live life fully while you're here.
experience everything.
take care of yourself and your friends.
have fun, be crazy, be weird.
go out and screw up!
you're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process.
take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes:
find the cause of your problem and eliminate it.
don't try to be perfect;
just be an excellent example of being human.
- anthony robbins



we're off and running (well, we're driving)...back home on jan 6th. it's hard to believe another year has come and gone. thank you for an amazing 2007.

and here's to a happy, healthy and safe 2008!

ETA: happy birthday ryder-man! he so loved his cake ;-)

time goes by incredibly fast.
you must never miss the opportunity
to tell people how much they mean to you.
- author unknown

my baby turns THREE tomorrow. i can't believe it. my baby...three! the time has dashed right by. i'm happy. i'm sad. ryder being my last baby...it's a feeling that's rather indescribable at the moment.

we leave tomorrow for NV for the rest of the holiday break and we will be celebrating ryder's birthday at oma/opa's house in a few days. ryder's going to have a superhero birthday party, with all the kids dressing as their favorite superhero. i'm super excited about it.

lately, ryder's favs have been spiderman and dash (from "The Incredibles"). and here's ryder today as...dash incredible.




and just one more in color b/c my little guy has some serious blue eyes :-)

...a very joyous christmas
and peace, love and happiness the whole year through.

enjoy the little things,
for one day you may look back
and realize they were big things.
- robert brault








that's how i've been feeling lately...that i need to remember to enjoy the little things; however, it even goes beyond that. prior to pursuing photography, i used to photograph my kids like a mad woman. i documented everything. they could barely get out of bed without me capturing the moment.

now...i barely capture a candid, random, everyday moment of my kids. people often comment on how lucky my kids are because they will have so many photographs but that's not true at all. they *had* so many photographs pre-photography. now they just have a few really great photographs. so i'm trying to get back to my roots and begin photographing those 'little things' that really are...big things.

so in honor of remembering...and capturing the little things, the photos above are just random photos from the past few days of those everyday moments.

ETA: rashmi asked me to explain photo number three. that's ryder's spiderman move. "hey mom, look at me. i'm spiderman". he holds on to the door handle and climbs up the wall as high as he can possibly go.

and since i'm now more awake than i was when initially writing the post last night...i might as well add my latest funny skyler story. again, we're sitting at the dinner table. this time, i'm talking about swear words with kiele. i'm all about open communication with her as i feel it was something that was significantly lacking in my own childhood. so i'm asking kiele if she has heard anyone swear at school?
nope.
no one?
no.
you haven't heard any of your friends say any bad words?
nope.
not even d-a-m-n. (i spell it out)
no.
not s-h-i-t.
nope...nothing.
and then, all of a sudden, out from the peanut gallery,
how about a-s-s-o?
yep, that came from skyler. i alsmost fell out of my chair.
what did you say?
how about 'a-s-s-o'?, she says.
i look at steve in disbelief, as skyler can't spell yet. how could she randomly put those letters together while we're talking about swear words. so i inquire.
skyler, where did you hear those letters?
i don't know?
did you hear that from school?
no.
did you hear that from a friend?
no.
kiele and steve are giggling and i'm almost panicked, thinking i must figure this out. i look at steve.
this is not funny. that is too much like 'a-s-s-h-o-l-e'.
kiele: i know that word. i learned it in the traveling pants book.
ugh...this is going from bad to worse. kiele's almost on the floor laughing in hysterics at the whole conversation.
back to skyler.
so sky, really...i'm serious...where did you hear those letters?
i don't know.
sky, just tell me. you must have heard that *somewhere*.
i don't know...
a silent pause, as she thinks about it.
i don't know...my brain told me.
so, i still have no idea where sky heard those letters or how she came up with the combination. i don't swear in front of the kids and i don't spell swear words in front of the kids. i guess someone must have...right? but who? or how else could sky randomly come up with that combination of letters, while talking about swear words. oh my...

learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
- albert einstein


meet max and sam...two incredibly brave boys, who are fighting a relapse of neuroblastoma, a very aggressive cancer of the sympathetic nervous system that quickly spreads to other organs. the facts state that children with recurrent neuroblastoma rarely live long and there are virtually no survivors; however, the parents of these little boys are doing everything they can to skew those facts. they are working towards that miracle, to beat neuroblastoma forever.

i photographed sam and family a few times now and when i spoke to neil, sam's dad, a while back, he said, "sam will live. without a doubt, he will live." i believe him. sam is an amazing child with an equally amazing family. read more about sam's story here , on page one of the wall street journal, this past saturday.

today was the first time i got to meet max and oh my...what a happy, handsome little guy. max's mom writes in his blog, "think of his beautiful blonde head and fun blue eyes"...i'm so thankful to have experienced a little of that today. there's a sparkle in max's eyes that you can't help but notice.

the photos today were taken for marketing material for an upcoming magic water project fund raising event--race across america.

seriously, when you think you're having a bad day, your grumpy, your whiney, whatever, take a moment to read a little of what these kids and their families are going through...
you can read sam's story here
and max's here

these parents (and others) are trying to raise awareness and get funding to fight childhood cancer. i hope i can do my little part in helping them.
want to help?
you can donate any amount here and your donation is tax-deductible.

