I seriously could not be more proud of my son.  He is incredibly smart, kind, giving, fun, helpful, and creative.  Those aren’t just a list of adjectives.  Each of those are traits that he fully demonstrates.  He started kindergarten this year and is already reading chapter books meant for kids several grades above him.  He is involved in many activities and keeps us on our toes with his diverse interests.  I am shocked at his drawings and artistic skill because I have NONE!  He writes terrific stories that are beyond his years.  I love so many of his stories that this summer we are going to make them into a keepsake book!  Many of you know that our annual food drive started because of him.  This Easter season he did chores around the house and for family to raise money to give to our church’s rice bowl project for the hungry.  Recently he took all of the money he had been saving up from birthdays and holidays and donated it to our local crisis pregnancy center.  He has the biggest heart!

Seeing his pictures from this year’s birthday session made me tear up.  I love him so much and I cannot express how grateful I am to God for giving me the gift of all of my kids!  It fills my heart.  Here are a few highlights from my oldest son’s annual birthday session.

**DISCLAIMER:  The pictures in this blog post are a mix of ones from Jason’s camera and from our point and shoot.

When Jason and I first started planning a winter family vacation we knew we needed to see snow.  We love the cold weather and snow!  We had been to New Hampshire a few years ago but only Jason had been to Vermont.  He had photographed a wedding there and he loved the whole area.  We decided to go see Vermont and we pulled up a map of the state on the internet.  We weren’t all that concerned with finding the towns with the best tourist attractions.  We just wanted to play in some snow!  We started calling hotels in various towns in Vermont asking if they usually had enough snow on the ground to make a snowman the week before Christmas.  If the place told us that there was no way to know, or that they did some years but not others, we would call a hotel in a place further north.  Finally we called a hotel in Burlington, Vermont and the guy who answered said that though it was of course up to God they almost always had enough snow to play in around Christmas time.  That was just the answer we were looking for and we decided on Burlington as the last stop in our trip.

We were flying from Vermont back to Florida so the car ride from NYC to Burlington was the last long one of the trip.  We spent most of it singing Christmas carols and A Charlie Brown Christmas on the portable DVD player.  We drove through beautiful snowy scenery and it made the trip go by quickly.

Sunset in Burlington is just before 4:30pm but it seems like it starts getting dark around an hour before that.  It is like the evening starts at at quarter til 4 in the afternoon!  We arrived at the hotel after dark and there was definitely snow on the ground!  We didn’t want to drive around exploring on the dark snowy roads so we picked up some dinner to eat at the hotel and spent more time together as a family.  My sister said everything was perfect and she loved Vermont but the one thing she had hoped for was to see snow actually falling and not just on the ground.  When we woke up the next morning it was snowing hard and it kept snowing the rest of our time there.  It was beautiful.  I could watch snow falling for hours!  We got all bundled up and headed out to play in the snow.

Jason had recently photographed Emily and Ted’s wedding and they live in Vermont.  When they heard we were going there Emily was nice enough to send us a ton of ideas for things to do and see in and around Burlington.  It was so helpful and we used it our whole trip!  She had recommended Battery Park as the best place to romp around in the snow and enjoy a pretty view of the lake and mountains.  It was perfect!  There was a play ground and a covered stage and benches overlooking the lake and best of all a ton of snow!  Playing there with my family was my favorite part of the entire vacation.  I think it was a favorite for all of us!  It was exactly what we wanted out of our vacation.

Jason tried to convince my sister to put her tongue on the pole.  Even after watching A Christmas Story just a few days early she was still about to do it until I told her not to!

Let the snowball fighting begin!  Kids or parents, cold or not, our motto was Snow No Mercy!  It was a Snownihilation!

Our oldest kept trying to walk far away but after a few tries I had some distance to my throws!

Just because they are down doesn’t mean they are done!  Snow No Mercy!

Little brother running up to help out and rescue his big brother:

Snow angels:

It was my sister who got too cold first.  She took our daughter into the car to warm up and soon after we all headed back to the hotel to change into dry clothes and eat.  It had snowed so hard that there was almost a foot of snow in the hotel courtyard so after lunch we went outside there to play in the snow even more!  Well, most of us did.  We tried building a snowman but we couldn’t get past the base layer.  Not only because we don’t have great snowman building skills but also because it was just too tempting for our preschooler to kick and knock over!  Jason didn’t have his camera this time so the snow ball fight between him and I soon became a fierce snow battle complete with tackles and throw downs!  I won of course, and despite what Jason would say it has nothing to do with the fact that he didn’t have any gloves on.  Covered in snow head to foot, we headed inside.

