Newborn - Bakersfield, CA - Beautiful Friends

Good friends are hard to come by and one thing I really treasure are the relationships I have and I feel so lucky I get to photograph and document my friends especially when there are cute babies involved! Katie and I met when we were in Junior High at Hume Lake Christian camp and the first time I met Katie I was amazed by her beautiful smile that she still has today! The best part about her smile is that she passed it on to her beautiful daughter Olivia and I hope their new daughter little Miss Alice will have it too! 

Katie is just one of those people that has room for everyone in her heart and it doesn't just stop with Katie.... her whole family is fun to hang around! The only tricky thing about Katie is if you are talking to her on the phone you really don't know if you're talking to her or one of her stunning sisters or even her mom because they all sound exactly alike but it'll be a great conversation nonetheless. 

I'm so happy for Katie and Alex to now have two beautiful little girls! Olivia is now a BIG sister! Welcome to the world baby Alice we are so excited you are here!

Newborn - La Habra Heights, CA - Globetrotters

This family has a beautiful love story! Stacy's parents were in Africa on a Safari and met Graham who was working on his PhD in Elephant Communication and leading safaris far from his UK home. They told him if he was ever in California to look them up and two weeks later he did! Stacy came walking down her parents stairs and it was love at first sight! Fast forward to a wedding, moving to Africa, living in the UK, and then home to have baby Samantha two months early! 

Spending time with them during the session I decided it's very true what they say, "God only gives you what you can handle," because these two were such relaxed parents with their baby you wouldn't know she had a premature birth. Looking at how healthy Samantha is, it is hard to tell that she was only 3 lbs. and 1 oz. when she was born. They seemed to be expert parents instead of newbies! 

Welcome to world Samantha and I know you'll have so much fun travelling it with your parents! 

Newborn - Old Times - Good Times

I love cute babies but they are extra special for me when they belong to a good friend! In college I was really fortunate to have some amazing friends and even more lucky today that we still are friends! Danny, (the Daddy Below) always made me laugh until my side hurt as we were trying to put together the ULV Campus Times paper and he made my work study hours in the Communication Department fly by so fast it was like I wasn't even working.... mostly socializing. 

Danny was the responsible student and I was usually working on photo assignments, attempting to draw the next cartoon for the paper, or most likely playing cards. Danny was a few years ahead of me and a great person to learn from and try to emulate. I would pretend to be doing something productive and just marvel at his next column or listen to him tell a simple story in the most articulate, expressive, and observant way. Plus he's a great editor and is most likely editing this while he reads it! He's like a living AP Stylebook (a book for journalist with punctuation rules we live and die by... well not me.... serious writers). 

He is a very talented writer, has a wicked sense of humor, and has always had a great way with words.... hence his stunning wife! Now he's all grown up, married, and is a Dad! During the photo shoot I was thinking this is so different than us in college hanging out at Nick's (a bar close to our dorms) and dreaming about where we would be to today (or just being crazy college kids). Today Danny lives in Orange County and is kind of a big deal in the Public Relations world and is still a friend that always seems to have it all together.  He has such a big heart and I'm so thankful he found Heather to share it with and now little Murphy to spoil. 

Congrats Danny and Heather on a beautiful boy! 

This first photograph is a picture of Danny when he was a baby and then we tried to redo it with baby Murphy! This sort of thing makes my job so fun!