i had the awesome privilege of attending a photography workshop last week with inspiring children’s photographer Barb Uil (also known as Jinkyart) from Australia.  How opportune that she came all the way from Australia at the same time I came all the way from China… to meet in Ohio.  =)

Barb is regarded by many as one of the best children’s photographers, and I loved soaking in some of her creativity and childhood magic. It’s also left me contemplating where I want to take my own photographer endeavors.  Definitely looking forward to see how i continue to grow in this art.

note: if you are in michigan and interested in a session during september, contact me.  what better way for me to exercise all of my workshop inspiration?

for some reason, her hat makes me think of flying… but perhaps that’s because we are busy getting ready to fly back to the US in just under a week!  looking forward to six weeks full of family, friends, celebrations, non-chinese food, traveling, visitors, reunions, and more…

other notes:
- booties courtesy of Shokay.  I really wanted to take these photos before she outgrew them!
- special thanks to the owners of Cafe Corner in Jiaxing who let me rearrange their furniture for these photos.  =)  They also run ishop and I.C.ology, which i find inspirational.

i had the privilege of spending an afternoon with baby Theo and his family.  more to come soon…

was so glad i got to meet this little guy during a trip to shanghai a couple weeks ago.  love his baby chubbiness.  and at less than 2 months old, i couldn’t get over all the subtle but different expressions he makes – especially with those lips!  goodness, too cute.
little j – so nice to meet you.  can’t wait to play with you again.

…and getting into everything!  she’s been rolling around for a while now and is just starting to scoot.  it’s so cute seeing her inch forward, stretch her legs straight and stick her butt up ever so slightly.  but i think i may miss the immobile days. =)

as you can see, i love feet and photographing feet.  and kaylah seems to have quite a fascination with her little piggies too… perhaps it is hereditary?

our little one really is our hug machine and we can’t get enough of her.  i can’t believe how quickly she is growing so i soaking in (and squeezing and hugging) as much of her baby-ness that i can.  can you tell she is a happy baby?
i was pleased to get this shot with my girls too, as i spend most of my time on the other side of the camera.  thanks luke for capturing this, and entertaining my obsession of photographing our family.  i will treasure this shot and this stage.    =)

i feel like this photo says “look at me!” and so i keep looking at it.  =)  but i guess i am biased.

we are headed off to Hong Kong tomorrow for Chinese New Year (CNY).  CNY around here is kind of like Christmas time in the US.  It is the longest holiday that everyone gets off from work.  there is a mass exodus back to your hometown to be with your family.  for many people, this may be the only time during the year that they see their family.  since our families are a little too far away and we were just there last month, we’ll be going to HK instead.  there is also big shopping time, as people buy gifts to take home.  so stores are busy running promotions.  and tonight at the supermarket, there was a special area selling various products in nice gift packaging just for CNY – the most popular products there?  vitamins and chocolates.
yesterday, when i went to the local market, there were tons of vendors outside selling live chickens (how i wish i had my camera on me!).  i guess that is another popular item to take back to the family.  i actually think i saw someone giving someone else a (live or recently live) chicken in a gift box as i drove through a neighborhood last night.
and CNY would not be complete without TONS of firecrackers going off everywhere on the streets and in front of people’s homes… i guess somewhat like the 4th of July only much louder.

we’ve been busy this past month with traveling and good friends visiting.  and now off we go to HK… but when we get back, i promise to start posting more than just my girls… but of course there will still be posts of them too =)

for unto us a Child is born…

Christmas is definitely not a big ordeal in these parts.  i think we may be the only ones in our apartment complex with a Christmas tree and lights on each night (at least from what i can see from our windows).  there is no hustle and bustle of christmas gift shopping…although there are random santa claus and christmas tree decorations in some storefronts.  no christmas music playing 24 hours a day.  it is not a standard holiday, so everyone is still working.  business as usual.  in some ways, it feels strange to me.

but then i realized… i guess that is how things were on the first Christmas Eve.  everyone just going about their usual day-to-day things, business as usual.  not knowing that in a small town, in a manger, under the most humble circumstances, a too-wonderful-for-words thing was happening.