Meet Ms. Mermaid…my beautiful sister-in-law Nicole & the June photographer my brother Gar. The first question people ask when they see the June layout is WHERE was that? And the answer is Fiji.

We had such a fun time during this photo session because Nicole has always wanted to be a mermaid (for real)… so my friend Sarah aka the cover girl & Ms. Jan, actually made this mermaid costume for her which I was lucky enough to hand deliver.

So you see Nicole is a sailor in the day and mermaid by night or is it the other way around I forget… and right now she is sailing around the world along with my her husband Gar as they both fulfill one of their dreams together. Yes you read that right…they are sailing around the world. They are currently located in Bali and are in the middle of their third year.

I encourage you to take a few minutes to peek at their amazing photographs (Komodo dragons, sharks & snakes oh my!) and read a some of their stories (I love the one about the turtle who was wrapped in trash that they rescued) on their website: www.svdreamkeeper.com…ENJOY! 

Now it’s time to meet our Mermaid…Nicole!

Five words that describe me…

Loyal 

Honest

Brave
 
Caring
 
Thoughtful

Feeling I relate to most: Love… I fall in love with the world at least once a day.

What makes me feel alive?  Feeling the wind on my face and rain on my skin, feeling passion deep down to my toes, plunging into the ocean, helping a friend, being a good person.

I am grateful for: life’s possibilities and believing in the impossible, for love, for life, for beautiful friends and family and for dreams and making them come true
What makes me laugh? Fish kissing underwater (I swear I’ve seen it)

My favorite quote…  My newest favorite quote….”Myth like love is a decision.  What it answers is longing. What it demands is faith.  What it opens is possibility.” Charles Montgomery

One reason I have to be happy today: I am living my own dream and one of many others who have yet to make it happen. 

Lessons I’ve learned:  Where to start…  Believe in the impossible.  Believe in myself.  Trust the universe.  Being organized really is so much easier.  Pushing myself to the edges of my limit even if its terrifying or hard, enables me to come back a much more alive and full me.  

I’m really proud of who I am and who I am becoming…

 Meet Gar (my bro & the June photographer)

Sunrise or Sunset: Sunrise

Big hair, spike, tail, mullet, too cool: mullet of course

Costa Rica, Italy, Africa, Japan, Las Vegas BABY: Costa Rica

5 words to describe me…

real

adventurous

loyal

stubborn

grounded

Feeling I relate to most: appreciation

Music I like to rock: Red Hot Chili Peppers

What makes me feel alive? new challenges

I am grateful for: my health

Favorite quote: “Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous for they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it happen.”

One reason I have to be happy today: I am conscious of being alive.

I know it’s the 4th of July and you’re just now meeting Ms. May and the cute little Mr.(S) but sometimes that’s how things roll while starting a nonprofit BTW a lot has been happening and an update will be coming soon!

I can’t tell you how cute Amy & her two rockin’ little boys Curren and Nathan were during our May photo session… you’ll just have to see for yourself! This one was actually pretty simple…we just asked them to be themselves which they all did perfectly. Cara of Caramiaphotography.com was the talented photographer behind the lens and she did such an amazing job of capturing the spirit of motherhood. (she was featured back in January with our cover shot and butterfly photo) So here they are…. I soooo love the boys “interviews”…Enjoy and Happy 4th!

Meet Nathan (lil bro): Energetic, confident and sassy!

Favorite things to do are:  play with Curren and Daddy (on the bed, arm swinging, wrestling on floor etc). Curren makes me laugh when he makes silly faces and noises.  My favorite thing about the photo shoot was the huge LOLLIPOP of course!!  

Meet Curren (big bro): Stubborn, pensive, sensitive and energetic!

Favorite things to do are:  ”swim, jump (off of anything and everything), and play at the playground”. Funny faces make me laugh.  And my favorite thing about the photo shoot was also the HUGE lollipop…

Meet Amy….

Sunrise or Sunset? Sunsets

Run DMC, Guns-n- Roses, Duran Duran, Madonna, The Cure – Guns -n- Roses

Tatum Channing, Mcsteamy, George Clooney, Will Smith, Marc Anthony, Johnny Depp  - Tatum ummmmm… Channing

What are you most excited about with being involved in the Soul Beautiful project?  Helping out a friend fulfill one of her dreams, good ideas-great cause.

