We had a great Halloween week! Two days before Halloween, Adrian and Zachary carved the pumpkin (the first one we’ve ever carved!), and we made delicious toasted pumpkin seeds after clearing out all of the “pumpkin brains.” :)

Zachary was very excited about carving the pumpkin and drawing the jack o’ lantern’s face with Daddy!

Touching the “pumpkin brains” was a new experience. At first, Zachary thought it was yucky, but then he got into it! Another “first” was trying candy corn. We had a bowl out as a treat while we carved the pumpkin, and Zachary loved trying it! I remember how much I loved candy corn as a kid, but it’s definitely much too sweet for me now that I’m older!

Then it was time to carve the pumpkin. Adrian handled the carving while Zachary ate candy corn and I separated the seeds from the guts!

Zachary had a fun evening carving his first pumpkin with Daddy, and afterwards we all enjoyed the glowing candlelight emerging from the carved face.

Zachary loves Halloween! between our jack o’ lantern and our colorful Halloween lights, it was a very festive mood at our home!

Finally, Halloween arrived! Zachary was so excited to wear his Spider-Man costume and go trick-or-treating, that I was only able to snag a few photos since he was jumping up and down and would not stay still due to the anticipation! He was definitely the cutest Spider-Man ever!

We took Zachary to the pumpkin patch again this year, and he was so excited! He loves anything to do with pumpkins (much like his mommy) – and even loves eating pumpkin flavored food (also like me!) – so he was pretty thrilled about our trip up to Bedner’s Farm and pumpkin patch in Boynton Beach. We went on a weekday, but if you go on the weekend, Bedner’s offers hayrides and other activities. It’s a great farm &  farmer’s market, and a fun activity to do with your family here in South Florida!

Here is one of my favorite images, but you can check out all the photos on my Karen Lisa Artistic Photography blog!

The USA’s Independence Day on Fourth of July is special to our family since my husband Adrian and I celebrate our wedding anniversary. Of course, now we have our little boy to celebrate with, so it makes things even more fun.

We went out to lunch on the 4th of July to celebrate anniversary #7! We have also now been together for 9 years, too. I can’t believe it’s been nearly a decade!

I took these photos outside the restaurant (California Pizza Kitchen – Zachary loved it!) with my Canon G11.

Then we all went home for a relaxing nap! When we woke up, it was time to head over to the Tamarac Sports Complex! The city we live in has so many great programs and one of the best is the 4th of July event. They always have live music, food, and fun for the kids at the Sportsplex each year. We usually catch the fireworks but have never actually attended the event to watch from the field. I am so glad we went this year. We plan to make it a family tradition!

Here is a shot I took of the live band, and a picture of us right before the fireworks began.

It was so hot outside, but well worth the great fireworks display.

Happy birthday, USA, and happy anniversary to me and my hubby! Love you!

All images were captured with the Canon G11!

Happy Father’s Day to my daddy and to my husband and all the other dads out there!

I share pictures of Adrian & Zachary all the time, so this post is dedicated to my wonderful father! Here are two pictures of me and my dad, one from when I was a new baby, and the second one is from a vacation when I was about 15 years old!

My dad is a Vietnam Veteran (1st Lt. Peter Berlin), and part of his tour of duty was spent in the 221st Signal Company in the Army Pictorial Unit, capturing life on the front lines! My dad’s experience as a photographer was instrumental in my own love of photography growing up.

He gave me a disc of some of his Vietnam photos the other day and I have SO many favorites – they are all amazing and really show life as it was in late 1960’s Vietnam for our soldiers and the Vietnamese people. I wanted to share some of these images with you today.

Thank you to all of our veterans and current soldiers for fighting for our country!

First off, here are a couple shots of my dad in the army!

Now that you know the face behind the photos, here are some amazing pictures to enjoy:

These little children lived in an orphanage:

The woman below is from a series my dad did on women in the military.

My dad also did photos of a unit of Veterinarians in the Army:

This is a French/Vietnamese cemetery:

I’m guessing this scene caught my dad’s eye because the storefront says MIAMI. :)

This is in Saigon:

If you enjoyed the photos and want to see more, here’s a link to the 221st Signal Company website where you can see images from the Photo Team. My dad has a big slideshow of his work which can be found here.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms I know, especially to my own wonderful mommy, my grandma, and of course my mother-in-law as well.

I hope you’re all having a fabulous day! My family is heading over to my parents’ house for a delicious brunch and some presents, and afterwards Adrian and I are thinking about taking Zachary to the park.

I had a great morning – my little guy let me sleep late (past 9am even!) and gave me lots of snuggles, hugs, and kisses. He’s being a very good little boy this morning and playing so nicely and saying the cutest things. Zachary is 2.5 this month and such a big boy – talking so much, showing creative interests in music and art, and sooooooo much more! I feel so lucky to be his mommy!

