Zayne

I got to see little Zayne again today - last time he was over it was too dark to take pictures. I was very pleased when the sun finally came out from behind the fog and brightened up my house beautifully! I even got lots of cuddles in before we took some pictures. His mama and daddy are so proud of him - and they should be! He's one lucky dude, he's got a WONDERFUL mom and dad, and right now he is surrounded by LOTS (and I mean lots!) of visiting family. :)

Kara, I enjoyed photographing your little guy, even if it was for only a little while! I especially enjoyed the snuggles Zayne allowed me, so you'll have to bring him over a lot more so that he knows his Auntie Elisabeth better. :)

I got a little carried away playing with Zayne's pictures and must give a shout-out to Erika Jessop (http://erikajessop.wordpress.com/)- she created the silly little bear that is on this creation of mine. She, along with Eva Talley (http://evatalley.com/site/), keep me freshly supplied with LOTS of fun designs, brushes, cards and other miscellaneous NEEDS that I have. :) Thanks Erika - this little guy was fun to play with!

Emmie

On Monday I met little Emmie - oh my goodness, she's so sweet that it just melts my heart! Not only is she absolutely gorgeous, she also has the most gorgeous sister too! Mom and dad - well done . . . well done. Big sister Hannah was such a good girl - she played with some toys that my kids had left out - and when we called her over to take some pictures with her baby sister, she could not have been cuter. She gently leaned over, giving Emmie kiss after kiss. She carefully touched her tummy and her head, being careful not to wake her sister.

Emmie is so FUNNY! I have seen lots of babies who like movement - very few don't like movement, right? Well Emmie's parents are discussing the possibility of inventing some sort of ferris-wheeled, up & down, side-to-side motioned contraption. Emmie not only prefers to be moving, but she prefers all of these movements at once. (talk about a work out!) :) She likes to be cuddled close and then rocked back and forth. Then she prefers you to bounce a little as well. Oh and then, while you're bouncing, it would be great if you'd throw in there some up and around, down and back around movements. Yeah, that'd be great. And THEN she might fall asleep for you. :) Oh she made me laugh!

To Emmie's mom & dad - I'm so glad you brought the girls over - it was so much fun! I loved seeing you both again and meeting the girls was very special! I really hope that you love the pictures as much as I loved making them for you!

(Let's start with some sweet baby fuzz . . . the best kind, shoulder fuzz!)

Sara

I had the priviledge of photographing my sister-in-law last week. She tells me she's not photogenic - I'll put the evidence below and let you decide for yourselves. The impression I'm left with is that No, she's not JUST photogenic. She's much MORE than just photogenic. :) We had a great time running around trying to find some obscure (and shady!) locations to shoot in. At one point she came tearing across a yard at me because the abandoned warehouse we were near had inhabitants. And they went from noisy to . . . well, Sara is 5'10" - and in those heels she's got another 3" on her . . . and if SHE'S running from the building then you'd better believe I followed suit! :)

Sara's got some exciting stuff coming - a new website for one - and the purpose of her photo shoot was for promotion . . . but I'll leave that as a surprise for when she's good and ready. In the meantime, we can enjoy her "non" photogenic pictures. I've got to say - this was probably the MOST fun I've had in a long time, not just during the session but especially when proofing and working with the pictures. It's so rewarding to photograph special moments in time, like when babies are teeny or when little ones reach milestones . . . but there's not always a lot of room for me to explore my own artistic desires. This is one of the few times when I've really been free to do just that - find more of "me" . . . and I've got to say, I like what I found. I'm just really fortunate to have had such a "non" photogenic person to work with - ha!

A taste of what's to come . . .

Jordan

I know I've already blogged about how Jordan and I had such a FABULOUS time together, laughing, tripping, shooting . . . sweating . . . MAN it was hot that evening! Anyway, I'm not done playing with her pictures yet and I wanted to share a few more. She is SO stinkin' photogenic that it isn't even funny! She could make a trash bag look good. She made my job so much easier in that sense - all I had to do was stand there and click the shutter. I'm afraid I proved to be a MUCH tougher subject for her . . . but that's another story for another time. (I am rediculously NOT photogenic, as much as I'd like to think I am . . . )

Alright, here are a few more of my favorites from our evening together - Jordan I am honestly STILL laughing and still smiling as I look through the pictures - THANK YOU for such a great time!!

