Baby Caden

This little guy...and I do mean little, at just a bit over 5 pounds when they images were taken...was a perfect little gentleman. He slept peacefully through the entire shoot...peeking his eyes open just once or twice so that we could capture them quickly before nestling in for a bit more sleep.

And, I had the pleasure of seeing him baptized this weekend.

Caden, welcome to the world, and to the family of God.

Blessings, Mitch and Melissa. You have a beautiful family!

CLick here to see a few more of my faves!

Kelly

The quilt we used in the pictures was a wedding gift to his parents.


Caden's mom requested this picture...with their wedding rings on his tiny feet.

I love the colors and textures of the pillows in the background.

Blessings again...and congratulations!!!

Introducing TORI!

This is a very special post because little Tori is a member of my own family! A few weeks ago, my cousin Devin and his wife Christy gave birth to a darling little girl, Tori!

I drove up two weeks ago to take the little girl's newborn pictures, and I think from the many funny faces she made at me that she wasn't happy with me being an hour later than I'd hoped and right when she wanted to eat too!

Devin and Christy, congratulations! She's beautiful! Enjoy these few short months of newborn baby-ness...it doesn't take long for them fly by!

Below are the ones that made me smile...click here to see a few more.

Kelly

"Hehehe...I'm going to play a joke on cousin Kelly since she was late."

"This is going to be so darn funny! I crack myself up!"


"haha! Take that, Kelly! I'm going to do this in a LOT of my pictures!"

Btw, the beautiful quilt behind Tori is a quilt made for her by her grandmother, Christy's mom, who owns a quilt shop. Christy wanted to make sure she got it in one picture....but I thought the fun vibrant colors would be perfect as the backdrop for little Miss Tori. Have you ever seen a quilt like this???

"Hmmmm....what will I do next."

"Hold on a second...I'm thinking...."

"Well, maybe I'll sleep for a bit and give mom those 'sleeping baby' pictures I know she wants so much....because I'm a good girl that way."

Congrats, Christy and Devin!!!

The Sisterhood of Weis

I first met Vanessa a few years ago. My husband's family buys their vehicles from her at the Ford dealership in Effingham. Honestly, I'm surprised she still talks to me. I test drove vehicles for over a year until finally buying one. Then I drove it for two months and traded it in again...I couldn't get used to an SVU after driving a car for so long! As Nick and I consider getting a bigger vehicle sometime in the near future, I'm sure if Vanessa had ulcers, they'd start flaring up soon! Evidently, I'm THAT horrible! :) But she's that good...that she puts up with me! She's like an expert barrister at Starbucks. She knows I take my cars white, red, or black with a tan interior, good gas mileage, and an MP3 player outlet. I like to think she has everyone's car choices memorized...however, it could just be mine since she searched for over a year for me. (so sorry, Vanessa)

Anyways, we've talked often about updating her family pictures, and so, we've been trying to get together for, like, over a year to do a portrait session. And, finally, we decided to heck with basketball schedules, working late, and all that summer brings, we were going to get together and take little Miss Drew's two-year pictures. I was a little bummed that her three older sisters couldn't make it to the session, but I was going to take what time I could get of these cuties' time. To my great delight, I got an email from their mom the day before saying the older girls' schedule had cleared up, and they were going to be along too...just for one picture or two, because you know, it was Drew's birthday pix. And, I was all like, whatever...we're going to do this up right; so, you come dressed too for a family picture as well!

Below are a few of my favorites of the beautiful Weis Women. Click here to see a few more!

Older sister Molly (#2) rocks her stylish glasses. I love them.

Older sister Madison (#1) has the best laugh. I had 20 different laughing pictures, and I had to decide which one was my favorite...you know how I love a good laughing picture!

Older sister Abby (#3) is a phenom basketball player...and has the bluest of eyes ever.

And, here's the lady of the hour: Drew...the baby and the boss!



There's nothing like a sisterhood....

Taking a break between shots.

The entire beautiful family!

Baby Caden

This little guy...and I do mean little, at just a bit over 5 pounds when they images were taken...was a perfect little gentleman. He slept peacefully through the entire shoot...peeking his eyes open just once or twice so that we could capture them quickly before nestling in for a bit more sleep.

And, I had the pleasure of seeing him baptized this weekend.

Caden, welcome to the world, and to the family of God.

Blessings, Mitch and Melissa. You have a beautiful family!

CLick here to see a few more of my faves!

Kelly

The quilt we used in the pictures was a wedding gift to his parents.


Caden's mom requested this picture...with their wedding rings on his tiny feet.

I love the colors and textures of the pillows in the background.

Blessings again...and congratulations!!!