5 words to describe me:  talkative, moody, procrastinator, silly, helpful

Music I like to rock:  Jane’s Addiction

What makes me feel alive:  fresh air and sunshine

I heart…San Francisco and Alex Clark

I am grateful for my loving husband and my 2 healthy sons.

What makes me laugh? funny people, good jokes, and old school SNL make me laugh

The biggest lesson I’ve learned so far is that my mother was always right.

I am really proud of our family and how my husband and I have raised our kids.

If I knew I could not fail, I would give everyone a safe home to live in, enough food to feed themselves and their family and enough money to buy the necessities.

One reason I have to be happy today is that I am doing what I love (raising my own children)

You’ve heard all about him…now here he is…FINALLY!  Photography is his heart and soul. Take 2 minutes to check out his website to see what I’m talking about… www.ciprianphotography.com. I’ve honestly never met a photographer with more drive and passion for his work than Ciprian. During our April photo shoot with Kendra I actually had to tell him to stop taking pictures…and there were so many that I loved it was so hard to pick just one. I’ve include a few more pictures from the March & April photo sessions for you to enjoy!

Ciprian thank you so much for all of your support with the Soul Beautiful calendar and for sharing your love of photography with me and with everyone that has one of our calendars hanging up on their wall. You truly are an incredible, caring, giving, passionate and oh so talented man! 

Now it’s time to meet Ciprian…

Sunrise or sunset-Sunset

Big hair,spike, tail, mullet, too cool – (did I miss one?) - whatever is not boring and comb over

Costa Rica,Italy, Africa, Japan, Las Vegas BABY!- Africa,Patagonia

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What inspired you to donate your time to the Soul Beautiful project?

The love for photography in the first place and the desire to give back.

Five words that describe me…

Passionate

Dedicated

Loving

Sociable

open minded

Feeling I relate to most…acceptance

Music I like to rock….dance music and whatever else awakes  my senses

What makes me feel alive? Reading a good book, enjoying the company of my friends and family,looking around at the world we live in. 

I am grateful for….being on this Earth in the first place

What makes me laugh? subtle and smart sarcasm

One reason I have to be happy today….I live my life without thinking of happiness as a daily necessity but rather as a general concept .

My favorite quote… carpe diem 

Happy Mother’s Day! (2 days late/got sidetracked looking at all of my families old pictures…so fun!)

It’s only human nature to want to know where we came from…

Who do we look like? Laugh like… talk like…walk like….and where does our eye color come from? So many children living in the foster care system don’t even have one photo of themselves and there are often so many questions left unanswered…

As I sat down to write this blog and started gathering photos to post I kept thinking about kids living in foster care & I also thought about the mothers who gave them up or had to let them go. So many foster children may not ever see their birth mother again & so many that do might not like who they see. But no matter what each child’s story is & no matter how horrible their home environment may have been… family connections & family history are so important…

I am so grateful to know my family ties and to have grown up in a loving home with an incredible mom. My mom is so kind and giving and goofy! I thought in honor of today I would post a few pics of my mom as well as a few of me with my son since I am a mother now too. I would love to hear from you as well…if you’d like to share a little bit about your moms or about being a mother please  do. If you have a favorite photo to share you can email it to me and I will post it to the blog! 

YIPPEE for moms! AND a special Happy Mother’s day to all of the AMAZING foster moms & adoptive moms!

P.S. -We had a printing “oops!” on our Soul Beautiful calendar - Moms are so great we decided to celebrate them twice… (Jan.1st & May 10th) smiles!

My mom looking out for me so I didn’t fall off the pony… 

Freewheeling on the trike with my brother…(thanks mom for letting us play so much)

My mom holding me…I was so lucky…and I love this photo because her eyes are closed (she does that all the time when we take pictures)

She let us explore and play and be creative even if it meant sticking stars all over our faces…(must have been my brothers idea HA!)

My mom is an incredible grandmother now…Tobin calls her,  ”grandma mom” (because he hears me call her “mom” )…pretty cute

Tickle my foot grandma…Tickle my leg grandma…(my mom even has a special tickle feather)

I definitely got my goofy side from my mom…

I LOVE YOU mom….xoxo

ME as a mother…Tobin is his own little guy for sure…he does however have daddy’s lips, mommy’s eyelashes and our big smiles and I think he’s following in g-ma mom’s footsteps with the silliness…I think he’s got that one down! Now Tobin is six years old… well six and a HALF if you ask him…

Now it’s your turn can’t wait to hear your mom stories! - gia