Why hello! It's getting close to the end of 2018 which means I'm ridiculously late in sharing these on the blog, but better late than never or something eh!? I figure I should probably share them before the 2019 contest begins! The week before Jacob was born, I entered a bunch of images in the 2018 Shoot & Share worldwide contest. This was the third year I have entered and I LOVE it so much every time! The 2018 Photo Contest broke records with 413,000 photos submitted, 175,000 unique entrants and voters, and a whopping 81 MILLION contest votes collected! You can read more about my 2016 and 2017 entries, but I thought I would just quickly share with you a few of this years images - two placed in the Top 100 in the world in their categories, four others were finalists, and others placed in the top percentiles in their categories. It's just a bit of fun, and it's extremely addictive!

Shoot & Share made me this fancy little video... so I'll pop that up first...

Wasn't it just yesterday that I was writing a wee blog in the days leading up to Eli's birth?! 2.5 years later... we are perhaps just days away from meeting the second little Hutton button! We can't wait to find out who has been hiding and growing inside me! But there's also a million things to do beforehand, and no doubt this little bubs is probably easier on the inside than on the outside, so I'm content waiting if he or she decides they are not quite ready for the outside world by due date ;)

I'm totally not any more prepared this time around than I was last time... it's sooo surreal still, and I think it will feel that way until I'm holding my precious new love in my arms! And then I'm sure it will feel like it's exactly as it was always meant to be... as if life beforehand was somewhat incomplete or something.

It's taken me since the beginning of this year to work out whether or not to share these images from the 2017 Shoot and Share Contest with you. These first two images are particularly special and poignant, and I don't share them because of the 'awards'. I share them because I want to share the hope in these images. This is beautiful little Emily, who I photographed in NICU at about 26 weeks old. This absolutely tiny little girl really touched me, and I am just so pleased to let you know that she is now 20 months old, and is doing so well! NICU is an amazing place. It's a place filled with so many mixed emotions and roller-coaster rides for so many parents - in reality, it's a place sometimes crippled by sadness and fear, and other times filled with hope and strength. But no matter what, it's always a place filled with love and care. I know not all these beautiful, tiny little babies are as fortunate as Emily, but I wanted to share the power of the hope, love, strength, and the fighting spirit of this wee girl!

Out of over a thousand photos in the "Passion Portraits: Giving Back" Category, Emily’s photos placed 12th and 15th. This category is reserved for photos taken to give back to our communities. It's about using our gifts within photography to share with and bless others. These two photos are really special to me, and I'm glad they touched the hearts of photographers around the world who voted. 

Eli just wanted to show you all how much his Teddy and this chair shrunk over his first 14 months of life!

So just as a reference... first photo is 0 months and the last photo is 14 months! 12 months is bottom middle!

We have this printed and framed in our hallway and I loooove it! He's always been a busy boy and was quick to get on the move... I love seeing his movement and cheeky personality develop each month! I am hoping to do this every month until he is 2, and then perhaps every birthday until he is 21 (if he will still let me! Perhaps I'll still be bribing him with food...)  ;)
xx

Just as a little bit of fun we let Eli loose on a wee 1st birthday cake especially for him (you know... the dairy-free, egg-free, and therefore probably taste-free kind that you are too scared to serve up to guests as the ACTUAL birthday cake). This was a surprisingly flippin' DELICIOUS cake though (thank you Chelsea Winter)... Liam and I maaay have totally polished off what was left.

'Twas a bit of a giggle... he spent the first 5 minutes just walking around the cake playing with the balloons. It definitely wasn't the 'smoosh your face in it and eat your heart out just 'cos you can' kinda party... I don't think he knew that the sticky blue thing was actually food and proceeded pretty cautiously with each tiny bite! But we had fun watching him play with the textures and get his first wee taste of the joy of sugar ;)

Being a Mama.
It's the greatest thing I've ever become. A privilege. A blessing. A hard, amazing, extremely un-glamorous, crazy awesome, sleepless, life-long journey.

We are SO excited to let you know that Eli William Hutton was born on the 28th July 2015... a full 8lb 8oz of awesome!
We are making sure we spend heaps of precious time with our new little bundle... he is just so amazing and we absolutely adore the gorgeous newborn cuddles he is giving us!

(Just a reminder... I am on maternity leave until January 2016, when I will begin taking on a limited number of shoots. I will attempt to follow up emails over the next few weeks, but responses will be slow sorry! For now, this amazing little man needs my undivided attention... but I pretty much can't take my eyes off him anyway, so that's ok!)

Thanks for all your well-wishes and love!