Kevin, Ari & Shai

i am so excited to introduce this family!

i have known them for about 7 years now (is that right, guys?!).  i met Kevin when i was working at Mandalay way back when.  he worked in the sports division and i worked for another company in the same building, doing film distribution.  Kevin was one of my lunch buddies, and i remember us always talking about Stephen all the time (my husband now, but boyfriend at the time).  i probably bored Kevin to death, but he was always supportive and at least acted interested.  my husband is probably just now learning that the intimate details of our on-again/off-again relationship were shared with this man he barely just met =)  sorry baby!

anyway, over time these lunches became dinners, where i got to meet his beautiful wife, Ari!  she immediately reminded me of my sister, so i had no choice but to love her…Backstreet Boys fan and all =)  we continued getting to know each other over the years and their friendship with me quickly became a friendship with my whole family.  they even have silly nicknames for each other!

almost 2 years ago to the day, Ari gave birth to a gorgeous baby boy, Shai!  he was born premature and Stephen and i went to the hospital to see him and i fell in love immediately.  he was just adorable…still is!  and, i have to say, one of the most well-behaved kids i’ve ever seen.  part of it may have to do with Kevin’s parenting approach, similar to puppy training based on what i witnessed the other day…haha!  here, Kevin asked Shai to “shake a leg.”

when Kevin or Ari say “Go Dodgers,” Shai raises his arms in the air like this, shouting “Go Dodgers!”  Stephen and i were laughing hysterically.

Shai is completely obsessed with phones.  apparently dad won’t let him play with his iPhone, so i trusted him with mine for a little while =)  the kid figured out how to turn it on and everything within seconds.  i was totally entertained by his animated conversations…

i recently found out that Ari is currently pregnant with baby #2!  congratulations!  so i asked her if we could just do a couple of shots with her…

in trying to find a location for their shoot, we discussed a couple of options, including the location where Kevin and Ari were married.  but Ari had the brilliant idea of doing the shoot at The Getty, and that ultimately won out, of course!  Stephen and i were a little bit skeptical at first.  we got there early and walked around, trying to find some good spots to take pictures.  the Getty is beautiful, but the sheer number of people there that day just made us a little nervous.  by the end of the day, we felt completely different!  there were so many cool spots for pictures and we just had to get creative with some of the angles in order to not see all of the people =)

here are some more of my faves from the day…

thank you so much you guys for allowing us to capture some of these beautiful moments…we love you!

xoxo

jess