edison photography

Meera – February

edison — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:10:12 +0000

Note: If you are new to my blog, I am photographing the beautiful Miss Meera once a month this year to document her journey through cancer. You can read about her story in her mom’s words HERE, and view my first time meeting here HERE and last month’s entry HERE.

After last month’s heart wrenching images of Meera in the hospital – we decided to show her in a happier setting. At home with her family. I travelled up to their home and just hung out with Meera for a little while before pulling out my camera. Here she is sitting between my legs playing on my iPhone. Typical kid loving electronics!

Meera showed me all her treasures in her room – such a girly girl!

Love how her dad had cut all of Barbie’s hair off to match Meera. So sweet.

Meera has a doll that has wigs – and the wigs fit Meera. So fun!

And let’s not forget her little sister Ameena! She woke up in all her cuteness… and those legs! Love them!

Meera’s own personal doll!

Meera coloring with her family…

Getting Meera to eat is a constant struggle – trying lots of different food to find something she’ll eat!

Like any two year old – your little sister sometimes drives you nuts….

And Meera loves to watch movies!

But movie time is interrupted by meds time – boo.

Meera soon fell asleep while watching her movie though. So sweet.

Ameena fell asleep too!

And then my favourite part.

Meera’s mom and dad shaved each other’s heads to show their support for Meera. As Laura said to me “It’s a late Valentine’s gift for Meera. Some people give chocolates or flowers to say ‘I love you’. We’re shaving our heads to say it.”

And the best gift they can give Meera… love and support.

Laura’s purple heart tattoo on her neck is one Meera drew.

Checking out the new do!

And when I left this is what I saw. Love this little one.

Laura said when Meera woke up and saw their shaved heads she was so excited and just kept saying “Thank you!!!”

If you would like to support Meera and her family – check out this online auction to suport them!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

Happy Family Day!

edison — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:11:49 +0000

You often hear people saying about Valentine’s – that we should celebrate love every day. And about Family Day that we should be celebrating family every day. But you know, if you’re anything like me, you can use reminders in life. I know it’s just a date on the calendar – but it is also a reminder to stop. And think about those we love. Those we have been given to love.

This Family Day weekend – I actually got to see a lot of family. And loved it!

Friday nights in our house is Family night. We cuddle on the couch – all 4 of us and the dog, eat pizza and watch a movie. It’s such a simple tradition but I love it.

Saturday I started my day by watching my girls do what they love. I love seeing their personalities develop and their interests defined. Eden has been taking ballet this year. To be honest, she’s pretty bored with it – but she loves the idea of wearing her tutu and dancing. And I love watching her learn a new skill.

Madi has been obsessed with horses since she could breathe. With a dad and sister VERY allergic to horses we haven’t let her pursue it. But, after years of begging, we finally gave in to lessons. Mark and Eden don’t get to ride with her or visit the horses unfortunately, but Madi is in her glory up in the saddle!

Saturday afternoon I got to spend a few hours not with my family – but with an awesome example of a loving, caring family. I have been documenting 2 year old Meera’s journey with cancer and visited her family on Saturday. While there, her mom and dad shaved their heads in solidarity with Miss Meera (who has lost her hair again with chemo). It was a beautiful statement and I’ll be blogging more on this soon!

While I was visiting Meera, my girls were able to go visit their cousins Aydra and Jack they don’t see often enough. I love the relationships with cousins! Although I didn’t get a picture of them together this time – this is one from Christmas that looks like it could have been taken on Saturday. They had fake glasses and face paint on Saturday too!

Sunday afternoon, we had our annual Hall Family Olympics here at my house. My sister planned the games this year and since we’re snow-less (boo!) we did indoor games. She planned “Minute to Win It” games and it was so much fun! Here’s some of us playing the game where you start with a cookie on your forehead, and only using your face – no hands! – have to get the cookie into your mouth. Hilarious to watch! A really fun evening!

And today, on Family Day we spent most of the day lounging at home in our PJ’s. Divine.

Eden gave me this sketch of her “superhero” costume for “Nature Girl” about a month ago. Every day she asks when I can make it. Today I finally pulled out the sewing machine, and found scraps of material to match her requests and tried to piece together her costume. She’s thrilled. Easy to please. Introducing Nature Girl. The green is for grass. Red is for lava. Yellow for light. Blue is for water.