Madge & Jimmie: Engaged

Each wedding is different...and I have a huge appreciation for each detail that the bride and groom have planned for their big day. But, occasionally, a couple comes along, and despite the beauty of the details, I'm mostly excited just for their relationship. Madge & Jimmie are that way for me! Madge was referred to me by Rhiannon...they both work at Lake Land together. I met Madge and Jimmie at a coffee shop and right off we had a chuckle about some of the funny images that are currently trendy in wedding photography! Her big question was "Are you going to make me do one of those jumping photos?" And I was all like, "Not unless you want to...it's your wedding!" I still chuckle every time I think of it.

Madge and Jimmie have ornery senses of humor and a love of laughing. But, what I love about them most is that they're excited not just for their wedding, but for their marriage.

Madge and Jimmie, I CANNOT wait! And, yes, I'm trying to plan all sorts of ornery schemes to get Madge jumping on her wedding day!...It'll be PERFECT!

My favorites from the day are below. Click here to see a few more.

Madge and Jimmie met and got engaged at Lake Land Community College...where they both work...so, it was only fitting to take advantage of the beautiful landscaping at the college for their engagement pictures.

These two are smilers...and they have excellent memories. I mentioned at their initial meeting that overcast days are great for photography. When I met up with them the Saturday morning for their shoot, they said they got up and said to each other, "Kelly will be so glad it's overcast today!"

I love this photo....it's PERFECT! Why do I keep 'saying' the word PERFECT? Because evidently I say it a LOT when taking pictures. No one's ever told me that before...until Madge and Jimmie. For the rest of the morning I kept catching myself saying it again and again! Geesh.

Madge and Jimmie, I CANNOT wait! And, I love it that you guys can't either!

Blessings!

Kelly

Shane & Rhiannon: Engaged

I heard through the grapevine that our good friend/relative Rhiannon had gotten engaged! She's one of those people...you know...the kind you have a love-hate relationship with...because she's so darn cute and you always run into her when you have no make-up on with yoga pants and flip-flops! And yep, that's when I saw her after it was announced that she was engaged...in Walmart with no make-up, flip-flops, and yoga pants! And although I really wanted to duck behind the make-up aisle and pray that she didn't see me, I busted out with a huge CONGRATS on her engagement, because, not only is Rhiannon adorable, but she also has a great personality with a killer sense of humor to boot! She's my favorite person to stand next to in one of Lisa's aerobics classes...as Lisa's torturing us, we endure the pain with our cynical senses of humor!

We talked about the wedding day, their big plans, and then she asked me if I would shoot their engagement pictures...and I was all like, OF COURSE...and I'll even wear make-up that day too!

So, I met up with the ever-beautiful Rhiannon and the equally charming and handsome Shane a couple of weeks ago at the Ballard Nature Center for a quick engagement shoot in the heat and humidity. And, as you can see below, both are beautiful, fun-loving, and humorous...seriously, people, you know people are having a good time when they're laughing this much in the heat!!

Shane and Rhiannon, thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your engagement. I am SOOO excited about your wedding...and I'm planning on packing an extra towel...just in case! :)

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

Kelly

The adorable couple.

Although Rhiannon's eyes are beautiful, it's her smile that's killer. It lights up her face.

What I love most about these two is that they're so happy just being in each other's company. And they make each other laugh.

Handsome devil Shane.

This picture made me tear up a bit. Every girl deserves a picture like this...with the man she loves looking at her with such love. Shane's look says it all: I love you and I will take care of you for the rest of my life.

Shane and Rhiannon, CONGRATULATIONS!

The Zoo

What do you do on a 100+ degree Saturday? Why - take your kids to the zoo! At least that's what me and crazy Carolyn did two weeks ago! We loaded Colby and Henry into the car and made the two-hour trek to the St. Louis zoo! It was so hot that we drank how many bottles of water...and I'm not sure we ever had to use the bathroom!

Colby and Henry loved it. We mapped out the animals that we wanted to see...at 18 months old, they didn't need to see everything....just the 'majors'. Below are a few pictures courtesy of Carolyn, because photog that I am, I forgot my camera in the car!

Outside the penguin house. Colby loved the penguins. The zoo strategically places gift shops outside a lot of the major exhibits. Colby would reach out to the stuffed animals yelling "this one! this one"...which translates to "I want one"...but a penguin was the only stuffed animal she scored that day.

Yep...still waiting in line to get into the penguin house. The air conditioned exhibit was well worth the wait in that heat though!

Colby and I inside the monkey house!

She loved the monkeys.

So much that she tried to climb in. Darn the glass!

The hippos were a hit. There was one that was quite the performer always swimming past the glass for the kids to see.

Waiting for more of the hippo.

At the children's zoo, there was one of those water fountains that springs up from the ground. Colby was a bit timid at first, but she soon got the hang of running through the water. Henry on the other hand was running toward the water before his feet hit the ground!

We had a good time!...but Carolyn and I agreed on the way home that for the rest of our lives, we're only going to the zoo in April and October! We'll brave the cold and rain....to heck with that heat!!! :)