Our Family Photos

Disclaimer: This post is brought to you thanks to San Francisco Bay Area Family Photographer, Sarah Sloboda. All opinions are my own. 

I'm so excited to share with you today the photos from our recent family photo shoot! This was the first time we'd ever had real family photos taken, and I'm so happy with how they turned out. 

For our family photos I booked a mini shoot with San Francisco Bay Area Photographer, Sarah Sloboda. Our shoot was held outside Lawrence Hall of Science in the Berkeley Hills, with the simple 1960s lines of the building as a backdrop.  

As you can see, it was a pretty rainy, grey day when we had our photo shoot. At first I had worried that we'd have to reschedule for a day with sunshine predicted, but Sarah assured me that the overcast weather would result in beautiful light. And she was right! No harsh shadows, no one squinting... Just lovely diffused light.  

We had a mix of photos taken; some with all five of us, and some with just the kids. Of course, there were plenty of silly faces from the kids, especially Mathilde, and a few grumpy faces from Lola (she wasn't happy about being out in the cold at first), but these made for fun candid shots.

The rain wasn't particularly heavy so we braved a few shots out in the open. I really love the falling rain in the shot below. It almost looks like snow! We can pretend, right?

Our photo shoot with Sarah was just right for our family. It was pretty relaxed and the kids felt very comfortable with Sarah. The 20 minute long mini session was the perfect amount of time - especially given how cold and rainy it was!

Sarah offers seasonal mini shoots throughout the year at selected locations, as well as one hour packages at the location of your choice. Wouldn't a booking for a family photo shoot make a wonderful Christmas gift? You can find more details about photo shoot packages and pricing at http://sarahsloboda.com/.

Thank you so much Sarah for our amazing photos!

Five Years in America

I'm almost a month late with this post, but better late then never, right?

As of October 25th Ava, Lola and I have now lived in America for five years! I'm still in disbelief at how quickly the time has flown by. I know it sounds like such a cliche, but it really does feel like we just moved here yesterday. Those five years have gone by so quickly. So much has changed in that time. When I look back at the photos from the day we said goodbye to our friends and family back home in Adelaide, I see Ava as a pre-schooler and Lola as a one year old. They were so little. And, of course, Mathilde wasn't even born.

Like I've done in previous years, today I'm going to share a look back at the last twelve months of our life in America. As always, to read more about a particular event, vacation or outing just click the bold and underlined link. This is going to be a long post with lots of fun pictures (I always struggle to narrow down my favorites) so get yourself a cup of coffee, make yourself comfortable, and enjoy our fifth year in America...

Lighting my Office Space + an OttLite Giveaway

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by OttLite. All pictures and opinions are my own.

I don't talk about our home that much here on Little Hiccups, but it's something that I get asked about fairly often by those who know me. With five people living in a small-ish, two bedroom apartment I'm often asked how we make it work. Our home is definitely not a tiny home (despite Ava's wishes that it was!) and by Bay Area standards, a 900sf apartment certainly isn't considered small, but it can get a little squishy at times.

There are many challenges to living in a small space, and I hope to share some of my solutions on the blog one day (once I get around to fixing the biggest one - clutter!) but for now I wanted to share the space where I spend the majority of my waking hours - my "office". Creating an office space in which I can work comfortably has been a challenge in our apartment. I'm not a fan of working on a laptop on the couch, especially when editing photos, so a dedicated desk space with a large monitor is important. Considering that I spend many hours a day sitting at it, having my desk located somewhere comfortable was a top priority when we moved into our apartment three years ago. As luck would have it, our apartment features a long entryway, wide and long enough to fit my desk (Ikea Besta Burs), filing cabinet (CB2 tps 3 drawer) and replica Eames dining chair. As you can see, it's also where we store Mathilde's stroller! While this area fits everything I need perfectly, it is lacking in one important factor... there are no windows, and therefore no natural light.

Halloween 2016

Halloween has been and gone for another year, and once again the girls had an absolute blast celebrating. If you're following Little Hiccups on Instagram then you would've already seen a few pics from our Halloween, but I thought it was about time I shared all the fun on the blog.

This year I managed to convince the girls to go with a group costume! I still can't really believe I managed to pull it off, and I'm sure it will be the last time that Ava agrees to dress like her little sisters, but I'm so happy with how my little Powerpuff Girls turned out! I mean, look at how cute they are in their costumes together!