I had the honor of meeting and photographing a very special little girl and her family over the weekend. Meet Gabriella Vega, a sweet and caring little girl who has gone through so much in her short life. From her mother’s (Kristi’s) blog: “Gabriella was diagnosed in April with a severe and irrepairable case of Myocardial Bridging which is causing Secondary Restrictive Cardiomyopathy. September 25, just before being listed for her new heart, she suffered a left MCA stroke, imparing her right arm abilities and taking away her speech.” She is patiently waiting on the donor list for her “sparkly new heart” as they fondly refer to it in her family. After all, Kristi says, how else do you explain to a 5-year-old about a heart transplant? This story hits home for me. You see, Gabriella is just a few months younger than my Abigail. I can’t imagine being in their shoes, and yet, they endure this trial with insurmountable faith and peace. They are one of the nicest, loving, and most grateful families you could meet, and it was my pleasure to be able to photograph them.

If you know me or have ever shot with me, you’ll know that I love COLOR, and we had plenty of it at our session!


LOVE the smiles here!

AND here!

They brought along Gabriella’s Candy Land set, which Kristi attributes to getting them through their hospital stays. Apparently, Gabriella is unbeatable. We’d make a great pair because I’ve NEVER won at Candy Land!

LOVE:

Amazingly, we did not lose a single balloon at this shoot. I attribute this to LONG strings and well placed feet.


You guys have good genes


Then, it was tutu time-Kristi made this, and you could tell that the minute Gabriella put it on, she felt like a princess! I think I might need to get one for myself


I am embarrassed to say that Gabriella has better toenails than I do-6 month old pedicure, anyone? *sigh*

I feel the need to explain why I love this photo. You see, most photographers would never include it-eyes closed, hair blowing in the wind. But the look on her face is so peaceful, I just had to include it. I love it in black and white:

There were so many in this series that I wanted to include. It was windy and the balloons were flying everywhere-Gabriella hung on with all of her might and had a fun time with it!


Now, I knew about Gabriella’s heart condition going into the session, but I did not know about her sparkly new heart. I happened to have these sparkly hearts from Valentine’s Day so I brought them on a whim. I am glad that I did.

You may notice that I have photographed a lot of “heart babies” or “heart kids” if you will. This sweet family was referred to me through Owen’s mommy, who was referred to me through Bela’s mommy, who also referred Lilyana. I am grateful to have met all of these wonderful families, and as far as I know, all of the children are still doing great! I stop by their blogs frequently to make sure, and occasionally run into them at Target (Avery and Andrea). May the Lord bless you all with the power of His miracles-your children have already touched my heart, and I know that they will continue to touch others along their journeys.

I’ll leave you with a quick picture of one of my favorite families and neighbors (not the winners of the session):

And I’ll leave you with a quick picture that makes me smile:

A quick photo from my State Fair Sessions. You might remember Miss Maggie (in the middle) from last year. I am happy to report that she is doing much better, and was full of smiles, which makes me smile BIG smiles!

*Winner must live in the Phoenix area, or be visiting here before the end of the year!!!

You know how I love a little sunflare!

I love the pop of color here!  (Sun and color make for a great session!)

And this is the closest we get to a beach in Arizona, but at least we don’t have earthquakes, right?

Thank you guys, and it was such a pleasure to meet you!  More soon!

Starting with…the popsicle session!

There was much more to this session than popsicles and insanely witty jokes, my friend!  Robin was one of the winners of my Find a Reason contest, and what a fun bunch her family is!

Here are a few faves:

I relate to this image because my brothers pushed me around…that’s not what he’s doing, but it looks like it!

The girls had a tea party in the woods…

A few of the whole family:

This image screams summer to me!

I love this warm light…mmm!

The boys were wild, but in a good way!

One thing that Robin told me about her family is that her kids love to climb trees.  Little did I know that they all loved to climb them all the time!  They’re good at it, too!  Check out this shot!

Thank you guys, and I hope you had fun!

Drumroll please for these amazing jokes…

Get ready for this one…

Ahhh, the great jokes you have now added to your repertoire.  You’re welcome. 

Thank you, Welkers!  Stay tuned for more!

I love her laugh!  One of my favorites…

So pretty!

Next, we headed over to the tennis courts because Lauren loooooves tennis, and I love all the fun ideas we came up with!

I love that you can see the courts behind her through the fence!

I love this shot!  I think she looks so cute!

Lauren’s sister and mom came along for different parts of the session, and so we grabbed a few quick shots (I’ll keep the Charlie’s Angels shots private!) 

Thanks, Lauren!  I’m proud of you for braving the rainy day, and you were so much fun to shoot!!!

I really love this next image-I usually process photos with a lot of strong color, but this one is so soft-I love the way Owen is touching his mom’s face, and the soft light that is coming through the trees…

Kamryn is a sweetie!  I love her eyes in this shot!

They brought some fun things with them for the shoot, including a pinwheel!  Owen was mesmerized!

And a big red ball!  I love that it’s as big as he is!  I love this entire series as we rolled the ball back and forth!

These last two are my favorites!

Thank you guys!  You are such a fun, awesome family!  I wish you all the best with all of the upcoming trials you have to face…

To find out more about Owen, visit the Simmons Family Blog.

So who was in those previews? The Sloans, of course! They happened to be the lucky winners of a session from my donation to Nie Nie! THANK YOU for donating-I know it’s a cause very dear to your hearts. We were all about the 80′s + Rock n’ Roll that day, right down to my radical old Sony Boombox (er…”Cassette-Corder”…that doesn’t sound nearly as cool). I “Sloanified” some of these images due to the highly 80′s nature about them. That’s right…I just made up my own word.

Oh, and “In Your Eyes“? That was the song Angie was singing after this shot:




Love how Paisley is “flying” like the planes in the background!


Maddux is a rockstar!


Loving the air guitar!




Yes, these are vintage BluBlockers. Yes, they are awesome.


Paisley had her first taste of sugar that day…and she loved it!



Oh, so who makes a better John Cusack??? My vote goes to Angie, but Matt was a VERY close second! And I was a VERY distant third…that image isn’t gracing the blog!
Matt wins for the most ways to rock a boombox…



BUT…Angie did take this shot that I love!