Awhile back the hubster and I decided we wanted to visit his family in Virginia. We talked about flying and instead decided to take a roadtrip. Yes that’s right, I said the word. I’m not one to be afraid of driving but 17 hours and almost 1100 miles of driving EACH way. Oh and plus we have two 2 and under? Yes I know it’s crazy and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about getting some Xanax, just in case right? Always be prepared, that’s what the Girl Scouts taught me.

When I was growing up my family of seven always drove everywhere. Yes it was more economical – who buys airfare for 5 children anyway? I am used to the logistics in driving long distances with kids. But those trips were max 10 hours of driving with stops.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing wrong with it and fly a lot for work. However, with 2 wee ones that are out of their schedules and out of their environment? Well that’s just asking for a breakdown. I’d rather have my kids break down when it’s just me that’s getting the headache from it. Then when you add all the gear you ‘need’ carseats, blankies, stroller, snack goodies, coloring books and you’ve got to get that within checked luggage limitations? Add in a non-direct flight and well my choice was to drive.

Needless to say we were in the car alot

We party hard, we work hard and we sleep hard.

Have to see the sights when you’re there! Even if it’s just from said car we already enjoyed for the last 10 hours.

Apparently hotels are quite entertaining, bonus they’re already baby-proofed!

We took some time to go to the Smithsonian National Zoo.

On the way back we stopped at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. Who knew so much work and planning goes into making a bat?

Apparently you can get dinner and then 5 MINUTES later stop for white castle ‘just because you can’t get it at home’

We’re already planning our next roadtrip, just won’t be as long of a trip.

Hannah is just an adorable little girl, full of giggles and laughs. She was such a delight to photograph and I had so much fun with her. Thank you D family for letting me hang out with this sweetie!

Since last Saturday was the day before Easter of course we had to dye some eggs! This was my first time doing it in literally decades but I think ours turned out alright.

Got to get all the supplies ready beforehand.

Gotta put the ‘magic’ crayon on the egg

Mom you gave me a dud egg, or this crayon isn’t working.

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Yes folks I know you’re all jealous of my mad creative skills right? I mean putting a letter on an egg is completely original folks!

Do you see that absolutely adorable apron Gabby is wearing? I had matching aprons made for us to wear from a friend. She has an etsy store so if you’re looking for something cute check her out here!

I love the age my daughter Gabrielle is now. At two years old she’s full of personality and you can almost watch the wheels turn in her head as she’s learning something. Every day I wonder where did she learn that from? There are a few things she definitely inherited from me. She loves to dance, sing and is strong willed stubborn,persistent yeah that’s the word.She’ll even tilt her head just so when you’re taking her picture if you ask her to show you her “pretty face”.

For reference, here’s me:

and here is hers:

I swear I didn’t teach her to do that. I would tell her I was sweeping her hair out of her face because I wanted to see how pretty she was and then she started tilting her head and doing this. Well despite those characteristics there are many more that undoubtedly were inherited from her daddy. My daughter looks just like my husband down to every minuscule detail. Long ago I gave up on her having any resemblance of me. I’m fine with that because honestly he did a make a pretty cute girl. For those that don’t know what he looks like picture her but chop off the hair, put it on a grown man and well that’s my husband. Incredibly long and thick eyelashes that makes you think it’s a waste because every morning I try to enhance mine to look like that and to no avail.

One thing she recently started doing was this one particular look. I can assure you she didn’t learn it from me. I would show you one of the 181 reference images I have on my hard drive of my husband giving this exact same ‘look’ because he doesn’t want his picture taken (and yes I know exactly how many images I have with every person I know in them because I’m OCD about tagging them the second they get copied off the memory card but I digress). However, I’m a busy girl and I don’t have time to shop for a new baby daddy, especially one that puts the seat down EVERY SINGLE TIME. Forget about flowers, once you find a guy that will take out the trash unprompted and automatically puts the seat down you need to snag him up and FAST. Throw in a man that cleans up after himself and you’ve met my Prince Charming.

Anyway here’s the “Look”:

As you can tell I’m sure I’ve NEVER ever given anyone this look unless the seat was left up….

