This is my beautiful sister-in-law Hannah and she is very soon going to bring us the 6th Henry Grandchild. We are all really excited because, as you can see, she and my brother-in-law Eddie produce the cutest babies in the world. This time she is having a girl and we cannot wait to meet her. I’m sure she is going to be gorgeous. Luckily, we were visiting Colorado at just the right time and I was able to do a little mini shoot for them before we headed home. Nothing fancy, just a some shots to document this exciting time in their lives.  Also luckily, we will visiting Colorado again not too long after the baby comes, so I will get to do baby portraits for them as well!! Here are just a few relaxed portraits that we got.

Probably my favorite!

Last week my baby turned 9! Nine!!!! I have always had a hard time with the fact that my children grow up. It just seems like every stage has been so wonderful (even through colic and terrible 3’s tantrums), I want to savor and hold onto each one. However, it is no secret that as my girls are soon entering into their tweens, I’m feeling a bit out of my element and a little sad. Sad because I know that this is when their daddy shines and I start to wonder what the heck I’m doing. Do you know how often I already ask him, “Why are they doing that?” I know nothing about the adolescent/teenage brain. Maybe that’s why Abra’s early years have felt so special to me. I felt like I had a better handle on it all. Even through colic, potty training and tantrums I always felt like I at least knew how and why and what to do. I’m not saying that it was never hard. But even when it was, there were just so many moments of cuddling, tenderness, amazement, discovery, innocence, bonding and pure cuteness that made it such a magical time. Maybe I’m also a little sad because I only got to experience it once. I know that there are plenty of other amazing moments to come, but sometimes I like to just reminisce. So last week when my baby turned 9 I went through some of my favorite photos of those early years and thought I’d share. Keep in mind that these are all photos of photos, so the quality is not great. And, some of them are in scrapbooks, so there might be some weird things on the edges.

Abra was a teeny 4 lbs. 13 oz. For months, where ever we went people often did a double take because they thought she was a doll. One of the photos below was taken with our phone next to her so that we could show how little she was. You can also see in her car seat how we had to pad her quite a bit just so she would not jostle around.

The other week Abra asked, “Mom was Quinny my very first friend?” Indeed he was. I love this picture of Quinn meeting her for the first time. He was obsessed with her. We’ve been planning their wedding ever since.

About 2 months old.

One of my all time favorite photos of her.

Came down stairs to this sight one day and my heart melted.

Her hair always looked like this after we would take her ponies out. I used to sing a song called “Crazy Haired Girl” to her.

Just over a year old.

About 2 years.

2nd Birthday, sharing it with our friend Melissa.

Her first attempt at getting into make-up. She did a beautiful job.

With her best friend Quinn.

Almost 3 years. Oh, I loved her hair.

Her first day of preschool. That’s when mommies start the process of letting go.

In a few weeks she’ll start 4th grade. Before I know it she’ll be in middle school. *Tear*

On Friday my baby got a mouth full (and I do mean FULL) of metal. Full set of braces on top, full set on bottom, and a big hunk of metal glued to the roof of her mouth that will expand the width of her mouth. Poor thing could barely talk, eat, or swallow. I think she was excited about getting braces initially (because you know kids kind a like that stuff sometimes) but once it was all in she was bummed about how it felt in her mouth. To make her feel better, we got her all prettied up and did a photo shoot of her with her new BLING. She loved it and totally worked the camera for me. As you will see, she is quite the little model. I loved it because it gave me a chance to play more with the AMAZING light that I get in my Attic Studio during the day.

I swear,  she’s never seen an episode of Next Top Model. It must just be from having her mommy take her photo all her life.

Braces have never looked so cute!

Last one, I was experimenting with different light techniques. Used my reflector on her in this one to get the background a bit darker. I think she was ready to be done.

Our Ash joined wrestling this winter. It was basically an intro to Wrestling Club where they practice twice a week, learn technique and then have “meet” at the end of the season.  Her PE teacher was one of the coaches and suggested that she would probably like it and do well. Of course we knew that she would be one of very few girls, but she really wanted to do it, so we said, “why not?”  Over the past year and a half we have been getting to know her better and discovering more and more about her personality. And, she has been having fun exploring options and opportunities that would never have been available to her in Haiti (especially being a girl.) She is pretty diverse in her interests. She loves to sing, dance, dress up, and do girlie things. Yet, she is athletic, extremely competitive, and loves to play aggressively. Whenever given a choice between athletics or arts, she always chooses athletics.  I love that she is so bold and not afraid to try new things. I, however, need a lot of practice at being a “sports” mom.  1) I am like the least competitive person I know (unless it’s 80’s trivia) so it’s hard for me to get motivated to yell things from the sideline. Because truthfully, I don’t really care who wins, as long as everyone is having fun. 2) I can’t yell. I simply can’t do it. I can sing and belt out a note like no one’s business, but when it comes to yelling, I just can’t get very loud. So, I feel bad that Ashley probably can’t ever hear me yelling encouragement at her. Maybe I should start bringing a megaphone. That’d make me at least look hardcore. Anyway, here are some photos from the one meet they had at the end of her season.

