The last time I met Ralfi he was an itty bitty baby and now he is somehow 5 (?!) and he and his parents are somehow just as adorable as they were half a decade ago. Although now everyone knows way more about EDM than they did back then. And if you meet Ralfi, he will 100% tell you about EDM and also maybe even drop the beat on his Casio keyboard for you. Ralfi also enjoys breakdancing, but not on slippery carpets on hardwood floors. A sturdy surface is required – safety first – and I respect it. He is a high-energy wonder kid who loves Legos and coloring and I am extremely jealous of his race car bed. He is a Lego Master Builder who makes awesome stuff without any instructions. He has [coincidentally and accidentally] made a near-identical replica of the Waterworld set even though he hasn’t seen a Kevin Costner movie yet. We had a great time pretending that the floor was made of lava, and a less great time having a Redi Whip fight that went sideways when the Redi Whip can malfunctioned, causing Ralfi to be defenseless against the adults (he’s since made a full recovery). It’s always a joy to see Sarah and Chris and so it was an extra joy to see the great kid that Ralfi is now!

I do believe that this blog post calls for a wonderful celebratory dance as it marks the 7th time I’ve photographed Amy & Ben! Which means I’ve also photographed Lucy & Elaine (adorable cats!) at least four times, and Nathan three times (four times there as well if you count in utero). This is, however, my very first time photographing Avi, and my first time photographing the DeLorean (very important). We had a great time! Last time I saw Nathan, he was pretty young and not yet a NASA engineer/astronaut. Now he’s 5 and definitely a NASA engineer/astronaut. This kid knows more about the scientific and robotic aspects of rockets than any adult I know. I couldn’t follow the science or math of anything he said because I’ve always been more of an English class sort of girl, but it sounded official, and he had many books that he referenced to back him up. I have zero doubt that he will one day go to space. Avi is cool with space and everything, but he’s much more interested in becoming my protege or having any job that requires him to press a lot of buttons. He liked my camera. A lot. He liked taking selfies and he liked pressing the shutter button and he tried multiple times to press the format button and also to take video. Maybe a photographer, maybe a director — definitely in the film industry or at a control switch with the most buttons ever. Oh oh, we could potentially have a brother NASA duo on our hands, and Avi could control the giant switchboard that launches the rockets. There has to be one enormous button to push to launch the rocket, right? I don’t know the answer to that, but I’m sure Nathan does. Love these folks and their brilliant kids and beautiful felines!

It’s only been a few months since I photographed these dear friends of ours, but a lot has happened since November! Jen, Jon, Declan and family doggo extraordinaire SamSam welcomed baby Rhett into the family in April! He is adorable and a very good baby indeed. He stayed awake most of the time I was there; Jen and I presumed it was because he recognized my voice from all of our themed horror movie nights that involve good snacks, and figured good snacks would be involved. SamSam, doggo extraordinaire, knew good snacks would be involved (at least for her), and she was right. Declan wasn’t sure if there would be snacks or not, but he took great delight in alternatively watching big trucks on their road doing construction and running up and down the hallway calling Jon by his first name after he heard me say it. When he wasn’t doing those two things, he was being a phenomenal older brother to Rhett, whom he loves dearly. Declan is genuinely excited to have Rhett around and his spirits aren’t dampened one bit (I’m assuming because Rhett doesn’t know how to operate Declan’s mini Target shopping cart yet). I’m so happy for this new family of 5 and can’t wait to get to know Rhett!