And we ended our Family Day weekend with visiting my in-laws at their new home on the lake. Such a calm, relaxing location. Love it! And since I forgot my camera… here’s a snapshot from my iphone!

All in all, I feel relaxed, rejuvenated and reminded that family is awesome….the family you are born into, the family you marry into and the family you gather as you journey through life.

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

Beautiful Gals

edison — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:49:59 +0000

I’m a jeans and sweatshirt kind of gal. I love to be comfortable. Likewise, so is my friend Sarah and my sister-in-law, Melissa. Being moms, it’s often about what is quick and convenient when it comes to fashion. Today, a couple of us photographers got together to “play” at my home – photographing for fun and to try out some new gear. I asked Melissa from HoneyBee Hair to come and enhance the beauty of both Sarah and Melissa. I love what she did with their hair and makeup! Melissa said the only time she had really worn makeup was on her wedding day – so fun to see the transformation!

I think it’s so great for women to feel beautiful and confident! I’d highly recommend a photo session like this for any woman – for any occasion!

Enjoy a few photos of these lovely gals from in and around my home and studio!

I love how Sarah looks so mischevious!

And Melissa looked gorgeous!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

edison — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:05:26 +0000

Valentine’s Day isn’t a huge occasion in our house… but we do try to stop and celebrate LOVE. It is one more chance for us to stop and intentionally teach our girls about life’s greatest gift. Love.

I’m smitten with Mark for a million and one reasons – but one is because he shows our girls an awesome example of how they should be treated by the boys in their life. They woke up to cards he had chosen for them specifically, and inside he had written what he loves about each girl. And they had flowers from him. They were so excited to have flowers they could keep and grow. Here’s hoping they do a better job than I do at growing things!

I’m surprised, and pleased, but our girls still ask for homemade Valentine’s cards for school. So, off we went to pinterest (love it) for ideas and the girls chose this idea – turned out cute!

Our girls have been working on memorizing 1 Corinthians 13 and so we chatted about how this is true love versus “I-love-Taco-Bell” type of love. I leave you with these words… whoever it is in your life today, may you shower them with love!

Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.
Love never fails.

Celebrating life and LOVE,

Krista

Hidden Gems….

edison — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:14:15 +0000

At weddings I’m always drawn to kids – and as I was working through some older images found two photos that completely cracked me up. Had to share!

The first – love his confident stride…

The second… guess someone must have said “kiss my butt” and he thought they meant his own!

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

Flowergirls

edison — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:48:54 +0000

I wrote last week about “reluctant flower girls” (see here) and I was reminded about my own daughters as flowergirls and had to share a few oldies!

They have been fortunate to be flowergirls in a few family weddings. They have been little stinkers every time…

The wedding where Eden laid on the stage with her skirt right up, plugging her ears, and then I finally had her go sit down when she started jumping off the top step of the stage during the ceremony.

Laying in the grass in a white dress.

At this point the dress is ripped and hair is ruined.

They did have some cute moments at that wedding too…

Another wedding….

Eden picked her nose – and Madi went over to the front pew, laid down and had a nap.

Kissing the groom.

Runaway flowergirl.

And then another wedding where Madi picked her nose the entire service. I was photographing and Mark was performing the ceremony – so neither of us could get at her to stop. Too funny.

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

Legacy

edison — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:08:42 +0000

I was chatting with a bride this week who had just received her wedding album from me. She said, “I can imagine sharing it with our grandkids someday.”

I loved that. I think sometimes we think of the photos as for right now – the images we can upload to Facebook tonight, share with our friends tomorrow…. but the images we create today build a story about us that will be passed on to generations. What will that story say? What do we want that story to say might be a better question.

At the end of our chat, the bride said “I want our love to be our legacy.”

What an honour it is to document and create heirlooms to pass on for generations.

This video has been passed around online for years – but I love it and wanted to share it here again.

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

Really, really glad

edison — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:01:57 +0000

This weekend we watched the movie “Courageous” and in it there is a line that stuck with me. The wife says to her husband…. “There are days I’m glad I married you. And then… there are days I’m really, really, really glad I married you. Today is one of those days.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself! I am so thankful for Mark in my life. He has been my sanity, encouragement, fellow dreamer, companion and the man I adore for more than half my life now.

Today, is a special day in Mark’s life. It’s a significant birthday… I probably shouldn’t say what age but I will leave it at this… he’s no longer in his 30′s!

I could go on and on about how great he is… but why don’t I just show you?

Mark is the kind of guy that is hard to upset – even when I “accidentally” bring home a baby goat that I fell in love with.

Mark goes along with my crazy ideas… when I say “Let’s drive from BC to Cape Breton” – his response is “Okay, when?”

I love to plan parties – but Mark gets the honour of doing the games and everything at the parties. And he does so with such enthusiasm! Even when Eden invited more kids than we knew were coming and suddenly we had 25 instead of the 14 we planned for at her Halloween in July birthday party. Mark keeps his cool and goes with it.

Mark is a kid at heart – even when we’re kid-less like on this trip to FAO Swartz in NYC without the kids!

Or getting a broken koosh ball stuck on his head

Mark makes time for his girls. When we lived in Hamilton, and he worked in Guelph, we would often meet halfway for picnics after work.

Mark is a nurse, and is so caring with his girls.

One of my first memories of Mark is his laugh – always ready to burst out!

As I looked back over photos of Mark there were so many of him just walking and talking with the girls wherever we are. Love that.

At home….

And even in Iceland…

And Mark has taught the girls so much! He’s taught them….

-you jump on the beds whenever you get to a hotel

-whip cream tastes better from the can

-how to rap

-proper attire for a date (and how to dance)

-while in Cape Breton Mark spent a lot of time trying to teach the girls how to do cartwheels

-how to make goofy faces (even while at a fancy dinner on a cruise)

-a love of reading and learning

-to stop and enjoy God’s beauty

-that if you give it, be prepared to get it.

-the value of a best friend

-how to be a scarecrow

-that a dad is someone to look up to and admire.

Happy birthday, Marky Mark!

Love your adoring wife. xoxoxo

Meera-January 2

edison — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:20:24 +0000

I just had an email from Laura (Meera’s mom)… she had wanted to share Meera’s story in the comments and answer some of your questions, but it got too long so I said I would blog it instead. HEre is a bit about Meera from Laura. And if you have missed our Meera posts – you can view them here and here.

Hello, and thank you. Thank you so much Krista for choosing us to document for your personal project, I am honored that we stuck out to you, in an unfortunate amount of children and families that are sadly experiencing a very similar new and different lifestyle. And thank you to those who are sending prayers and positive energy our way. It means the world to us.

I’ll try my best to have a condensed version of Miss Meeras journey so far to bring everyone up to speed on Meera and her condition. I can simply start with, in July, life was normal. And in August everything changed forever.

We noticed a lump that grew rapidly under her nose, which made her look like little Cindy Lou who from whoville and through a slew of tests from non to very invasive (xrays, ultrasounds, MRI, CATscan, biopsies, bone marrow aspirates, Bone and PET scan, and and ECHO test) we received the devastating news she in fact had a rare aggressive malignant tumor called Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. She had to have a ‘port’ inserted immediately in order to administer her Chemotherapy and sedatives for her radiations. She also had to have a gtube (an internal feeding tube) as they strongly believed she would receive mouth sores from the chemo and radiation and might not eat which means healing would be more difficult. (proper nutrition is an important factor in healing-and they were very right about the loss of appetite) Meera has already completed her 28 days of radiation, one of those days was her second birthday, on Halloween. It’s an awful feeling knowing you are doing your best to be a good parent and trying to fix something she doesnt even know is a problem and part of her fixing includes putting her through procedures that cause her such a great deal of pain and sickness.

‘Rads’ were brutal. Her face was so badly burned from it she looked more like a burn victim then a cancer patient towards the end. And the after effects lasted much longer after they were completed as that’s how they worked. So many nights, and mornings were spent cleaning up after she was sick.

The chemo protocol is a 43 week treatment plan that started Sept 7th. The Dr’s decided that it was far too invasive for surgery to remove the tumor and to see how things went with chemo and radiation. They also didn’t want to give us any percentages in terms of prognosis as there’s always that chance of something happening. But they do seem quite content with how quickly the tumor had taken to the treatment even in the first few weeks. The problem with this specific type of cancer is it has a nasty tendency to spread to other places (metastasize) and fast, but fortunately it was only where we saw it, which means we really did the set we could in terms of getting her taken care if right away.

We had to stay at the Ronald McDonald house (which we are eternally grateful for) as Meeras radiations were to be everyday, as well as the post radiation evaluations. Her chemo was also modified while undergoing ‘rads’ as one of the drugs were not compatible, which means her hair already started to grow back. Her hair began falling out exactly one week after her baby sister was born, Sat Sept 24th, and by Tuesday the 27th, she was bald. And now the ‘rads’ are over she is back on the heavy duty drugs and will be loosing her sweet peach fuzz, and I again will shave my head so she does not have to endure the looks alone. She is not in this fight alone.

My apologies if I jump all over the place, and for a lengthy post, but it certainly is quite a fair bit of information to try and squeeze in. Again I do want to thank everyone on following us on our journey through Meeras battle, and Krista for being there with her amazing photography skills and perception. As difficult as some images can look, I feel as if there are far more emotions involved such as strength and beauty. Meera has given me a gift I could never imagined I had, and cherish every single moment we have together, to be honest I always have embraced every moment, good or bad. And I always will. I look forward to sharing more each month, sometimes we do have a chance to be a normal family and have fun with the simpler things in life.

And because you always need a photo… I love this one of Meera with her pink nails, princess dolls… and IV tubes.

Celebrating life and love,

Krista

Meera – January

edison — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:23:38 +0000

If you have been following my blog, you will know that I will be photographing Meera and her family each month as a personal assignment… documenting their journey through cancer.

A lot of people have asked me “why?” I am doing this assignment. It is something I have wanted to do for years – so many of us are touched by cancer. Too many of us. But not all of us know what a day in the life of someone actually going through it looks like. What the reality of the big “C” word in your life can mean.

When I met Meera and her mom, Laura I just knew they were a fit. Laura is so open to talk about their journey and Meera is just so stinking cute! And as I met with them this week, I was reassured this was the right choice – I love this family already.

The night before I Was to photograph Meera in her home, I got a text from Laura. Meera had been admitted to the hospital – after her chemo that day her blood platelets were quite low and she needed to stay in the hospital. SHe asked if I wanted to reschedule. No way! This is life for them. One thing I really appreciate about Laura, is she explains everything to me and is so informative. And she is so positive through it all. I heard her say a few times “this is our life now.” Just a fact.

I wanted to quickly share a bit of their story as it is so unbelievable to me. I may have a couple dates wrong – going from memory – so Laura, please correct me.

August 21 – Laura is 8 months pregnant with her second child and turns 26!
August 24 – Meera is diagnosed with cancer
September 17 – Roy and Laura’s second daughter Ameena (meaning “faith”) is born (3 weeks after Meera’s diagnosis!)

Laura calmly told me how she asked to be induced, as she was needing to go around Meera’s chemo schedule as well. She had her baby, then stayed in the hospital a couple days until it was Meera’s chemo day in the same hospital so that she could be there with her.

I am a mom of two daughters almost the same age. Remembering to brush my teeth was a challenge in the early days. I am absolutely in awe of Roy and Laura’s strength and great attitude. Love their little “Meera-cle”.

Without further ado – here’s a glimpse into January with Meera.

When I got there, Meera was at an ex-ray so I caught Laura having some cuddle time with Ameena. They were in a private room, but that still meant that overnight the sleeping arrangements were less than ideal – Meera got the bed, Laura got the pull out chair and Ameena got the stroller.

Grandma was there too – and they’re doing such a great job making sure Ameena gets attention too!

Meera came back from her ex-rays and didn’t want to get out of her stroller. She sat and watched Dora with her Princess dolls!

A nurse came in to check her blood platelets. It was so sad – and I debated posting these.. but this is reality. I loved watching Laura comfort her though.

I should mention – Laura buzzed her hair off when Meera started to lose hers. What an awesome act of love.

Meera doesn’t always eat – so she has a “button” she had surgically put in where she can be given medication or tube fed. This particular day they could not get her to eat or drink – so it may mean she gets “fed” later by tube.

Daddy trying to get Meera to eat…

And all the while, happy go lucky Ameena is chilling out.

Those legs!! Love her.

Laura giving Meera some of her medication – Meera thought it was water in there and squirted it in her mouth… she wasn’t too happy to find meds! Love how she pretended to give her princess dolls meds too!

The main thing I saw though was love, love and more love.

Beautiful, beautiful Meera.

Celebrating life and love,

Krista