Angelica's Maternity Photos

My sweet sister in law is such a trooper!! Just a few weeks ago she mentioned that she wished she had done maternity pictures so 2 days later (2 days before her induction no less) we hit the park and got some great pics!! If you have had a baby before, then you know how uncomfortable you are that last month and even moreso the last week, but she looked beautiful and was so willing to do whatever I asked, climbing walls and getting deep in the tall grass! Marcus and Helica are going to be such amazing parents and I am sure you can see the love between these two!! :) Love you guys!

Pictures of sweet Phoenix Jade coming soon!

No time for napping...

Apparently Zoe has other plans and isn't interested in napping today...

Peek a boo!

Merry Christmas!

Mery Christmas and Happy New Year!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very happy holiday! It has been a busy year and we have so much to be thankful for this year! Andrew, Ava and I welcomed 3 new darlings to our lives, Emma, Mia, and Zoe. Ava turned 3 in November and is such a great big sister! She just loves these babies :) and Emma, Mia, and Zoe are growing like weeds and will be trying to keep up with Ava before we know it!

We have truly been so blessed and have so many things to be thankful for with such wonderful family and friends in our lives!! We don't know where we would be without you. It has been such a joy to be able to share this journey and all of what lies ahead. Look out 2010!

The Hill's featuring Alyssa

One of my dearest friends asked me to take pictures of her beautiful family and I jumped at the chance! Danielle and Grant just built their dream house and what better location to take pictures as they start this new chapter in their lives!?! Sweet angel Alyssa was so much fun and is such a doll that it was hard to stop taking pictures :) Love this family to pieces!!

Enjoy the slideshow:

The Hodge Family Story

I have known Bree Hodge for years now and was so honored when she asked me to photograph her family. Her daughter, Ellie, had just turned 4 months and her Mom was in town too so it was such a great opportunity to get the whole family. Thank you Bree and Greg for allowing me to capture these precious moments!!! Bree, you look amazing after only a few short months!

Pampers and Poker Party raises 5000 diapers and 4000 wipes!!!

We are completely in awe of our wonderful friends and their generosity!!! Words cannot express how truly thankful we are to have such amazing people in our lives and will remember your kindness with every diaper change! :)

A VERY special thank you to Tommy Keeling, Karl Morris, and Lance Speck for hosting the poker party! A good time was had by all and the lovely wives deserve a huge thank you as well for providing the amazing brisket spread and setting everything up: Melanie Keeling, Jessica Morris, Shelly Parker, and Cindy Speck!! The party was an absolute hit and Andrew and I cannot thank you all enough!

After organizing (by size :) ) and counting them all, (yes I had a blast doing that) we have about 5000 diapers and 4000 wipes, which by our calculations is about 6.5 months!!!!!
9 diapers per day x 3 baby girls = 27 diapers a day on average
27 diapers per day x 7 days = 189 per week x 4 weeks = 756 per month average

Check out the wall of diapers in the triplets room!!! Mia, Emma, and Zoe have no idea how loved they are already :)

Thank you!!!
Andrew and Laura

The Waters Family Story

I had the awesome opportunity to take pictures of our friends Melanie and John Waters and their PRECIOUS son, Justin! WOW! Is he ever a cutie! He made my job so easy until it came down to minimizing the amount of pictures...I mean really, he doesn't take a bad picture :) Those adorable cheeks and just the way he looks up at you melt your heart! It was extra special because Melanie sold us our house a little over a year ago and during the search process she found out that she was pregnant so we knew Justin long before he knew us :)

I realized that they haven't had any photos of just themselves since they got married we were able to grab a few of them alone as well. Adorable!

We had such and great time and I can't thank them enough for allowing me to tell their story as well as capture Justin turning 1! There are too many to post so check out their slideshow to see more!

The Karlin Family

I had the very fortunate opportunity to capture the Karlin family in action just after the New Year and what an awesome family!!! I have known Becky and her husband Paul for several years now and they are so great that I was not at all surprised that her 2 brothers, sister, their husbands and wife, and niece and nephew were just as amazing!! I can't thank them enough for allowing me to capture the rare moment where they are all together. Here is their story :)

To see the rest of the story, please click on the Slideshow.