She had some decent moves (according to my husband who actually knows about wrestling.)

Unfortunately, she had to wrestle boys who totally outweighed her, so even if she took them down, she couldn’t keep em down.

She really had a hard time with not being able to keep them down. I don’t know if during practices she got to wrestle smaller kids, but she did not deal well with it. We felt really bad for her cause those boys were pretty big.

She’s pretty scrappy!

This little girl was cracking me up. She was a brute. The funniest thing was that she would just pin all these boys, then so effortlessly lay on them while looking up and smiling at her parents.

Ash wrestled her friend Quinn last and that was a little bit better of a match since he was a little slimmer than the other boys.

So, when she did get him down…

She was able to hold him down.

Of course, Quinn had his fair share of take downs.

I must say, it is very hard to watch your daughter being wrestled to the ground by boys. But, the lesson involved overrides any uneasiness I have.

I really don’t consider myself to be a High Maintenance Girl. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty girly. I do like flowers, and jewelry, and pink. But, I’m not one of those wives who expects her man to “get it right” on Valentine’s Day, Anniversary, etc… I’m not that into frivolity (yeah, it’s a real word, look it up.) either. So usually if I want a gift, it’s something I really need or have been wanting for a while. Now I’m not saying my hubby isn’t a generous and thoughtful gift giver who, even though not expected of him, makes me and my girls feel loved.  I am saying however, that he is a pretty lucky guy because my V-Day expectations of him are pretty low. Perhaps the fact that the day comes so closely behind Christmas and His Birthday, which results in us being all gifted, treated, and dined out, also lightens the pressure. This year, neither of us really felt the need to do anything special just the two of us. But, I had an idea to do something really special for our girls. Something that would make them feel so loved and appreciated and that they would hopefully remember for a long time. So, this is how we spent V-Day 2010.

We told the girls that we were going to make them a “fancy dinner” in which they could request any dish they wanted. They both agreed on Haitian Chicken, with Beans and Rice and Dad set out to spend hours in the kitchen (that’s one of his specialities.) We told them that they could dress anyway they wanted and even let them put on a little make-up. I had them make some handmade decorations to hang, but didn’t tell them much else about what to expect.

Why would I ever pay for cheesey decorations when my girls make pretty things like this?

Abra was sad when she woke up in the morning and didn’t find her Valentine’s Gift in her room. I wanted to put it on their chair, so they would find it when they pulled the chair out.

Mmmm. Red Velvet Cake is always a winner for Valentines.

The girls saw these “personal watermelons” at the store and wanted to try them.

I made the girls wait till everything was set before they could come into the dinning room. Candles lit…

Crazy Light Up Cups on and full of pink lemonade…

I even put the silverware on the plates to make X’s and O’s.

This was the reaction to all the fanciness.

This was Ashley’s reaction to dad being the waiter, telling her the menu, asking her what she’d like etc… She loved playing along.

They loved their crazy cups.

Dinner is served.

Happy girls.

We also gave them cards with a love letter written to each of them. They felt like pretty special little girls I tell you (which they are.) It was the best Valentine’s Day ever.

Haven’t blogged for a while since my busy season (photography wise) has wound down. I thought it was about time to post something more personal seeing as how I’ve been really terrible about that. I think I should add “Blog More Personal Photos and Stories”  to my very long list of resolutions for the new year.

The Henry Household has been known to keep a tree up so long that by the time it makes it to the curb, all but three needles remain on it’s brances. No doubt I get my Christmas Decorating Tendencies from my mom who always left them up well into January for us to enjoy.  We usually had at least three trees each year. Now, she has a huge old home where she sports 9 themed trees! I’m not that bad, but this year my girls each got a pre-lit pink tree to put in their room.  And, I usually have at least 2 other real trees each year. This year I’ve been  thinking about all of the variations in family traditions and decor at Christmas Time and about why I choose what I choose. I think the way I decorate at Christmas says a lot about me, my home, my personal style, and the things I love. So, I thought I’d share them.

Most people can’t say (or wouldn’t admit) that they chose their home because they could picture it decorated for Christmas when they walked in. Much to my husbands dismay, that’s pretty much how I fell in love with my 100 year old home. When we bought it, the ceilings were coming down, and it was filthy and smelled like animal urine. Still, when I walked in and saw the room pictured below, I knew that my Christmas Tree would look beautiful in it. And, I am not afraid to admit that I chose to paint it blue so that it would match the tree. I love my home at Christmas, it’s the one time of year that I forget about everything that needs to be fixed or updated and just enjoy.

