Merry Christmas to All

Wishing everyone a wonderful, peaceful Christmas

and a very Happy New Year.

May God bless you and your families at this special time of year.

My Chubbies

Do you ever wonder if your heart could ever hold more love than it currently does?

I know, absolutely know, it is possible, but sometimes you have to wonder.

My heart tickles with love for these two. They make life so happy.

And never, ever dull.

They are such little peas in a pod.

I better be off so I can kiss both those sets of chubby cheeks.

So much to be grateful for

Word on the street is.....

We're pregnant.

We couldn't be more thrilled for this new little boy or girl to join our family right around June 17th.

Almost 13 weeks down, only 27 more to go. Could this please go by a little faster? I don't know how much longer I can wait to hold our sweet little babe in my arms.

Family Pictures

Remember these?

Yeah, I know, I am JUST getting around to blogging them. I just can't seem to keep up lately and have been a little under the weather--which never exactly helps. There is still so much I wish I did differently or wanted to do with these but I just haven't had the time to get to it and other projects  usually come first, so I just decided to at least wrap them up where they were and be done with it for now. There is time to be a perfectionist later I suppose. :) If anything, this was just a good exercise in feeling empathy for the family's I get to photograph. Family pictures are A LOT of work. I totally understand and feel the pain. But in the end, it is worth it.

I am so excited to have some fun, fresh, different, and updated pictures of the three of us, not to mention just a few alone with my Dan, which are always rare, and even a couple of just me, which I don't normally love at all, but I've needed some for my photo bus. stuff. I'm really pleased with how they all turned out. We got some sexy ones of just Dan too, but he wouldn't let me post them. What a party pooper. :)

Anyhow, another big thanks to my brother-in-law, Andrew, who was such a sport about using an unfamiliar camera, getting a 2 year old to try and cooperate, trying to listen to all my crazy instructions and ideas, and handling a rather prickly location with a big smile the whole time. He's the best and has some serious talent. I wish he had a website for his photos because he does some awesome stuff.

Here is the result.

Phoenix Photo Sessions

Over Thanksgiving I will be in Phoenix and am starting to book some sessions for while I am there. I'm thinking of coming out a few days before the holiday if there are enough people interested--so let me know.

The dates are approximately November 23-28th.

To see more details about the sessions and for pricing visit my photo blog www.ashleyhenryphotography.blogspot.com

Hope to see some of you then!

One Year Older, but Maybe Not Wiser

Okay, going back through my pictures again trying to catch up. Back in August I celebrated the big 26. The day was a good one, because my little sis Amy came into town to visit for almost a whole week and because I share my birthday with one of my bestest friends in the world, Liz! So we got to do some celebrating together.

A couple days before our birthday, Jess Parks took Liz and I on a fun little girls night out. We ate some yummy food at Oscar's and then saw the movie The Time Traveler's Wife. We had some great laughs and as much fun as we always do on girls night out.

The breadsticks were yummy, the brownies.....not so much. :)

On my actual birthday, I picked Ames up from the airport around lunchtime and then we drove up to Encinitas and met Liz and her girls at Swami's for lunch. We walked around the meditation gardens and some of the shops nearby. That night we went out to dinner at Olive Garden with the Carpenters and the Parks and enjoyed some of my favorite Pumpkin Cheesecake.

Amy and Me at Swami's

Birthday Girls

I love this picture of Cal, Maddie, and Olivia at the Meditation Gardens

Aunt Amy and Cal at Olive Garden

Silly Boy turning two the next day!

Jess, Brooklyn and Me at Dinner

We have the same birthday just exactly one year apart.

The best birthday surprise though happened a couple weeks later, when Dan and Matt took Liz and I on a fun overnight date......pictures coming soon of that!

Family Pictures Coming Up Soon!

We finally did it. We had Dan's little bro take some family pics for us with my camera and I am super excited to finally have some updated shots of the 3 of us. In our last ones, Cal didn't even have any hair! It has been way too long. I'm working away on them and will hopefully have some more to post soon!

