Mom.  What does that mean to you?  It’s universal, but it means a lot of different things, to a lot of different people.For me, it means I was given a chance… a chance to become something that maybe I never would have realized I could have been.
Though I’m middle aged, and it’s not on my mind… I do think of it sometimes… that I’m adopted.  I wasn’t left… I was chosen.
“I didn’t give you the gift of life, life gave me the gift of you!”  -This is beyond so true….giving birth is just the very small scientific beginning.

My parents raised me to be independent, kind, polite, caring, and strong.
They both are incredible role models and I hope I picked up on some of their traits along the way.

As we celebrate Mothers Day…the most recent time spent with my mom was immediately following the birth of my baby boy this past March.  She left her life to help mine, and I will never be able to thank her properly.  She took care of my little girl when I couldn’t, she cooked and cleaned for us, she provided things that we needed in our home, and reassured me that everything was going to be ok when I was sure I wouldn’t make it another day.

Selflessly walking my daughter (in the cold!) to day care while I stayed with baby to keep him warm.

Surprised me with an ice cream pie on my birthday!

Visiting with our week old baby boy

Her beautiful smile ♥

My mom gives of herself in so many ways…our family is beyond lucky to have her as our mom and Grandma.  She has FINALLY retired from a long life of major dedication to her work and it makes me happy because all she has to do now is have fun, to travel for herself and not for her work, and to spend time with her family and not at her desk.

We love you mom, today on this special day, and all the days and nights in between.
Happy Mothers Day. ♥

(I also put together a little compilation of my perspective in remembering life’s little moments of Motherhood…in between.)

Before we know it, school will be out for the SUMMER!!!! You know what that means? (pool parties!) It also means that we get to look forward to these fun sessions together! My High School picture was RIDICULOUS. I SO wish someone like me had photographed my smile…to have helped me be remembered beautifully. I would love to do this for you so you can share your yearbook years from now, excited to do so.

Besides pool parties…even sooner is the PROM!  How fun is it to get all dressed up?!!!  I was just out in the mall (which doesn’t happen very often with little ones at home) and as I turned the corner in a department store, my eyes widened with excitement to see a beautiful sea of colorful prom dresses in all sorts of designs and styles.  Oh my, to be a teenager now instead of the 80′s!!  You have no idea.

Anyways, it made me think about this special time of year for Juniors, and their upcoming year as a Senior and I want to treat you to remembering this FUN time beautifully.
**SPECIAL! Choose me as your photographer by the end of May and I will photograph you in your Prom attire during our session! A fun way to dress up again, with a city scape backdrop…a little more fun than just standing on your front lawn. Just sayin’!
This is for the guys too…you might not have as much fun as the girls while you’re in a tux…BUT you still look cool and you’ll appreciate it later in life….plus, I’ll help you grunge it up a little
Reserve your High School Senior session (Rochester, NY)  together with me, and be remembered beautifully, cool, and confident in your yearbook. I’m excited to share this exciting time with you!

Contact me SOON because the dates are very limited with only a few openings before the deadline this Fall.

Find some samples here on my website, and I’m on Pinterest too!  Follow along…I’ll be posting lots of other pins soon to help you start thinking more about your session.

It’s been an overwhelming couple of weeks, and I’m finally starting to feel like myself again since the birth of our baby boy on the first day of March.   I can even fit back into my non stretchy jeans which is amazing to me.  My baby belly was HUGE!  It’s still so weird to me when I see my reflection…from that to this…my regular self.  I’m so much more comfortable now, BUT there’s something about being pregnant that relaxes me.  It’s hard to explain and I don’t think most women feel that way, not sure.  This was my second pregnancy, and my last.  I’m at a certain age and two is definitely more than enough.  We’re very happy that our little girl Kayla gets to grow up with another sibling.  I just hope they have fun and get along in life so they can watch out for each other along the way.

I’m SO happy he’s finally here, and have loved sharing him with friends and family…my little guy.  We struggled with his name until the last minute, but we look at him now and it feels right.  I should let you know if you don’t, that I have a married last name of Mongiovi…(sounds like Bon Jovi) and kept my birth name for my business.  So his last name is Mongiovi.  It would sound a little unusual as Nicholas Angelo Egan…I married into an Italian family … but will always be Irish at heart.  I’m all about luck and rainbows you know.     (but I also appreciate a good glass of wine, home made sauce, canoli’s and large large large family gatherings crammed into a table that tries hard to accommodate us)  Best of both worlds ♥

I remember being so sad thinking that I wouldn’t have any time left for my little girl when he would arrive…we do everything together, I love her SO much…but somehow, you ARE able to share this incredible love as a parent…and it grows…it doesn’t split….you somehow find more.
I will post more pictures as I get the time to take them…thank you for keeping in touch with me and sharing your well wishes for our family.  We’re incredibly lucky, we know … and we will do our very best to teach them all the wonders of our world as they grow.

So without further adieu, here’s our son Nicholas, brother to our little girl Kayla, and lucky little Grandson too.

I posted this welcome photo on my Facebook page…if you haven’t joined us already, we’d love to have you follow along too!

He was born at the Highland Hospital Family Maternity Center, Rochester, NY …my daughter was too and I highly recommend their services.

As a photographer, I know the importance of being IN some pictures now and then.  Most of the time, if I decide to be in one, I use my self timer because it still lets me have control over the image…it’s so difficult to let go of being the one behind the lens sometimes.  In this case, it would have been near impossible and I was in no physical state to be even attempting such a task.  I wanted to share this celebration with my little girl when she came to the hospital to see her baby brother for the first time.   My colleague and friend, offered to capture this special occasion for me and I’m so glad I made this very important decision for our family history.

This is my favorite picture of me holding our son…it’s timeless…and I love that the happy face balloon was included because it was from Kayla. ♥

Our family

So excited to kiss her baby brother for the first time

(If you’d like to know who captured our family at the hospital, just let me know…she did a wonderful job!  I would love to do this for families too…
these are the moments we want to remember and to be a part of too)

Before we left the hospital, I wanted to take at least a few pictures of our little guy, my Husband, and our room.  I remember being SO excited to have found this
Superman sleeper over the Summer and couldn’t wait to put it on Nicholas for his ride home.  Unfortunately, it was HUGE and I didn’t realize it was too big for the car seat…not safe.
So, this is my way of remembering for now…and one day it will fit, and we’ll get some cute pictures of him in it. 

Once we made it home, and I was able to get a ‘little’ rest…I couldn’t wait to photograph him.
These were taken just a few days after we got home, so he was just about a week old.

I just love this one…look at his little hands held close together, so sweet.

Don’t you love his little hat?  Crochet goes hand in hand with babies and children.  This one was hand sewn by Karen at Duncan Creative…you have to see her shop on Etsy, SO many
wonderful items and she’s a local artisan to Rochester too!  I’ll be posting some more of her creations as I find the time, come back to see!

My last image for now is my little girl kissing her baby brother…she does this as often as she can when they’re around each other.
‘Can I kiss baby Nicholas?’ she asks.  ‘Yes, sweetheart…you’re such a wonderful big sister, I love you Kayla.”