Birthday Boy!

We're celebrating Will's first year today! Will was born at 1:12 a.m. on December 31, 2005 - he was caught by our midwife Connie at the Cambridge Birth Center. We'll have a small party tomorrow afternoon, but today is the official holiday. Matt and Ollie are sleeping in so I had a little photo shoot with Will after his bath this morning.

Here's the birthday boy in his birthday suit.... I can't believe that exactly 1 year ago we were just getting to know this little squirt!










Here are some family photos of the past year for nostalgia!

First Pictures
Second Show
May Trip to Oregon
Oregon Part 2 (Annie's Graduation)


Have a safe and fun New Year's Eve, and we look forward to sharing more great times with everyone next year!

Mad Martha

I just had to post about my new favorite earrings... they're made by Matt's sister Ruthann Grazier (aka Mad Martha).

You can buy your very own pair here, or email Ruth directly to commission a special piece.

James Brown - Rest In Peace

Thank you for sharing your moves and your voice with the world - you'll be missed.

Will's First Christmas

Here's a pic of Will's very favorite gift... he found it in the bottom of his Christmas stocking, and was perfectly content to gnaw on it through the whole morning.

Hmmmm.... shall I be naughty or shall I be nice...?


Ollie, meanwhile, tore through all the gifts like a fiend until he found this one from Grandpa Fred and Grandma Sue... thanks to some pretty crazy sound effects the fire engine wins not only the "Ollie's Favorite Christmas Gift" award, but also the "Most Annoying Sound Effects" award of the year (topping Grandma Grazier's Dancing Pengiuns, and her Easter Bunny Hatching a Singing Egg submissions to this category).


Here are a few more fun pictures from Christmas morning...

Ollie's new backpack from Aunt Cassandra and Uncle Takeshi (and his fake camera smile):

Ollie took this one:


And Will taking his new percussion instruments for a test drive:

Feeding Santa

Okay... we decided to open one of our gifts early this year because for some reason we thought there were cookies in the package. Well, there weren't any cookies, but it's a good thing we opened it early because Emily and Spencer sent us this cool plate and cup for Santa. Ollie frosted some cookies and we left them out on Christmas eve and you can tell the cookies were pretty yummy because they are ALL GONE.

Happiness

The current issue of Utne Reader has a great article on seeking and finding happiness (though 'happiness' is not the word used in the article). In this final week of 2006, this article makes great reading if you're still trying to figure out your new year's resolution. After all, whatever that resolution is, your end goal is probably happiness, right?

The article is not available for online reading but I'm sure you can find it at your nearest natural food store.

Article Title: The Deeper Meaning of Mindfulness by Thubten Chodron, from Shambhala Sun

No More Hand-Colored Roses

... was the subject line of the email we just received from Sara and Jason. Matt was honored with an award in the Portrait category of the Wedding Photojournalist Association's Artistic Guild for his portrait of Sara and Jason kissing (see the main photo on our home page).

Sara and Jason (both artistic folk) sent us this awesome photo of us... I have to say I look absolutely stunning with wavy auburn hair.



Sara and Jason we love you!

Music Man

Will and I took a trip to Washington DC to visit my best friend from the 2nd grade, Cassandra Kennedy. She and her husband Takeshi are expecting their first baby in the next few weeks, so we flew down to surprise Cass and attend her shower. Takeshi gave Will his very first music lesson... Will banged out some very sophisticated chords on the guitar, cello, violin, and keyboard.






Here's a picture of Cassie's beautiful tummy:

Thanksgiving

This is a belated post with pics of our trip to Maine for Thanksgiving. We drove to the easternmost tip of the US to visit Aunt Terry and Uncle Greg in Machias. They always do a cozy Thanksgiving with interesting friends and delicious food. We had about 10 pies for 5 adults, which is just the way I like Thanksgiving.

Greg Henderson has written and illustrated several wonderful stories that have yet to be published. Matt and I helped him photograph some of them during our visit:

Sweet as Honey

Yay - Honey from Lotus Design sent us this goreous bouquet today! She did the flowers for Paul and Lesley's wedding. You can't tell from this little pic taken with my cell phone, but this bouquet is gigantic! Thank you Honey, you rock!

Goodbye Bobbie Boom

It's the end of an era: Ollie has finally learned how to say "Bob the Builder"... we have grown so attached to his previous pronunciation "Bobby Boom". Here are Ollie and Will in their Halloween Costumes:

Let Me Eat Cake!

After a long year of dining on cheerios, rice, and chicken, and the occasional irresistable slice of wedding cake, I finally had surgery yesterday to remove my gall bladder. After Baby No. 2, I learned that I have gall bladder disease, which prevented me from comfortably eating any kind of fat or oil, or worst of all: WEDDING CAKE! It affects a surprising number of women after they have babies, though it affects men too.

Yesterday I finally learned what people talk about when they say that they "fell in love" with their anesthesiologist. Mine was aptly named Matt and offered cocktails aplenty along with good humor and warmth that completely put me at ease. The surgery is a very routine procedure, and fortunately I'm actually feeling pretty good already, but sssh don't tell Matt... I'm hanging out on the couch with movies and snacks and flowers and it's nice to be waited on like this!

- Enna

Q: What is this year's hottest Halloween party theme?

A: The 80s style PROM.

Matt photographed two proms for WFNX last week, one in Portsmouth and one in Boston... And our friend Cassandra did stellar make-up for her buddy in DC and that girl was crowned Prom Queen!

What will next year bring???


View Portsmouth Prom pictures here.


View Boston Prom pictures here.

Two-career relationships... hard knocks?

I was at a Pink Conference for Influential Women in Business yesterday when someone mentioned an article in Forbes online magazine entitled “Don’t Marry Career Women”. With a title like that I had to look it up – after all many of our clients [seem to] happily exist with each partner working. The article by Michael Noer presents a pretty bleak outlook for anyone considering marrying a working woman, predicting divorce, a messy house, lower “value” of the marriage on the part of both partners, cheating, and general unhappiness... Yikes! Fortunately Noer’s colleague at Forbes Elizabeth Corcoran hastily posted her rebuttal entitled “Don’t Marry a Lazy Man”.

The tone of Noer’s article was entirely upstaged for me by the positive and inspiring women who spoke at the Pink Conference. Each of these women is successful in balancing career, marriage or partnership, and children. A summary of my favorite points made by the speakers:

Set aside time for yourself
Outsource as many tasks as you can
Be true to yourself
Make difficult decisions using the ten year rule: “will I regret doing this/not doing this in 10 years?”

Happy Birthday To Me!

Okay, my birthday was a month ago. But I keep forgetting to post about my new Orla Kiely purse! Matt gave me this pretty thing for my birthday. We had to order it online from London. Isn't it pretty!

Karen & Andrew

Karen and Andrew sent us this shot of us working from their honeymoon. They are spending their honeymoon in Hawaii!

Here's a really cool shot of them at their cocktail hour:

Lady in red

Sarah and Erik made us keep their first dance plans a secret, so we've been looking forward to their wedding all year! They planned a perfect day on the Wadsworth Mansion in Middletown, Connecticut. They surprised the guests with a choreographed tango for their first dance! It was amazingly executed, and moms couldn't stop screaming and clapping it was such a great surprise!

We'll post more pics here too, because the rest of the day was just gorgeous, including Sarah's white wedding dress (which went right back on after the tango).

Click here to see Sarah and Erik's wedding photos after they have been edited.