Here's a little sneak peek!

When Daddy's Away, the Little Boy will Play

Man oh Man, what a day.

Dan is out of town this week for work--caught in torrential rain storms in the south--and while he is away Mister Man has decided to test me a little.

Here is a list of just some of the mischief he has gotten into in the last 24 hours:

- Stole my wedding ring off the bathroom counter and hid it in the playroom.

(A serious answer to prayers that I was able to find it after scouring the house for an hour.)

- Learned how to officially climb out of his crib

- Learned how to lock his bedroom door

- Finally learned how to un - lock his bedroom door, but only after accidentally locking himself in while trying to leave his room after waking up this morning (and crawling out of the crib for the first time). Poor, scared little guy was stuck for almost a half an hour while I frantically tried to figure out how to get the door open. Right about the time I started thinking I might have to saw the whole door knob out of the door, he finally managed to get it unlocked himself. He literally fell into my arms and stayed there for the next half hour.

- Not an hour after the door incident, he shoved an old end of a balloon all the way up his nose. I had to remove said balloon with tweezers.

- Shortly after this, his whole bowl of milk and raisin bran were smeared over my kitchen wall

- While I was working on something in the office he decided to just book it and ran to the front door and  out into the front yard. I don't know why on earth it wasn't bolted closed since I am obsessed with locking doors, but for whatever reason, he was able to escape. So scary.

- And just to put a cherry on top he had a poop explosion at the Gym's kids club and I had to use every last wipe in my possession to get him "semi" clean enough to take home....pant-less to say the least.

Its a good thing he is so darn cute. Or else....

I wonder what tomorrow will be like?

Here are a few pictures from back in September of the little mischief maker himself

Usually he wakes up perky, but this particular day he was a major sleepy head. So groggy, but still just HAD to wear his super hero boots. He is constantly asking to wear his boots. (Thank you Carpenters!)

Playing with his food has become quite the new obsession. Finding creative ways to splash, dump, throw, spit, launch, move, stir, spill, and wear has become his new specialty.

Playing hide and go seek in the laundry. My favorite is hearing him say "Where'd Cal-Bin go?" in a really adorable high pitch question voice. :)

I sure do love that little bug. Mischief and all.

Oh How I Love

This little face.

What a patient little boy today while I took so many beauty shots of him.
This one is a particular favorite.

Family

The other weekend I got to take pictures for Dan's brother and his family. Check them all out on my Photo Blog!

Nanny's House

A few weeks ago we took a Sunday drive up to Moreno Valley to visit my husband's sweet Great-Grandmother and my son's Great, Great-Grandmother, Nanny, as we lovingly refer to her. She is 95 years young, still living in the same house her husband built many decades ago all by herself, still pulling weeds and keeping her one acre lot in the impeccable condition it is always in. She is an amazing spirit. Full of beauty and life, faith, and most of all, love. Lots and lots of love. 


She just loves visitors and she was so sweet to us. We ate pizza on the porch, and just chatted and listened to her darling Arkansas accent tell about people and places and life experiences. She played and played with Cal and if you know Cal...well, he can be kind of rough. Cute Nanny just let him climb on her though and give her kisses and had a huge smile on her face through it all.


The fact that her first name is Jewel, really is no coincidence. She is such a gem and we feel so blessed to be part of her family and her heritage. What a wonderful example we have to look up to.

It was so fun taking pictures of her, although she just insisted that my camera was going to break every time I snapped one or that the only place I could use the pictures would be in the garden to scare away the crows.


Oh Nanny. :)

This is one of my favorite shots of all--Nanny's living room

This pictures is just so Nanny. Sitting in her chair next to the window. Watching everyone from a distance and just smiling. So content and so happy.

She won Cal over in about 2 seconds

Her sweet little house. Dan has so many wonderful memories here.

Cal thought her yard was the best and enjoyed getting nice and filthy in the gravel

I love this tree in her backyard and the light was hitting it so beautifully

Dan and his Nanny