Family reunion

On Saturday, we had a family reunion up in Huntsville that was the last Hurrah! of our vacation. The only sucky part was - we had planned to go up Friday night and camp in the area, but they called for thunderstorms so we stayed home and just went for the day Saturday instead. And the weather was PERFECT on Friday! Oh well.

Back to Saturday. It was a great day up at Mark's Uncle Gary & Aunt Maybeth's home. There was lots to do - tubing, canoeing, fishing, jet skiing, swimming and so on. The beach was perfect for kids with a very shallow sand bottom. My girls had the time of their lives with heaps of cousins around to play with.

Here are just a few photos from a very fun day!

The whole gang of us...



Mark's two sisters Aidan and Erinn along with Erinn's daughter Aydra on the tube (love Aydra's face!)



My mother-in-law and Mark's cousin Ceilidh on the tube



Some of the older kids canoeing



My father-in-law taking a much deserved break



Mark's brother Richard and his daughter Naiya



Eventually you'll meet all my nieces and nephews - it may take awhile as it is always increasing - but let me introduce you to the lovely Miss Naiya. (Sept. 22 Mark's little sister Kate is getting married - all the nieces and nephews are in the wedding party so there will be heaps of pics then!)



Madi LOVES the water and her new thing is swimming underwater. Here's my fish emerging for air.

First Dance

To my husband's disgust I am a Dirty Dancing fan. Should I be embarressed admitting that? Anyhow...

I read about this Dirty Dancing inspired First Dance when reading a wedding magazine and had to look it up on You Tube. What a riot!!

Wild Water Works

For our girl's birthdays (starting at age 3), instead of spending money on more stuff they don't need - we give them the gift of doing something as a family instead. Making memories. Today to celebrate Eden's 3rd birthday we went to Wild Water Works. It was GREAT! The girls loved it and we were there from the time it opened until 5ish. We didn't plan to stay that long but someone - not mentioning names (but the only other adult in our family) lost the key to our van while on the water slide! Ha! Ha! Good thing we had a spare at home!

The one thing I wanted to mention was my brave little Madison. She was just tall enough to go on the "body slides" (not the ones you use a tube on). So, I climb all the way up to the top with her while Mark took Eden to the kids pool area. We get to almost our turn and I ask the lifeguard "So, does she just sit in my lap or how does this work?" And to my surprise I'm told she has to go by herself down.

She's 4 years old! She's little! But she is so excited that I agree.

He suggested I go first so I can catch her at the bottom. This means I have to go down and leave my little, tiny, precious Madi at the top to come down all by herself. I go over the plan with her over and over and then I go down the slide looking over my shoulder the whole way feeling immense guilt. The water slide is long and VERY fast - and you feel like you're going to splash right over the side on some of the corners! I'm almost in tears thinking of my firstborn coming down their alone and how scared she'll be. I wait at the bottom, biting my nails, listening for Madi's crying....

And out comes Madi beaming from ear to ear laughing. "Can we do it again. Mom???" What a kid!!

Vacation Stats

We are just home from the first leg of our vacation. We have been house sitting and dog sitting for our good friends Tim & Monica in the big town of Zurich, Ontario. It was great to get away form the city, enjoy small town life and just relax as a family. Tomorrow we head out to WIld Waterworks as a family before a BBQ with family from out of town. Friday we head up North to Huntsville and camp overnight as we have a family reunion on Saturday. Sunday I have some photo shoots I'm looking forward to!

Anyhow, here are the vacation stats at present:

57 minutes of Madi trying to convince us she needs a horse and wants to live on a horse farm. (Even when we told her dad is deathly allergic to horses and she'd have to choose a horse or dad - she chose a horse. Sorry Mark!)

24 minutes following the above of Madi practicing talking like a cowgirl. "Yee-haw!" "Y'all come back now, ya hear?"

74 people, characters, animals and names Eden insisted we call her. "I'm a kangaroo... I'm Tarzan... I'm a ballerina... I'm Madi... I'm the mom.... I'm a triceratops..."

31 "dinosaur eggs" we found at the beach (aka large oval rocks) that we had to convince our girls we could not bring home.

5 "dinosaur eggs" we gave in on and are sitting in our van.

133 times we caught Eden lying on Phil the dog (who we were dog-sitting) although she is allergic to dogs.

1 stray cat we found Eden carrying around by it's neck.

47 times we said "Let's move out of the city" and dreamed of small town life or living in the country

5 times I fell asleep in the hammock, 4 afternoon naps, 3 movies I fell asleep during, and 2 car rides I slept through. I love sleep.

Laughs, trips to the beach, BBQ and games with new friends, early morning photo trip with Sandra, ice cream cones, watching the sunset, campfire & smores, reading books, hanging out with 3 of my fave people in the world (my hubby & girls), laughing some more...
so far so good!

I tried to leave the camera as much as possible - but I love snapping pics!! It's how I relax and what I enjoy doing. An e-mail I received today from someone who I'll be photographing next month sums it up: "I get the idea that Krista does not consider this to be a job, as she seems to love it so much." So true!! I didn't snap as much as usual - but here are a couple snapshots from the week so far...

