I’ve loved this girlie since seventh grade, Ms. Nyberg’s language arts class. Or maybe since we shared a locker. Or wrote notes to each other in an Aladdin notebook. Or came up with nicknames or symbols to use in code so people wouldn’t know what boy we were talking about (Honeybunch, 886 CJM, the little bird symbol for Tony). Or when she stole my brown bag lunch out of my locker on my birthday and had a huge smorgasbord of yummy school-bought meal choices laid out on the cafeteria table for me because she knew how much I always wanted to buy my lunch at school instead of bring it. Or maybe it started when people kept asking us if we were sisters. (“Yeah, we’re sisters born nine months apart and our parents named us the same thing.”) I don’t know what it was that solidified our life-long friendship, but Manda has been a constant in my life for almost 18 years now.

We’ve been through heartbreaks together. We’ve gotten in fights. I gave her my last, last pair of pointe shoes. She gave me a game ball from one of her best softball games in high school. She moved away during our junior year in high school and I thought my heart broke into a million pieces. But then she came back the next year and we got to graduate together, sing on the Carnation Plaza Stage in Disneyland together (but not at graduation, BOO for chickening out at auditions), get senior pictures taken together, develop crushes on two brothers (“If we married them, we’d be SISTERS!”) and make our move across the state to become WSU Cougars together (Go Cougs!).

And now we’re both raising our sons, hers just four weeks older than Kasey. Manda lives across the state and we don’t talk nearly as often as we did back in our school days (seriously HOURS of conversations logged on our landline phones only interrupted when Manda had to go play Barbies with her younger sister), but she’s still one of my best friends for life. We’re very different from each other (it sometimes feels like night and day) but she’s one of those friends who just feels like home. And I love watching our boys interact (if you can call it that) now, hopefully starting a friendship that will last like ours has. They’ve only played together twice now, but I have visions of their future adventures together and I can’t wait till they get old enough to actually enjoy the other’s company. And I’m not worried about Emma feeling left out because she’s always impressed with Manda’s hubby Eric, who’s got some mad juggling skillz. Word.

Oh, and here’s a tip from Awesome Parenting 101: give your babies a plastic bag to play with when they’re bored. Super safe fun for hours. (I’m joking of course — we do not suggest this as a proper toy for children of any age!)

Seth, you are one adorable dude with an awesome personality. Thank you for smiling at me so much today and for playing with Kasey so nicely! And not getting offended or taking it personally when Kasey bawled his eyes out every time you tried to talk to him during lunch. I promise he won’t always think you’re so scary. Great job in the bouncer too, big dude!

Love ya, Manda. Thank you for always making time to see us when you come to the “west side!” We miss you. So proud of the Mommy you’ve become and so glad you’re still part of my life.

If that doesn’t bring a smile to your face, I don’t know what will. Okay, NOW back to editing.

Okay, so it’s not a latte. Of course! Are you kidding? I do love my (decaf) lattes but she’s only two. She’s got time before we introduce her to the good stuff. She’s enjoying her first vanilla steamer (warm milk with vanilla syrup). She was proud of it today and kept calling it her “coffee.” I kept calling it her steamer but she insisted on carrying her “coffee” everywhere. I even had to leave it on the bookshelf in her bedroom while she napped. She wanted to bring it into her bed.

I’ve had my fair share of favorites over the years. Maple macchiatos, toffee nut lattes, salted caramel signature hot chocolates, vanilla soy lattes, caramel macchiatos (ahhh, those are my fave right now). It doesn’t really matter exactly what it is. Just having that warm cup (or iced cup) in my hand is comforting. I’ve been drinking decaf since December 2006 when we first decided we were going to start our family and I don’t miss the caffeine. I just love the comfort. A cup of Starbucks in my car cupholder, on my desk, in my hand … it’s one of life’s little joys for me. And I’m thrilled to get to share it with Emma. I look forward years down the road when we can sit at a table, sip our drinks of choice and have girl talk for hours.

I have a lot to share on this blog. Lots of client work but also several personal things. I have experienced several milestones in my thinking about the future of AKP. I am immediately full of adrenaline when I start thinking about this business and I can’t wait to share more with you.

I’ve posted a bunch of images of gorgeous blue eyes this summer, but I’ve never seen blue in a baby this young. This is little Bodee and just check out his peepers. He was two months old when we did these pictures and this is one little dude about whose eyes we don’t have to wonder, “Hmmm, I wonder what color his eyes will be permanently!” Amazing, beautiful blue!

So these are the first (well, the second really) images you’ll see of this handsome fella, but definitely not the last. His mom Michal and I worked out a plan to take Bodee’s pictures once a month for the first year of his life and I’m so excited to watch this little guy grow. I can’t wait to help document his first exciting year. So many milestones, so many toothless grins, so many “firsts.”

Can’t talk just about Bodee without also talking about his big sister Bradlee. She’s got the eyes, too. Gosh, how I love this picture! Reminds me so much of my own little girl and her first months as a big sister.

I’ve already shot Bodee’s 3-month pictures and I’m working on editing these to share soon! We added a bit more to the 3-month shoot, too. We got some sweet four generation pictures. More coming soon!

More of these two SERIOUSLY cute kids from the D. family coming soon. I got to take pictures of these kids two times in the past two months and there will be nine more sessions with them in the coming months, too – more on that in their full post coming soon!

So this is a little more than a “preview,” as it says in the post title … maybe it’s the first half. The C. family’s session was a special shoot for me (gosh, who am I kidding? They’re all special, but for very different reasons) because I’ve known mom/wife Meredith since 3rd grade. Her little one, Josslyn, was one of the first babies I ever had the opportunity to take pictures of and it was SO SWEET to see how much Joss has changed in the two years since we used to have playdates and I first took her pictures. Joss is a runner — she gave all three of us a workout but it was SO worth it! More of this stunning blonde-haired, blue-eyed little musician soon!

Shot Emily & Derek’s wedding this past weekend and had so much fun! So many photos to share from this beautiful event and several other awesome shoots this month. More wedding pictures, more babies, more adorable toddlers … all coming very soon. I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to work with such wonderful clients.