You know the saying 'you can never have too many photos'? Well after sorting through over 5,000 photos from my daughters 1st birthday I told my husband it was possible to have too many photos. I was certain I had taken too many pics of my precious Aviana and that no child would ever care to look at all these photos when they got older. 

Little did I know less than three months after her 1st birthday my healthy baby girl would pass away and become God's littlest angel.

And I would CHERISH every one of those 5,000 photos. 

Prior to Aviana being born I had never taken a single photo of a baby, but I loved photography and wanted to capture every second of her life so I decided to use my fine art background to my advantage and Art Direct weekly shoots of her. It quickly became an obsession of mine and one of our favorite things to do together. Her face would literally light up when she saw the camera and she would giggle and play while I shot away. I called her my little baby model because she had poses and expressions that would rival any top model -- I'm not biased at all. ;)

Due to the fact that I had become our families photographer I put no priority on family photos, just time spent making sure we had photos of her. However the holidays were coming and I knew I wanted a family photo to put on our holiday cards. So the weekend before thanksgiving we headed downtown with my photography friend Sabrina Ahern to have her shoot our family photos. We had joked during the photoshoot that these would be the only photos of the three of us (because the next time we did them they would include her sibling) but we had no idea that four days later (the day after thanksgiving) we would wake up without her. We had no idea the importance those photos would have in our life, and that they would become a permanent fixture of our home forever. 

I know its cheesy but feel like Aviana was telling me to take all those photos of her, and that she was telling me to take up this career in photography. In a way she was teaching me how to take photos of babies and I thank her for that. She was also teaching me a beauty and joy in life called motherhood, and it was more amazing than I could have ever imagined. It's amazing how someone so small can leave such a big impact on your life. She was perfect.

It will be 7 weeks this friday since she passed and not a second goes by that I don't want to give her kisses, hugs, and grab her little hand to help her walk. I may not be able to do any of those things ever again, but I take comfort in knowing all the happy memories we got to enjoy with her in our life as she brightened every day with her smiles.

She will always live on in our hearts...and in our photos.