The Evans Family

Remember the Carruthers family??? I had so many people commenting on their family pictures...how much fun they were having...the genuine smiles....that you can imagine how excited I was when daughter Terri called me to update her own family pictures! You see, there was a special occasion...ok, actually two of them. First, it was her wedding anniversary...and she wanted updated family portraits as part of her anniversary gift. And second, there's a new addition in her family! Her first grandchild...a beautiful boy, Harper!

Terri, thank you so much for calling me, working with my schedule, and for all of your genuine smiles! The joy of your family and your new grandson shines in your images!


Below are a few of my favorites. Click here to see a few more!

Terri, once again, thank you so much! It's been such a pleasure getting to know your family!!!

Blessings to you all!

Kelly

Matt and Sarah: Engaged

I met Sarah a month or so ago to talk about her wedding to Matt! They both live in Chicago, but she grew up in Anna, IL, and that's where the wedding is taking place. She happened to be in central Illinois; so, we met up for an ice tea to talk about the wedding and growing up in a small town...things we both love!

A couple of weeks later, I got to meet Matt when we met at Allerton Park for their engagement shoot. Sarah is a bit reserved...Matt a bit gregarious! They are each other's match in life!

Matt and Sarah, I'm so excited for your wedding! Matt, I'm hoping and praying nightly that you incorporate some of your family traditions into the ceremony...please, please, please!!!

Below are a few of my favorites...click here to see a few more.

As much as I love the landscaped gardens of the park, some of my favorite areas are off the beaten path...especially when the sun is beaming in just perfectly!

Sarah kept telling Matt to be serious about the shoot. But, Sarah, the not-so-serious images are the BEST ones!

Sarah - with her killer eyes....

...and killer smile.

Sarah's dad told Matt that he'd pay him $200 for every ornery smile in a picture. So....

.... I have a whole collection of these!!!

Luckily, I have a few of these as well. Handsome guy that he is!

I knew I was funny! I knew it!

Sarah and Matt, thank you...and I can't wait...and please, please, please do the bowing ceremony at your wedding (said in a desperately pleading voice!!!)!

Kickapoo Creek Winery Wedding: Tom & Jene'

Where do I even begin! I know! I know! I haven't posted in a month...I've gotten several emails this week berating me for it. But can you blame me? No, you can't...once you see the beautiful wedding I've been working on, you can't blame me one bit, because you'll get lost in the images just like I did each night sitting at my computer!!

When my sister Kim was growing up, she was friends with Clint McGraw...almost of the Tim McGraw fame in our hometown for his music abilities. I knew Clint, but I had never met his sister. Last fall I got an email from his sister Jene'....she was getting married and could we meet sometime to look through wedding albums, etc. We met at Panera and had so much fun talking about our hometown...we even made a trip to a custom invitation store, Fabulous Affairs in Bloomington, owned by another one of our hometown crowd.

I'll admit: I always get slightly nervous about meeting a group at an engagement session...what if we don't mesh and get along like the bride and I did? But, then I met Tom, her fiance'...who is handsome, sweet, ornery, and likes a good glass of wine. I was smitten....because seriously, who can pass up a good-lookin' guy who serves up a great glass of wine? Well, Jene' definitely couldn't! And over Memorial Day weekend, Tom and Jene' joined hands at the Kickapoo Creek Winery and vowed that for the rest of their lives they would be together...good glass of wine and all.

Tom and Jene', thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your wedding. It was beautiful...the details, your families, and you as a couple. Congratulations and Blessings!

Here is a slideshow with my favorites from the day!

Zach - 1yo

This little man is growing up SO fast. I can hardly believe that when he was born, he weighed less than five pounds! One year later...and after doing his newborn, 3 mos, 6 mos, and 9 mos pictures...I'm convinced that he is ALL smiles. He hasn't had a single session that's disappointed us in the smiles category! I think he gets that from his mom!

My favorites are below, and you can see a few more by clicking here.

Take care and God bless!

Colby

Sorry...this isn't the most exciting post! I tried to make it an actual story...but I'll be honest...I actually bought a new lens and was playing with it!!!

Hi. Did you know there is NOTHING more fun in the world than taking out EVERYTHING from my diaper bag?...or maybe my baskets on the changing table?...or the books off of my shelves.

Geesh. There are so many goodies in here. I could do this three or four times a day.

OK...maybe there is ONE thing that's more fun than emptying my diaper bag or baskets....watching ELMO on TV!!!

Is it over? Where did Elmo go?!!!

OK...it's on again! To celebrate, I will continue sucking on my fingers....another thing that I LOVE to do.

Ikea, Mother's Day, and the ROCKET

This past weekend me and three friends made the sojourn to Chicago-land to hit the great store of Ikea. All four of us had a list of essentials....and we came home with the essentials and a BIT more. :)

In the course of discussing who would drive our group to Ikea, my new friend, Sara, mentioned that we could take her mini-van, which she told me REPEATEDLY in the email was 'awesomeness.' I teasingly informed her that if you had to reiterate constantly that something was 'awesomeness' that maybe it wasn't. She told me that I was SO wrong, and that it really WAS 'awesomeness.' OK, Sara!

To make her feel better, I told her about my old days at Deere and how when you were told you had to go on some trip the first thing you did was race to the fleet car sign-up sheet. Our fleet was made up of six brand new Grand Prix and one poor, lonely mini-van. Because I was one of four new hires, it was soon deemed that senior members of the staff could bump us from the Grand Prix's; so, I literally spent a whole summer of my life riding around with three other guys across the Midwest attending really exciting classes like '4WD hydraulics.' We nicknamed our beast "The ROCKET" and made the best of it.

Sara decided she liked that name and has now named her own loser-cruiser "The ROCKET" Yesterday I got the mail and found a Mother's Day card from Sara....below is the front of the card...with a note on the inside saying she "just couldn't resist when she saw this card!"

If you'd like to see a few more pix of our big IKEA trip, go to Sara's blog by clicking here.

My Mother's Day Shopping Trip

So, I'm totally being lazy and letting my friend Sara