Vivian Eleanor

{birth story}

When I walked in to the room this mama was calm and resting. You could tell she had been working really hard and was using her time between contractions wisely. Those micro naps can do wonders. When the urge to push came on, baby started coming out in her caul, however, the caul ruptured on it’s was out. After that, mama changed positions. Due to a hip injury dad got creative and used his belt for extra leg support. Not long after getting as comfortable she was going to get, she pushed her sweet baby in to the world. I love the images of mom as she hugs her baby for the first time. The immediate feeling of relief and amazement. The incredible adrenaline rush. Pure, genuine, gratefulness, and happiness. It’s a really beautiful thing to witness. This glorious moment lasts a little while before it’s time to birth the placenta. Your body will expel that naturally within 30 minutes of birth, but sometimes, like in this mama’s case, the placenta doesn’t detach from the uterine wall which is called a retained placenta. If this happens, intervention is needed. This super strong and extremely determined mama wanted to avoid surgery, so while dad held baby, she held on to the laughing gas for deal life as the doctor manually removed it. This woman’s determination and strength absolutely amazed me. And so did the umbilical cord! Seriously, scroll down and check out that beautiful cord, along with baby Vivian’s tiny feet and hands. Oh I just loooove the baby wrinkles you only see on brand new babies. And of course be sure to press play on the video at the end of this post to see this whole birth story which includes precious video clips.

***   now press play to watch this beautiful and powerful birth story   ***

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Hilda and Twig's Halloween Adventure

My kiddos are pretty obsessed with Hilda and the Troll books. Hilda lives in a land with cool creatures and she has some pretty awesome friends including this adorable deer fox named Twig. Recently Netflix has brought the books to life with a TV series, which is a fave in our house. But I recommend the books! When we were deciding on costumes this year, I wasn’t surprised at all when they said they wanted to go as Hilda and Twig for Halloween. So we collected a bunch of stuff, pulled out the sewing kit, and voila!

Hilda and Twig were ready to grab their bags and head in to the night to collect as much candy as they could before the midnight troll woke up! Scroll down to see how fun their Halloween adventure was! We even ran in to blue Lego and Dorothy up the street and joined forces. And I know I mention this every single year during my annual halloween post, but the people in my neighbourhood are just the best! They know how to make Halloween super fun! In fact, they know how to make a super rad community! We love you all!

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The Whole Fam Jam

I love when the whole family comes together. I love capturing everyone’s personality in these big group pictures. Of course that’s challenging to get in one shot, but we always get it. Sometimes families come to the session just hoping we get that one shot because it usually seems a little chaotic since there’s lots of people. But I embrace the children running around wild and free because I’m the type of photographer who follows the children’s lead. I truly think the most important thing with a session that includes children is keeping them happy. If you don’t make the children’s happiness the priority, it can lead to a domino effect of unhappy people and forced smiles. We don’t ever want that. So, we follow the children’s lead, and sometimes they sit calmly for that picture perfect shot and sometimes they jump around which creates images that are so full of love and life. Realistically, photoshoots are supposed to fun, and not something to dread. I know some photographers won’t even photograph extended families because the fact that they are challenging, but I welcome the whole fam jam, and to make things easy, I have a package called “The Whole Fam Jam” for these very sessions. So get that family together and lets make magic!

This post is featuring some of my favourite shots from these two family sessions. Two wonderful families that I shot on the same weekend. One in the West End and one in the East End. Scroll down and take a peek!

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West End

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East End

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