It was still snowing that night and once it got dark it was really cold!  But we headed out to see Church Street, another recommendation from Emily and from all the online travel guides for Burlington.  It is a downtown walking area with lots of shops and restaurants.  The “streets” (though it is a pedestrian area closed to traffic) had garland and wreaths hanging in the air and there were lined with trees covered in tons of white lights.  At the end of the street there was a big Christmas tree.  It was definitely a Christmas scene!  We had forgotten our point and shoot at the hotel so we could only get pictures with the cell phone which of course does not come out well in the dark, so here is a picture from the Church Street Marketplace website, www.churchstmarketplace.com:

We walked the whole street and checked out some of the shops before we went to dinner.  Emily said that the “ultimate, right here right now, this is what Vermont is all about, family dining experience” was at the Farmhouse Tap and Grill.  We are so glad she recommended it to us!  The building used to be a McDonalds but was renovated by local designers and craftsmen into what they called a gastropub.  They pride themselves on supporting local farms and using locally provided foods and almost everything on their menu was free range and grass fed.  Their menu changes depending on what is in season and they list the farms where they get their food right on the wall in the restaurant.  We ordered root beer and even that was brewed at the restaurant!  Even the cheese on the kids’ grilled cheese sandwiches and mac and cheese dishes came from local Vermont farms!  My sister had the corn cakes with mushrooms, wilted greens, and a buttermilk herb vinaigrette.  I don’t know how they made something as simple as corn cakes taste so good but it was incredibly yummy!  I tried to talk Jason into the rabbit just for some adventure but he settled on a venison burger.  I am at all adventurous with food so I had a local grass fed beef burger.  On the menu they even tell you which local farm your beef and cheese are coming from!  I love that.  The food was great, the atmosphere was great, and we got to experience some of Vermont food culture.

Our flight the next day did not leave until that evening so we got an early start and set off to visit a few places just outside of Burlington.  It was still snowing and we enjoyed the beautiful views as we drove.

Our first stop of the day was the Ben and Jerry’s factory in Waterbury.  Ben and Jerry’s started in Burlington, Vermont in 1978 and is now international.  But 70% of all of their production is still done in their two factories in Vermont.  Supporting local Vermont family farms and using natural ingredients are important to their company.  They use only cage-free eggs, the cows are not treated with growth hormones, they are fair trade certified, and they work to responsibly and sustainably source their ingredients and promote environmentally conscious business practices.  We took a tour of the factory where their company really began and learned about their mission statement and how they put that into action.  We didn’t find out until after we had already paid for the tour that the production room was closed for the holidays but we still got to see it.  And most importantly the tour ended in the Flavoroom where we got to sample one of the new flavors, Peppermint Schtick!  It is a limited batch available only in scoop shops and only until they run out because they are not making more.  They told us that it was peppermint ice cream with fudge covered peppermint candy pieces and a peppermint swirl.  I don’t like peppermint and there are only a couple flavors of ice cream in general that I actually like so it did not sound good to me.  I almost didn’t even try it but I did and I loved it!  It was the perfect ice cream for winter.

After the tour was finished we walked through the hall of the Top Ten Flavors and found our favorites.  Then we stopped at the Scoop Shop to enjoy more ice cream!

After we left the Ben and Jerry’s factory we headed for another of Emily’s recommendations, a scenic drive to a covered bridge.  Emily had warned us that the bridges were tucked away and the roads could be adventurous but we decided to give it a try and luckily the drive wasn’t bad at all!  Holmes Creek Bridge is right on Lake Champlain and we stopped by the lake to take in the amazing view of the snow on the shore of this massive lake with freezing cold waves and the Adirondack mountains in the background.  Wow.  The historic covered bridge, the snow, the mountains, the peacefulness…THAT is Vermont.

