Jen and Nick's E-session

Hi Everyone!

Alright, here is an e-session I just did. Somehow we snuck it in inbetween all of this crazy weather we've been having, and we actually had a pretty nice day!
Jen and Nick found me online, and we immediately hit it off! What's even funnier, is that they live in the same neighborhood as my brother, just down the street. What a small world!

We were having so much fun just walking around, that I didn't realize how many pictures I had taken! They were complete naturals in front of the camera, so I think that may have had something to do with it! Here are some of my favorites from the session.
























Thanks guys for hanging out with preggo me!

Talk to you all soon!

Sarah and Thai

Hi Everyone,

Here is a wedding that I jus did, this is Sarah and Thai. They live in Arizona, but their families both live in the Chicago area. After this day, I don't think they'll ever move back to the windy city! Let me just tell you that it was THE coldest day I've ever shot a wedding. I could not feel my fingers, and the wind was brutal. And I was wearing a coat! So needless to say, we shot a lot indoors! :) These two were troopers though and ventured out for a few minutes to grab some great shots.

Thanks guys for letting me be part of your day! The rest is coming soon! Enjoy your blog post!

Ava is here!

Hi Everyone! Here is little Ava. She was about 10 days when we took photos, and she was my little "guinea pig" for some of my new props. She did an excellent job! Most babies sleep the entire time, but not Ava. She was actually alert most of the time, and when I tried to put her on her stomach, she was lifting her head straight up. This is one of my favorites from the session, she looked so adorable in that hat.

I shot Ava's parents wedding in October of 2007, so it's so wonderful to have your clients come back for the next stage in their life! Melissa and Jim
if you don't remember them check out the blog post from their wedding. Thanks so much for bringing little Ava to see me, she's absolutely beautiful!

The Envelope

Hi!

I just want to thank everyone for emailing me to see how I've been doing. I'm feeling great, other than being extremely tired all of the time. The beginning was definitely a little rocky, but it's been so much better and I'm in the last leg of the pregnancy.

So, we never found out with Kailee what we were having. I feel that there are very few surprises now in life, everything is SOOO planned out, that I thought we'd just leave it alone. James completely blew me away when we got engaged. I had no idea, and we were in Vegas after a work trip of his. He had kept the ring in his pocket all week until I arrived. It was on Valentine's day, and everywhere we went there were brides and bridesmaids running around. Seeing all that made him completely nervous. Other than that, I didn't even know he had bought a ring or anything. The ring and the proposal were a complete surprise. And it was awesome. I can't really explain it, but you just get blown away and completely caught up in the moment. So when the time came to find out for Kailee, I just didn't want to know. So now that there's a second little one on the way, I really didn't want to find out again. I said if James really wanted to know, we'd definitely consider it. And he wanted to know, but he could have it either way.

So let me take you back to January, when our ultrasound was. We're in the room saying, well do you want to know or don't you? So the ultrasound technician decides she is going to take a picture completely showing was the sex is, she writes on the back if it's a boy or girl, puts a piece of paper around it, and seals it in an envelope.





This envelope to be exact. As you can see, it looks a little tattered. This has been terrible that we have this envelope! At least if we had made the decision to not know back in January, it would've passed and that would've been it. But now we have this envelope. This envelope has been the topic of more conversations than I care to tell you. It seems like everyday someone is saying, have you opened that thing up yet???

So for everyone that keeps asking, NO WE'RE NOT OPENING IT!! (at least I don't think so)

Little Madeline

Hi Everyone,

This weekend I did a baby session with little Madeline, who just turned 5 months.
She was so cute, and now I can't wait for the new baby to bless us with his/her presence. Everytime we would get her set up, she would look at anything, but me of
course. As soon as her mom picked her up, she would look at me and just smile. I was like, hey, where was that when I was trying to get some photos! She did really great though, and this is one of my favorites from the session. I love her little smirk.
Hope you all enjoy!

Terry and Steven's E-Session

Hi Everyone,

Okay, long overdue, I know I know. I have a lot to talk about! Okay, first, I wanted to blog about Terry and Steven. They are getting married this June, and it's a good thing, b/c this engagement session, it was about negative 9. Yes, you heard me, negative 9. I have never shot in that cold of weather, and so I didn't blame them when they wanted to do most of it inside. So we chose something close to their hearts, an indoor arcade. We later went outside for a few shots, and I swear I was the happiest girl alive that I owned heated seats in my car. I couldn't feel my thighs for about 15 minutes! Check out their pics.









So I was so busy in late summer and fall, that I left out some of the weddings I shot. So in the following weeks, I will be showcasing them.

In the meantime, thanks for everyone writing to see how I'm feeling. I've actually been doing really well, and just trying to get all of my ducks in a row before this baby shows up. I feel like I'm running out of time!! Anyways, more on that on the next post.

Talk to you all soon!

Kailee's 3rd Birthday

Hi Everyone,

It's been crazy busy this month. I thought I'd actually get a little break...who the heck was I kidding. First, James turned 35 this year at the end of January. 2 days later, it was Kailee's 3rd birthday. That weekend, Kailee's party. And let me just tell you, I hate holidays and birthday b/c I have a hard time balancing being mom, photographer, entertainer all at once. I feel like when I go to someone else's party, I get these fabulous photos of everyone, then when it's my own parties, well, to put it bluntly, they stink. B/c as I'm picking up the camera, someone's pulling me into the kitchen to get the food ready to serve, then another guest comes, so off to the door I go to greet them, then the people I went to take a picture of, well they're gone, so I'm relocating them, but now they're eating....then it's time for cake, and I'm like CAKE??? I didn't even eat yet? (Not that I don't mind eating a little cake before my meal :) It's a vicious cycle all day. So this year, I said I want to enjoy myself a little more. I'm not going to invite the entire state of Illinois to my daughter's birthday party. Maybe just half of the state. Hey, I'm italian, everything we do is BIG!

So I was able to grab a few photos here and there.

Here's Kailee before we started singing to her. Isn't this hat adorable!



Then we decided to do a craft. Since Kailee's birthday theme was Little Mermaid, picked by Kailee herself, we decorated a mermaid!
Here are some of the clan while decorating!



Here's a closeup of the craft.



Okay, this needs it's own introduction. James' Grandma Sally made these cakes.
NOT STORE BOUGHT...and they were amazing. The first one had jelly beans for rocks, graham cracker crumbs for sand, fruit roll ups for the seaweed, and of course a mermaid in the shell. Grandma thought of everything. The second cake...well, let's just say I didn't even know there was going to be a second cake. The second one is actually Ariel. I have no idea how she did this one. It had to have taken forever to get this much detail. Check it out for yourself.



Here's Kailee and Great Grandma Sally



During the present opening, Kailee thought she would turn the cards around and attempt
to read them to everyone watching. She was more interested in the cards then the presents!



And lastly, close to being delirious b/c neither of these two had a nap that day, here's Kailee and her cousin Chloe horsing around.



So Kailee is officially three, and I'm officially exhausted. I will update more this week, lots going on!

Talk to you all soon1