Here's "French-Girl-Ballerina-Cowgirl-Madison" as she likes to be called now (in full) pretending to be a lion protecting her dinosaur eggs. Confused? Welcome to my world.


Madi - sorry, I should say French-Girl-Ballerina-Cowgirl-Madison, and I went down and watched the sunset one night. It was beautiful! The sunset and the company.



Lake Huron has some of the best sunsets!


I have a thing for clouds - my hubby will attest I comment on the clouds daily. Good clouds make great pics!


Eden (aka "SuperMarty" - that's her super hero name) having a heart to heart chat with Phil the Dog.


One of my many pics taken on my early morning photo trip with Sandra to the great town of Bayfield. More to come...

Happy Birthday, Eden!

I know, I know... I'm on vacation - turn the computer off! I just wanted to celebrate my wee girl's birthday yesterday! My youngest daughter, Eden, turned three yesterday. "Eden" means delightful and she has been a source of delight since we set eyes on her three years ago. Definitely love at first sight. Happy Birthday monkey girl!

Beaming at the birthday cake I destroyed - fortunately to a 3 year old, all she saw was icing and candles... and was completely happy.


Showing off her new pink cowboy boots - Eden is the accessory queen. Never without gloves, necklaces, hats or a purse. The boots were right up her alley!


I am Eden - hear me ROAR!


A quiet moment...


My biker chick


My littlest princess...






Love you Eden!!

Vacation!

If you do nothear from me in the next week or so - it is because I am on vcation! We are house sitting for my dear friend Monica up in the beautiful town of Zurich. Haven't heard of it? No one has! We are enjoying the hammock, campfire pit, her chocolate lab Phil, and the country air! She is close to some beautiful beaches and that's where I plan to spend my days! We are also close to my good pal Sandra - can't wait to hang out!

My assistant Carolynn is manning the business while I am away - so if you have questions - send an e-mail or call and she's got you covered! She's teh best - "my sanity" as I like to call her.

Have a great day!

Chick Clicks #3

Yesterday was our third Chick Clicks meeting - you may remember Chick Clicks #1 (Link) and #2 (Link). This time it was Tracy & Mel's turn to host. Yesterday was Mel and her husband's 15th wedding anniversary (wow!) and so we had planned to trash her dress. You know dresses 15 years ago were a whole lot different than now! Anyhow, she couldn't go through with completely trashing the dress - but we had a lot of fun with the two of them as models!! We also had two young models - sisters Kelsey & Taylor - who are building their modeling portfolio and wanted some "fashion photography". It was a fun day out and about Nanticoke and Port Dover area!

Sisters Kelsey & Taylor



A rising star!








Jamie & Melanie - Happy 15th Annievrsary!!

Friends Day

It was fun to go and capture some moments of Lisa and her friends on Sunday. Lisa has become a friend over the years that I have photographed her family and it's always fun to see her family! Sunday she was getting together with her old university roommates and their families. Here are a few moments from the day...









Ella consoling her Snow White doll...

Workshops!

I am excited to be offering my first two workshops - and have had a great response so far! The workshops are fast approaching. If you are planning on coming, please do the following:

1) Send an e-mail to: workshops@kristajefferson.com and let us know which workshop you plan to attend

2) If you are coming to the kids workshop - please let me know if you are bringing kids, and if so the ages of the children attending

3) We will send you a bill (payable by e-mail) for 50% of the workshop fee to secure your spot.

4) Come out and have fun!!

Drop me a line with any questions. If you're asking "Workshops?? What workshops?" read below...


The first two workshops are:

1) Kids - August 1, 10am - 11:45am
This will be a workshop for anyone wanting to take better photographs of their munchkins (or other people's kids). Bring your kids along and there will be child care provided for the first hour, and the second half we will snap photos of your kids! Point and shoot camera or SLRs are welcome.

We will cover:
-tips on making better photographs
-how to capture your monkey's photo! (kids are so quick)
-what makes a good kids photo
-other fun tips and tricks!

Option: Mmmmmm... food. Interested in staying longer and enjoying lunch together? Add $10 to join us for a pizza lunch - more time to gab and snap!
Cost $50 + $5per child for child care

2) Better Pictures - August 8, 7-9pm

You have a camera but your photos just aren't what you hoped they would be. This is a workshop on how to take your photos up a notch!

We will cover:
-composition
-lighting
-tips and ideas to try!

As always - bring your camera along!

Cost: $50

(Locations to be determined)

Lukas & Family

Tonight I went out to Vineland to photograph Lukas and his family. What a muffin he is! So cute!! His family runs a greenhouse business so there was lots of fun spots on the property! Here are just a few from out time together tonight...

Weekend Review

This past weekend I had the wedding of Tryna & Kevin's and maternity shoots on Saturday - but Sunday was another packed day with personal commitments.

In the morning we went to my nephew Cohen's dedication. He is so darn cute - and you'll have to take my word for it because I didn't get any pics of him!! (He slept most of the afternoon). I actually hardly took any pics so that I would instead talk to people at the BBQ/pool party - but here is one of my gorgeous 12 year old niece, Kirsten.



