reserve one of the remaining spots left before the end of 2009! (Yikes!)

***I will still be accepting newborn sessions on a week to week basis as they aren’t as predictable as other sessions. Please inquire if you are expecting before the end of the year to tentatively schedule your newborn session.

**Your mini session fee is due at the time of booking.  Should you need to reschedule your deposit may be transferred to a full session with Sweet Whispers Photography.

IMPORTANT DATES:
All holiday cards must be ordered before Novemeber 30th. All holiday orders must be ordered before December 6th. (*Albums and prints make great gifts for grandparents, aunts, uncles etc!)

Gift certificates are available for purchase as a holiday gifts as well.  What better gift then the gift of memories. Please contact Keri for details on this perfect gift for the holidays.

Contact me asap to reserve your spot!  Can’t wait to see you soon

That about explains the speed Jackson has on his new scooter!  When we were in NYC a few weeks ago, about every other toddler was zipping around on these scooters.  They weren’t the standard scooter at toysrus so I went on the search for them.  Turns out they are from Switzerland!  After Rick and I searched a bit we found a local store Stellabella Toys that carried it.  After some really good listening and really good behavior we headed out to pick one up for Jack.   The coolest part about this scooter is that it steers in the front with pressure from the handlebars.  Some of the standard scooters just go straight but with this mirco kickboard he can actually ride and steer without getting off .. its a pretty sweet design! You can see their website here. Micro Kickboards.

On another note – guess who is not a fan of grass (just like her brother was!)  Yep, the ladybug! Thats some balance she’s got!  But, she did flash me that cute little smile just for a second.. How is she so big already? wow, time is going too fast.

Lots more to come over the next few days – annoucements, updates, sneak peaks. stay tuned!!

Happy Sunday. Go Pats!

In an attempt to keep up with my blogging I’m going to ‘attempt’ to participate in something a lot of other photographers that I love participate in — It’s called ‘10 on tuesday’.. If nothing else, I at least have to post 10 things on Tuesdays — maybe that will help me stay on track!  (I’ve been pretty good since Mark fixed the blog, wouldn’t you agree! — despite all the drafted posted I still need to post!!.. stay tuned for that..)

Anyways – here we go.

1. It’s only the second week of school and I can’t believe how much I can get done while the little man is at school.. Luckily the Ladybug uses that time to sleep which makes this Mama, VERY happy!  Couple that with the fact that Rick is home for a few more weeks means hopefully a LOT of catching up — FINALLY! Can you feel my excitement!!

2.  Clients:  Stay tuned for the holiday mini sessions that are going to be announced by the end of this week.  I will only be doing a limited number of sessions on two different days so make sure you keep an eye out for the email if you want to schedule a mini session.  Also, there will be cut off dates to order holiday cards and any additional holiday orders — dates announced soon. Lots of fun things coming.

3.  Molly climbs stairs. An entire flight to be exact.  We were at my Mom’s over the weekend and Ms. Molly decided (with all of us just behind her) she was going to go up the two stairs to the landing. That was followed by the entire flight above it.  She has never even attempted stairs before!  Clearly shes determined. We’re in trouble… and I’m buying gates asap.

4.  Lyndsay posted the cutest link on her 10 on tuesday.  The Funky Lunch … And as she said – now I feel so boring too!  Perhaps THIS is the way to get Jackson to eat sandwhiches…. hmm.

5. BRING ON FALL.  I’m ready. I love it. It’s my favorite time of year.  Not only because its my birthday time (which now means nothing since Molly’s is the day after!) but its my favorite time to photograph outdoors with all the amazing foliage, the crisp air, the bright blue skies, the smell of apple picking (Yes! there is a smell!), the gazillion times we go apple picking, macintosh apple or pumpkin spice scented yankee candles burning in the kitchen, making homemade apple crisp, the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins and toasting pumpkin seeds, cider donuts, hayrides, and the cozy feeling you get after playing outside in the afternoon and you snuggle up on the couch.  Yep, I love it and I’m ready for it.

6. In a couple of weeks there is a good chance I might sleep in past 4:30am.  More on that later but I’m already excited about it. REALLY excited about it.

