The A & B Recap

Hi everyone! I'm going to try to give a recap on what has been going on with us.
A week & a half after our baby's birth, Brook left for Indiana to photograph a destination wedding. I spent a few more nights at the hospital without him. It was so sad for me and for him to be away from our new baby! My sister took my spot as a photographer for that event. Thank you, Erika! Poor Brook missed his newborn Giada so much! The shot above and the one below is Giada at about 3 1/2 weeks old.


A month after her birth, Brook was photographing some engagement pictures in Carmel at the beach. Brook took a fall on the stairs. He was sitting there in pain with his knee cap to the side. So what did he do? He punched it back in place!! Which caused him even more pain! Pretty severe pain. I can sympathize with pain as I suffered a broken neck & 3 vertibrae in my back 6 years ago. That is an entirely different story. The contractions and C-section don't even compare to that pain. I highly recommend never breaking any part of your spine! ANYHOW, Brook was driven to the hospital by his good friend, Casey. He found out he had ripped his patella and needed immediate surgery. He was completely laid up for a week because we didn't want just any surgeon. Dr.Deborah Farynairz did a fabulous job on his knee. It was a hard recovery. Brook needed to be cared for, and I needed help with the new baby. Fortunately, my family lives close by. They were a BIG help. The plan was that I wouldn't be working a wedding for 2 months, but due to Brook's injury, I had to get behind my camera sooner. I photographed a wedding with my sister the beginning of October, only a month after my C-section. Darci & Michael's wedding was beautiful!

I'm a new mom so I must discuss my baby a bit! So the first thing we taught our baby at about 3 months old was to stick out her tongue. Once we started her ...she can't stop! Its so cute. It was Giada's first way of communicating! And it makes her smile. In fact, her smile almost always includes the tip of her tongue sticking out. On December 20th, our baby surprised me by saying "Mama" while she was crying. Then she said it again 2 days later (also crying). I was very shocked she would say that this early(under 4 months old). So I am sorry to all of you guys who were betting our kid's first word would be "DUDE"(Brook's word of choice). The beginning of January we took Giada Bella on her first Disneyland trip with my family. She really started saying "Mama" a lot this week when she was fussy. Giada loved the Tikki Room and went on Pirates of the Caribbean, Pinocchio ride, and It's a Small World. And she watched the fireworks! It was awesome! And Giada met Snow White! I thought of you Sheree!

So what's going on with our business? Well, we have a new space in the Old Sash Mill in Santa Cruz that's about 1200 sq ft. A lot of beautiful, natural light. It will be a fabulous place for portraits! We are getting it ready and we'll share more on that later...

Last, and definitely not least, CNN International called us. They will be interviewing us in our San Francisco studio next week. Then they will film us "in action" at a wedding we will be photographing in southern California. Can you believe it?! Brook said they like our website and our BLOG. Yes, this one. The one that was begging for an update! We will let you know how it goes! I'm excited...

Did I mention I just just turned 30? I have officially left my 20's!

Alisha

P.S. Congratulations to Roland & Kelsey, our dear friends, on their adorable new boy, Tyke! Sweet baby!