Remember when I reached out and asked for donations to get outfits for a Little Heroes Family?
Well…this is it! Circumstances changed from when I asked but do you guys realize how amazing you are? You sent me $4300!! So of course, we did not spend that much on outfits but all remaining money went into the Little Heroes account! So THANK YOU!! I was literally in tears and didn’t know how to stop the money from coming in. Love your hearts!!

So much went into making this session happen. Let me give you a reminder on why we did this session first:

Brazen was diagnosed with stage 4 rhabdomyosarcoma in march 2020. He was undergoing chemotherapy and we thought things were going great! Until Saturday January 30,2021, when our worst nightmare came back. Brazen had grown two new tumors, they did surgery to remove the tumors but chemotherapy will not help and radiation will only put him in more pain, he is terminal. They said he has 2-3 good months and then the tumors will come back and will make things very difficult for Brazen. They do not believe Brazen will make it through the year.

Shopping done by Kolee (my sister), Masyn (my niece), Rylee (my oldest daughter) and me. We went to the Gap and Vans. Gap is my favorite place to buy outfits for family portraits because all of their clothes coordinate from baby to adult! We took all the outfits and went to Vans to find shoes for all of them. Umm…so cute, right???

Then, we reached out to ShipZOOM to ship the outfits to the family because they are in Twin Falls. They were so amazing to work with and were so excited to be part of this.

I needed an assistant to help me so I reached out to Kyla because she has voiced interest in being a photographer for Little Heroes. Kyla didn’t even hesitate, she had no problem driving 2.5 hours to meet me and help. We both arrived early for their session and helped them get dressed and ready.

The session was magical! The kids were so good but being 4, 2 and 1, it was also crazy. With the amazing help of Kyla and the yummy candy, Smarties…it was a success!!

A letter from her mom…

“I would do it all again, just to hold you for those moments.” On March 5, 2021 Delphi was born at 31 weeks. Her birth was highly unexpected. My pregnancy was low risk and I had minimal discomforts. Delphi’s destiny was to be a stillborn, but she had miracles to show us. The day before she was born I had an unplanned doctors appointment that I only had made because of one small and completely unrelated change. I felt off that whole day, but anxiety about being a first time mom and labor led me to believe that I was just stressed. I didn’t mention it to my doctor. I spent a long time talking to her about all of the natural birthing I wanted to do. Because it wasn’t a regular appointment my doctor almost didn’t listen to her heartbeat. But she thankfully did and it was abnormal. She wanted to be safe and sent me to the hospital to have a non stress test. After multiple failed tests throughout the night and two low scoring BPP ultrasounds we decided to try another NST. The time between the second BPP and the last NST test was only about 5 minutes. Delphi’s heartbeat had dropped dramatically and the nurse was having a hard time finding it. It was then determined that an immediate delivery needed to occur. After Delphi’s birth she was life flighted to the hospital in the nearest city. She was improving daily and her magic was showing through. But then two weeks after her birth we learned the devastating news. Her MRI results showed a level of brain damage that she would never recover from. She would never be able to breathe on her own without the help of a ventilator. She would never run, play, cry, sing, laugh, and live any resemblance of a normal life. We had to make the decision that no parent should ever have to make. Do we condemn her to a life of pain and suffering or condemn ourselves to the same. We chose to remove her ventilator and let her peacefully pass. But before doing that we chose to show her love and give her memories. We created a bucket list for her, of all the important memories we wanted to have with her. She was baptised, had a “Birth”-day party, watched many movies, listened to music, and went exploring outside. On April 9, 2021 at 11:11 am we removed her ventilator. We chose this time, 11:11 am, because that is the time you are supposed to say “I love you”. She peacefully passed in the arms of her great grandma in the early morning hours of April 10.
She had taught us so many amazing lessons in just her short five weeks on this earth. She taught us that we shouldn’t plan our whole lives before they even happen. That we need to live for today and not tomorrow. That life is not measured by the value of things you have done, but how you have chosen to spend the time you have. And she showed us what true love at first sight feels like. So to my beautiful baby Delphi, I will miss you with every beat of my heart and I will feel you in everything that I do.” Angel Aspiazu

Baby A, you are so loved…

I arrived at the butterfly room to meet baby A and his family. He was born at 38 weeks, but had a lot of medical problems that only allowed him a few short hours on earth. He passed away peacefully during the session.

