A little over a year ago I didn’t even really know what the word “Au Pair” meant. And the idea of having a stranger live in our home would have been a non-starter. But then a unique opportunity presented itself to our family. My husband was offered a new job within his company AND decided to pursue his Executive MBA degree from Wharton. Both in San Francisco. Both thousands of miles away from all our friends, family and any form of support system we had come to know with two small children. He could have turned down the job and just commuted back and forth to California for school every other weekend. But where’s the fun in that?! ;-) Deciding to move west was an incredibly difficult decision, knowing he would be a mostly absentee dad and husband for two (very LONG) years.

After being introduced to the concept by a mom friend in Houston, we further researched exactly what having an Au Pair meant. There are many common misconceptions about being a host family:

• Au Pairs are not live in childcare for only high income families.
• Having an Au Pair does not mean you have child care 24/7 around the clock.
• Au Pairs are thoroughly screened and regulated by a licensed agency.
• Au Pairs are trained and have previous childcare experience.
• There is a very involved interview process when decided on an Au Pair.
• Hosting an Au Pair is a cultural exchange program.
• Most Au Pairs join the program and come to the USA to better their English.

Once we understood each of those in more detail, we realized it would be a great solution for our big move. After giving me a rough visual of what life would be like, my husband left the final decision up to me. What the hell… life is either a boring adventure, or nothing at all. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Insert all the cliche quotes possible here. We took a huge leap of faith and headed west to look for a new place to call home.

I was shocked to find out how common having an Au Pair is here in California. When we got settled, and went thru both the application and interview process, we finally welcomed our new Au Pair from Colombia! She was just as nervous as us, but we immediately had such a great connection. She’s fun, respectful, loving, stands her ground with our spirited three year old AND is spontaneously adventurous, just like us! Taking a year off from school, her goal was to improve her English and experience as much of the United States as possible.

I asked many questions when getting to know her from afar. One was if she liked the beach, the mountains, the desert, or wildflowers best. When she answered “wildflowers,” I knew she was going to fit right in great. I took the photo above at our favorite spot in Half Moon Bay and framed it above her bed. I also put many framed photos of her friends an family around her room. And because she shares a bathroom with the girls, I had to have beautiful photos of them together in this stunning rose garden near our home, to frame there. This was her first time to be far away from her family, so wanted her to feel at home, in her new home with us. The good news is, she loves beautiful photos just as much as I do!

If I am to be honest, she’s more of a side kick or stand in co-parent for me.

For our family, having an Au Pair does not mean someone else is raising our girls. It means we have added another beautiful young lady to adventurous girl gang over here. Though dad temporarily isn’t, I am very much still a part of the picture. Having her keeps me sane and allows me to pursue my passions. Though I mostly work from home, I always knew I didn’t want to be a stay-at-home-mom. Raising toddlers is not easy. I have NO IDEA how single moms or dads do it alone, so MAD PROPS to you guys on that. Our girls have consistent care, another strong female to look up to and are both learning Spanish. Because of her, we have all learned SO much about the Colombian culture. She is incredibly understanding of our continued chaos and it’s priceless to have her around when my husband travels for work often.

Being a part of this program has been such a great experience for our family, so far. If you have any questions or are looking into the possibility of hosting an Au Pair, please feel free to reach out!

Over two years…you guys, it has seriously been THAT long since I’ve blogged. I would be lying if I said it seemed like yesterday. After all the major changes that have taken place since then, it seems more like six years.

A little over two years ago, while living in Houston, we found out we were expecting our second baby girl. Jennifer Weems, a fellow photography friend back in Austin, brought my adventurous announcement vision to life for us. And though it came close to happening, no one fell in! It was a fun follow-up to our first “Baby on Board” announcement, documented by our dear friend, Robert Siciliano of Far North Photos, while living in Alaska (you can see those photos here).

But oh my, it has truly been one heck of an adventure! Due to difficulties during my first birth, my second pregnancy was high risk. My “upright” time was very limited. I spent the little time I had, caring for our one and a half year old in the mornings and evenings. Dad took her to and from school. During most days I laid at home. Transitioning back and forth, from the couch to the bed. Normally being a really active person, it was an incredibly difficult time for me.

Fairly early on in my pregnancy, my good friend and fellow photographer, Shary Peck of Sweet Pecks Photography, took my maternity photos. Because our first maternity session was in the mountains, I just HAD to have this session take place at the beach. Being the amazing person Shary is, she not only took my maternity photos, she also drove my reclined baby bump to Galveston, to make that happen for me! Seriously. Incredible.

I didn’t want to over complicate things, so I reluctantly decided to do photos without Dad and big sister-to-be. If you’ve ever participated in a photo session with a toddler, I’m confident you understand why. But knowing how important photos are to me, my husband and Scotty surprised me, showing up halfway thru the session. Right up there with finding out we expecting a healthy baby and my Baby Sprinkle, the following weekend, this afternoon was one of the top highlights of my pregnancy.

Fast forward 37 longggg weeks and we had ourselves an absolutely beautiful baby girl, named Brett. I’m not sure how we got so lucky, but this child was easy. I mean, unicorn baby, easy! She was perfect. After having a pretty difficult pregnancy and recovery, I really needed that in my life. Scotty was an awesome big sister. She LOVED her new sister, so hard. Haha. Luckily we never had any major new sibling jealousy. Though, we are still working on being “gentle.”

Our perfect, uncomplicated little way of life, didn’t last long. About six months after she was born, we decided to move to Northern California. My husband would be attending Wharton’s Executive MBA program in San Francisco every other weekend for two years AND simultaneously working and traveling full time for work. Yes. All the chaos. Please send me all the prayers, positivity and PATIENCE! We took the imperfectly/perfect photo below on our house hunting trip, with the trusty remote timer, to announce our move. You can see the girls were thrilled about it. Haha.

After packing up our lives in Houston and moving to Mountain View for a month, we finally found a new place to call home for a while, in Burlingame. While Dad is doing his work/school thing, you can find me and my girls adventuring all around the Bay Area. If the weather is nice and we have the chance, we usually head straight to the coast. Heaven on earth! It only takes us twenty five minutes to get to Half Moon Bay, where the photo below was taken. Again with the good ole’ remote timer. We can’t miss out on beautiful moments like this, because dad isn’t around to take photos. ;-) We may not be in California long, so we want to see and experience as much as possible while we are here!

While I haven’t formally reestablished Savvy Images here in the Bay Area yet, I have been working on a few great personal projects to keep me on my toes. Be sure to subscribe to my blog to see future posts to find out more about those. There are some seriously PRECIOUS images I’m dying to share with all of you soon!