It's a... ~ Gender Reveal Party | Getting Personal

 

So most of our close friends and family know about the fun little surprise we're expecting at the end of August, but I thought it was time to let my clients know too. We are very excited to welcome another blessing to our family!

The Details:

     We decided to do something different to find out the gender of this baby. When Josh and I went to the ultrasound on April 3, we didn't have my doctor tell us what we were having. In fact, it took quite awhile for her to see as the umbilical cord was between the baby's legs. My doctor then emailed Erin at Zoey's Attic, who has a custom t-shirt design business. Erin was awesome to work with. I had ordered Little J's "Big Brother" Tractor t-shirt in February when we told the kids we were having a baby. When searching for something special for him online, I found Erin's Etsy Shop. This little t-shirt was perfect, and so fitting as he loves tractors.

     We had also made arrangements to have a onesie made when we found out what we were having. I ended up ordering the girls t-shirts also, which I'm so glad I did. It will be fun to get a photo of all four of them once "she" arrives. I decided instead of some of the popular ideas of cutting into a "boy" or "girl" colored cake, or opening a box of colored balloons, we would have the kids open up a package with the onesie to tell us the baby's gender. It was such a fun way to get them involved too.

The Decor:

     I asked my sister-in-law, Stephanie, to be in charge of decorations and details. She's a wonderful party planner, and I knew I had plenty on my plate to think about. I decided I wanted to go with a black and white color scheme versus the traditional pink and blue. I guess I just love the classic combination. She went above my expectations with what she put together. She even sewed a table runner and two adorable buntings out of the cool fabric she found. I'm so excited because with a little tweaking, these pieces will work as valances and a crib bumper for the nursery. And with the left over fabric, I'll be able to make a quilt and other bedding pieces too. Yay! Can't wait to get it all put together. She even came up with the little diaper party favors stuffed with mints. (It was one of the triangle pieces of fabric, folded and glued to look like a diaper. Adorable!

The Food:

     Spicy Pop Pulled Pork Sliders

     Ham and Swiss Sliders

     Raspberry Chipotle Chicken Salad

     Mixed Fruit (strawberries, pineapple, blueberries, grapes, apples)

     Veggies and Homemade Ranch Dip

     Chips and Salsa

     Cheese and Crackers

     Summertime Fruit Tea

     Black and White Parfaits (This was a quick and easy layered dessert served in individual clear plastic cups. I layered crushed chocolate sandwich cookies, white chocolate pudding, chocolate pudding and whipped cream. These were a huge hit with the kids and adults at the party.)

The Reaction:

     On the invitations, I had told guests to wear black if they thought the baby was a boy and white if they thought it was a girl. Most showed up wearing black. Josh has four brothers and only one sister, so there are a lot of boys in the family already. I wore both colors! Up until a few days beforehand, I really thought it was a boy. I know several families who have two girls and two boys, and I thought we would be another one of them. But, then a day or so before, I just had the feeling I should prepare myself to be having another girl. And I did remember thinking a few years ago when getting rid of all the newborn girl clothes after we had Little J that it would be fun to have just one more girl. Ha! Little did I know...

     I'm not very good at surprises either, so it was a feat for me not to peek or somehow find out beforehand. But, I'm so glad I didn't. It was fun and exciting at the same time to watch as the kids unwrapped the onesie. 

     Special thanks again to Stephanie for taking the photos from the day. She even made little "boy" and "girl" signs to have our kids and guests hold up to show what they thought the baby was. 

     The most priceless comment was Little J. He looked right at me after we saw the shirt and exclaimed, "It's a girl!" and with big crocodile tears said, "But, Momma, it's supposed to be a boy!" Oh, it about broke my heart. It was sad and sweet all at the same time. He has since decided having a baby sister is going to be just fine. Either way, bringing a new baby to the family will be a little of an adjustment for him. But, I know he'll make a great big brother. And the girls are quite excited to meet their little sister as well.

