Danielle Mahoney Photography

The Counts are neighbors of ours, and their Grant and my Grant are in the same class for the second year. It’s so easy to see how happy they all are together and how much fun they have! Tammy does a ton of volunteer work at the kids’ school (and reads stories to classrooms like a complete natural!), and they all spend a lot of time outdoors going to kids’ sports events or exercising. Tammy loves how much fun they always have together as a family. While taking pictures, I was so envious of how sweet and calm Grant and Cole were together. By the end of the shoot however, they had loosened up into crazy, funny, leaf-throwing, tackling brothers (and I breathed a huge sigh of relief that mine aren’t the only wild ones!)I love these photos! And I really just about laughed the entire time!

I just love these kids! It blows my mind that seven (!) years ago I would sometimes struggle to tell the difference between baby Danny and my Grant. And that it was almost six years ago that I hurried newborn paraphernalia to Pam’s house when Natalie was days old. I vividly remember bumping into Pam at Safeway where she confessed they were expecting Lily. It’s hard to not be nostalgic when watching kids grow up.

Everyone is so big now, and smart and happy and crazy. Visiting for photos is usually a whirlwind of awesome sibling shenanigans, but on this day the girls calmed a bit with their library books, and Danny showed me his battle scene and taught me a few chess moves in his treehouse. We had a great morning!

Love you guys!! -Danielle

“Our story began on December 8th, 2010 when Alyssa was diagnosed with strep and mono,” Gretchen writes on her Caring Bridge blog. “She was placed on antibiotics, and we continued with our plans for Christmas and our annual trip to Deep Creek.” Except Alyssa stayed sick- she ran fevers, complained about pain in her leg, was maybe a little more pale than usual, and was just out of sorts.

By January 13th, 2011, Alyssa and Mike were rushing Alyssa to Johns Hopkins where they were waiting to admit her. She was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). This liquid tumor, or cancer of the blood, starts in the bone marrow and spreads through the bloodstream. It is the most common children’s cancer, accounting for more than 2,900 cases in children each year. Unlike other types of children’s cancer, ALL has an 80-90% survival rate.

Word of Alyssa’s diagnosis spread quickly amongst friends. Tears flowed freely. Our small community hung on to every update and blog post from Gretchen, and everyone rallied to help. Neighbors cooked and chauffeured and prayed for their tough little fighting princess- the little, happy, bouncy girl that couldn’t possibly have cancer. More than 90 people donned hot pink shirts on September 10th to support the CureSearch Walk in Baltimore, where Team ALYSSA raised over $13,000 for children’s cancer research.

Alyssa is in the maintenance phase of her chemo now. She takes her chemo and other medications in a series of pills at night and her hair is coming back in a little darker and maybe a little curlier. Her brother Alex helps with her physical therapy (the result of a broken foot) by tossing balls for her to kick. Gretchen gives honest updates about their cancer reality on her blog. From her account of lying face down on the Target floor (in her high end designer stilettos, no less), to the craziness about a freakin’ life sized chicken named Doofus, we all find it nearly impossible to read her updates without crying or laughing or looking for the jerk that was rude to tell them to back off.

Over the summer the Klebasko family had beautiful family portraits taken through Flashes of Hope, a nonprofit organization that aims to change the way children with cancer see themselves through the gift of photography. Since Alyssa entered the maintenance phase of her treatment, however, the family needed a little photo update for the holidays.

I went to their home on a lazy Sunday afternoon and hung around for a hot second. Alyssa was bouncing all over the place and Alex couldn’t wait to get back to whatever big kid thing he was doing before he had to put shoes on for photos. Their home was quiet. Peaceful. Easy. Something that they all appreciate a lot more these days.

Jennifer and I have first met more than seven years ago; she ran the school where all of my children have gone since they were 8 weeks old! Jennifer stays home now to manage the busy life that three kids create, so we don’t see each other as much as we used to. It’s so amazing to see how much her babies have grown up!

Madi is in a performing arts middle school now and she is brilliantly managing what can be a tough edge between still being a kid at heart while becoming a young lady. She’s gorgeous and confident and easily comfortable being with her family. Logan is still so energetic and vibrant and silly! He’s also fearless, evidenced by his complete lack of hesitation to do a (spectacular!) cannon-ball off a random table we found at the park! His flips and jumps made me laugh (and also made me totally nervous)! Tyler is so excited and happy to run around with Madi and Logan!  He has a great smile that truly lights up his whole body!

We had such a laid back, easy evening, and it was so awesome to see everyone again! Okay- enough chatting. Pics below!