Every year Erik and I have this debate about our tree. I want it as tall and wide as we can get. Afterall, isn’t that what 9 ft ceilings are for?  He always wants to go shorter to avoid having to trim some off when we get it home. One year I listened to him and I was so disapointed. This year I got my way!

Part of my Christmas obssession is collecting vintage decor.  In general, I gravitate toward anything mid-century.  I spent a lot of time with my grandmother growing up and have so many memories of her home (that never changed.)  That is probably why I find so much comfort in items from that era. I vividly remember her old christmas ornaments, and I have a weekness for ”Shiny Brite” glass balls. They can be found pretty cheap at little thrift stores if I’m lucky, or for a bit more on ebay if I’m looking for specific ones.  None of my vintage goodies are worth a lot, but they make me pretty happy.

I also love pink, and pink and blue combos. I pretty much consider pink a neutral (think about it, it goes with EVERY color.) I know they’re not traditional Christmas colors but, again, saw a lot of it mid-century.

“Shiny Brite”  goodness.

My vintage card wreaths make me happy too. Some of them have messages in them and I love to look through them and think about the happiness that the greetings brought to their receipients way back when.

O.K., so my dining room was not actually painted for Christmas (eventhough it is green.) It was painted to match my grandmothers dish set that we use at Thanksgiving.  But, I think that my vintage table cloths go pretty well in there.

I also love my little vintage Japanese angels and Christmas girls.

Kissing Angels were so mid-century.

My stair railing is the perfect place for me to hang more shiny briteness.

This year I wanted to add some of my old Family Christmas photos into the mix. Can things from the 80’s now be considered “vintage?” If so, some of these are vintage photos. lol.

The second tree. Our living room is not so vintagey.

The second tree was the girls tree. My sister in-law and brother in-law and their 2 girls are here. They did not get to decorate their own tree this year, so they brought some of their ornaments and all four girls decorated the second tree however they wanted.

I thought it would be fun to have them string popcorn and cranberries for garland. I think we may do this every year.

My girls new pink trees that were waiting for them Christmas morning. Beginning to pass the torch.

I’m planning on leaving my Christmasy goodness up as long as I can.

Starting with 3 long posts about my recent Birthday Adventure, I’m gonna work harder at blogging more personal photos and stories.  I used to be much better about that. Hmm…

Seeing one of my photographs displayed in an amazing D.C. Museum= the best birthday ever! If anything can soften the blow of being 3 years into your thirties, it would be that.  Before getting to the museum I wasn’t sure what my reaction was going to be to seeing it. I was a little worried that it was going to be a cheesey little exhibit tucked away in some obscure corner of the Newseum, where no one even looks. I’d hoped that it wouldn’t be the smallest photograph in the bunch. But, I was a little nervous that it would be. Leave it up to me take something awesome and still find something to worry about. Well, I had nothing to worry about. When we got to the Newseum the Exhibit was advertised everywhere. Seeing all of the promotion of it  kinda helped to calm my worries and I began to get really excited to find my photo. The exhibit itself was housed on the 6th floor, which is where visitors are directed to start the museum tour when they arrive. So, via the world’s largest glass hydraulic elevator we went to see my photo.

I’m not gonna lie. When I got there and saw the exhibit and my photo hanging there with a slew of other amazing photos, I was in awe. I figured that it would be a pretty cool experience, but I didn’t expect that I would FEEL that proud. I think the fact that all the photos were so amazing, the fact that they were all huge and printed with such amazing quality, and then just watching people walk by and look at MY photograph, contributed to the coolness of the moment. Realizing that I’d helped record a part of history, and that that record was good enough to hang in the same building where pulitzer prize winners and amazing photojournalists photos are displayed, was a bit of a birthday boost!

So here is my exhibited photo along with A LOT of photos (only part 1) from the museum and my day.

 Leave it up to a boy to not tell a girl that her hair is messy before he snaps a photo.

The exhibit stretched the entire length of the front side of the building and was beautifully lit by a ton of gorgeous natural light. I was excited for the light (to take pictures in of course.)

Me all proud and everything, looking at my photo.  Hehe.

Some lady looking at my photo……….or the photo beneath my photo. But, I bet she saw my photo too.

My Girls looking at their mama’s photo.

What’s that you say? I have photo displayed here and it’s right above my head? Haha. Can’t remember who suggested this pic, me or Erik. Either way, we’re both dorks.

O.K. enough of me and the photo! Here are a bunch from the Fantastic Newseum and a bit from our day.

Some huge chuncks of the Berlin wall were displayed by the glass elevator and we explored those before going up. We had to constantly remind the girls not to touch.

A chunk I thought was pretty cool.

And quite fitting for my girls to stand in front of.