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     In a recent post about my summer photography session schedule, I mentioned not taking any sessions in late August and September. Now you know why! Maintaining balance in my personal and work life is not only beneficial to me and my family, but also to my clients. I take a limited number of sessions already because there is a lot of investment of time and resources in "Your Story" sessions. Be assured, when I do schedule a session with a client, I am fully devoted to them and telling their story. Creating an amazing photographic experience from first consult to delivering of the finished albums and prints is my number one priority. 

     There are also some changes coming to my business that will be announced this fall, and I am excited to be working on them now. If you love my work, and want me to tell "your story", please contact me as soon as possible to discuss scheduling options. I am currently booking maternity, newborn, baby, child, senior and family sessions for June and July 2012.

Glimpses ~ Week 6 | Idaho Lifestyle Photographer

We celebrated our little guy's 3rd birthday on Feb. 5th. How appropriate to have a football themed birthday party when it was also Super Bowl Sunday?!

I always have fun making the kids' cakes. This one was really easy. I just baked a chocolate cake, then carved the edges off to make a football shape, and frosted it to match. I had found some fun football napkins, and a tablecloth that looked like a football field. The day before I had run into the grocery store on my way home from town, and found some awesome mylar balloons in the shape of footballs. They were perfect! I don't like to spend a lot on the paper goods, but there was just enough to make things festive.

I tried a new recipe, Spicy Pop Pulled Pork, from the first episode of The Pioneer Woman this season. I also made Ree's Cilantro Cole Slaw recipe (sans cilantro because I forgot to put it on my list, boo, and sans jalepeno because we were serving kiddos). I made my mashed potatoes recipe. The secret to it is the cream cheese. Yum!

Josh's family came over for the afternoon. It turned out great. Little J loved everything-the party, the presents, the cake! Can't believe he's already 3! Just love this little boy so much!



To check out more Glimpses, check out the Chic Critique Forum!

Glimpses ~ Week 2 | Idaho Lifestyle Photographer

Here is my second week "glimpse" of our everyday life. I realized that a lot of these images are probably going to include my little guy as he's such a part of my every day. I'll have to make a concentrated effort to capture his older sisters either before or after school and on weekends, as both are gone throughout the day. I really miss having them around too. I must admit it is sometimes easier only worrying about one at home when I've got a busy work day, but I love my girls so much that having them gone all day every day makes me sad too. Just another reminder to grab all the little moments I can and hold on to each one.

Part of J's morning routine is getting to watch a little TV while I get ready for the day, check email, have some quiet time, etc. His favorite shows include "cowboy TV", which is anything on RFDTV or The Pioneer Woman on Food Network. We have all those episodes DVR'ed so he asks to watch them. He also really loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I love that he has a favorite blankie he cuddles with too. Each of my kids has their blanket. They don't usually take them from home unless staying somewhere overnight, but they can be found with them around the house. Ahh, glad I'm writing down these little details because I know I'll forget them someday. If you would like to see more glimpses into some other photographers every day lives or you want to play along, check out the Chic Critique Forum!

Glimpses ~ Week 1

Glimpses~ Week of Jan. 9 | Getting personal

Sometimes we get so busy as photographers documenting other people's lives that we neglect to document the details of our own lives. Really for me, I take plenty of photos of my own kiddos--they are my inspiration--I just don't have time to edit all of them and get them posted. Ha!

Chic Critique Forum is hosting a 52 project to help motivate all of its members to share the "glimpses" into our own lives. It's one of my goals this year anyway, so I thought it might be fun to try this. And it hopefully will keep me accountable to my goal!

