Monthly Archives: August 2008

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Contest Winner

We asked people who wanted a free session to send in their creative first birthday messages and Katie came through with a picture of her pregnant belly decorated with balloons and ribbons. She wanted a session for her own one year old so she could have some pictures of him before her second baby arrives in October. Katie was great because she let her son walk around and enjoy himself (even when that meant eating leaves :) ) and trusted dad to capture his awesome expressions and his personality. Those are the pictures that are going to bring back emotion as the years go on.

This is one of mom’s favorites:

Mom’s other favorite. She says this one would be a beautiful canvas art wrap decorating the family’s home.

Thanks for sending in the picture and coming out for the session. Dad had a lot of fun meeting you and we all wish you the best of luck when the new baby arrives!

Laura and Jay’s Engagement Session

Laura and Jay are getting married in less than a month! They met up with dad for their beach engagement session on Wednesday. They are so happy and ready for their wedding day to be here. Dad said they were playful and genuine and great together.


This one is mom’s favorite:

Thanks to Laura and Jay for a fun evening! Dad is looking forward to your wedding day at Tradewinds in just a few weeks!

New Big Sister

One of our favorite families now has two little girls! Dad has photographed their older daughter from the time she was a newborn and now she is a big sister! She is going to be a wonderful big sister. There is so much love in their house and we are happy to see their family grow. What a blessing that we get to be a part of such special times in the lives of families. Thank you for inviting us into your home and into your lives!

The new big sister:


She had a lot of work to do that day so she wasn’t in too many pictures.

Mom, dad, and their newest daughter:

She fits perfectly in daddy’s hand:

Dad says he is so happy he gets to be there for your new little one’s first year as well. Mom is excited to get started on the birth announcements! Congratulations to an awesome family!

Erica and Ryan at the Lange Farm

This weekend dad was back at the Lange Farm in Dade City, one of his favorite locations. Erica and Ryan were married there on Saturday in a pink and black themed wedding.

Erica got ready at her mom and dad’s house. Michele Renee was there for Erica’s hair and makeup and dad almost didn’t recognize her with her new haircut.

Here is Erica sharing an emotional moment with her dad as she is getting ready for her wedding:

Dad liked all the cool details around Erica’s mom and dad’s house. He said it would be a fun location for an engagement session…or maybe a Trash the Dress session Erica!

The ceremony was in front of the gazebo at the Lange Farm. Michelle is the coordinator there and she is wonderful to work with. Dad enjoyed catching up with her.

It is so sweet when a groom gets caught up in the emotion of the day. Mom loves this picture of Ryan’s reaction to Erica walking down the aisle.

The bridal party after the ceremony:

The reception was held in the Garden House and Doug Decker from Grant Hemond was the DJ. Dad likes working with him and says he does a great job.

Newlyweds:

The day was full of emotion and fun, which is just how a wedding should be. Congratulations Erica and Ryan!

Free Session Winners!

Thank you so much to everyone who made Happy First Birthday messages and sent them in for the free session. It was so much fun looking at all of them! The poems and drawings were really cute and we appreciate all the thought that went into the entries. We have contacted the winners and dad is so excited for Thursday.

Our first winner was Katie who has a one year old herself! She is expecting her second baby and sent in this picture:

We thought the ribbons hanging off of balloons on her decorated belly were too cute and picked Katie’s belly as the winner of the free session.

We had a few people send emails but they forgot to include themselves in the picture or they forgot to send a picture at all. One of the emails we received was from the BRHS soccer team. It was such a cute email!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

We wanted to wish you a happy 1st birthday! As high school athletes, and super-cool seniors we want you to enjoy the day and eat as much cake as possible….it’s the only time in your life that chubby checks and thunder thighs are adorable! So go ahead and get pinched and recognize the fact that being adorable is absolutly fabulous-but just because your growing older doesn’t mean that you can’t always act like a kid…we certainly do!

We know what anticipation feels like since we have been waiting for three years to win our soccer district tournament. Our sophmore year we lost in a double overtime to a penality kick-we were absolutely heartbroken! Our junior year we lost during the final game, in the pouring rain, because a cheap shot slid (literally because of the rain) through our goalie’s hands-again we were heartbroken to lose with such a cheap shot! It is now our senior year and we have trained, ran, done ball skills, designed tshirts, tie dyed with our team, held our heads high and continued to pursue-we just HAVE to win districts this year.

Not only is it our senior year, but our coach (Coach Pic) has declared this as her last year as well. She used to be the reading coach at our school but took a job with Duke TIP. After some begging and pleading, and some more begging…she said that she would coach us our senior year. (well minus two weeks while she is in Australia for her honeymoon). Needless to say she allows us to act like kids, has fun with us and lets us know that how important the memories that we create that are important.

So hopefully we will win the competetion, cross your cute little chubby fingers, and we will have some silly, crazy, outragous photos to get framed alongside our district champs trophy as memories of our senior year & first ever Braden River High School district win!!!!! Like our coach says “it’s the memories along the way that make it worthwhile!”