The boys fell asleep during our drive to the bridge and when we left it was time to head to the airport.  We drove right past the Vermont Teddy Bear Company Factory and Jason decided to run inside to see if there was anything there we could do that wouldn’t take much time.  The next tour didn’t leave for a half an hour and they said it lasted around a half an hour as well.  Other than the tour Jason said there wasn’t much to do there that you couldn’t do at any Build a Bear so we posed for a few pictures and left to catch our flight.

We had planned enough time to drop off the mini van, check our bags in, go through security, and have time to get some dinner before we boarded our flight.  But when we went to check in we found out that our flight was delayed by hours and there was no way we’d make our connection.  The only way to get us home for Christmas Eve was for us to catch an earlier flight which we barely had time to make and then connect in another city to a second flight with barely any time in between.  We also had to quickly rearrange our luggage because one of our bags was one or two pounds over weight and after already having to pay for every single checked bag we refused to pay an additional fee for one or two extra pounds!  Taking off kids’ coats and shoes and getting 6 people through security with camera equipment, portable DVD players, a stroller, a stocked diaper bag, and multiple carry ons is already stressful and now we were in a time crunch!  But we made it in time to board the plane and we even got to sit near each other.

We were all starving by the time that flight landed but we had to run to catch a connecting flight.  There was no time for food and though Jason didn’t want to stop at the bathroom I was not going to risk having one of the kids need to go when the flight was taking off and we couldn’t get out of our seats.  That was our only stop yet by the time we got to the gate they had been holding the flight for us.  They rushed us into the plane letting us know that the plane was full and there were no seats for us or any room for our carry-ons.  I was so proud of the kids for how terrific they were on that flight!  I was tired and hungry and grumpy so I expected all of that from them too!  Worse, Jason wasn’t sitting with me so I thought I’d be dealing with all of that and not have any help.  Though they gate checked most of our carry ons our oldest had been holding his aunt’s DS so he played that for the entire flight.  I had a portable DVD player in the diaper bag and that kept our middle son busy while I played with our daughter.  We got back to Florida without incident and soon we were back home.

It was wonderful to have time together as a family without the distractions of everyday life.  That time and the memories you build is what a vacation is all about!  We hope everyone else had a Christmas season filled with moments that will be your own terrific new memories as well.

And we already miss the snow!

**DISCLAIMER:  The pictures throughout this blog post are a mix of images from Jason’s camera and our point and shoot.

The first drive of our trip took longer than we thought it would so we made sure to plan lots of extra time for stops and city traffic as we left our family near DC and headed up to New York City.  We actually arrived a few hours earlier than we thought we would!  Luckily the hotel saw the restless young kids and all of our stuff and let us check in early.  We chose a Marriott hotel within walking distance to Rockefeller Center and we were pleasantly surprised by a hotel room bigger than normal for midtown NYC!  We took it as a good sign.

The kids loved that our hotel room was so high up!  Often at least one of us would be sitting on the window ledge looking out into the city.

Our plan for our time in the city was to see all of the sights you think of when you imagine Christmas in New York City.  We wanted to see the tree at Rockefeller Center, visit Santa at Macy’s, shop in the stores, enjoy the holiday decorations and window displays, and take the kids to FAO Schwartz and the Toys R Us in Times Square.  We were even hoping that there might be some snow on the ground for a wintry and scenic walk through Central Park!  But though it had snowed a couple days earlier there was no snow at all during our time there.  And it should have been an early clue that NYC at Christmas might not be all that family friendly when we contacted more than five shows, including the famous Radio City Christmas Spectacular which is supposed to be great for kids, and all of them had age limits.

Jason absolutely loves shooting in the city and he was really excited for his sessions that evening, but because we had arrived much earlier than we planned we had time to head out for some sightseeing.  We had left very early in the morning and the kids were tired and a little bit moody because of it.  Soon enough our daughter was passed out on my shoulder.  Carrying a sleeping one year old who is bundled up in layers and a heavy coat is not as easy as you would think!

Our first stop was Rockefeller Center to see the big tree.  We have been to NYC a few times in the past and we knew that there would be big crowds at the hot spots, but we were not prepared at all for just how many crowds the week before Christmas really brings into the city!  It was just insane.  By the time we made it to the tree our oldest son was tired of walking, our daughter was sleeping, and we faced an ocean of people who moved like a wall closing in on you.  We barely got next to the tree for a quick picture before we were pushed along by the ever moving crowd.  We made our way to the Lego store nearby in the hopes of cheering up our oldest.

