chris and i are heading to the bay area in june. we are offering film and polaroid portrait sessions at a discounted one hour session rate. email me infoatjacshootdotcom for details. 
tea
morning cup. 
and afternoon cup.
my tea essentials:
harney chocolate mint tea. i've moved from individual tea bags to buying it in bulk 🙂 i love it that much.
tea strainer. i actually couldn't find my exact tea strainer, chris got it for me as a gift from new zealand. but this link has some nifty looking ones, that srawberry one is too cute!
i also recently printed this print that chris took at the marvimon and have it displayed temporarily above the stove. i love it so much i want to enlarge it for my kitchen wall 🙂
that's it. i have just been loving so much interior design stuff that i see on the internet, it really can suck up so much of my time. proof here 🙂
so i've been trying to be better at documenting my own home and learning to love it as it is 🙂 i am ever so grateful that i have a warm home to live in, a great neighborhood, etc. i am, i am.
just wanna share
that our new jac website and jac blog are live now. many days and nights were spent pouring over this project. happy to share now. the new blog will start to fill up as we post some shoots we've been saving up. and this one will too, as thoughts of the future of this blog are starting to emerge. 🙂
i wasn't going to put any pics up but blog posts always look lonely without them. she really was on the phone here. it's blurry because she moves alot when she talks. kinda like in a little dance way. she's genuinely happy here and that makes me happy.
thrilled
chris and i have been working hard on our new jac website makeover for a long time. (sooo close to being done!) so when it came time for us to get new photos of ourselves taken for the site, chris asked one of our favorite photographers. at first it was to just be him and i, but as the date got closer, i KNEW i couldn't pass up the kids not joining us. so we spent a few minutes with them before we headed out to do our own thing. i am SO GLAD WE DID.
it was so interesting to see how the kids reacted to someone else taking their photos. the 3 older kids meshed with jon quickly and laughed along with him. i am so thrilled to see the beauty he captured in kira. she's becoming such a young woman now that it takes my breath away. love that he got cam with his guitar. and caleb just being silly caleb. the brother shots kill me! elsie was a little shy/nervous i think. so i adore the ones of her with her family and her with chris and i. that's where she is comfortable, with her clan. 🙂 and you can totally see that come through!
i can count on my hand how many family photos we have together and there's not a lot! so now i will treasure these little gems forever! it's somewhat addicting i think, now i am like- let's do it again! i want more more more! 🙂 we had such a great time with jon… we thank him with all our hearts!
new york via iphone
we spent a few days in new york for a wedding recently and i was naughty and only took photos with my iphone 🙂 chris took some film and polaroids so we'll have to wait for those. the thought of bringing my big camera out in the city with the sometimes rain just didn't appeal to me 🙂 
looooove stone paved streets. sigh. 
just cute. 
so excited to walk pass her little place here! 
i wasn't crazy about the subway.
skinny, tall alleys that remind me of italy.
we were very tired from shooting 10.5 hour wedding so when we reached this bridge, i knew i didn't have much in me to make it all the way across and then back. i am very happy we only went 1/4 way across 🙂
we arrived in soho a little early. the streets were very quiet. 
mid afternoon stop for a latte. loved the view from where i was sitting. i love all the tall apartments and fire escapes. this neighborhood made me plan on moving here when all of the kids are on their own. i loved it! 
thank goodness for iphones! chris remembered eating at this other little cafe once so he googled, eggs in a bowl, soho and we found our way 🙂 i am totally fascinated by apartment living in NY. part of me wants to take the kids out of school for a year just to expose ourselves to living in NY- just for a year, then we'd come back and they'd finish back at home! 
the wedding was an hour out of the city. the greenery along the freeway made me think of living in virginia, we miss that kind of scenery when driving along! 
a little glimpse of the wedding site, their home. we love that google is how this lovely couple found us. she was dating a jamie waters and googled him, this blog here came up and she followed it for quite awhile. and when he proposed, she thought it fitting that jamie waters in california come shoot jamie waters in new york. we can't wait to share their wedding pics, we adore them! 🙂
one day i had about 4 hours alone, walking the streets with my iphone map to guide me 🙂 i remembered that the last time i was there, i was pregnant with kira. so long ago! i don't spend a whole lot of time alone in the first place so i tried to not be too much of a chicken 🙂 we laughed that in a taxi we were watching the weather forecast and it said adjectives like, sticky. muggy. ha- we don't have those kind of forecasts here… but the weather was surprisingly nice, one afternoon we came out of the subway to buckets of rain. it was kinda fun, running to our next destination in the rain! and on the day of the wedding, it poured all morning and afternoon…. and stopped just as the lovely bride walked down the aisle, and the sun came out. it was truly amazing. another great trip for our books 🙂
seems like so long ago
but it's only been 2 weeks since we got back. i think it's the weather change that makes it seem so drastic. i look at the clothes we are wearing in the pictures and it just seems like forever ago since we wore winter clothes! a few glimpses that caught my eye the other day while browsing thru our enormous file of pictures. i l o v e this one. the kids at a maze with chris, in the rain. you can see the raindrops in the picture!