So, enjoy your 1st little birthday, and never forget to act silly…..”it’s the memories along the way that make it worthwhile”

Unfortunately they forgot to attach their pictures. The coach sent them in after the deadline, but once we saw their pictures we knew we had to make an exception and have two winners! This group looks like they totally meet the description of energetic, nice, fun, up for anything people which is just what we asked for!

The cake says, “Your 1st Birthday, Our 1st Districts”

We think they should have dunked the cake on coach’s head Gatorade style ;)

Thursday is going to be a fun day! Be sure to check back for pictures!

More Birthday Fun

It’s little brother again! To continue the first birthday celebration, mom, dad, and big brother brought me to the Florida Aquarium. I love birds so mom and dad thought I’d get a kick out of the area where the birds are walking around.

An American crocodile:

Sitting with the mermaid we met:

We saw big fish, small fish, scary fish, and cute fish. There was more than just fish there though. Big brother wanted to see the octopus and big shark but that part of the aquarium was closed.

The rays were so funny! They would put a wing out of the water and splash. They got me, big brother, and mom’s camera wet!

When mom and dad visited FL together about nine or ten years ago, they took a picture of themselves at the aquarium in front of one of the tanks. This is our family now, with a water splash in the middle of the picture from the rays, in front of the same tank.

Playing on the turtle:

Touching the starfish:

Me and dad:

After the aquarium, we went out for my birthday dinner and I got more cake! It came with ice cream too which was good until I decided to smash the ice cream making it splash ALL OVER the booth. That’s when mom took it away. The people eating near us thought it was funny though.

On the way home mom and dad let us stop by the park for a few minutes. We had fun on the swings and slides.

Spending the entire day enjoying family time was the best. We are so blessed to have one another! What a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday!

Birthday Party

Little brother here. Thanks to everyone for the birthday messages! I had a great time celebrating my first birthday with friends and family at my party this weekend. To go with my “Let’s Have a Ball” party theme, mom and dad set up two ball pits with almost a THOUSAND balls in them! Besides all of those, there were playground balls, baseballs, bouncy balls, punching balls, and foam balls. I also love birds so there were parrots hanging around the ceiling and grammy even sent a talking parrot that said a few personalized Happy Birthday messages to me. And of course there were first birthday streamers, plates, table cloths, signs, and other first birthday decorations including a poster with pictures of me each month of my first year.

Thank you to my friends that came to celebrate with me! When it came time for the cake, mom brought out a small one for me to share with the other kids there. We got to get messy sticking our fingers, hands, and even our noses ;) into the cake to enjoy the frosting. Then I decided to sit in it so mom had to clean it up and serve the real cake.

It was really an awesome party and we all had lots of fun. Now we just have to find room in our house to inflate the giant ball pit again!

The winner of the free session with the creative first birthday message will be announced tomorrow!

First Day of Preschool

Hi everyone, big brother here! Tomorrow is the second day of preschool, so we wanted to share a few pictures of the first day. Mom was careful to stay excited and upbeat while dropping me off, but she didn’t need to worry because I was fine. As soon as she left she started crying, but I was having lots of fun. Mom says that is just how it should be.

Dad had to stop by my school to drop off something and snuck a couple pictures through the window of the classroom (he thought he was being sneaky, but he was quickly spotted). He got sentimental seeing me in my classroom too.

When mom picked me up I told her about the friends I made and the fun I had playing and learning new shapes. I kept asking her almost every day when I get to go back and tomorrow I do!

Want a Free Session?

Are you energetic, nice, fun, and up for anything? Are you free Thursday evening (the 28th)? Do you want a free session? Send an email to jasonangelini@aol.com! This is open to anyone; you don’t need to have booked dad for your wedding. It will be an outdoor session at a location that dad will choose (probably in the Brandon area). It can be any type of session: engagement, bridal, trash the dress, anniversary, just because…even For His Eyes Only.

In case we have many energetic, nice, fun, up for anything people with nothing else going on next Thursday who want a session, send a picture of you holding your most creative Happy 1st Birthday message (see blog entry below for pictures from the 1st birthday session!) The message can be in any form as long as you make it, so be sure to include yourself in the picture as “proof.” All emails must be received by Monday night when we blog about the 1st Birthday party. On Tuesday we will contact the maker of the person we think had the most creative message with time and place details for the session.

It will be fun! Someone will get a free session, and we get to make a scrapbook of a bunch of cool 1st birthday pictures that come in :)

Little Brother’s First Birthday Session

With one of us just starting preschool and the other turning one in a few days, mom has been extra sappy towards us lately. We won’t say anything about how quickly kids grow up or that sort of thing because mom will start crying again (though she says they are proud and happy tears too). Instead, we’ll go right to pictures from the 1 year session.

Just born:

6 months:

3 hair cuts later…1 year!!!

Brothers:

Mom thinks big brother looks much too big in this picture:

To fit the birthday party theme:

Looking skeptical:

Big brother showing him what to do:


Messy!!

But yummy.

Mom and dad were hoping for this picture since they thought it was so funny when James and Allison’s daughter did it at her first birthday session:

Mom helping out:

Down to business…SMASH!

Looking cute in the mess.

Soon we’ll have pictures from the party which is going to be so much fun!