Somehow the crowd had taken the shoe off of our preschooler and trying to stop in that store to put it back on was impossible.  I don’t know how anyone could possibly shop there!  We were just blindly pushed along by the crowd and soon we were at the doors to go outside on the other side of the store.  Now our kids were tired and upset that they thought they were getting a lego toy but didn’t, and we looked out into a giant mass of hurried and impatient people.  The door we went out put us right in the middle of the crowd waiting or the skating rink at Rockefeller Center and I could not believe how many people were standing there!  It was tightly packed for at least an entire block with people either waiting in line or trying to see the tree.  We tried weaving through people but there wasn’t even any room to weave.  Our preschooler had been trying to hold my hand and walk next to me but people didn’t see him so he was barely escaping being trampled.  After he had been hit on the head by shopping bags and elbowed in the face a couple times I had to let my sister carry my daughter, growing ever heavier in her huge winter coat, and carry my son who was equally bundled up and heavy instead.  Jason had been planning to separate from us that evening and go right to his sessions so he had his camera and other gear with him and couldn’t carry anything, or anyone, more than that.  As soon as we could manage our way out of the crowd we went right back to the hotel.  Jason picked us up some fast food for dinner so we didn’t have to venture out that night when he was gone at his sessions.

When he got back to the hotel that night he said the crowds were dying down and it was actually fun to walk the streets again!  The kids had been treated to a night of tv shows in the hotel room and were ready for bed but this was my sister’s first time in New York City and she wanted to go explore!  Jason took her out and together they visited the tree again (for a less crowded view), the Top of the Rock Observation Deck, and then had a late dinner in Times Square.  They enjoyed the entertainment of some interesting characters in the restaurant which gave their dinner an authentic NYC feel.  After carrying his camera through the city all day Jason decided to bring the much more portable point and shoot that night instead.  He hadn’t realized that our son had spent most of his day making a video chronicling his adventures in the hotel room so the battery was dead.  They didn’t take any pictures but they said it was a great night.  And Jason came home with a much needed stroller!

The next day Jason woke up early for a couple morning sessions just outside the city.  The plan was for the rest of us to head out for breakfast after we woke up and got ready and then when Jason would meet up with us in the city later.  But it was vacation after all so rather than rush the kids we took our time that morning and Jason was back at the hotel before we ever left.  I had emailed with a friend who lives in NYC about the crowds the day before and she said it was the worst she had ever seen it!  But she also said that it might have been because it was the Sunday before Christmas.  That made sense.  I won’t even venture to the mall near my house the Sunday before Christmas so we headed out on Monday afternoon with high hopes for walking through the streets on a weekday without our children being torn away from us or hit in the face.

Jason carried our daughter and our middle son sat in the stroller and things seemed better.  The crowd got thicker as we got closer to FAO Schwartz and the other shops but it wasn’t too bad.  We saw the front of the FAO Schwartz with the guy dressed up as a toy soldier and we were excited to head inside!  We went to the doors only to find out that the line was actually coming from down another street.  When we walked over there we saw the real line, and it was long.  Really long.  Down the block.  We stood and waited and Jason and I wondered how smart we really were to spend time standing in line for shopping.

The store wasn’t as decorated for Christmas as I had thought it would be but looking around a giant toy store is always fun.  Our daughter had fallen asleep again (she rarely takes naps at home!) so we tried to find a second cheap stroller but they didn’t have any.  As we made our way through the store I saw a gigantic box of Nerds candy at the candy display!  I pointed it out to Jason and continued to the escalator to head up to the top floor where they had the giant dance-on piano famous from the movie Big.  In the time it took him to turn around to check out the huge Nerds box neither of us had noticed that we got separated.  We spend the next hour trying to find each other in that three story toy store completely packed with people!  We were both just glad it was us adults who were separated and not one of the kids.