also love these so much. 
one at merrick's- with our auntie jo who took very good care of our massive crew. she fed us yummy dinners and our first kangaroo. she also took a family photo of us right after but for some reason it got lost along the way. im so sad! 😦
one of her tasty meals 🙂
we fell in love with fitzroy and came back to do one of our family shoots there. you can see that one on the jac blog, click here. 
kira said it was the best hot chocolate ever:
we thought the flat whites were especially delish.
sorta family pic, without moi.
luna park:
chris' dad who graciously had us over for many night and days, trekking our big family to his beautiful home in the mountains as well.
at the cabin, chris and caleb went on a fun gnome hunt in the village: 
these guys geared up to go skiing/snowboarding as i stayed back with the little two. 
a night of scrabble. NO KIDDING. caleb drew all of these letters. seriously!!!!!
driving back to the city, through areas where the fires had passed. 
st kilda, this shot is wrong with the water being crooked. but who cares. look at els' little hand gripping chris' jacket and caleb's little face watching in horror or amazement 🙂
sea glass in aus…that i later found in my bag once we got back to the US
maling road. love this area. chris' mom grew up around the corner. favorite little spot. found dr pepper there for 3.75 a can. i missed it but just couldn't stomach that price! 
we didn't get to see any koalas in the wild this time, we sure looked but didn't find any. the kids one request was to see some. 🙂 these are at healsville sanctuary. special treat, a bunch of active koalas and a little baby on it's mothers back. sweetest thing! 
and up close with a kangaroo…. they even got to pet it. 
time with cousins. 
we think their icy poles are better than our otter pops! 
we were fortunate to have some really beautiful days of weather while there, kira was saying she wished she packed her flipflops and cam wished he packed shorts! but it was still chilly for me!
long chats with donna and snuggles with baby max.she housed us as well… both families together = 12. such good times. we are so grateful and will always remember it. thank goodness for ichat 🙂 
and one more. though it's blurry, such a good memory. girls performing for us. learning a routine and practicing till it's time to perform. (i used to do this with my cousins, so i love seeing kira do it as well) 🙂
chris will have some of his film shots posted at the jacshoot blog sometime today.
as my air condition is blaring beside me, i think of our family so far away snuggled in their winter coats….missing them lots and wishing they weren't so far.
new york city and australia
i love trips! 🙂
we have 2 exciting trips planned this year! chris is in the early
stages of planning a trip to NYC first week of june (2-4). if you are
interested in a shoot of any kind, family or engagement, contact us at
info at jacshoot dot com.
then, the waters six clan is heading to Australia. chris is from australia and most of his family still lives there, we started this blog in 05 specifically to keep in touch with our kids as just chris and i went to AUS and we've long wanted to take the kids down there to see where he was born. we are so excited!
we'll be in melbourne and surrounding suburbs for the first three weeks of july. we've had some interest in shoots while we are there- contact me, we'd love to do some! i'm also planning on teaching a scrapbooking class while we're down there, more details to follow:) 
polaroids= happy
chris LOVES shooting polaroids with his medium format camera.
i love the results he gets.
we must think of a better way of displaying them as right now we just shove them in our dining table mirror 🙂
and one with the regular camera 🙂
we even make them for our brides! see here. 🙂
monday
chris and i survived our first double header weekend! we had 2 weddings, 8 hours each on saturday and sunday. we are exhausted but had an amazing time! ive been meaning to post some new pics of elsie with this adorable dress we won from leila & ben. its such a cute cut and pattern, i LOVE it! thanks you guys!! chris posted one of my favorites here and here are a few more 🙂
and after being a total rascal, she finally caved in 🙂
the kids and i are off for the day! it's the last week of summer!
8.8.08
so tomorrow there are supposed to be thousands of couples getting married.. because of the date 8/8/8 🙂 the lucky day. chris and i will be shooting a wedding together– my oasis friends might recognize our bride! :) she's a loyal customer and student there– others who've taught there are also sure to recognize her loveliness!!
haaaaa– these pics are from our yosemite trip (rachael, yes i am finally gonna go thru them myself 🙂 ) minutes before we went in the water behind us for our anniversary white water rafting trip. excuse the 'yes we just woke up 10 minutes ago and it's ridiculously early and why isn't there a starbucks in yosemite?' appearances.
i like to think that in the midst of shooting weddings together… in the midst of the stress and chaos and trying to get the shots– chris and i take a sec to renew our own vows–often i will look over at him during an especially touching moment of the ceremony and i get a wink back. sigh, love when we are on the same level!! 🙂
so on 8-8-8— though we are not the superstitious type- i am happy, proud, overjoyed to be part of the chaos that comes along with all of this….with him.
watersix 