One thing I love with my photography business, is watching families grow and change. Last summer I documented Scott and Dawn’s beautiful wedding… and now I get the honour of documenting their pregnancy and soon their baby!

Dawn and I had fun chatting about ideas, and decided on a maternity session down at the beach with Scott and his two kids Adam and Sarah. Dawn is a great step-mom to these two and I have no doubt she’ll be a natural at the baby stage too!

Hamilton often gets a bad rap… but it has some beautiful places! Like this….

We started with the family of four with some fun in the sun and sand!

Dawn brought lots of wardrobe choices – love that!

Love the bright colours!

This cracked me up!

Can’t wait to meet the little one soon!!!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

Yesterday I posted about sweet little Kaley at the Ronald McDonald House. Today I have another little guy to melt your heart. Meet Mr. Riley. And speaking of hearts…. this little 6 month old has already had a heart transplant. Amazing. Just 5 days after finding out he would need a heart transplant – he received his new heart. Living several hours away from a hospital (near Pembroke) that does transplants – or even cares for transplant patients – they have been living as a family of 6 at the Ronald McDonald House. Even though his transplant went well, there are doctors appointments nearly every day so they need to stay in Toronto to be able to attend all their appointments. Again – so thankful for RMH so this family could all stay together.

Riley is such a little munchkin!

I absolutely love these bravery beads! The hospital gives a bead for each procedure – Riley’s parents have kept them and strung them together. They are longer – much longer! – than little Riley’s body. The red paper is the legend as to what each bead represents. What a story for this little guy! And a great way for the siblings to see and understand a bit of what Riley is going through.

And meet the gang!

And a special shout out to their guardian angel. This 16year old has come with them to help watch the kids and help out while mom and dad take care of Riley. Awesome!

Sweet little Riley – love this little guy.

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

I love going to the Ronald McDonald House to photograph. The families are always so inspiring… I photographed two families this time. First, let me introduce you to Kaley and her family. They came from St. Vincent in the Caribbean. Their hospital at home was not even able to diagnose Kaley’s leukemia. Again – we are so fortunate to have such great health care so accessible to us. Kaley and her mom and big sister camer to Canada and have been here several months during Kaley’s chemo treatments. This is a huge cost to their family – and makes the stay at RMH house all the sweeter. Kaley’s Grandma has also come down to stay with them now too. One of the many things I love about RMH is that they recognize how important family support is and have apartments so the extended family can stay together. Makes the journey so much better to have loved ones with you.

Meet sweet little Kaley. She was shy at first…

But soon was pulling out her model moves.

Kaley surrounded by the women she loves. Big sister. Mom. Grandma.

It was her sister’s 12th birthday that day! SHe also coordinated all their outfits for the session and did an amazing job!

It was a gorgeous day to go outside….

What mom wouldn’t want to see their girls so happy together? Love the pride on mom’s face!

Blessings on your journey Kaley!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

Over the last three years I have photographed Mike and Christa’s engagement, wedding, first pregnancy, their first son Andrew, family photos, some fun projects with Christa (like Marie Antoinette!), and recently their second pregnancy and now their newest addition…. Matthew!

When I got to the house little Mr. Andrew greeted me. Love him!

ANd found signs of a new baby boy around the house!

Finally get to meet the new arrival – and what a happy sweetheart Matthew is!

Matthew’s parents are just smitten… with him and each other!

This is the type of of photo session I love… in their own home, enjoying real moments. Capturing memories that are actual memories.. not just poses. Love this little family!

Dad and Andrew cuddling.. until Andrew escapes to go find mom and Matthew. Love these moments.

Christa’s Anista designs store on etsy is beyond amazing… and she also purchased a few etsy finds we had to document! Like these shirts! And the baseball items for this baseball loving family!

Matthew was so content – what a munchkin!

Some more loving with Matthew!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

I have photographed Erik and Logan’s dad a couple times – first as a groomsman several years ago in a wedding, and then I did some commercial portraits for his business website. His wife has since followed my blog, and so she was thrilled to get a gift certificate for her birthday for a family portrait session. And I was thrilled too! I love coming into people’s homes, and documenting their family just being together in their natural environment.

Their little boys – Erik and Logan – are so sweet! It was a fun morning spent with these four!

One memory I have as a kid is playing on the furniture – pretending the ground was filled with sharks and snakes… this picture takes me right back to those imagination filled days.

The difference between dad’s playing with kids and mom’s playing with kids always cracks me up.

(look at dad in the background – ha ha)

This little series with mom melts my heart.

Beautiful family!

And I love to take time for mom and dad to get some photos too!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

Next up on the blog are these two adorable brothers. Lots to catch up on with being off almost all last week with my dad, but looking forward to sharing some goodies soon!

I love how Logan is looking up to his big brother Erick. Too cute!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

I have said it before on here – but I’ll say it again. It has been so great to have so many clients become friends. Christa is a great example. I have enjoyed getting to know Mike and Christa as I have photographed their engagement, gorgeous wedding, maternity, first child, Christmas photos, and now as they await the arrival of their second child. It has also been exciting to watch Christa launch her business of gorgeous, vintage inspired stationary and seen it completely take off – no wonder with her talent! If you are a bride, or simply a lover of beautiful stationary – you have to check out Anista Designs! Christa was the inspiration behind our Marie Antoinette shoot last year also.

All this to say, I have gotten to know Christa through our times together with the camera, late night chats online about parenting, lunches and more. She’s a great friend and it was so great to go and document this next stage of her family’s life.

When I got to her house, I was greeted by the cat. Not a fan of cats – but this one has great eyes!

I hopped in the back of their SUV with Andrew to head to the park. No word of a lie, he flirted with me the entire way.

It was so c-c-c-c-cold outside, but these guys are troopers!

Christa is already making sure she’s fair between her two kids – and since she had some photos of just Mike and her with Andrew’s pregnancy, she needed some for this child too. Got to play fair!

Andrew really wanted to join in on the cuddling too!

See – seagulls can serve a purpose! They make a pretty background!

I loved these shirts Christa bought on etsy!

You can almost hear Andrew saying by his strut – I can do it myself!

The poor little guy was cold – so he let us know he had enough and Mike and him went to warm up.

Christa was still game to play some more – so we kept snapping!

Can’t wait to meet this new little person! I’ll sign off with my favourite images…

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

This is one family I adore… and it has been so fun to document their growth from their anticipation of baby, to Isabella’s arrival – and to her now as a growing baby! We have always documented their family in and around their country home and barn – telling part of their story in the images. And news is there is soon to be another new Stone in the family next year! So excited for this amazing family!

We created these images back in November – but we wanted to wait until after Christmas to share. Enjoy!

Miss Isabella absolutely steals my heart. Look at this muffin!

These three are all so smitten – love watching them interact.

I loved the light inside this part of their barn!

We found this old window frame on the property – made a fun prop! As does the old bike from the barn you’ll see in some images!

I love this following set…

And I’ll sign off with one we did for their Christmas cards… Kris and Sarah are both music lovers and musicians so we had to incorporate their interests!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista