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September Fresh Favorites – [St. Louis Newborn, Maternity, Child, Family, Senior Photographers]

Posted on September 29, 2009

September was a BUSY month, so that means lots and lots of favorites!  Sixteen to be exact!

This month’s prize are three of these:

3×3 accordion books!

To VOTE: leave a comment on THIS post! You can get your family and friends to load the votes to help ensure you win but one vote per person! The photo with the MOST votes wins and we’ll CLOSE VOTING tomorrow night (Sept. 30th) at midnight! Winner will be announced October 1st!

#1 – Baby Audrey

#2 – O’Malley Sisters

#3 – Hotaling Family

#4 – Zander +  Family

#5 – Jarvis Family

#6 – Meghan

#7  -  Canatsey Family

#8 – McCullough Family

#9 – Bethany + Michael

#10 – Baby Liam

#11 – Luke

#12 – Ruth + Joe

#13 – Dunn Family

#14 – Enlund Family

#15 – Austin

#16 – Maggie

Austin {St. Louis Senior Photographers}

Posted on September 28, 2009

Today while Kim wrangled kids (she has seven you know!) I walked around Soulard with an Oakville senior, Austin. And that’s just what it felt like, an afternoon walk full of beautiful crisp fall weather and lots of sun shine.  It was seriously gorgeous. And I got to spend it with Austin and his amazing family. Or at least his mom and sister b/c there were a few missing I guess. ANYWAY.

I met his mom, Carlinda, (or Carlita depending on who you are and who you know) a few months ago. Carlinda is one of the true angels on earth. She’s a NICU nurse. And I met her during my hardest NILMDTS session ever. And we bonded over that little guy. And we stayed in touch enough that she asked me to photograph her little not-so-little guy!

Thanks Karpel family for a great afternoon walk!

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TOMORROW… wait for it… wait for it…

SEPTEMBER FRESH FAVORITES CONTEST!

Get your votes ready b/c we had FOURTEEN sessions this month! It’s going to be a big contest! If we SHOT you in September get ready to beg, plead and yell to get your family and friends to vote for your photo! See you in the morning!

big weekend wrap-up – [Saint Louis Child & Family Photographers]

Posted on September 28, 2009

Jodie just blogged our fun Sunday session, so I’ll do one big recap full of peeks for the rest of our weekend sessions.

First up is from Friday.  My Abby turned 15 and since she & her friends had Friday off school, we did a quick urban shoot before they came to our house for a slumber party… of which there was not much slumber!  How in the world she is 15 is beyond me… how in the world she LOOKS 15 is even MORE beyond me.  Beautiful inside & out!

Then Jodie & I both had family sessions previously scheduled on Saturday, so we decided to do them alone… only hers got rained out!  I was very worried about mine, but we had a nice & beautiful clearing to get it in.   Another great & fun family!  Mom & Dad were celebrating FORTY-FIVE years of marriage!  Amazing and fabulous!  And they brought their kids and grandkids.  Their daughter also happens to be “the teacher” for Abby.  You know, “the teacher” that made such a difference in your life that you’ll always remember?  Yep, that’d be her!  And her own girls are in class with 2 of mine, her youngest & Gracie are BFFs!  So, yeah, totally special family to us!  And I’m totally just teasing them with only 2 images right now!

Then Sunday morning, we met up with another special family!  You may just recognize them!  I’ve met Abbie, Jodie’s sister before, but it was so fun to meet Chris & Sam too!  Sam is just a fun ball of energy and talks up a STORM!  This session will definitely be revisited since there *may* just be a video to go along with it!

The Dunn Family [St. Louis Newborn & Maternity Photographers]

Posted on September 28, 2009

There are a lot of great families out there. Truly. And a lot of good parents. And a ton of great kids. But the Dunn family are at the top of my list for all of those. Their daughter, Alison, is one of the most well-behaved and sweetest little girls you’ve ever met. Jen is a pediatrician and never minds a late night frantic call. Eric is one of the best teachers at Webster Groves High School where both the kids and faculty respect him. They are just all-around great people and I am blessed to call them friends as we go to church together. Chris and Eric also teach together. Anyway, they are so amazing and are now about to welcome their second little girl into the world!

Could she have a cuter basketball belly?

Thanks Dunn family for being flexible on locations last night! We hope you love your photos!

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In case you missed it, our site was down for almost two days last week which meant NOTHING could get done as far as gallery uploads, some emails, blogging, etc. It was a nightmare. But at the same time kind of a welcome break since my sister and her family were in town and we had FIVE sessions this weekend. Well, one got rained out but FOUR in three days is still a lot if you ask me! Kim will be back later to blog some more weekend sneak peeks!

And if you sent an email but haven’t heard back, b/c our site was down we might have missed you so try again please!

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TODAY: It’s not even 8am and we’ve colored, played Memory, dusted the living room, hung some prints and started laundry. Gray is sleeping in b/c he had a party in his crib last night. Maybe PARTY is too nice of a word to describe the INCESSANT SCREAMING that happened in his crib last night. Oh how we LOVE molars! As soon as the little man wakes up he and Parker are headed to the sitter’s house, Bailey has preschool and my to do list will be checked off with a vengence if I have anything to say about it! A big fat Mnt Dew will help in that quest I’m sure. And maybe a shower. We’ll see if I’m that lucky! An afternoon session, picking up the kids and dinner will round out this day. With maybe a trip to the consignment shop thrown in for good measure. I have a lot of baby stuff I’m getting rid of.

Which you know will mean I’ll end up pregnant again! HA! Just kidding mom!

Enjoy it! It’s FALL and it’s GORGEOUS and it’s TODAY! Live it!

(until I make my own signature) Jodie

okay, I just want to know…. [St. Louis Child & Family Photographers]

Posted on September 24, 2009

where the heck did September go?!?  Next week is October already?  Seriously?!

So I thought I’d put a reminder out there… as next on my to do list is getting information printed and to clients who have booked on these!

First up….

I’m sure by now you’ve begun to narrow down costume choices, or maybe you are really on the ball and have them already!  Thomas has been RELENTLESS in telling me his costume choice (Mario of Super Mario Bros… too many big brothers, gone are the days *I* get to choose his costume!)… in fact, it’s the first words out of his mouth when he wakes up.  Seriously.  No good morning, momma… just “I want the Mario costume!”   ANYWAY!  Time to get some fabulous images of them showing off their costume!  And if you are anything like me, the day of Halloween is just too crazy that I hardly get anything decent.
*If you are interested email either me or jodie at kim@freshartphotography.com or jodie@freshartphotography.com!

Next….

a million shots of Luke {St. Louis Children’s Photographers}

Posted on September 24, 2009

The Beachy family are some of my oldest and most favorite clients. I think they might be rivaling for the MOST photographed families by me ever! And yesterday while Kim had stuff to do at home I headed out to The City Museum with Luke and his mom, Amy, for his 6 year old photos. Which is crazy because I think he was about to turn 4 at our first shoot… is that right Amy? AND… edited to add… Luke and I SHARE a birthday! October 11th!

There is a slide there that is SO steep this is how he had to start down it every time! HA!

You can’t see it, but this bus sits atop the museum on the ROOF… 15 stories up!

Ok, wait, let me say that again, it sits with the FRONT HALF HANGING OFF the roof 15 stories up! Amy and I were freaking out!

I don’t know if you can see the city at the bottom of this photo… but this HUGE slide was on the roof too! SO fun!

SO random but I had to post this photo b/c it cracks me up! There was a wood house-thing and Luke was sitting in there eating his sucker I gave him… and there was a hole in the wall… but the inside was SO dark I had to expose for HIM which totally blew out the wood on the outside! So the photo makes no sense but I still love it!

I’ll post the photos of ME all by MYSELF on the roof-top ferris wheel later! Amy was SUCH A WIMP she wouldn’t go on it with me and Luke was totally freaked out by it too! I will admit it was a little scary being so high up on an obviously antique ferris wheel, but it was also SO cool! I’ll show you later!

Thanks Amy and Luke for a great morning! It was a great way to start off my day!

a blog is like an unfinished conversation.

Posted on September 23, 2009

Blogging is funny. You write these posts, you publish them, you get comments on them and then whether or not everyone that may read that post has read it you write another one. And another one. And they get pushed further and further down the page until the post you wrote last week is three pages deep and may never be seen again by anyone. Ever.

Which is a lot like my life right now.

My email in-box is never caught up. I am always forgetting to email someone because I get so many emails in a day that they get pushed down the page until they disappear onto page two and i never look at page two because there are so many to answer on page one. So i forget people. Family people and friends people and client people, which are the worst to forget b/c they are paying you to remember them. But I do forget. A lot sometimes.

And don’t even get me started on real life conversations. I can’t tell you the last time I had a long uninterrupted conversation that wasn’t freckled with “stop that” or “get out of there” or “hold on a second, Mommy is working” or “can you hold on my other line is ringing”. Conversations with my good friends seem to just go on because we are never able to finish a complete thought. And Kim and I end up talking to each other 25 times a day simply b/c we have thoughts we need to share and to do lists we need to check on but between kids and clients and life we are never able to really finish talking. So we hang up knowing we’ll think of the VERY important thing we actually called about and call each other back 10 minutes later. And this goes on literally all day.

But what I’m finding funny about THIS blog in particular is that I feel like I’m interrupting Kim. Like if I come on here to just vent b/c my head is so full I just want to give up and go to bed, I can’t because it’s not TOTALLY my blog. But then it IS now totally my blog too. So as I jumped on here tonight to just write, because writing helps me to calm down sometimes, I sort of felt like asking Kim for permission.

Which is crazy b/c she doesn’t care!

I just have to get used to this blog. It’s like a long lost friend I don’t quite remember. I just have to get back in the groove.

But tonight.

The reason for coming on here for a brain dump.

Tonight I think I have to wave my white flag.

The merge, a big commercial shoot with an impossible deadline we actually met today, sessions all week, drama with work, a client that passed away who has three young kids, a friend’s daughter that was burned, my own sick kids, teething kids, missing my kids, my messy house, my empty pantry, my low bank account, my waiting clients, my patient clients, my frustrated clients (rightfully so), the laundry pile, the weight i am packing on, the feeling of never doing anything perfectly… all of it.

I just can’t work another 16+ hour day.

So.

I apologize to all of you waiting on me, frustrated by me and wanting to ring my neck.

But I am getting in bed.

At 8:30pm.

To rest my body. And drink water instead of soda. And read my book. And go to sleep. Early.

Because if I don’t I will end up way worse than I am right now. And that’s not good for anybody.

Can you tell it’s been a really long week already?

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