Here’s a vintage photo of me and my sweet newborn old baby boy:

And here’s an iPhone Instagram shot of the two of us in the back seat of the car the other day on the way down to visit Monkey Jungle (photos from that adventure coming soon!):

Have a fabulous Mother’s Day with your families!

We’ve been having a fun and busy spring! It’s been a while since I made a real update – I have been so busy with work, then Zachary caught a cold and then I caught his cold! I thought I would post a few snapshots (taken with the Canon Powershot G11) to illustrate what we have been up to.

Last month Zachary was on Spring Break from school, so we spent a week, just the two of us, spending time together. We also met up with Aunt Amy for lunch, which Zachary was very thrilled about, and actually remembered to take a picture:

That week, Adrian started working in the new Táve office in Ft. Lauderdale, and I took Zachary to see the office, and we also got lunch together. Táve Studio Manager is the product that Adrian and his business partner Jason created a few years ago to help photographers manage their businesses better. It is a valuable part of my daily life and helps me run my business and keep track of my clients and photo shoots. Adrian used to work at home in the same room as me, but as you can imagine, that isn’t the easiest thing to do, so he and Jason got their own office last month. We are all so much more productive now!

I love this picture of Adrian and Zachary at the office. Zachary was so used to having his daddy home all the time, so he was truly excited to find out where Adrian was going each day. Now when I tell him that daddy is at work, he knows what work is!

We’ve also been dedicating a day each weekend to spending time together as a family. Last weekend we filled up the baby pool and all three of us had a good time splashing around. Zachary adores being in the water as well as running around outdoors in the backyard (and saying hi to the doggies a few houses down as you can see). I think this is going to be a very fun-filled summer and I’m sure we’ll be going to the pool frequently as well as using the baby pool!

I swear it’s been so hot out lately that it feels like summer has already arrived here in South Florida. Just as a reminder to all of my Florida friends (and those of you who also live in hot, sunny places), don’t forget to use sunscreen when you and your little ones go outside. I really like the spray on sunscreens (Target has a good one with the Up & Up brand), but I usually use a high-SPF lotion on Zachary’s face, back, and shoulders when we are playing in the pool. You can never be too careful!

We have a lot of fun things to look forward to this spring. Next week we are celebrating the Passover dinner (aka- the Seder) which will be at my parents’ house. A few weeks later we will be celebrating Adrian’s 32nd birthday, and also in May I’m shooting my first destination wedding of 2011 in The Keys. So excited about getting away for a few days, possibly relaxing and reading a book, and capturing some awesome images.

Before it gets too hot in the next month and a half, I’m also hoping to check out a few more South Florida Farmers Markets with Zachary. I love going to those since they always have so many interesting things to see and taste.

What are your plans for this spring? What are you looking forward to the most?

Very special pics of the week today!

When my friend Alicia Williams from Cordele Photography was visiting here in Miami earlier this month, I asked if she could do some photos of our family. We never got around to doing a family photo shoot last November around Z’s birthday, so we were in dire need of two year photos of our little boy. I am so thrilled by the images that Alicia captured (and thankful that she survived Hurricane Zachary – he could have been wearing his “The Flash” costume as he was moving non-stop that day) and can’t wait to have them printed up around my house!

We were lucky enough to shoot at the amazing Fontainebleu Hotel which is an icon in Miami Beach! What a great memory for us to have.

Here are some of my favorites, but you can view all of Alicia’s favorite shots on her blog here! If you are up in Boston be sure to check her out if you need photos done. She splits her time between Boston and Miami but lives primarily in Boston. She is definitely the one to go to if you need wedding or portrait photography up in the Boston area.

My grandma’s birthday was today! Zachary and I spent a few hours with her this afternoon and had a wonderful time! He had lunch, practiced his piano playing skills, showed GG his trains (Thomas & Percy) and they played with them, sang with GG, and we all relaxed and watched a little bit of Nick Jr. on TV as things were winding down. Zachary absolutely adores his great-grandma and did not want to go home! We had a great birthday visit and can’t wait for the next time we see GG!

My awesome friend Alicia from Cordele Photography was in town visiting with her family from Boston this past week, and she was sweet enough to schedule us in for a family photo session yesterday evening at the amazing Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach! We had such an awesome time visiting with her, her husband Seth, and adorable baby boy Jake! Alicia posted some photos on Facebook this afternoon before she headed back to Boston and I’m just thrilled with them! I’m so excited to see the rest!

Thank you again Alicia for the amazing family photos! If you are located in the Boston area, you should definitely contact Cordele Photography for wedding, baby, family, and child photography! Alicia rocks!