New Card Templates

Today I thought it would be a GREAT day to share some new card templates I have available. These are just two of them - I'll share some more as I have them ready. They are 5x5 flat double-sided cards - and they can be printed on several different types of paper. I am so excited with how beautiful they are and I am even MORE excited to be able to offer them to my clients.

They do not have to be used as a birth announcement - honestly, they can be customized to ANY type of card - endless possibilities. :) I'll stop blabbing and start sharing - Enjoy! :)

Here's another one - I honestly could not pick a favorite. More to come! :)

here is another option - This will be what we use for Ella's birthday invites this year probably :)

I can't help myself . . .

I just want to share one more of Steve and Cristina. Well, as of today it's just one more. Who knows what tomorrow holds. :)

Little Austin

This is Austin. Isn't he just the sweetest little boy?? Austin and his parents came over yesterday afternoon and that silly boy wanted NOTHING to do with sleep! They rocked him, talked to him, cuddled him, bounced with him, patted him, fed him . . . and he stubbornly kept those little peepers open. There was so much to see! (Not to mention the strange lady with the big black clicking thing in his face.)

Renee and Matt, it was really nice to meet you! Congratulations on your beautiful baby boy - you are both wonderful parents and he is one lucky dude! I hope you enjoy your sneak peek. :)

Steve & Cristina

I am late in adding text to this posting. Sorry! I wanted to get the pictures up early yesterday morning and didn't have a minute to write anything. But that doesn't mean I didn't WANT to! This is Steve and Cristina - some really awesome friends of ours. They asked to have their pictures taken for a special reason - Cristina leaves in less than a month to deploy to Germany for just over 6 months. She wanted something to take with her, as well as something to leave behind with Steve. I'm excited for her to have this experience but of course we're all sad to be left behind. She's leaving behind a great hubby, a brand new house (congrats!), ME, oh and the rest of her family and friends. :) Anyway, love you guys so much, thanks for letting me spend this time with you and I hope you love your images!

Happy 1st Birthday, Ethan!

Little Ethan celebrated his first birthday just before I left for Canada a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately I am just now finishing up his Birthday Cake Session pictures. I would love to tell you that he THOROUGHLY enjoyed the cake and the mess but . . . well, that would be a lie. That poor baby did not want ANYTHING to do with my cake. (Note to self: Do NOT refrigerate prior to baby sticking warm toes and fingers into cake!) Oops. My bad!

We started off just playing together a bit (and he was really NOT wanting much to do with me and NOTHING to do with my camera), so we went outside by ourselves. He was pretty interested in the grass and of course everything that was NOT on the blanket. :) Emily was a WONDERFUL test subject for me and her mama's got a couple of cute pictures of her because she was SUCH a big help. :) Oh well, Ethan DID eat SOME of the cake, and he didn't cry the WHOLE time - evidenced by the abundance of pictures where you see no tears. (I decided NOT to be "that photographer" who posts pictures of babies crying . . . while it is sometimes funny, his mama would probably whack me for it!

Anyway, Happy (late) First Birthday Ethan! I cannot believe you're one year old - for rememberance sake, I'll post one picture of TEENY TINY Ethan before his birthday pictures. :)

Plimpton Baby

These are the images from a maternity session that Kara and I had a few weeks ago. Since then, she and her hubby have welcomed their little boy into the world! I am so excited to go over and meet him (hopefully later this week!) and I might even sneak my camera in with me to show him off to everybody else (as if they're not doing that on their own!). Kara and I met up three times during her pregnancy to get a little bit of an "overview" of their baby's growth - and BOY did that boy grow! :) One set below is a storyboard set of the changes Kara went through the last nine months. Congratulations Kara and Micah - I cannot WAIT to meet that sweet baby boy of yours!

Also, on a side note - My own son, Micah (otherwise known as "little micah" when Kara's "Big Micah" is around) has always loved Kara. Ever since he was born (my Micah) has been fascinated with her curly blonde hair, her smile - he's just always LOVED her! Nothing has changed - although he was a little concerned about her belly being in the way - but I loved this little series . . . and how Kara always finds just a few minutes to make Little Micah feel special. :)