Then from there I headed to another BBQ/pool party for the Photography Guild I'm a part of. Nice to meet some of the families I have only heard about! Here's a couple snapshots from the afternoon...



Then I got home and had a brief visit with our good friends Doug & Tara visiting for out West. Haven't seen them in eons - great to meet their kids! Their kids are so adorable and well behaved! It was fun to talk cameras with Doug and kids with Tara. Didn't take too many pics - but here is one of wee Olivia who looks just like her mom!



A fun day!

Kevin & Tryna

Saturday was the lucky day for Weddings - 07-07-07 (July 7, 2007) - and I completely enjoyed photographing Tryna & Kevin's wedding in Guelph on this day. Tryna was a beautiful bride and Kevin the handsome groom. They were a lot of fun! Tryna was willing to do anything - hitting a baseball to traipsing through the woods!

One of my favourite memories from the day was when we were waiting for Grandma (who's almost 99!) to join us for the group photo in front of the church.The bag piper started playing to entertain us while we waited and I went over to the happy couple and suggested they have their first dance. They came and danced a jig and were beaming the whole time. It was beautiful to watch this couple celebrating with such joy as all their friends and family looked on!

Thank you again for letting me be a part of your Big Day! It was a lot of fun getting to know you both and an honour to shoot your day.

Baby Boom

Today was a busy day - but fun!! This morning before I headed to Guelph to do a wedding (pics to come!) I had the joy of photographing two maternity sessions! These two gals - Leanne and Sharlene - are best buddies and both pregnant! And so we had fun snapping photos of the girls and their hubbies!

Can't wait to meet your little ones!!

First here is Dallas & Leanne.. Leanne has been such a huge supporter of my business and I want to thank her yet again!! She has had a rough pregnancy but looks so good! Soon - very soon!!





Sharlene & Ian are such a great couple! Ian designed my first website - thank you!! And Sharlene and I use to meet once a week for coffee and to gab - she is so wonderful. So good to see you both again!!







And the two gals...







And at the very end of a very hot morning - they were sports and agreed to go in the splash pad! Great way to cool down!!











This was a fluke shot - some water spots hitting the sun - loved the effect!

Practice makes Perfect

In my wedding packages I offer the option of having me come to the wedding rehearsal. As a photographer - this is so helpful! Tonight I went to Tryna and Kevin's rehearsal - and I'm so excited for tomorrow! The church is stunning, the family and friends are fun - and I already knew I loved the couple!!

Here are a few snapshots of the family and friends enjoying the evening...

Waiting....


Loving...


Laughing...


Smiling...


Peeking...


Glowing... (love this lighting!)


Supporting...


Watching...


And I am a sucker for the old churchs! Here's a few shots from around teh church...








Tryna and Kevin don't stress... enjoy this last evening before the Big Day!!



Another reason I'm excited about tomorrow is seeing Tryna's co-workers! My good friend Leanne is a public health nurse and a big supporter of me and my business. She told one friend at her office about me who told another who told another... and now I think I've had the joy of doing photos for almost the entire office! I've done Christmas photos, 90th birthday parties, maternity, newborns, family, and now this wedding! This is a great group of ladies - and it will be fun to see them all again!

John and Kate

Mark's little sister Kate just got engaged to a great guy! They are so relaxed and happy. Here's a few shots around the family farm...









The new family! Kate and John with Kate's son Ethan

Baby Bellies

My friend Sarah is due very, very soon with her third baby - a boy!! So this week we threw her a small surprise baby shower when she thought she was coming over for our Book Club. She looks so great! Had to take a couple snapshots of her beautiful baby belly - these are just taken in our living room right before she walked out the door... but still had to share.

Sarah looking fabulous...





Sarah and her two girls Caitlin and Kylie...



The pregnancy train - two of the other girls there were pregnant too - this is in chronological order of due dates - Sarah (due this month), Leslie (due October) and Jen (due in December). Tara was suppose to be there too who is due in Feb! It's baby season!!

Long Weekend Fun

I posted some photos earlier of the fam on Canada Day - but here's a quick glimpse of our Canada Day long weekend!!

First, we went camping for one night with some friends. Here is Jodey - the oldest in the group - reading to all the young'uns...



Eden being a biker babe...



Then we headed up to my in-laws farm.. always lots of family there (as my husband is one of 11 siblings). So, I snapped some pics of the cousins...

Madi and her cousin Aydra



Our nephew Ethan



Our nephew Jack who just got his little afro cut and is looking so grown up now!



The baby birds the kids loved watching..


Our niece Aydra and the camera get along so well.. had to add a few of her!





Mark's sister Erinn and her son Jack cuddling after Jack's nap...



Madi in her favourite outfit...


Monday we had the big Canada Day BBQ at Madi's boyfriend Noah's house. These guys go all out - Canadian flags EVERYWHERE - I mean even in the bathroom! LOVE it! I didn't take a lot of shots there but here's a couple of the kids...

Madi's boyfriend (or at least one of them) Noah...


Noah and his sister Tagean have the best blue eyes ever!


And what's Canada Day without sparklers!!

Happy Canada Day!