Jed Gregory...Man's Best Friend

Pardon the delay but the holidays have slowed me down a bit. Just before Christmas, one of my dearest friends asked me if she could hire me to take pictures for her husband for a Christmas gift so I agreed...little did I know that photographing a black object is one of the most challenging subjects, but I was up for it!! We had a blast and thankfully Chris was very pleased with his little surprise! Here are the pictures of Claire and Chris' sweet boy Jed...

We're ba-aaaack!!!

Hello blog stalkers,
I apologize for deserting our loyal readers! I have fallen off the proverbial earth but have climbed back on again and will resume my posting! I have taken on some new hobbies and have had alot going on, but I am caught up now so stay tuned for the updates!! :)

Hollingsworth Kiddos Christmas Story

This past Sunday our wonderful neighbors allowed me to take pictures of their sweet kiddos, Megan and Jake. We had an absolute blast running around an old abandoned barn. I am not sure who had more fun, Megan and Jake investigating the place or me chasing after them! Megan is quite the little model...she had the poses down to a science and was full of great ideas!! I think I found my new assistant :)

Doodlebug and Baby Animals!! Ava turns 2!!

Little Miss Ava turned 2 on Nov 29th so in honor of her love of animals, we celebrated with a petting zoo and some face painting by Doodlebug the clown. I am typically a bit uneasy with clowns...ok, they scare me...but she is a happy clown and not at all scary. Everything turned out great and the kids had a blast with the face painting, balloon animals and laser guns!! The baby animals were so precious and sweet that we couldn't have asked for a better time :) Thank you to all of our friends and family that came from miles far and wide to celebrate Ava's big day!Please check out the slideshow!

I also can't say enough thank you's to my friends...Claire, who helped with all of the food preperations and general festivities, I couldn't have pulled it off without you...to Annemarie for taking pictures and puting together this amazing slideshow, and Cindy for taking pictures too! You guys are the best! Enjoy the show!

House Remodel Project #1

I will start by saying we LOVE our home! We moved in December of last year and there is very little that I would change, even though I am full of new projects...but, one of the things that we MUST change is the wallpaper. In fact, if it wasn't so hard to take down I would have done 3 bathrooms and a kitchen a long time ago. I mean seriously, who created the freaking glue(cement) that makes this awful stuff stick to the walls. I would like to meet him and ask why he never created the antidote to this glue (cement) and then I would have to slap some sense into him...he could have made a goldmine off of it because everyone knows this stuff goes out of style every 10-20 years and it is ridiculous to remove. And "scoring" it and spraying on DIF only makes an enormous mess of sticky miniature pieces of wallpaper that you have to peel off one.by.one...OMG!!! So here is the not quite before, but during and after. It was a purple and gold harlequin type pattern...PRETTY!

Now the newly textured walls are a lovely Swiss Chocolate with Porcelain Blue accents. Whew! Only 2 more large bathrooms and the kitchen...and they aren't small so I am really looking forward to it. I welcome your knowledge about removing wallpaper :) Volunteers are welcome for wallpaper removal project #2 if you have nothing better to do or if you just don't know what you are getting yourself into, feel free to come over!

Here's to hobbies and passions and making dreams come true!

Well, as far back as I can remember, I have been taking pictures...I was always interested in a new camera and dropping off my film at the local drugstore waiting in anticipation for my prints to come back as quickly as possible. As a kid, I used to go to car shows with my dad and I remember picking out all of my favorites and shooting just the right angles and then there were the multiple rolls spent on "It's a Small World" at Disneyworld alone! As an adult, I have been lucky enough to be able to travel and with this have reignited my passion for photography. Well, now I take that passion a little more seriously because I have a daughter and want to capture every moment, smile, laugh, giggle, expression, first steps and all of the memories to come so that I can tell the story of Ava's life. My friends and family have inspired me to take my hobby to the next level and capture other people's memories...so thank you for the confidence and please enjoy the stories!!

Elgin Pumpkin Patch

Fall is officially here and in full bloom, or should I say full harvest? Pumpkins by the truckload!!! We went and played at the Elgin Pumpkin Festival this weekend with our friends, Claire Gregory, the Speck's, the Morris', and the Keeling's. I would say that the kids slept pretty well that night after the hayride, pony rides, climbing on the tractor, and picking out the best pumpkins for painting! And the best part of all, the guys made it home in time for the game. What a great day with great friends!