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Alejandro turned one this month!

His grandparents came all the way from Ottawa to celebrate the occasion.

Here he is, happy to be in mommy’s arms while daddy makes him laugh.

He LOVED touching his grandpa’s beard.

Grandma made him laugh a lot.

See, what I mean? He cannot get enough of that beard!!!  Good thing grandma has a good hold on him or he’d probably try to hang off it.

He was very happy to have his whole family around him.

What is he doing here?  Don’t you love how one year olds find interesting uses for everything?

Laughing with mommy and daddy.

Alejandro’s big cousin helped him blow out the candles on his birthday cake.

Isn’t that a sweet cake?

Happy birthday again, Alejandro!

Benita wanted to surprise her husband with a nice gift, so she asked us if we did boudoir photos. 

Janette took these fabulous images and she LOVED it!!! Both her and Benita told me several times afterwards that they had a blast.

Please let us know if you would like to surprise your special someone with some beautiful photos of yourself.  I know Janette is DYING to do more of these sessions.

The pictures say it all.

We celebrated her birthday first at her paternal grandparents in Ottawa, then at her maternal grandparents in Mississauga.

There is a Vietnamese tradition, where an infant chooses from a line-up of objects on their first birthday.  The object he or she chooses is supposed to determine his/her future.   I guess our daughter is going to be a gambler?  Maybe she’ll be a risk-taker.

This is the food we got to eat on her birthday.

She got to eat with her hands. I think this is the first time she’s done that at the dinner table with something other than her all-time favourite food, Cheerios.

She is a generous baby.

Auntie Tu helped Julia blow out her birthday candle.

Julia Ong Noi (grandpa) was hoping she’d share with him too…or maybe he was hoping she wouldn’t.

Satisfied after eating her cake.

Sugar coma.

Birthday party #2 at my parents place.

The family specialty, grape leaves stuffed with rice and lamb.

Julia enjoyed her grape leaves, though we got rid of most of the leaves because they were too big and stringy.

Grandma brought out the cake, while great Uncle Magdy sang “Happy birthday, to you.”

She was born on Valentine’s day .

Don’t you love how infants don’t care in the slightest how messy they get?

Lori first contacted me to do maternity photos, which we had planned for the first week of January.  We were all surprised when baby Neve was born early on New Year’s Day!!!

Here she is, just 5 weeks old and she was this alert the whole time!!

Don’t you wonder what newborns think about?

Feetsies.

I love this schnoogling picture.  Aren’t they sweet?

Is it just me or does Neve look really wise for her age?

Interacting in the nursery. 

I love how happy the whole family was during the entire photo session. I think they even forgot I was there at times!

Our trip to Arizona came to an end on Saturday, February 7th.  I’ve had some time to look through the images and here are a few of my favourites.

This is the south rim of the Grand Canyon .  It was majestic and terrifying.

This is a highway in Tucson.  Do you like all the cacti?

These are Harris Hawks, which we saw at the Sonoran Desert Museum.

This is Frank Lloyd Wright’s Arizona home, Taliesen West.

Paulo Soleri was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and he created Arcosanti.

Dale Chihuly had an exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens.

This little Westie was happy to greet customers in Scottsdale’s gallery district.

The next three photos are from Sedona.

This restaurant is located in a beautiful, artsy, historic town called Jerome. What do you think of the restaurant’s branding?

This photo is from halfway up Pinnacle Peak, in Scottsdale.

This photo was taken after a Native Trails performance, which happens weekly in the Scottsdale town square. This one’s for our friends Dave and Lance, two fabulous native storytellers whom we met at the campfire in Carefree.

Finally, since some of you come to the blog just to see Julia, here are a couple of photos of her and her daddy.

She cannot resist touching EVERYTHING within reach.

I came to Arizona on Jan. 10th, to attend a convention for wedding photographers at the Carefree Resort and Villas in Carefree, Arizona (which features intersections like “Ho Hum and Easy Street).

I am super excited about applying what I learned at the convention with all my 2009 couples!  

Here is a lit-up saguaro cactus at the entrance of the resort.

These are the villas.  It seems like all the architecture in Arizona looks like this-adobe structures that match the earth.

We went to a town called Cave Creek, which is very old western style.  Here’s my husband and our “Lil’ Buckaroo.”

Some of the greenery.

This was at the resort.  I wanted to experiment with light and shadows.

This photo was taken at noon. 

Vu and Julia’s reflection in the pool.

Lens flare.

Saguaro cactus. These are all over the desert.

Our nightly view.

Something I didn’t expect to see in the desert.

Are you looking for a wedding photographer?  We still have openings for 2009! Check out Rabbat Photography.

Julia celebrated her first Christmas at her ba noi and  ong noi’s house in Ottawa. 

Ba noi is reading her a story, but she sees mommy and wonders why mommy has a black camera in front of her face.

She’s a little happier here, even though she hated the santa hat.  As you can see, she doesn’t have it on. That’s why she’s smiling.

We drove to Julia’s great aunt and uncle’s for Christmas day to celebrate with the other half of the family.  Her uncle Wayne made this rocking horse for mommy, but the head fell off so he fixed it for Julia.

Julia loves her daddy.

This is what Julia’s really like. If we’re not paying attention to her for 2 seconds, we find her happily doing things like this.

Sue and Gord got Julia this cool wooden winter sleigh.  I thought we’d have to strap her in, but we didn’t. 

Our neighbours saw how much fun we were having in the snow they came over to play too.  Nobody can resist pinching Julia’s cheeks!

He pulled her for awhile, but I guess he got tired.

Here’s our little bundle soaking up the winter sunshine.

Patricia and Paul got married at the gorgeous, historic  Heintzman House in Thornhill.

They booked our new last minute package (see bottom or page). 

They had the string instruments going before the ceremony and during the photo taking session. It was so nice to listen to beautiful music as we took photos!

Finally married!

Going outside for a kiss on the balcony of the Heintzman House

I love winter weddings, especially when there’s some snow on the ground and it’s not too cold!

Their first romantic walk post-marriage

Inside for some warmth.

This window overlooked where they got married downstairs as well as outside.

The tables (to give all you planning brides, some ideas)!

Yummm….

I met with Tate’s mom Kelly about 2 weeks ago on behalf of her sister-in-law, who lives in BC and sent Kelly to look at our wedding albums. Kelly had recently done a cast for Tate’s
shadow box and wanted a beautiful picture of Tate to go inside. Yesterday, I had the honour of photographing Tate.

This photo of Tate looking into the mirror was Kelly’s only request.

Their cockapoo, Oscar was so well behaved that Kelly could move him if I wanted her to and he would actually stay EXACTLY where she moved him to. He seemed to like having his picture taken.

Some photographers think babies in angel wings are cheesy, but I don’t care. I think they’re cute!

In contrast to Tate and Oscar, Kelly had no idea I was taking this picture.

Who doesn’t love snuggle time?

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Santa baby is ready for his milk and cookies!