peace.
it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.
- author unknown

in order to change the world,
you have to get your heads together first.
- jimi hendrix

okay, so my kids haven't changed the world YET...
but i love how they're working together to get the clothes on the clothes line here. it's great when they do anything together...and don't scream, yell, fuss hit, etc. so as you can imagine, this is a pretty treasured photo of mine (especially since the three of them coming together to do this was not staged :-).

and i'll do my best to teach my kids that where there's a will, there's a way. if they believe they can change the world, they will. anything is possible for them.

and just a couple funny skyler stories b/c she always keeps me laughing:

this past weekend, we went to steve's work kids christmas party. we arrive to the party, greeted by an elf and diego the dolphin (coworkers in costume, of course). santa came to the party later and delivered presents. well on the way home, sky says, out of the blue, that wasn't santa; that was a human dressed up as santa. i have no idea where it came from or why she started referring to people, men, women...as humans. but that's sky for ya. we went on to discuss why she thought that that santa wasn't the real santa and she just kept sharing that she just knows he was really a human. the discussion went on for quite a while until, yes, we did tell her that that santa was actually a human that steve works with; because the real santa is super busy and hard at work at the north pole and couldn't be there. sky is four!

then tonight, at dinner, i was discussing discipline with the kids. i know...a touchy subject. i was telling them a story about a friend, who spanks with a wooden spoon and she even keeps it on the dinner table, to remind the kids to be well behaved during dinner. so the kids are quiet and i'm thinking they're pretty happy that i don't spank with a spoon and all...then all of a sudden, sky blurts out, in her most animated voice,
WOW, that's a good one.
what?, i think to myself.
a good one?
i still don't know what she meant by that. did she think i was making it up or something, like i just told her some great story. i never really got to the bottom of it...just chalked it up to another skyler moment that made me laugh. i can't imagine her in a few more years.

focus on the journey, not the destination. joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.
- greg anderson



oh, the focus that PK had at the moment of this capture. the other kids were running around, playing, chasing, hollering...but none of it mattered to PK; nothing mattered to her except the lipstick she was holding and ever-so-carefully applying all over her face. i think she would have sat there the entire time, just her and that lipstick, if she could have.

i also was thinking about the above quote and how it relates to my photography journey. it's funny because even if i tried, i couldn't focus on the destination because i have no idea what that might be. and i'm not even sure i care. sure i have goals but i still feel so new to photography. one thing i know for sure is that i whole-heartedly love what i do and i feel like i'm living my professional dream. where this journey will take me, no one knows, but i'm loving every minute of it and thankful for every opportunity that arises.

my four year old, sky, makes me laugh so hard. she's such an artistic child, loving anything that has to do with the arts: drawing, music, dance, reading, etc. well, linkin park's "i bleed it out" has been sky's favorite song for a while now. sky would come home singing the lyrics (well what she thought was the lyrics), while i had NO IDEA what the lyrics were or even who was singing the song (of course, i had my own set of lyrics that i sung daily though). so today, while we were driving home from dinner, sky started singing 'the lyrics' out of the blue. we discovered that she was singing:

pick it up
take it deeper
then you throw it away

steve asked her, what does that mean?

and she said,
it means:
you pick up your plate
and then you take it deep to the trash can
and then you throw it away

oh how i love this child. oh how she makes me laugh like no one else can.

i couldn't help but come home from dinner, jump on the computer, and figure out
1) what the hell the song was called
2) who sang it
3) and what the actual lyrics were

so, (as i giggled with skyler by my side), we discovered that the song was "bleed it out" by linkin park and the actual lyrics were:

Hand grenade pins in every line,
Throw 'em up and let something shine.
Going out of my f**king mind.
Filthy mouth, no excuse.
Find a new place to hang this noose.
String me up from atop these roofs.
Knot it tight so I won't get loose.
Truth is you can stop and stare,
Bled myself out and no one cares.
Dug a trench out, laid down there
With a shovel up out to reach somewhere.
Yeah someone pour it in,
Make it a dirt dance floor again.
Say your prayers and stomp it out,
When they bring that chorus in.

[Chester Bennington]

(Chorus)
I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away.
I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away.
I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away,
Just to throw it away,
Just to throw it away.

[Mike Shinoda]

I bleed it out.
Go, stop the show.
Choppy words and a sloppy flow.
Shotgun opera, lock and load,
Cock it back and then watch it go.
Mama help me, I've been cursed,
Death is rolling in every verse.
Candy paint on his brand new hearse.
Can't contain him, he knows he works.
F**k this hurts, I won't lie.
Doesn't matter how hard I try.

Half the words don't mean a thing,
[Bleed It Out lyrics on http://www.metrolyrics.com]

And I know that I won't be satisfied.
So why, try ignoring him.
Make it a dirt dance floor again.
Say your prayers and stomp it out,
When they bring that chorus in.

[Chester Bennington]

(Chorus)
I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away.
I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away.
I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away,
Just to throw it away,
Just to throw it away.

I bleed it out.
I've opened up these scars,
I'll make you face this.
I pulled myself so far,
I'll make you face this now.

I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away.
I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away.
I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away,
Just to throw it away,
Just to throw it away.

I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away.
I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away.
I bleed it out,
Digging deeper just to throw it away,
Just to throw it away,
Just to throw it away.

I bleed it out.
I bleed it out.
I bleed it out.

oh how i love this child. she makes me giggle like nothing else could in my life. she has a sense of humor and giggle that i long to have.

this photo was captured by my dear friend, erin vey, while she was visiting from seattle.
and...
this is sky...
the real deal.