Capturing Your: Anticipation

I don't even know where to begin with this post. I guess I will flash back to 1991, 7th grade, Mr. Stanfield's English class, and my new BFF. I met Alina just about 19 years ago, all cute and yet awkward...we just "graduated" from elementary school and now we were "big" kids from about 5 local schools....all thrown into one. It was a hard adjustment for me....we went from having 1 teacher to 8 teachers, a lot more peers that were all strangers, friends separated into different schedules, and pimples were a thing of the present while playing on the playground was a thing of the past. I am sure you can all relate with the whole puberty awkward and emotionally challenging era as a tween. However, there was this super cute blondie, blue eyes, with freckles, teeny weeny little waist but a super huge personality...meet Alina. I remember hating my new English class and dreaded going....I mean, the thought of ditching was so appealing, magically becoming sick with some incurable disease was enticing...seriously ANYTHING but my English class....until I met Alina. I have never....even to this day....met someone as fun, unique, adventurous, and outgoing as Alina. Ever. Seriously, ever!

Alina was the girl that allowed me to color her beautiful blonde hair with crayola markers (kids,please do not try this at home)...every color...nothing was off limits, put a lot of blush on her nose and pretend that she had a "cold" (she even spoke like she was congested all day), prank call all our crushes on the phone...I mean...do all the silly stuff that in theory I would love to do and mastermind doing...however, just didn't have the guts.

Fast forward today....Alina is that same fun loving person, except she has a few crib midgets of her own and a super cool husband. Taking Alina's maternity pictures was like flashing back to 1991 when we were those silly junior high girls....except I think this time, since we are a lot older and both have had two kids....Depends...those big bulky diapers.....were necessary to keep us from having...*ahem*...an accident. I had SUCH a fun laugh-til-you-pee-your-pants time with Alina...it was as if no time had lapsed since we've seen each other and we both were up to what we were normally up to....no good.

As you will see, our photo shoot had many different looks... it first started out on the streets, then to the beautiful hills...then to the "I really want to do a barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen photo shoot but have never found anyone one who would be willing to do it"....to the "I WILL" milliseconds later. I was laughing at all of Alina's facial expressions which really captures her true personality as I looked over her pictures. I simply could not omit those pictures because it just would not be Alina. And even better, her husband was so game for everything too....a perfect match made in heaven! I am so glad that Alina found her twin and it is so funny to see that her little girl is not only a mirror image of Alina, but personality wise...OMG....it is Alina all over again! Love it!

Thank you so much Alina, Jeff and the kiddos for such a fun time! I can't wait to meet the little new addition and wish you the best of luck during your delivery! I look forward to getting together again next time I visit, meeting the newbie and causing more trouble together. Good times!

Special thanks to: random people driving in their cars honking at a pregnant woman, the cops for making sure that the drunks on the Sunday afternoon weren't going to bother the white girl with her pink hair and her Mexican sidekick, the ghetto-ness of the back of the Farmer's Market store, the two boys riding their bikes who gave Alina a shout-out while doing bare belly shots, and Mc Donalds....you satisfied the GET-ME-FOOD-NOW craving for yet another preggo mama!

This by far was the coolest tree... Ever.

Alina doin' her thang!

Work it baby, work it!