i found these berries two days ago, when we took the kids to mt doug park to drop our pumpkins into the pumpkin grave yard. it was snowberry heaven. the path was covered with a gorgeous layer of leaves after the windstorm. i have truly come to appreciate the true beauty of each moment, each season. i miss the light airy feeling of the summer sun, but i love the complex rich tones that fall photography brings. 

they are friends. they are both wonderful boys and they have been in the same class since kindergarden. i love this boys mom. she is a wonderful friend and they are an amazing addition to our neighbourhood. we have shared more than a few after school glasses of wine, discussing our solutions to our childrens biggest problems. all while our four children and her dog run around the house screaming. we don't notice. we have our wine, we are making important decisions.

my friends dog, became two dogs. they added a puppy to their home a few months ago. gosh he is cute. so now they have two yellow labs. one older gentle sweet dog and now a playful happy go lucky shoe eating puppy. both came to the photo session, with the special reason that casey is nearing the end of her life. and its important to have some memories and photos of her and the kids. so i think we managed to capture a few images of a boy and his dog.

i love the excitement in my kids faces as they prepare to dress up. i loved the build up to today. i loved carving pumpkins with them. i loved a few weeks back going to the field to pick them with our family and cousins. i loved sticking our hands in the pumpkins and feeling the slime on our hands and cleaning the seeds. i loved leaving the door to the oven open as we roasted them today so that we didn't forget about them in the oven. i loved telling the kids how many times prior to today that i had left them in the oven roasting and forgot about them and burned them.... SO bad the smoke detector had gone off. i loved that today, i heard the seeds roasting. they were dancing on the pan. making popping sounds and actually moving. i had never noticed that before. i was present in the kitchen. i loved that!

i loved that today our pumpkin seeds turned out the best they had ever tasted.

i loved that today my kids were not scared to go trick-or-treating, that they remembered the neighbourhood houses that had scarey things that scared them in years past. and i loved that today they went to bed and i ate my old favorite treats. don't worry, they won't notice. they have a HUGE stash. they are 7 years old now and they can carry a lot of treats in their pillowcases. 

now as i sit here typing this, i know how sick my mom and dad must have been, when i was sleeping in my bed on halloween night when i was 7.

i had a great night with my kids. i love them, so much, and it is not because they brought me chocolate.

xoxo

i started the car and i kept looking at the sheep who came to the fence line when i was putting stuff in the car. it's not like me to break from a decision. a normal thought would be, wow those sheep are so awesome, i should take some photos. then i would think, put it in the memory bank, i will come back another time. things to do, always something to do...

but then i thought, no. its now, the sheep are here now. they look amazing and friendly and they want to greet me at the fence. i am so glad i stopped. it was hard for me to leave. they were just so darn cute. one of them wanted to be my best friend. i just had no idea they were so social. the one guy actually tried to get out many times to come with me when i finally got in the car. so here are a few photos of my new friends. i have to go visit them again soon. they are good listeners, they liked my story.

and my children. they had an amazing time making cookies, while i was busy. i just have to include a photo of their creations. i am told they had no adult help in the formation of the fingers. just the measuring.

and the scary fingers that tasted so good, i had to hide them so tim and i didn't eat them all on the kids!

here are a few quick glimpses into our morning. i seriously would love to harvest just a tiny bit of this girls spirit. she makes me smile just thinking of her.

after an amazing year of growth, both photographically speaking and business too, i found it just to difficult to keep up with the demands of a growing business and my desire to be spending that precious time with my children and husband. i am so fortunate that i have the most wonderful patient family that allowed me to go on this journey and figure out my own way what was right, what was going to work and what was going to be the perfect course for our family.

in the end i had to choose my family. i also realized through all of this that my passion and my desire is to photograph families. there is nothing more uplifting than capturing the connections that they share and to watch them interact with one another during a family session.   i am so excited about the upcoming changes to my business that are in the works.

i am currently working with the most amazing artists, Amy and Richard, of Red Leaf Studios to take my business to the next level. over the next few months we will be working on a new website, a blog transformation and other exciting things for my clients. i seriously have trouble sleeping over the excitement. 

so as i said, it's very strange to have such variations in emotions, total excitement for upcoming changes for me, yet i am saying goodbye to a partnership that was nothing but amazing! rebecca is one of the most wonderful people this world has in it. i love that we formed a friendship that will last, i love that she respects my decision and that she is carrying on with rubyjoon studios. she will do wonders taking it to the next level on her own!  i wish her the most success.

and here is just one photo, taken of my coffee cup. i set it down to take a photo of jacob, then looked over and loved how it looked in the shadow so i took a photo of it too. that's just who i am, a tiny bit random.

just a side note, i won't be returning emails until monday of next week. taking some much needed family time to spend with my little ones. well should i say big kids, they just turned 7 today. i can't wait to be away from internet, computers and distractions ( haha) . just the family.