I am not allowed to share names or full images so I got creative to share enough. My favorite image is with the butterflies. I think butterflies are a beautiful sign to let us know our loved ones are with us in spirit.

Please say a little prayer for this family. They lost their sweet baby. We are so thankful we were able to go into the hospital to take these images for them.

Little Heroes share…

I asked Irina to tell her story and she wrote it beautifully…please comment to let her know you are sending prayers and loving thoughts her way.

Nothing changes us as much as kids do! After baby #2 i became more and more interested in homeopathy: essential oils, coconut oil everything, diy baby wipes, detergent you name it! I watched many documentaries that made me believe that everything around us is toxic, that one in every 5 people will have cancer and with a family of 5 i was determined to avoid it. My kids barely had cake on their birthday, sugar was very limited, we ate mainly keto, we stayed active. I was also getting paranoid, i secretly hated my husband for buying bread! ( i know it is awful 😩); i often had anxiety attacks in the grocery stores. Kombucha, water kefir – we grew it. Gardening was a must. At every birthday party we went to, i was the mom that rolled her eyes at the desserts. What i’m trying to say is that i became a person that was always afraid of something, always hard on my family for no reason other that diet, i felt lonely too. As empowering as the holistic diy medicine can be, for me it became a place of very little trust in others, a place of a constant chase of a new cure, herbal tea, supplement, new must have EO….
So when i noticed that if i turn my neck at a certain angle, it looks like my lymph nodes are sticking out a little – i did what i knew best : made some new lotions with EO, increased my turmeric intake, better vitamin D and VitaminB complex, joined a gym with sauna, purchased a skin brush for improved circulation. But nothing changed. 6 months later i finally went to my family doctor. My labs were great, i had no symptoms of anything except those swollen lymph nodes. Because i was young and healthy they delayed a scan, there was no reason to even think i could have cancer. I was sent to an ENT…

It took 2 visits there for someone to look inside my nose, there they found a tumor. And yet, because i was young and healthy and had no cancer symptoms, they doubted cancer. Eventually the scan and the biopsy confirmed that i had nasopharyngeal cancer caused by EB virus -a virus so common that 90% adult actually carry it. The only odd thing was that normally that type of cancer, even though very rare, happens mainly to smoking men in their 40’s, I clearly didnt fit the profile.
I always thought in case of such diagnosis i will be on my way to Mexico. And yet here i stood extremely mad : i did everything not to be in this position, people looked at me saying ” but you look healthy”. All my healthy eating, my EO, my teas and herbs ….. nothing stopped the very rare mutation that can occur in our cells. I was mad and i felt like i let everyone down. I felt like a fake and a joke because all my natural remedies and all the health life style did nothing for me.
I was also afraid knowing from many internet sources that the Cancer clinics a pushy, very cold in their attitudes towards patients and only care about pushing you with chemo. Yet, in my research on possible Mexico trip, stories about people who were scammed in every shape and manner started to pop in my search. The natural cancer clinics locally are very expensive and are not covered by insurance.
I put my all my faith in God, my case was considered treatable, my husband has great insurance – i considered my situation as a very good one to be and we moved on with traditional radiation and chemo combo with more chemo to come. I didnt fully gave up on what i now call my woodoo life style 😜, i kept drinking my detox teas and used coconut oil and EO to help with burn from radiation. After 7 weeks they could not belive that from outside i had no burns at all. My mouth was damaged permanently, but pulling with coconut oil helped me greatly, they still suggest that trick to many radiation patients. When we started chemo i had to scale back the EO, nausea was very bad and every EO smelled awful and intoxicating. It was a rough summer. We were hoping for a clean scan in the fall.
What i did lear through his was something new to me: people where there to help in every possible way: the doctors and nurses were were compassionate and kind, my friends came in with so much help and support! I was not alone anymore, you see it is good to believe in yourself, but it is better to believe in others too!
The fall scan showed something weird on my hip. My type of cancer never goes into a hip….. everything else looked perfect, my labs were great. More investigation proved that indeed , the cancer spread to the bone. More radiation was scheduled right away. A regular check up during radiation cause my doctor to be suspicious of pain in both of my hips. An emergency scan revealed that my cancer took off like a wild fire in my bones. Yet my labs looked good.
Next we did immunotherapy – the answer to all the answers! But it failed on me. We went back to crappy chemo because nothing else works on me. Meanwhile, my labs still look good.
I had many ups and downs, my cancer keeps on spreading. Now i joke more often about EO and the new health trends, i let my kids eat fast food once in a while, we even have desserts at the house. My friends were and still are a great support system for me and my family and that is the most amazing thing to me. That was my life lesson: i dont have to do it all alone, i dint have to isolate and protect myself from everything and everybody. At this point i went past my expectation date. The doctors are not sure how i made it so far, yet every time the disease progresses in does it in a very unusual way. I became a very interesting study case.
Now i try to live everyday to the fullest i can, however it may look that day. It is all a gift, a very generous gift to me and my family. I’m thankful for the people who supported me and helped me along the way. I thankful for my lesson: life is a gift, a gift you share with others, live with others, it doesnt have to a constant battlefield. Trust in people, and above all trust in God and not unto thy own understanding.