Our plan was to grab an early dinner and then head over to Macy’s but the crowds were just too much for the two younger kids.  The stroller would not fit inside of any stores so if we stopped any where they had to be carried and it was hard to carry two heavy bundles while maneuvering through crowds.  I had been to Macy’s a couple times before so I decided to take the younger kids back to the hotel while Jason took my sister and our oldest son to see Santa at Macy’s and then explore more of the sights for our last night in the city.

The subway ride to Macy’s:

Inside the store:

They explored every level inside of Macy’s and did some shopping too!  The line to see Santa would have taken up all of their time that night so they skipped actually visiting him and headed to see more of the city.

Moving window displays:

Playing on the security cameras:

Times Square:

Inside of the Times Square Toys R Us, which is more than 100,000 sq feet in size!:

6th avenue ornaments:

One last stop at the giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center:

That night we enjoyed some Christmas movies on tv while eating Outback delivered by room service!  The hotel had a mix-up and sent another family to our room so to make up for it they gave us vouchers for breakfast the next morning in their restaurant.  There were omelettes, bacon, eggs, pancakes, waffles, cereal, fruit, and every other breakfast food you could think of.  After a yummy big breakfast we left the hotel and NYC.  We all agreed that despite the crowds making it hard for the younger kids we had a fun visit.  We love New York City and can’t wait to go back, but probably not at Christmas time again.  At least not until all the kids are grown and can fend for themselves in the crowds!

We headed north of the city for a session with a really wonderful family and then from there it was time for some snow!!  Vermont is coming up next on the blog, and blog updates for all of the sessions Jason did in the city are coming this week as well!

Sharing in the such important moments in people’s lives has brought many wonderful people into our own lives.  Just as we did last year, we hosted a Christmas party and invited all of our past and present clients.  It was our way of saying thank you for inviting us to share in your celebrations by having a good time celebrating the fun and cheer of this Christmas season together!  Thank you to all of the people who joined us and made it so great.  We had just under 90 people come!  There were elves making ornaments and doing others crafts with the kids, a balloon twister, face painting, wonderful carolers, and Santa himself was there for pictures!  The food from Catering by the Family was so yummy!  We also had wine with festive red and green wine glasses and a hot chocolate bar with lots of whipped cream, marshmallows, and chocolate chips to top it off.  But of course the best part of it all was sharing an evening with so many fantastic people.  The good friends and good cheer really made the party exactly what we were hoping for.  Thank you again for everyone who came to join us!

This is busy season so Jason and I haven’t been getting much sleep lately.  I think it shows with how he assembled the North Pole sign at around 3am the night before the party:

Directions for the hot chocolate bar.  We couldn’t refill everything fast enough!

Some of the snacks and treats we had out:

We had the traditional holiday food of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls.

The elves in the Elf Room getting ready for the kids to show up:

Making a Santa ornament:

Making a poster of favorite Christmas memories:

“My Favorite Christmas Tradition is…wrapping paper fight!”  We saw that on a poster and now we think it is going to become a new Angelini family tradition too!

The awesome balloon twisting, face painting elf.  She made balloons into Luke Skywalker and Darth Maul, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Rudolf, and even our own family!

Thanks to Stacy of Meant to Be Wed for her help with the party! She also helped us find these amazing carolers!  I want carolers to follow me around for the whole Christmas season.  They make everything feel so festive!

Before Santa arrived everyone was all smiles and excited to see him!

He made his entrance and greeted all the kids.

But once he sat down for pictures, some of those smiles faded.  We tried with our own kids first but our youngest made a quick run for it!

Santa and the elves.  Thanks again to the elves for all their help!

Some kids were sure to bring their lists so they didn’t forget to tell Santa what they wanted.

Santa with Rudolf:

Some of the kids cried making for some classic Baby and Santa pictures!

(This is one of my most favorites!)

Other kids had wonderful smiles!

She is being sure to let Santa knows what she wants for Christmas before she leaves.

Other kids just wanted to check him out to see what this was all about.

Some of the family pictures with Santa:

To see more of the kids (and adults) with Santa, check out the gallery of Santa pictures on our Facebook Page.

Once Santa was done with pictures he gathered all the kids and read them ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas before saying goodbye and heading back to the North Pole.

Santa’s helper:

We had plans for everyone to gather outside to watch the classic Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer on our new outdoor projector and screen but we had some technical difficulties (being that Jason tripped over the wires and knocked everything down! Straight out of Christmas Vacation!) so we just played the show in our movie room upstairs instead.

