Our LITTLE girl is going to be a BIG sister!

My little Girl isn’t so little anymore! She’s 18 months, going on 2 years! She has tons of sass and knows just what she wants and I wouldn’t trade it! Ellie is our sunshine… our funny, prissy, sunshine!

With that being said, It’s been a while since I posted any of her pictures (almost 10 months, yikes!) I have been real emotional and nostalgic about my LITTLE girl becoming a BIG sister! So I figured with this being the last few days of her being an only child, I wanted to capture HER, our sweet Ellie Grace!

I have to let you know that I am pretty much against any photos of pregnant Charity! From the moment the pregnancy test says positive things start changing and I just can’t get a picture right! But this week I was thinking about 80 year old me and how sad I would be if I let my insecurities keep me from capturing some of the most precious moments of my life because I felt… well, how most preggos feel, swollen!! So while I was out shooting Ellie’s pictures I let my husband capture a few of me and my girl! I know in the years to come I won’t regret it!

Ellie Belli is 9 months!

Ellie turned 9 months!!!  

Our girl is crawling, walking around the coffee table (while holding on for dear life), clapping, and most noticably the last couple months, she has acquired this high pitch scream! It’s loud, like really loud! I know it’s just her way of talking to us, and getting our attention… but, when we’re in public, it gets everyones attention! HA! (Yes, we’re THOSE people!) 

Since Ellie turning 9 months fell so close to Easter, we did a little shoot of her reading to her favorite bunnies! 

 

 

 

Perez Family Maternity Session

I love the Perez family! Over the past three years I’ve been fortunate to be apart of capturing some of their big moments! In 2011 I was asked to photograph Corina pregnant with Amori. This was one of my favorite shoots to date! (pictured below)

I thought since my blog wasn’t around then, I would catch you up to speed with a few of my favorite Perez photos!

Below is Corina with her husband Miles!

Soon after beautiful Amori was born and I got to shoot her newborn session!

  

These next photos may be my all time favorite! Amori was turning 1!

 

Now that I’ve caught you up to speed, below is my most recent photo session with Corina, Miles, Amori, and their bun in the oven!

We shot these photos at the Tilden Park in Berkley. It was absolutely gorgeous!

 

 

 

Vannessa & Abraham + 1

We are so excited that Abbey Joy is almost here!

I was so thrilled when Vanessa asked me to do her maternity session! Her and her husband Abraham are such a beautiful couple and so easy to photograph! I so enjoyed being with them and can not wait till their little angel girl arrives! 

Here are a few of my favorites from our session! 

 

 

 

 

The beautiful Sowers family

Loved getting to shoot family pictures for David, a fellow photographer (he’s insanely good… no pressure, ha) Bryony and their three gorgeous littles! I’ve known David since we were teenagers in Houston and we both ended up in California! We lucked out, that’s for sure! 😉

Here’s just a few pictures from the mini we did, and honestly, you can’t get much prettier than the Sowers family!!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

time. please. slow. down.

When I was pregnant it was like I was living life in slow motion! Then the moment Ellie came, someone hit the fast forward button! Everyone warned me of this, and I would just nod and secretively think, I hope we fly fast through these sleepless nights and the scary fragile phase… and now here we are at 6 months and my baby grows more and more independent everyday. Can time please stand still. Screaming tummy time, poopy diapers, and crazy days, I’ll take it all!

With that being said I want to share some of my favorite pictures of Ellie to date! These are her six month pictures, and like her little stuffed animals and sweet baby dolls, I just want to pause time, and keep her just like she is for a few extra moments!

 

 

 

 

 

PLAY TIME IS THE BEST TIME.

Ellie has been such a happy baby… unless she is bored! In six months we have accumulated 6 rather large activity toys… swings, jumpers, play mats, you know, all the large pieces that fill your living room. (The ones that you trip over in the middle of the night!) And out of all of these big extravagant pieces I think her favorite is the floor! As long as there are toys in reach, she’s happy! Which of course makes me happy! I love laying next to her, watching her look around to pick out the next toy that she’s going to bite and slobber all over! I love hearing her bang on the little piano and noise maker! I love watching the little hamster in her (cute little) head spin as she is discovering new things! I was thinking the other day how quickly she got to this stage, and how quickly she will be out of it! So I pulled out my camera and for a couple of days I took some shots of her in her element. In her little world… just playing! 

 

These are just a few unedited photos. I shot these in the monochrome setting on my camera. (came out a little more blue and white!) 

 

 

 

different day, different tone. 

did I mention I adore this girl?

 

As much as I love BW, I love my girl in color! 

 

 

 

I never want to forget the little details! They change so quick, and I can barely remember 2 months ago! YIKES! Time must slow down…. or I must slow down and take it all in! 

 

 

 

 

A new year. a new blog. an old hobby.

It’s January 1st, 2014, and I am finally sitting down to start my first blog after 10 years of taking photographs of family, friends, and life. Buried somewhere in our guest room closet, I have my first DSLR camera that I got on my 18th birthday! Since then, I have been practicing this art! Sometimes for hire and other times just because. Because life is too grand not to have a snapshot to revisit and reflect!

In July me and my husband Michael were blessed with the arrival of our greatest gift, our beautiful daughter, Ellie Grace Ruiz! Every day I am in awe watching her grow and change. She is my inspiration for this little blog! Whether it’s pictures of her sleeping or a full blown photo shoot (I’ve moved the furniture, pulled out props and dressed her up,) I’m so thrilled to have a place to share these snippets of my families little world. It will also be a home to the photographs of the beautiful people who ask me to capture their families special moments!

For my first post I thought it only right, to look back at my greatest muse over the past 10 years, and that’s my beautiful niece and nephews! I love pulling out these old photos and seeing how they have grown and changed. Also, at the same time, how I have grown and changed in my photography!

“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” – Eudora Welty