Amber and Scott Engagement

Yesterday I shot Amber and Scott's engagement session at the East Village. A more complete post is coming soon but here are a few from yesterday.

Luke Owen Vandermark

At around 12:25 AM today, Luke announced himself to the world and he didn't come easy. However, Josie and Kenny are proud new parents, Patty is a very happy grandma and Tosha and I are excited to be an aunt and an uncle. He is a very cute little fella. Congratulations Josie and Kenny!

The Heart of Life

In life, there is death. And in between is the heart. Not meaning to quote John Mayer but it is good. The last year and a half, life has blessed us with a wonderful four legged friend, our Lhasa Apso name Rilo. Unfortunately, he had kidney failure. Thursday, we had to make the hardest decision, but it wasn't the hardest part. We said good bye to Rilo Friday morning because the last couple of days had gotten worse and it was tearing us apart to think about such an awful thing. But it is life.

It's so strange to think that such a little guy could change the way we live and see the world. But he did in a way that no one but Tosha and I would know. We've had the best moments with Rilo. He even helped me propose to Tosha. I could easily credit him for many of the times I've been sweet to her. He also taught us to never give up. We've never met a puppy who was so fearless and such a lover.

Rilo will always be one of our favorites. We are comforted by the fact that he is safe and is with his older brother Diego.

We thank everyone who has been involved with our lives and who have supported us through his sickness. We can't express enough our appreciation for your understanding.

Here are a few memories of the wonderful times we've had with Rilo.

Rilo loved the sun. He would stare out the window for hours in the morning just looking at that sun rise. There were many mornings when we would wake him up at the crack of dawn and surprise him by taking him places to see the sun rise. We would always tell him that the sun comes out for him. It was raining and cloudy the morning we picked him up in Michigan. But soon after we hit the road, the sun came out and the rest was history.

Spring 2010

Today is the first day of spring. Equal time of day light and night. Yeah!!!
So what do Iowans wake up to? Four inches of snow!!! Boo!

On the brighter side of things, life has begun to grow. The tulips in our garden are rising up, the birds are back from vacation, trees are budding, the midwest is warming up and the ground is saturated with melted snow... except for today.

Elina, One

Elina was born one year ago on January 13th. There was a terrible blizzard that day but that was not stopping her from announcing herself to the world. Here is a photo from today's session marking her one year anniversary of life.