Teagan and I took a walk today while Stef was out running errands. Clouds had rolled in and things began to look a bit…different.

We got a few blocks away and noticed we hadn’t seen a car since we left. Things were strangely quiet. No birds chirping, no dogs barking, and no people anywhere. Teagan however seemed unaware of the silence and was fixated on a striped cat sitting in front of a house. She waved and called to it but the cat did not move.

“Teagan, let’s go” I said and started walking. Only she wasn’t following. She wasn’t moving. Just standing there frozen with a blank stare at the cat.

“Teagan! We need to go NOW!” It was then I saw several other cats appear all moving towards us.

That was it. I grabbed miss T and ran. As I was huffing around corners, more cats were arriving. They seemed to be everywhere but I kept running. As I rounded the corner to the driveway I stopped dead in my tracks. Must have been fifty cats sitting there just staring at us, including the striped one we saw earlier.

“Put me down daddy, I need to talk to my friends” Teagan calmly said. I gently let her down and she walked slowly to the group. She said a few things in a soft voice then looked up. “We can go in now daddy” she said. Teagan took my hand and we went inside, locked the door and sat down. “Can we go for another walk?” she said.

Happy Halloween!

We were invited to a Halloween get together at Stef’s dad’s house the other day and he & Kim pulled out all the stops. Food and treats everywhere and the place was decorated to the hilt. Kim had several games planned including a popcorn relay (which my team won) and pin the nose on the pumpkin. The girls were of course thrilled and went home with many bags of tooth deteriorating sweets….um…thanks?

Really, it was a very nice time, thanks Ed & Kim!

A couple weekends ago we held our 2nd annual Costumes & Cans event, but this was the first time we held it at The Silver Spoon children’s boutique in Granite Bay. It was meant to be a fun way for families to get cute Halloween portraits of their kids, and for us to collect canned food to donate to the food bank. It was a huge success, and we extend our heartfelt thanks to all of the parents who dressed their kids up and brought them out with their food donations. We especially want to thank the wonderful owners of the Silver Spoon who let us take over their store! In the end, we collected over 400 cans of food. What an awesome show of support from the community! We’ve posted a few of our favorites from the event here. Hats off to the parents who made such a great effort on these amazing costumes!

Okay, so this is our version of W! This handsome young fella is part of a family you’ve seen on here a couple of times before–the Farrell family, first for their maternity session and then for baby brother’s newborn session. Young W wasn’t really in the mood for photographs at either of those sessions (although he did grace us with his presence in a couple of family shots at the maternity session), so mom and dad thought he should have a session all to himself. Apparently that’s what he wanted, because he was all about being photographed this time around! Can you believe this kid’s not even 3 yet?! I love these images more each time I look at them. Just wait until you see his Halloween portrait from our Costumes & Cans event!

Over the past 2 1/2 years, the Pagel’s have become both clients as well as great friends of ours. You might recall their family/maternity session we did at the Roseville sculpture park during the summer where the fabulous Miss G stole the show. Fast forward a couple of months and meet the newest little Pagel, another miss G! We actually did their newborn session in 2 parts; first at the studio, and a couple weeks later at their home. Between Natalie’s vision and James’ interpretation of it, they came up with some amazing, tender moments captured between mom and baby. I just love these!

The Roseville Firefighters host a benefit golf tournament each year and it always brings a crowd. Sponsors came from all over to play a round and do their part for the community. We were asked to photograph the event and had a great time. Couldn’t have asked for a better day, it was gorgeous! There was live music, great food, and some really good people & organizations doing their part for the fire department.

It was high time the Hays family took some needed time off, and with my 20 year high school reunion in San Diego, Stef and I decided to stay a few more days and take the girls to Disneyland.

Good move. They just loved it. We were a little nervous after our last experience how the girls would do. Last time, Reilly refused to go on any of those ‘scary’ Fantastyland rides or anything like them so we were relagated to the carousel and Dumbo.

This time was much better and she was much more daring. Teagan of course was game for everything. The park was all dudded up for Halloween and New Orleans Square looked delightfully spooky. A great time, but not enough of it.

Next time we’re staying a week!!

No teacups for me. Hmm….I’m getting sick just looking at this photo…

Hightlight of day 2 for the girls. Come all the way to Disney…and get their faces painted.

This was the low spot. Hot, tired, and not interested in waiting in line.

A petting zoo at Disneyland??? I don’t remember that.

Funny story how we met the Gardner’s…when we decided to re-style what used to be our dining room into our new gallery/lounge area, we listed our dining set on craigslist. Well, the Gardner’s were the nice folks who purchased the set from us. Fast forward a couple of months, and Julie contacted us and said she’d like to have H’s one-year portraits made by us, and that’s how the story goes! Mr. H was so sweet and cooperative during his session, and we especially loved the one here with mom. Oh, one more cool thing about the Gardner’s we can’t help but mention….dad was on the gold medal-winning Olympic indoor volleyball team! (he was in Beijing when these portraits were taken)

We met the McMurry family as a result of a silent auction we donated to; they were the high bidder and we couldn’t have asked for a better winner! We went on location to McKinley Park, as it’s right around the corner from where they live. Such a pretty setting, and the duck pond is a great place for the kids to forget they’re being photographed. Another small world story here–we found out very quickly after meeting that it was not the first time we all had met. They used to live a few doors down from my (Stef) dad and we’d been introduced on a couple of occasions that way. What a small, small world!

Our favorite time of year is upon us, and we thought we’d share some of our favorite fall colors portraits from last year. If you want to have portraits done in this magical, very short time of year, the time is here! We have just a few sessions still available, but it’s not too late. We can’t wait to share this beautiful time of year with you!