As a photographer and a mom I ofcourse take a lot of pictures of my children. However I usually get so occupied with the day to day activities that those images rarely are edited and if I do then I almost never share them. As a result one thing I’m focusing on doing more is just taking ‘snaps’ of my own kids and making sure to share them. My way of tackling that challenge is “Family Fridays”. While I don’t promise to share some every Friday I do anticipate that I’ll be sharing a lot more than I previously did. Children grow up so fast and it’s so important to just document them playing with their latest (insert newest toy here).

In today’s case it’s a vet kit that my wonderful sister in law sent Gabrielle for her birthday. Well Gabby absolutely loves that kit, fortunately it all came in a handy doggy crate that I can shove it all in after she’s tired of it – usually 7 minutes later. Keep in mind 7 minutes for a toddler equals approximately 3 hours for an adult. The only thing that tops that is play-dough at a record breaking 11 minutes.

That poor doggy has had his ‘tempture’ taken more times than I can count now. Oh and he’s lucky he hasn’t overdosed from all the ‘medsin’ he’s been given now. Poor dog’s only saving grace is the monkey has recently gotten sick as well…

I recently got a remote for my camera and it’s nice to actually be in few images with my little ones.

Two years ago yesterday I was handed a tiny baby girl and my life hasn’t been the same since. Hang on with me for a few minutes because momma is about to get sentimental and that means lots of pictures.

See all that dark hair? Yep 9 months of hard work and I was handed a miniature version of my husband. All that work I went through and there wasn’t a speck of me in her looks, at least my husband makes a cute girl I guess.

She was instantly full of personality all her own.

Usually that personality includes some A LOT of attitude

Her nickname of ‘Gabbs’ was eerily very correct despite her small size. Getting her a cell phone down the road is already out of the question. Although daddy thinks it wouldn’t be that bad, uh huh sure whatever….

She loves anything with sugar just like her momma.

We LOVE dress up, very few days pass when a fairy/princess/whatever costume isn’t put on. Apparently I’m not that good at hiding them.

Dancing around the room in said costume is also a must. We dance all the time, and she gets her mad skills from me thankfully!

Pig tails are usually requested over bows most days. Along with these pig tails she usually requires a ‘sveter’ also known as a sweater to the rest of us. Suddenly over night she’s become some preppy hipster!

Cheerios are best eaten after being dumped all over the floor.

I have a wonderful helper to “cook” every time I dare touch the stove to say boil water. Oh and we have matching aprons like this one that must be worn if said stove is touched for even a moment.

Our newest favorite thing in life is slides. She could go down them all day long provided I didn’t get tired and I have a stash of ‘nak’ toddler for ‘snack’ (For the record the sweater was demanded at her request and yes I know it doesn’t match her outfit but good luck trying to tell her that!)

She has yet to meet a playground she doesn’t love. This is where we ended up playing after I thought it’d be grand fun to show her how to fly a kite. After three trips chasing her down towards the playground and I finally gave up

My life is filled with a lot more drama now, usually the good kind..

sometimes, well not so much the good kind..

But I wouldn’t trade my drama filled life for a ‘boring’ one or anything else now.

Happy birthday baby girl!

P.S. Can you believe that I’m ‘only’ a day late in this post? Wow

I realize I’ve been a really bad blogger lately. Seems this always happens to me come winter. I promise myself I won’t let it happen again but then I get holed up from the seemingly never ending darkness and it’s not inspiring to take photos or when I do to even edit them.

I’m working on that though and this warmer weather is so encouraging that spring is around the corner. Some of these posts are a little late. This is almost a month late – oops!! There is a lot of new things coming soon for Kentiga and I’m really excited about the changes. Be sure to keep an eye out for them!

This is my little guy for his 4 month session. He’s becoming such a happy baby and is really starting to get those baby rolls that I absolutely adore. My main mission in life is for a chubby baby!!

Little Jonah was almost 3 weeks old when I met him and he was such a sweetheart.

I was a little worried we had missed that golden time for newborn portraits in order to get those sleepy and curly newborn images taken. Fortunately my worries were completely unfounded and it didn’t take much for Jonah to get totally conked out.

I absolutely LOVE this image of baby and mommy!

Isn’t this couple just adorable? They’re getting married next summer! You probably can’t tell from the photos but it was maybe 20 degrees when I met up with them! We had a chance at a few shots before everyone turned into icicles.

Isn’t this family just adorable? Sometimes I forget during a shoot that I’m actually ‘working’ I loved hanging out with this family, they were so much fun. Their daughter Paige was absolutely hilarious!!