Family Portrait 1998

I had it planned out.  We would dress our baby up in red and go take a quick family picture at Huntington Center.  I am almost 3 months pregnant with my first born son, Kalib.  I have very bad morning sickness and really want to go home after this.  My mom and aunt Minja came with us.  So, this has been a treat.  

My aunt just moved in.  Random, out of the blue, popped up at the house with her luggage.  I didn't even realize she knew where we lived.  But, she's been at our place for about 2 months.

It is my 21st birthday and I decided I want to take a family picture to pass out in my Christmas cards.  It's just the three of us this year, but next Christmas will be the 4 of us.  

A Baby is Born

On December 23rd, 1996, my water broke at approximately 3am, and immediately after, I was in full-on labor. My daughter Sienna couldn't wait to be born, because I had her at 5:50am. This was her first picture. The hospital put a little Christmas beanie on her head. What a great Christmas present to both her dad and I. She was the tie that binds.  We took her home on Christmas Eve and then to 2 Christmas celebrations, one at my sister Jeri's and then the next stop was my Aunt Jacki's.

Her name:

• Sienna - raw Sienna is a yellowish-brown clay, kinda like the yellow of her mommy and the brown of her daddy. I'm real witty. LOL
• Cecilija - the Russian spelling of Cecilia, the female version of Cecil, named for her paternal great-grandfather Cecil Harris who passed away earlier the same year.
• Arcala - to honor my side of the family
• Anderson - to honor her dad's side of the family

Christmas 1994

 My father, Thomas Arcala and his wife Penny took my sister Jeri and I to San Diego to visit my sister April Davis.  While taking photography classes and practicing using a camera, I shot this photo of April and her son David and this photo of my father Thomas Arcala playing with April's daughter Anna.

It didn't come out great because my shutterspeed was not set correctly, but this is a photo to be cherished.