A watch tower that you could actually go inside of.

The giant glass elevator was pretty cool.

 A piece of the Twin Towers.

This was pretty interesting. Front pages from around the world on Sept. 11th.

Erik explaining the events of 9.11 to the girls. Abra was 1 month and 1 day old when it happened. I remember watching the footage and looking down at her and thinking, “What kinda of  world did I bring you into?”

We spent  alot of time at this next exhibit and found it hard to leave. It was called “Our World At War: Photojournalism Beyond The Front lines.” The International Commitee of The Red Cross sent out 5 award winning photojournalists into war-torn countries to document how the violence affected everyday people’s lives. 

One of the countries was Haiti. It was an interesting experience to look at the photos with our Haitian Daughter. She really had not experienced much beyond the walls of her orphanage and certainly had never seen this side of her country.

Ashley was really soaking it all in.

This Pulitzer Prize Winning Photograph depicts the devestation after the hurricanes in Haiti last year.

My favorite exhibit (besides my own of course) featured every Pulizter Prize Winning Photographs, along with video footage of some of the photograhers telling the stories behind their photographs. I could have stayed there all day. Here is a quote from one of the photgraphers.

Exactly!!

After our museum time we relaxed a bit by our Amazing Hotels rooftop pool (thank you hotwire.com) 

I let Abra take a few photos. Erik doesn’t like when I hand her my camera. It makes him nervous. I think I’ll let her do it more often because she did a good job.

After relaxing for a while, we headed out into the city and explored the monuments at night. More of those photos to come in Part 2 of “My Awesome DC Birthday.”

Just got a new toy. Well actually, I got 2 toys that work together to make one awesome toy. I have been wanting some Pocket Wizards to try some remote Off Camera Flash stuff for a while now and decided to just bite the bullet and get the new Mini T1 and the Flex TT5. Everytime I make an equipment purchase that I don’t really “need,” I always wonder if I’m gonna regret it later. But, I usually end up being happy about having added to my “creative toolbox.” Today has been no exception. I am so in love with these pocket wizards. They are so easy to use and open up a whole new world of creative lighting options. Here are a few (o.k., more than a few) examples of what kind of results you can get from them. All are of my crazy girls.

In the first few the girls are in shade, backlit with the flash to the side at about 45 degrees. Very fast shutter speed and wide aperature. I was wanting to get the Halo of light behind them, preserve the color in the background, and blur the background. I love the effect.

Warning: Some very scary faces follow. View at your own risk.

 Ashley is a nutball!

Technically this one is a Hot Mess. But, I love it. Abra was storming off because she didn’t want to do what I was asking her to do.

These were later in the evening and under cloudy light. Again, just playing with different conditions and effects.

My little girl Abra had her second ever dance recital this past Sunday. I know I’m a bit biased, but she did a great job! It was good to see that she is learning, growing, and improving, and that our money is not going to waste. If you have children in dance, you know how expensive it all gets. At first the costs of the lessons each month don’t seem all that bad, but come recital time you are forking out the dough on pretty fancy costumes! Costumes, mind you, that your child appears on stage in for a total of maybe 6 minutes.  It is all worth it though to see your little one loving it so much. And, then she has some awesome dress-up clothes to play in afterward. I think next year, when our Ashley joins dance too, we are gonna have to take out a 2nd on our home! Haha.

Some of my faves of my smiley little dancer.

 First up was her Jazz Routine. It was performed to the song “Witch Dr.” I think they were going for a “Halloween Costume” look.

 ”Jazz Hands!”

 Of course, she loves her ballerina costume!

I love this shot. I don’t really know why. I just do.

I still think it’s funny that baton is still around. It’s so 80’s! But, Abra loves it and is pretty good. She was one that was picked to twirl 2 at one time. Not sure I could even do that! Her teacher is actually phenomenal at it and has won many titles. She did a routine at the end of the recital and did all of these amazing tricks. The girls all loved it!

Final recital pose. I loved that Abra was smiling through every routine. That’s what makes it worth it!

***Warning: Really Long Post!

Had to share some of my mom’s day photos. All I ever want each spring is to go to the Madison Arboretum at least once during the peak of the blooms. Thankfully this Sunday’s weather was nice and I got my wish. After a yummy lunch at Famous Daves (one of my faves) we headed up with the hopes of getting images of amazing flowering trees and a few good images of me and my girls. Let’s just say that the photos of me and my girls were not the highlight of our day as it seems that my girls had a hard time not making unnatural forced faces (possibly because they did not want to be taking the pictures to begin with.) Bless my husband for trying though! I did so love just getting shots of the trees and flowers though. I feel like I never take time to just photograph things like that. So it was nice. Here are a few of those images. More to come later.

There were a few trees that you could just walk inside of and hang out in. The girls had fun with them.