As I mentioned recently and you may know, I am a member of Smiling Eyes.  This is a group of photographers that donate photo sessions to people journeying through cancer. This past week I was honoured to photograph not just one amazing family – but two! I recently blogged about Caydance… not meet 7 year old Chase!

When I met Chase the first thing I noticed was his awesome freckles! I’ve always been envious of freckles. But within seconds the freckles are long forgotten because this high energy, fast talking little man has your full attention as he talks about dogs, boats, or about anything that pops into his head. I loved hearing all that was going through his mind! Such a sweet guy!

Chase’s journey with cancer may have claimed his kidney – but not his love of life and spunk!

I’ve mentioned bravery beads before and how much I love them! SUch a great visual reminder of each child’s unique health journey. Chase showed me some of his favourites before dancing with them!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

  As you may know, I am a member of Smiling Eyes – a group of photographers that donate photo sessions to people journeying through cancer. Over the years, this has fast become one of my favourite things to photograph. It is always a good reminder how precious life is – and the ones we love. 

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to meet little Caydance and her family. Today is a special day in their family’s life… Caydance is having her last chemo today! Hooray! What a day to celebrate! You will also be seeing a lot more of Caydance if you are in the Hamilton area as she is the new face of McMaster Children’s hospitals ads. Exciting! Caydance’s family decided they couldn’t control their circumstances – her sickness, treatment, etc. are all out of their hands – so doing something like fundraising was one way to keep their minds focused and concentrate on something they can control. Their family has raised around $80,000 so far for Mac – wow!! So amazing!

But let’s meet this little one….

This is Caydance – and her big sister Raya and little sister Quinn. All three are just adorable!

And here’s the whole gang! Such a great family!

Families sometimes need to stop… and pinky promise to behave for a photo shoot.

Bravery beads are about the best things ever… every time a child has something done – a needle, surgery, hospital admission, etc. – they are given a bead. This is a visual of the child’s story – unique to just them. It also costs the hospital about $10,000 a year – and Caydance’s family is now fundraising for this great program! Here are the girls inspecting the beads….

I love that Caydance put her sister’s names into her beads. They too are part of this journey!

And here’s her wish trip she’s waiting on! Soon Caydance!!

Such a beautiful family!

The photo on the right is so sweet… tehy do this cheer where they all put their hands in and yell their family’s last name. Just like you would in a sporting game. So fun!

A little Abbey Road happening….

Celebrating life and love… and the end of chemo!

Krista

A lot has happened since I last posted… and I’ve forgotten to update you here!

This past weekend we moved. Yes, it was a sad choice – but a wise one. We loved our country home – but found all of our time, money and resources were going into it. We want more out of life than a house. We have bought a home still in the area – but in town, and much simpler. We don’t get that house for a month so we are renting a house this month. Always an adventure!

But the big news we wanted to share is really exciting!

We have been working on this forever… but finally went public with what our family is working on this weekend. Want to see what it is? You can watch it HERE

Yes! We are adopting!! So excited! It will likely be a year or more still… but we eagerly anticipate that day! You can follow our journey on our adoption blog HERE.

And what some people don’t know is that to adopt is about $35,000. Crazy. Insane. But we truly feel it is crazier for a child to not know a loving family.

I absolutely LOVE our photography community and I was blown away by the support. A bunch of photographers have stepped up and donated a day of mini sessions with funds going to support our adoption. WOW!

Here is the deal….

20-30minute session with a minimum of 10 images on disc for $100-150 (depending on photographer). Amazing deal… and in time for Mother’s Day!!

If you are interested here are the photographers involved.. a few more have signed up but still have to send us their details…. so stay tuned. Please contact the one closest to you if interested!

Happening April 27

Hamilton – Sandra from Contagious Design  + Photography (sandra.bosscher@gmail.com)

Grimsby - Elma & Amy (Photography by Elma and Asher Images)  (info@photographybyelma.com)

Toronto  - Sara Wilde Photography (hello@sarawilde.com)

Happening April 28

Waterloo area – Chris from Click Photography - now fully booked!

Jarvis – Katie Dawson Photography – now fully booked!

Hamilton – Kathy DeMerchant Photography - now fully booked!

Hamilton – Kelly at Visual Venues (kelly.elliott@rogers.com)

Nanticoke – Tracy at Father’s Eye Photography  (fatherseyephotography@yahoo.com)

Nanticoke – Beth at Sweet Media (Beth@sweetmedia.ca)

Nanticoke – Angie at Angie DeVries Photography (angiedevries@gmail.com)

Happening May 5

Caledonia area – me! I still have a couple spots open. (info@edisonphotography.com) - fully booked!

Caledonia area - Kristie at Kristie Fesuk Photography ( info@kristiefesukphotography.com)

Happening May 18

Port Dalhousie – Estelle at Studio Vie (estelle@studiovie.ca)

If you are in the Toronto or Niagara area and are interested, please drop me a line as I’m just waiting for details from these photographers. If you would like to contribute to our adoption you can do so through our adoption agency Mission of Tears. Thanks!

