HOMETOWN: Royal Oak, MI  (yes, I have an accent!)

OFTEN SEEN: carting my kids to gymnastics,  adding to our menagerie of pets, playing Candy Land against my will, advocating for ethical child adoption reform, spending too much time online (one of my children once thought my profession was Google Searcher!), supporting breastfeeding Moms (I was a LLL leader in a former life!).

SPECIAL SKILLS: finding beauty in the mundane, making magic in low light, capturing a newborn’s yawn and smile, the art of tantrum avoidance, sleeping (I’m a pro at that one!), blogging (although these days I”m more of a Facebook person) and all things Birth!

FAVORITE TOOL OF THE TRADE: LightRoom 3 & Photoshop CS5 are tied, for sure!

LIVE FOR: my daughter’s voice when she says “I love you all the way to my heart Mommy! We are love twins!”, watching each milestone in my kids’ lives, my husband’s contagious laugh, my amazingly supportive friends, my iPhone, of course my camera and photographing births!

THE HARD STUFF: balance, being my own worst critic, being IN the picture instead of behind the camera, overanalyzing everything!

LIVE WITHOUT: crazy Houston drivers, slow computer processors and the Terrible 3’s!

LITTLE KNOWN FACT: I actually have 7 kids including 3 step-children still residing in Michigan. No one told me that the more kids you have, the easier it is or I may have had twice as many!