It was really a terrific night and got all of us into the Christmas spirit.  We hope all of you take time with family and friends to celebrate the season and enjoy this most wonderful time of the year!

Our canned food drive and auction officially ended today when we dropped off the food at our local food pantry.  When we shared the results on our blog we said that we had collected 1066 food items for the hungry.  With the items brought by our five top bidders, our family matching the highest bid, and donations dropped off by others we actually collected almost 1100 food items!  AMAZING!  The people at the food pantry talked about the growing need in the community and the increasing food shortage they faced.  They told Jason a bit about the families facing hard economic times that depend on this food pantry to feed their children.  Everyone at the food pantry was very excited and grateful to receive this donation.  They weighed the items in at EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTY THREE POUNDS OF FOOD!  873 POUNDS!  Words cannot even express how uplifting that number is!

Before we dropped off the food we took a picture to show what that much food looks like.  It warmed our hearts seeing the food spread over our entire driveway.  As a mother it was really special to be able to show my kids what generosity and goodness can do.  With this idea starting from our son’s innocent and giving heart last year, all of our kids wanted to be very hands on for this project.  They worked so hard to help in every way they could.  They carried and counted and collected and prayed.  I hope that this will be something that will be with them for the rest of their lives, and I thank all of you who played a role in that.

We want to thank every single person who donated food.  In 2009 there were almost 50 million Americans living in households where they did not know where their next meal would come from.  According to a study done by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1 in every 4 children live in a food-insecure household.  It is so easy to take for granted something as simple as deciding what to eat for dinner tonight but that same night so many people in America and all around the world will go hungry.  It means so much to know that through this food drive we were able to feed families who would have otherwise gone hungry.  We are truly humbled and incredibly honored to have played a part in collecting this food and we are incredibly grateful to all of you who contributed to this cause, whether it be with one food item or with two hundred and one.

Some highlights from the fall mini sessions that the five top bidders won are also on the blog now so check those out!  They are all beautiful families inside and out.

Again and again and again, thank you to everyone who gave to the hungry and shared your gifts with those who go without.  We cannot wait to see what we can collect next year!  Everyone start stocking up on your cans now!

“The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry. The garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of the naked. The shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot. The money you keep locked away is the money of the poor.”  –St. Basil the Great

Wow.  I am so excited to share the amazing results of our canned food drive auction.  I am seriously overwhelmed by the generosity of so many of you.  We have the results of the auction and with the canned food that will be donated by the top 5 bidders we have EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE food items to donate to our local food pantry!!!  865!!!  Thank you all so much for sending in your bids and helping a necessary cause.  Families who would have gone hungry will now eat thanks to your giving hearts!

I am happy to announce the top 5 bids who have won a fall-themed mini session on September 25th with a disk of their images:

Andrea bid 67 cans for each of her 3 kids for a total of 201 food items!

Berni bid 100 cans for her two nieces for a total of 200 food items!

Heather bid 100 cans for her two kids for a total of 200 food items!

Denise sent in her bid for her son for 150 food items!

and Kristen sent in her bid for her son for 114 food items!

We have decided to match the top bid and donate 201 food items as well so we will have a total of ONE THOUSAND SIXTY SIX food items to bring to the local pantry!  That is an amazing blessing for so many people and it is such an honor for our family to have some small part in that.  I cannot express how full my heart feels!  1066 food items…WOW.  Thank you to the winners and to everyone who sent in a bid (there were many others who were very close) for your kind hearts and generosity.  I will be contacting the winners via email today so they can choose their time slot for the session on the 25th.

I cannot wait to share the pictures of what 1066 food items looks like before we bring them to the food pantry!  It is going to be amazing!  And of course we’ll blog pictures from the fun fall themed sessions too!

Last fall we had a Feed the Hungry Can Contest and it was a great success!  The winner of the contest donated over 100 food items to be given to our local food pantry!  Many food pantries are having to turn people away because there is a great need but not enough donations.  People worry about where their next meal will come from and parents struggle to find food to feed their children.  The non-perishable food items that we donate to food pantries help provide for people who would otherwise go hungry.