Thank you again SO much!!!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

My girls always love creating fun cards for their friends for the different holidays and special occasions. This Valentine’s day they decided to do a paint war to celebrate Valentine’s! They had so much fun! Here’s a look at the fun they had!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

Friday we finally got some snow and it was gorgeous! I grew up in the North so I still think that winter means snow. Not always so though! Today I woke up to beautiful hoar frost and blue, blue skies! I grabbed the camera and celebrated the day – such a gift to wake up to!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

Today, I had the fun of watching a most unlikely friendship form.

My dog – Olivia Queen of Dogs (that’s her full name) – is not usually allowed in the house when the bearded dragons, James and Luna, are out and about. But today we decided to try her out. We’ve had her around other pets we’ve had (goat, guinea pigs, cat, etc.) and after a time of figuring out if she can eat the pet or not – she settles on being a protective mama to them. Same was true this time. (however I’ll never leave her alone with any – just in case!)

Watch the progression as the friendship forms – this is all in chronological order.

Yum! You got me a snack!

Having a heart to heart…

And dogs sniff each other’s butts to say hello – why wouldn’t you smell a dragon’s butt?

Studying it….

More heart to heart discussion….

Ignoring each other.

Observing…

Deciding to be friends.

BFFs.

Oh Olivia. I just love her.

Here she is with some of her past buddies.

Couldn’t find pics of her with our cat or turtle we use to have. What a dog! If a dog and a dragon can be friends… seems like people should be able to get along too!

Celebrating life and love.

Krista

This weekend we took the girls to a nearby small lake to go skating with their cousin. Even though I grew up in the North, I’m a terrible skater. My girls have barely skated and so we wanted to get them out and build some confidence before going to public skates at the local arenas (and getting bowled over). As we enjoyed the perfect day on Saturday and hours on the ice… they taught me far more than I taught them that day.

Even if you’re scared – get in the game. Put on the skates. Get on the ice. And play. Don’t let fear hold you back.

Sometimes you just need a friend to be near you. To have your back. Knowing they’re there – makes everything better.

Stepping out and trying something new means you will fall.

And fall again.

And maybe even again and again.

But after each fall you have a choice. You can sit and think about how you failed.

Or you can accept the hand up, brush yourself off and try again.

And before you know it – that thing you feared, that you were scared to try… you’ve conquered. And you’re stronger because of it.

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

We love having a big family and lots of nieces and nephews – and a new one is always so exciting! We were thrilled to welcome our newest niece, Emily, to Mark’s brother’s family on Halloween. We enjoyed visiting with them last week before their big trip to India to visit family! So excited for them! Meet Paul, Simone, Mia and now Miss Emily!

Love the rubber boots on Mia – reminds me of my girls at this age so much!

Simone’s mom has been here from India helping for the last few months – we will miss her!

Love you Emily!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

A month ago today I shared Spencer and Caitlin’s photos as they waited for their little one to arrive. How exciting to now share little Amanda’s photos now! I have loved journeying with SPencer and Caitlin from engagement, wedding, maternity and now parenthood! They are so relaxed and natural – it was great watching them love on little Amanda!

Blanket made by her great grandma….

And sweater set made for her by her other great grandma….

I love how she just curls up in mom’s lap!

And a sweet hair bow by her aunt!

I love the stage when all you want to do is lie around and stare in amazement at your baby. (Okay – my babies are 8 and 10 and there are days I still want to do this!)

Congratulations again!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

This Christmas has been one of my favourites… the girls are at that great age between toys and teens. They are old enough to play games with and joke around with, but they’re young enough to still love toys and playing. This Christmas the focus was not on gifts which was so refreshing. It left lots of time for hanging out and making memories. Santa gave the girls one small toy, and we gave them bathing suits… to use at Great Wolf Lodge in the New Year. That was it. As far as family – we said if you want to get something, great. If you want to make something or give something second hand or… nothing at all – great. It was so fun to have no pressure or expectations this year except to be together and make memories.

We do love traditions and have some we do every year… one of our favourites is our goofy Christmas card. We decide on the theme as a family and have fun with it. We try to create something that tells about our year and us. Here’s a look at some of our previous cards…..

This was 2007 that started our goofy cards. I was trying to do a nice family photo and got frustrated and took goofy individual photos instead – which lead to this:

In 2008 the kids were no more cooperative for a pretty picture. So we brainstormed as a family. They decided they wanted us all to be Barbies. Okay… we’ll go with it. So we all had our own Barbie box… on the back of each Barbie box was a description of us and what we had done that year.

In 2009 we had left the city and moved to the country. So we wanted to play up on our new status as country bumpkins.

2010 was my favourite and I have these images blown up in our kitchen now. As I age I realize “masks” we hide behind are pretty useless.. Don’t benefit anyone. So instead we wanted to show our true selves. The front of the card shows us as the perfect Norman Rockwell type family. (aka… the mask is on…) This is the card showing front and the back cover.

Then you open it up and you see the real us… bye bye mask!

Last year in 2011 we tried to capture the excitement of our girls – and the tiredness of Mark and I! (this shows the front of the card – on the right – and back of the card – on the left – laying flat)

And finally this year – we wanted to tell about our year but couldn’t choose what aspect to share. So we shared a whole bunch of different facts from our year.

Front:

Back:

Merry Christmas everyone!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista