the moment I have been waiting for...

not very patiently

I must add...

here is the link to our slide show

of the pictures we had done

by the amazing Tara Whitney

during our California trip last month.

Go here: http://tarawhitney.com/clients/chibry/
Password: newport

as well... she posted a picture on her blog (click here)

these photos are all that I hoped for and

so SO much more

she captured my family in a way

that no one has...

in print

and 100% percent who we are

and for someone who cherishes

the ability to capture moments of time

with the creative medium of photography

these pictures mean so very much to me

I have no favourites as I love

every single photo

there is one of me that I love

which I truly thought would never happen

having pictures of Scott and me

and ones that we both love

is wonderful

and the kids,

wow

did she capture them,

Shelby's beauty and

Kaeden's craziness

as we viewed the pictures

Kaeden kept saying

"wow, I am so adorable

I could just squeeze me"

as well, the last picture in the slide show

may not mean much when you look at it

but to us

it is so perfect as

we will often gather together

put our fists together

and say "Chibry's ROCK"

the big day at the beach...

I have never made it much of a secret that

this was going to be the highlight of the trip for me...

(please ignore my hair, there was gale force winds and my hair had behaved itself as long as it possibly could and had decided to do a permanent comb over at this point in the program)

~ family pictures with Tara Whitney

~ I may need to amend my opinion on treating everyone equal, regardless of who or what they are (such as a celebrity) and not get excited and goofy when I see them to exclude hockey players, president Obama and Tara Whitney from this rule.

~ I was a nervous wreck up until tonight and was even a little tongue tied during our session (I know, SHOCKING, me with nothing to say!) I think I may have actually swooned and gushed at one point. Luckily my boys were more then happy to do the talking and mingling. Kaeden made himself a new BFF in his eyes and it became more than a little apparent where Kaeden gets his goofiness from. Shelby also thought "she was the coolest and surprisingly enough it was a really fun time". It was nice that they all enjoyed tonight as up to this point they had been very good about going along with me as they knew how much this photo shoot meant to me.

~ I have to say that without even seeing a picture (only Kaeden the charmer got to see a sneak peek) I know in my heart that she caught the essence of who we are as a family 100%.

~ I also know that she has no interest in being a mentor or doing training sessions, its just not her thing, and I get that. I think she finds her enjoyment from seeing things differently from others in her camera, and I can relate to that. However, when I wasn't gobsmacked that I was actually having my photo's done by someone I admire so much I tried to soak in how she handled a session and I think I learned a few interesting things.

~ It was a great, huge, compliment from Scott when he said he sees many similarities in the way I shoot to the way she does. Same style, same focus, same ability to relate to strangers, same concentration on just being who you are. I still think she has a gift that I either don't have or haven't discovered yet, but it was still nice to hear.

~ This blog world is weird. I feel like I know her. I have followed her blog for years. I know all the names of her children and husband. I think her husband is very much like mine (and quite funny that she made the same observation tonight). I feel that I could sit down and have coffee with her and discuss being creative, motherhood and generally just living in this crazy world. If we had grown up in the same neighborhood I could see being childhood friends. However, I just met her tonight. She doesn't know me from someone she would pass in a grocery store. No real point to this paragraph, just an observation that the Internet is a tool that has broadened our communities in so many ways but in a strange, one sided, way.

~ it will be 2-4 weeks until we receive the slideshow of our session and it goes without saying that I am looking forward to them but even without the pictures I will take a lot away from this evening.

109/365 a countdown and a dose of Kaeden

when did he start to look so grown up?

a Kaeden and me conversation:

Me: What colour do you want your Disneyland journal to be? ( I am making him a journal to document our trip, collect autographs from the characters and have a place to put his pictures)

K: Red, yellow, blue, green, black, orange

Me: so all of them except pink and purple

K: that's not what I said

Me: ok, so red, yellow, blue, orange...the primary colours

K: (a big sigh) mom, orange is not a primary colour, it is a secondary colour

Me: ummm, yeah, right.

the countdown:

3 weeks until...

Kaeden is counting down the days until Disneyland/Legoland

Shelby is counting down the days until we go to "Cali"

Scott is counting down the days until he is on "vacation"

and me?

definitely our photo shoot with Tara Whitney

and seeing Scott "skip" when we enter the happiest place on earth!

I am trying really hard to not "over think"

our photo shoot but anyone who knows me

understands this is a losing battle!

I am trying to just go with the moment

and let Tara do her thing and see us

in her unique way

and not control the session

with pre-conceived ideas

of what this shoot should look like

this is the whole reason I chose her

her style. her unique view. her ability to capture personality.

my only contribution?

trying to match our clothes in

a way that screams

"we just threw these old things on"

when in reality I made Kaeden wear

his shorts & the colour of the shirt

that he will be wearing for the shoot

to the mall today

and Shelby and I would choose something

then stand beside him to see how it looks

oh boy...we are truly crazy

AND

I am buying all 4 of us

all star converse shoes

(in complimentary colours)

for our "feet"picture

(I got mine and Scott's tonight and

I think most people will be shocked with

what colour I chose for mine as 98% of you

would have guessed black - which they are not!)

now the last one I don't feel so bad about

as Tara DID ask us to bring something from

home to incorporate into our shoot

that is special to us

and as space in our suitcases

are reserved for TARGET shopping

and as we are all obsessed with shoes

and Tara is the queen of feet pictures

it seemed like a perfect fit!