If you would like more info or want to play along, you can visit the forum and become a member. It's a great resource! Check it out at http://chiccritiqueforum.com

Happy Birthday Miss M ~ Getting personal

Last weekend we celebrated our oldest's 7th birthday! I really have a hard time typing that. I truly cannot believe I am mother to a seven-year-old first grader. I remember when she was born and thinking wow, I can't even imagine what it will be like when she goes to school. And here we are!! We had a wonderful time celebrating her special day. After school on Friday, she got to have Mom all to herself as little sister and brother went to stay with the grandparents. I find the older she gets the more she craves Mommy time, and I do too. It gets harder to get that one-on-one time that is so important for each of our kiddos. We baked two kinds of cupcakes (for a total of four), made three different frostings and organized all the sprinkles and toppings you could imagine. She was having a Cupcake Decorating Party with seven friends from school on Saturday. I have to admit I'm usually the box cake kind of girl. I have never had the best of luck with homemade cake. It usually turns out too dry or too dense. But, I found a fun little blog and e-mailed the gal. She gave me some great tips and sent me some recipes to try. We made yellow, fresh strawberry and chocolate. Then, as a surprise for MJ, I baked some Orange Creamsicle ones after she went to bed. I think they ended up being my favorite. I just used the yellow recipe and adapted it with some orange juice and orange extract. I think next time I'll use some zest too, but they had plenty of orange flavor. I put whipped cream/cream cheese frosting with them. Yummo! I think they all turned out great. I used buttermilk in the recipes and I think it was part of the difference. We made vanilla buttercream for the strawberry and yellow cupcakes and used chocolate buttercream for the chocolate ones.

MJ invited seven friends (only 6 could make it), and they each decorated seven cupcakes (one to eat at the party and six to take home). Before the cupcake decorating began they each decorated a cake box and thought about what name they would give their bakery if they owned one. They came up with some pretty cute ideas. They each received an apron to wear and take home, then the decorating began! They had a blast choosing which flavor of cake, which frosting and which of the many toppings to finish it off. We had sprinkles of every color, colored spray (kind of like spray paint for icing), chocolate chips, toffee bits, crushed Oreos, gummy worms and colored fondant. I think most of them tried to put a little of everything on each cupcake! I think they enjoyed being able to be creative though. They opened presents after that then enjoyed a little pizza picnic in the backyard for lunch. The rest of the time they played outside and in MJ's room. At the end of the party, they each enjoyed one of their cupcake masterpieces!

Later that evening, we had Josh's family over for a bbq and more birthday fun. It was also the BSU vs. Wyoming game. I finished decorating the rest of the cupcakes after all the friends had left the party, and made some blue and orange ones to celebrate the game.

 

All in all, I think MJ enjoyed her birthday weekend. Sunday was quite relaxing. After going to church, we came home, played outside and watched a movie together. It was nice to just hanging out as a family. Happy Birthday Sweetie! You are such a joy to us and we love you very much!

Western Idaho Fair ~ Getting personal

Two weekends ago, our family showed Angus cattle at the Western Idaho Fair in Boise. We always have a great time visiting with family and fellow cattle enthusiasts. The kids also love the chance to help out with the show cattle, watering, feeding, leading heifers, running errands, etc. For those of you who didn't know, my husband and I live and work on a registered Angus and Hereford cattle operation owned by his family. We love the lifestyle we have--being able to raise our kids around animals, teaching them about agriculture, providing food and fiber for our country, taking care of the resources God has given us and realizing how much hard work and dedication it takes to run a family cattle operation. And even though it is a lot of work, we also have fun too. The fair is a great way for us to advertise our program, genetics and animals we raise. Our cattle are raised as the parent stock for cow-calf producers. We raise bulls to be used by commercial cattle producers to raise the beef consumers eat. We also sell show heifers for youth to show in 4-H, FFA and breed association shows, as well as purebred females for other registered herds. Just wanted to give you a glimpse of the other side of my family and what we do.

In fact, my start in photography was photographing livestock, mainly cattle and horses, and people, for the stories I wrote for livestock publications. I have always had a love of agriculture, growing up in a small town in Kansas and attending Kansas State University to major in agricultural communications. My experience in interviewing and writing stories, as well as photographing America's farmers and ranchers has given me great experience and prepared me for my role as a portrait photographer. I love asking questions, and getting to know people. We are all so unique and offer such different perspectives on life. I feel my interviewing skills help me when meeting new clients and getting to know them and to help them feel relaxed. Many of the people I've interviewed for stories have become friends. And that's what I love about my portrait clients as well. We get to know each other and become friends. That's one of the best parts about this work. Preserving memories, meeting new people and making new friends.