Have you heard of our non profit? We are called, Little Heroes. We do photo sessions for families with terminally ill children (18 & younger) and terminally ill adults with small children (18 & younger). Sometime we get a call from the hospital when they have a demise or are going to deliver a baby that will not make it.

We have been doing this since 2007. We have photographed hundreds of families. We have so many stories. Just like most things, word of mouth helps get us connected with families that could use our services. That is how this family found us and thankfully the hospital allowed me to come in and take these pictures of this beautiful family. Sweet baby Henry was born at 37 weeks on October 5 and weighing in at 5 pounds, 12 ounces. His umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and he passed away in his mama’s tummy. So heartbreaking. So hard to understand. Please keep this family in your prayers.

We give Little Heroes families a session, digital files of all edited images, 5×7 prints of all edited images, keepsake slideshow and a lot of times they also receive a wall portrait.

We have officially been a non profit, 501c3 for over a year now. Our biggest fundraiser of the year is our yearly Santa Event. All session fee proceeds goes toward Little Heroes. This last spring we added an event, Cap & Gown portraits. Whoa! That was a hit! We will be doing that again this next spring right before graduation.

Do you know a family who could use our services? Most the time we all feel helpless when families are experiencing such heartache. This is the perfect gift!! It is priceless! Please feel free to message me with any questions.

On March 10, 2020… a little angel was born. 😇

Happy Birthday beautiful baby. We know you had a beautiful day in heaven. Keep watch over your family. You are so loved…

On Tuesday evening I received a phone call that my services were needed. I wasn’t in professional attire but that doesn’t matter. I packed up my gear and met with such an amazing family that was going through something no one should have to go through. We took our time talking about their angel and we created some beautiful memories for them to have and cherish forever. My goal is for this family to remember this day. The smells, the sounds, the touch, the love. This family asked me to not share the images or names so I cropped this one image to show how small their little angel baby is. So perfect…look at those toes…

My heart breaks for this little family. Please include this family in your prayers. Thank you for supporting Little Heroes so families like this receive this service that includes prints, digital files and a slideshow.

This smile will melt your heart! It was a hot afternoon in the studio yard but we had a good time. This session was with her grandma & great grandma. These ladies are a big part of Kassydee’s life and as you can see, Kassydee adores them! When the bubbles came out, so did Kassydee’s tongue. She treated them as if they were snowflakes. She reached out and tried to pop them and tried to land them on her tongue. It was so cute!! Kassydee just turned 4. Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Meet this sweet angel. She was born full term with Lissencephaly that effected her ability to breath on her own. She has had help breathing since birth on May 29.  
I met her on June 19 when she was free of tubes. She was awake and a strong little fighter when I met her. She sadly passed away early June 20.  
She was so sweet! She was so brave! 
These are the only images of their baby girl without tubes. I am thankful I was able to provide them with these images.  
Please pray for this little family. 

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