baby Emma

On Saturday morning little Emma and her family came over for her first photo shoot.



She is tiny and beautiful and has peaches and cream skin...





and gorgeous dark blue eyes...





We even got her aunt in a few shots. Julie was my roommate my freshman year in college...



Love this one of you Julie...



Thanks guys and congratulations! She is really stinkin cute.

on being stranded and some shameless promoting of bands I like

Monkey Pants and I were a tad stranded today. We are down to one car since one is in the shop. I kinda wanted to just stay in my pajamas and watch cartoons all day to be honest. But, Marlie gets enough TV as it is so I knew that wasn't the best idea. I put my big girl pants on and made the best of it. We played with every toy twice I think. But in between we did some baking...



It was so fun. Marlie is finally old enough to really help and she loved it. Heart shaped cookies for Valentine's Day of course...



And we even ventured outside. If you remember last year didn't go too well, so i was a little nervous.



I wondered if her new tricycle could handle snow and..it did! I heart this tricycle. I want to hug whoever the genius is who thought to put on the optional handle for the parents. Its amazing. Its like a stroller on steroids. And Marlie loves it too. And when she hops off to walk a while (because she always does) I just push it along instead of having to carry a trike over my shoulder. Awesomeness.

We walked up to a new restaurant in the neighborhood for a little lunch date. It was just what we needed. Marlie is pretty easy to please. When she saw that she had drink with a straw her eyes lit up and she said "That's awesome!".

You know what else is awesome? (Good segue eh?) This band that Shane and I saw Friday night. That's right I took off my sweat pants and put on my tight jeans and stayed out past 10:00. It was a big night, and totally worth it. These guys are really good folks so check them out. Also, check out these guys. They are equally as awesome and are doing a Valentines Day show here in STL.

Good night blogees! Tomorrow you will meet Emma, the sweet newbie that came over on Saturday.

little Harper

Yesterday I got to meet tiny Harper and her family. I love this one of her big brother looking at me...



Such a sweet little girl. She was awake for a little bit and then took a long snooze for us so we could snap some good shots.







Welcome to the world little Harper!

Jen + Chris

When I shoot weddings I take a second shooter with me and usually that second shooter is my talented friend Jen. Here we are at our last wedding together in a photo in which you can see my esophagus and also up my nose to my brain.



Jen is really fun to shoot with. She keeps me calm, keeps me from having to get EVERY shot, and ... keeps me laughing. Especially when she wears mismatching socks to shoot in...awesome. She lives in Columbia, MO so check her out if you live there and need a photog.



Anyway, she is great and this past year she met a great guy named Chris and in August these two great people are getting hitched!

Yesterday I finally got to meet Chris when they came in town for an engagement shoot. We started out at my favorite door ...



They are so cute together.





We played around with my new green chair. Love it!



And bundled up a bit. It was cold.



This was such a fun shoot. Mostly because Jen and Chris are hilarious and really had fun with their shoot. Somtimes clients show up stressed out, nervous, and stiff and I have get them to loosen up. These two did not need any encouragement. They came up with these poses on their own...





Congratulations you two! Thanks for a fun afternoon!

Keegan - 1 yr

My little friend Keegan came over to the studio last week. I've been lucky enough to photograph this little man's whole first year. I can't believe he is one!



We played with some trains...



Keegan has some food allergies and couldn't have b-day cake, but we just had to celebrate somehow. His mom came up with this great idea...jigglers. I love how these came out. So colorful.



And then we braved the cold for a few shots. Love these ones with his cowboy hat...



My fav...



Happy birthday Keegan!

Its Friday, its 11:00 and I already have two things crossed off my to-do list. Also, nothing has fallen on my head as of yet so I would call this a successful day already. Have a great weekend!

How I narrowly missed a head injury twice and other musings

Marlie’s eye is just dandy. She has another cold and is a crusty little mess, but her eye is fine. Does anyone else feel like their kid has a cold EVERY OTHER WEEK? For real, enough is enough. I am having one of those days where I feel like our whole house is covered in crumbs and boogers.

In other exciting news I managed to narrowly escape a head injury twice in two days. Yesterday I was putting something in the back of our car. Apparently when its really cold outside the compressed air thingy does not work because as I bent over the glass hatch came swinging down and smacked me right in the back of the head. Sweet. Is it weird that I was a little more worried about if any of my neighbors saw than if I was bleeding?