7. Molly and I went to sweet baby Maya’s baptism on Sunday – Good thing Molly squaked through the entire thing — oops! But on a cute note, the Ladybug finally has enough hair to put in a hairclip. At least for 30 seconds before she rips it out. Not quite the sticking up ponytail I can’t wait for but cute nonetheless

Yep. She's 11 Months Old!

8.  I want to schedule a family session for my OWN family.. the problem is  – I can’t decide who to call for it. haha…  I also want to schedule some photos of me to use on my blog/website etc.  Weird to be on the other side of the lens, but I need it. yikes.

9. How is my daughter going ONE in 3 weeks.  Enough about that. I can’t discuss my thoughts on that yet.

10. I would really enjoy a straight IV of coffee today.

Weee.  I did it! My first 10 on Tuesday.  Here’s to many more… I hope!

Yesterday I headed out the door into a downpour with slippery high heels on and Jackson’s rainbow umbrella.  I was already late but somehow I got stuck behind every slow person that was on the road, AND my gas light was on.  I was about 10 minutes away from the church when I should have been parking.  It was pouring.

Funny thing about all that was I didn’t notice like I usually do – (read::: get stressed out!)  I was wandering down ‘memory lane’ thinking back (too many!) years to our college days.  I was thinking back to the late night dance parties – the countless nights of beer pong – the zorn dining commons where very few items were ’safe’ to eat .. but most of all I was thinking back to one of the sweetest girls I ever met at Keene State College —- Kristen.   We hit it off as soon as we met and when we realized we lived only a half hour apart when we were home from school, our friendship just got stronger over breaks, weekends and holidays.

Between having to park our cars in the lot off campus and walking back together – to sitting on the grass at ‘temptation bushnell’ we were always laughing. dancing. loving. living.  Those are the things that college memories are made of. Those are the times I will never forget. Those are the times I was reliving in my head as I was delayed getting to the ceremony. So all those things that made me 2 mintues late (not bad, eh!?) were okay with me – I was enjoying those memories…

So anyways, I parked the ‘loser crusier’ and raced into the church  – I was just in time to see Kristen step onto the alter to meet her soon-to-be husband Brenden. Whew. Made it. I was so honored to be there.  I snuck in the back row and sat at the end of the pew so I could see their faces.  I was so happy to stand by them as they started their life together with Gods blessing.  To be one of their friends to life them up and say how proud I was to watch them get married. An honor. As I feel it is at every wedding I go to — even as a photographer!

After a beautiful ceremony the Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy were welcomed by all their loved ones!

It was onto the reception and since the only people I knew were the Bride and Groom and three of the bridesmaids – I was hanging out with myself for a few moments.  But one of the bridesmaids – Tiffany – another beautiful friend from college — Her soon to-be- Mother-in-Law started chatting with me during the cocktail hour and graciously took me under her wing with her husband and her daughter Heather.  We chatted about friendship, photography, family, children.  The important things in life.  It struck me as we talked how amazing it is that we are all so very different, yet the things that are important in our heart are always the same.  Love is such a blessing.  Before we knew it the reception was starting — we had a blast!  I would expect nothing less at the wedding of my girl!

It was so fun to enjoy the wedding reception – meet new awesome people – and get to snap some shots for fun!  I think its so fun to capture moments for friends that you know will mean something – especially when they think nobody is watching!  So here were a few from the reception..  (- KMM – more to come later…)

first dance..

CAKE!

that my girl! all married and stuff!!

Tiff and Jeff - (Jeff, your family is awesome!!) Tiff you look amazing!! xoox

My other amazing girl Lex and her soon to be husband too! ooouuuhhh leeexxx - hot!!!! xoxoox

oh my amy girl - we met the 1st day of freshman year - amy lived across the hall from me- from that day on she was my girl! love you am!! xoxo

<3  – Kristen and Brenden –   I am so happy for you.  I know you had some rain on your wedding day but as believed if it rain on your wedding day its supposed to be good luck because a wet knot is harder to untie!  So here is to your blessed marriage.  And here is to our blessed friendship.

P.S.  TABLE 13 – TABLE 13!!!!

Love you both!! xooxox