We are once again having our canned food drive but this year it is going to be in the form of an auction.  We’ll have more winners and even more food we can bring to feed the hungry!  On September 25th we will be giving away five mini studio sessions set up with some adorable fall props!  Starting today people can email us with their highest bid for how many non-perishable food items they would donate to win one of these mini sessions along with the disk of images from the session.  The email should be sent to jasonangelini@aol.com with the subject line “Bid for Canned Food Drive.”  This can be for any type of session including engagement, maternity, newborn, babies, kids, or anything else!  However, you must place your bids per child to include more than one child in a session.  For example, a family with two kids who wants to have a family session would place a bid of 50 cans per child.  They would then have to donate 100 cans if they win the auction.

We will be taking bids until midnight on Saturday, September 18th.  We have a minimum bid of 20 food items per child.  The five bids with the highest total number of food items will win one of the sessions with the disk of images.  These top bidders will be announced on September 19th.  Time slots start at 11am and go until 4pm and winners will get to choose their time slot in the order of how many cans they have bid (most cans gets first choice and so on).  Winners will have to bring the number of food items that they have bid to their session on the 25th.  If you do not want to carry all those cans around, we will also accept a gift card to Publix with $1 for every food item you bid.  If you won making a bid of 100 cans, you can bring 100 cans or a gift card to Publix for $100 and we will do the shopping trip to buy the actual food.  This is also an option for people who live out of town but want to win the free session as a gift to someone here.  Make your bid and you can mail in a gift card if you win!  Last year Jamie and Tristan were the winners and donated over 100 food items.  If all 5 of our winners this year bid at least that much we are going to have some very happy people when they go to get their meals from the local food pantry!

These mini sessions are completely free to the winners of the auction and they will even receive the disk of images.  If any prints or other products are ordered from any of these sessions we will donate the profits to Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief charity.  And of course if anyone is unable to make it on September 25th for a session but they still want to donate food items we’d be happy to include those when we bring everything we collect to the local food pantry.

Send in your bids now!  You’ll be helping a terrific cause while getting some awesome images as well!

We have had so many milestones lately.  In the past two months we have had our daughter’s first birthday (which I still need to put on the blog!), our son start kindergarten, and then our other son turn three and start preschool!  He is also potty training which made Jason want to title this blog post “I’m Three and Learning to Pee” but I didn’t like that as much.  It has been emotional to realize how quickly time goes by when you have young kids.  Jason and I are also so proud of all our kids and excited for their new adventures!  They are truly blessings from God and we are so grateful to be their parents.

Pictures from his three year session:

“On a mission” to have a fun birthday party

First day of preschool!

I am in shock.  Absolute disbelief.  Today we dropped our son off for his first day of kindergarten!  We are so excited for him and we know he is going to do GREAT, but wow, how is he old enough to be away from us for almost a full work day five days a week!!  When I was younger my grandma would always tell me that time goes by so fast and I need to take in every moment.  My mom told me to enjoy each age for what it was and never rush growing up.  It made sense, but none of it really sunk in until after I had kids.

My little boy is such a blessing!  He is incredibly smart, kind, and fun…he is going to have a fantastic year!  Now I just have to stop crying about him growing up so fast. 

Here I am giving my son a kiss just after he was born:

And here I am today giving him a big hug as I leave him in his kindergarten class.  It does not feel like this much time has passed!

I know that there are many of you waiting patiently for blog updates.  They will be coming soon!  We are taking a short blogging break as we work on editing AND move into a new house!!  We can’t wait to share some pictures of our new place after we settle in.

In the meantime, we are excited to officially share the news that we have been rated by local brides and voted The Knot Best of Weddings 2010 Pick!  This is our second year receiving this honor and we are incredibly grateful to all of our wonderful couples.  Our brides and grooms are some truly amazing people!  THANK YOU for letting us “work” doing what we love.  We appreciate all the awesome reviews and we love all the friends we get to make when we share in such important moments.  Look for us in The Knot Best of Weddings, a special section in The Knot Florida magazine!

Also in that issue of The Knot Florida, check out page 171 for a few of our pictures from the wedding of Jessica and Chris!  Jessica’s beautiful gown and the look for her wedding party made the Style Stalker section!

Thanks for your patience as you wait for more blog updates!