Today I was just gearing up to clean a little bit during Marlie’s nap. I reached up to put a cook book back in its place on top of our metal pot rack/shelf. It was the last straw for the pot rack. The entire thing pulled out of the wall dumping several pots and my huge wooden bowl on top of me. Somehow they missed my head and hit my knee. That's gonna leave a mark.

I must confess that I am a little afraid to touch anything. Apparently someone has boobie twapped my life. So here I sit blogging. I’ve been told before that my blog is too upbeat, sunny, not…real. So I guess these last two post are for all you people that think that. See…I have bad days…I cry in the grocery store…crap falls on my head.

But I can’t help it, I don’t like to complain all of the time because the truth is I am so blessed. I could wallow in all the bad, and some days I do. Luckily I can usually see all of the good instead. So lets end on a good note…

Last night I was finishing up cooking dinner, listening to some music, and waiting for Shane to come home. I hit the 90’s playlist on my ipod and Tom Petty’s “Learning to Fly” came on. Such a good song. I was dancing around and singing. Marlie came in the kitchen and started dancing too (remember she usually doesn’t let me dance). She was smiling so big and then she said “Hold me and dance.” So there we were dancing around the room together. It was one of those moments that I hope I always remember. I hope that whenever I hear that song I think of our dance.

So, there you have it. My house might be covered in crumbs and boogers, but we dance anyway. Happy Thursday people. Maybe tomorrow I will have some pretty photos to post! Wouldn’t that be nice?

big adbenture

It looked as though it was going to be such a relaxing day. We had a slow going morning at home, no definite plans laid out...

10:30 - we stop by Beth and Weston's to visit and drop off a few things
11:00 - Marlie suddenly stops playing and comes crying to me, holding her eye saying it hurts.
11:30 - She is still upset so we head home. I'm hoping it is just a little scratch and a nap will help.
11:45 - She says she wants to sleep and we lay down together for a nap.
12:50 - She wakes up screaming from her nap. I determine that this isn't just a bad nap wake up, her eye is really hurting.
1:00 - I call her doctor. They are closed from 1:00 - 2:00. Marlie is crying hysterically.
1:10 - We are headed to the local urgent care. Marlie is screaming and waving her head around with her eyes closed like Stevie Wonder. I am freaking out.
1:30 - Urgent care gets us in right away. The doctor attempts to look at Marlie's eye and says "I think she is going to be OK." He sends us off with a prescription for pain meds.
1:45 - We walk across the street and down the block to the grocery store to drop off the prescription. While we are waiting Marlie is still crying and her eye is red. I am beginning to doubt the diagnosis.
1:55 - I can't find my cell phone anywhere. I am holding Marlie and sweating and not feeling so good myself. I determine that I must have left it at Urgent Care. We get her meds.
2:00 - We get our coats back on and walk back to Urgent Care to get my phone.
2:10 - We walk to the parking garage to leave. I am thinking we need a second opinion about the eye because she is still crying.
2:12 - I drive up to the exit window and hand the lady my ticket. She tells me we are over the limit for free parking and I owe her $3. She tells me they only take cash. I have $0 in my wallet.
2:13 - She makes us back up and park and find an ATM. I am crying. Marlie is crying. We get out and walk back to the grocery store and get cash. The grocery store people think I am nuts.
2:20 - We are free from the parking garage. Marlie is still a mess and I decide we need to go to the ER.
2:50 - We meet my MIL at the ER. They get us in right away. Marlie is suddenly chipper and happy and I am feeling stupid for having brought her.
3:30 - I and 2 nurses hold Marlie down so they can put some dye in her eye. It is horrible. They determine it is in fact scratched and prescribe some antibiotics drops.
3:45 - Shane arrives just as all of the drama is over. Marlie perks up and is excited about stickers and Shane is wondering why the heck I brought this happy kid to the ER.
4:30 - We are all back home. Marlie's eye is watering but looks much better. I feel horrible and realize my cold is back with vengeance.
4:45 - I am sitting on the ground having a pitty party talking to Marlie...

me: Marlie I don't feel good, can I have a hug? We had quite the day didn't we?
M: Yeah mom, we had a big adbenture.

That's one way to put it Monkey Pants.