And as a lifestyle photographer, I am dedicated to capturing the details and little moments of life for other families as well as my own. So here is just a little glimpse of show day for us.





(I do apologize for some of these images as they were taken with my P&S. At times, I have to take off my photographer hat, put on the mom/wife/gofer hat and just grab the moments as they come in amongst keeping track of little ones, holding heifers or running back to the stall for a forgotten item.)

First Haircut ~ Getting personal

When we were in Kansas visiting family this summer, my aunt gave Little J is first haircut. His hair looked like it might have some curl to it, but everyone else thought it looked like a mullet. It was a little hard for me because I thought it was cute, and didn't want to let those baby curls go, but he looked so handsome afterwards-definitely more like a little boy and less like a baby. We had to bribe him a little with a sucker, but he sat quite still most of the time. Just wanted to capture another little milestone in my baby boy's life.

Snickers Cheesecake ~ Getting personal

Earlier in the month, we celebrated my husband's birthday. I wanted to make him something special because I have a major sweet tooth (we all do) so I love any reason to bake. I had found this recipe back in July and since cheesecake is one of my hubby's favorite desserts, I thought this the perfect occasion. Now mind you, I have never made a real cheesecake. I have thought about it, but it was always easier and less time consuming to just open the cheesecake box mix. Now, I'm not knocking it. I love that stuff, but now after trying this EASY and DELICIOUS recipe, I may just have to add this dessert to my new favs list! The recipe is from PW's Tasty Kitchen. I think the hardest part was getting the batter really, really smooth, but it was worth the extra time and effort. I also whipped the heck out of the eggs, so I had extra batter and was able to make TWO cheesecakes! The second one I didn't do the Snickers crust, but added lemon extract to the batter for a twist. The thing about this recipe is it's really versatile and you could do anything with it. So, as you can see from the photos, the cheesecake was loved by all, especially one sweetheart of a boy. When I was serving the others and he started signing "more", I couldn't resist and gave him some. I guess he has he's mama's sweet tooth too! You should try it...it's so good! The recipe says it's best after three days and I would have to agree, but it was still good the first day. I left it in the fridge overnight after I baked it and we had it the next evening. I just drizzled hot fudge sauce over each slice rather than put chocolate and caramel sauce over the entire thing.

My Baby's First Christmas

Our Little Man enjoyed his First Christmas this year. It's hard to believe he'll be celebrating his first birthday soon too. Wow, this year has gone by fast!

9 months old

My little guy will actually be 10 months old tomorrow, but I'm finally just getting to his 9 month photos. Can't believe how much our little boy is growing. He'll be walking soon. It will be a bittersweet milestone, but I am so happy I get to have these moments with him. I feel so blessed to be able to document our kids' lives with pictures. And I love capturing these moments for other families. Hug your babies, as they grow up fast!

Growing up

Just one more from the first day of school...

Starting school

Starting school is such a milestone in a child's life. And while MJ was in preschool last year, taking the step into Kindergarten and the Elementary School is a whole new deal. She was very excited about her first day of school and had a wonderful time. It's bittersweet watching your child go to school, knowing they are growing up. Though I am ready for her to add another chapter to her little life and see what great things come from her education. I know she loves to learn and it will be neat to see her develop new friendships along the way.

Generation to Generation

I am posting these images because they speak volumes about my style of photography and who I am as a photographer. They were not posed or planned, just captured as they happened. These were just special moments between my baby boy and his Great Granddad when we visited him a couple weeks ago. But this is what I strive to do; capture life's moments as they happen.

My Granddad is a very special man to all of us; he has been there for many milestones in my life, and I am so thankful for that. It is hard watching those you care so much about age, but it is a part of this life. That makes the time we have together so much more special. I continue to thank God every day that we have had so many wonderful memories together and for the talents he has given me to capture some of them with my camera.

Little J is 4 months old!

My Little Cherub

My blue-eyed baby is 3 months old!