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charlie day two
the wright family
Ainsley – {St. Louis Newborn Photographers}
Posted on December 27, 2009
In the freezing cold and snow Kim and I ventured out today for two photo sessions! One for little miss Ainsley and one for our first maternity session with a mom pregnant with triplets! Those babies will be coming in a few weeks and we can’t wait! Look for her sneak peek tomorrow!
Today though, we had just one baby and Ainsley was beyond perfect! She slept the entire time and at nine pounds she is one of our chunkiest babies! And MAN OH MAN do Kim and I love a chunky baby!
And as much as it was hard to leave jammie day with the kids and C, it was also kind of nice to get out there and shoot again! Especially with my NEW Nikon! Yep! I made the MASSIVE switch from Canon to Nikon recently so Kim and I can share lenses and more easily add to our equipment in the future. I bought THIS camera and so far LOVE it… although I will say I am SLOW still and luckily have some indoor shooting time this winter to get used to it before I have to need fast skills while I chase toddlers around outside! Still figuring things out as I had NO idea how different the little things are between Canon and Nikon! Little things that really change the way you have to think about shooting! Anyway, you be the judge since today was my first time officially shooting with the new camera…
Thanks Murphy family for having one of the sweetest baby girls around! She was absolutely perfect! Look for your full gallery soon!
AND… the gauntlet I threw down for Kim to post photos of their Christmas morning won’t be answered as she DID NOT TAKE ANY PHOTOS! HA! I can’t believe it! I mean, I only took CRAP photos but she didn’t take any! She did say she’ll post some old ones but DUDE! KIM… we want to see photos of your CUTE KIDS! All SEVEN of them! 
Filed Under newborn | 6 Comments
our Christmas in happy+grainy photos.
Posted on December 27, 2009
We had a marvelous Christmas. It was everything Christmas is supposed to be. Filled with happy children, incredible gifts, fun surprises, lots of family, late nights, good food and magic.
Things I want to remember, in no particular order…
- The kids coming down the stairs on Christmas morning.
- Bailey’s HUGE eyes when she opened a gift she loved.
- Parker hugging me and saying, “you my bet fend mommy!”
- Holding hands with Bailey on a winter walk and jumping over all the cracks in the sidewalk… laughing the whole time!
- C surprising me with a present when we agreed NO gifts this year.
- Spending a quiet day with my parents.
- Loving and hating my new Nikon.
- Grayson randomly hugging his sisters, for no particular reason.
- Pizza for dinner on Christmas Eve
- Gray yelling SANTA every time we came home (we have an antique lighted Santa on our porch)… it was nearly his first word!
- Cozy nights with C
- Listening to Parker make up songs like: “I maaaaaaaade a picture for Saaaaaaaanta and heeeeeeee’s going to looooooooove it!”
- Doing puppet shows in their new puppet theater that always has Santa puppet rescuing the princess from the pirate!
- Losing sheep (it’s been 4 days and I am literally heart broken for Parker but we can’t find that damn sheep anywhere!)
- Wagon rides
- Watching season 3 of 24 every night while wrapping gifts
- Being unplugged (almost) for a few days
- Caroling. Best night ever.
- Missing my sister (who had to stay in WI b/c she’s due with baby Avery in mid-Jan)
- Jammie days
- and the list goes on…
It was a great few days. And just for my own memory, which is fading year by year I swear, I’m going to bore you with a million grainy photos of the random moments I thought to grab the camera to capture!
Christmas Eve “kid” service… LOVED seeing Bailey sing in the cherub choir this year!
Great Aunt Linda painting the girl’s nails.
Great Uncle Tim blowing on Bail’s nails to help them dry… so cute!
Gray climbing up in Bubba’s chair to read the paper! That’s “big” Bubba watching!
Bailey painting my nails and C taking a totally out of focus photo (ALL photos of me are out of focus!)
Listening to Great Grandpa Allen read Twas’ the Night Before Christmas (a long time Allen tradition).
Christmas morning (6am)… the kids playing their new instruments (all from Plan Toys).
Christmas morning (7am… done with gift opening!)… playing with their new Melissa and Doug wooden castle… the favorite toy for sure!
Today… a jammies day (jammies from Grandma)… dancing with their princess jewelry on (gift from Uncle Jack).
We stayed in pjs ALL day today and it was awesome! We played and cleaned and organized and played and cooked and slept and played. It was a great day and the perfect close to our three days off for Christmas!
Tomorrow life starts back up again as Kim and I have a newborn session in the morning with a maternity session immediately afterwards… which means it’s a Daddy day around here… which means it’ll most likely be another jammie day!
I hope you all had an incredible Christmas! I might have to threaten her but I’m going to make Kim blog HER Christmas morning as well! I’m DYING to see what a house with SEVEN kids all opening gifts at the same time looks like! HA! Do you hear that Kim? It’s a challenge! Show us photos!
Filed Under allen family | 4 Comments
you’ve been caroled.
Posted on December 23, 2009
Last night we had the best night of the year. And it was conceived and executed last minute and surprisingly it went off without a hitch! Perfect.
And I don’t say perfect lightly b/c when you have three small children, I’m sorry, six small children, winter coats, in+out of car seats numerous times, cold weather… it’s easy to be completely and totally NOT perfect.
But last night. Last night was perfect.
We went CAROLING. With our best friends. And my parents and Kevin’s parents, who all happen to be best friends. The same group we traveled to Florida with. The group we always sit by at church. The group we love and adore. It’s like straight out of Norman Rockwell really. And as cheesy as it is, I love it. I love looking into our future and knowing we have this group of people full of love and support forever.
And while I wait for my NEW camera to arrive I used the Flip last night and put this together…
Caroling 2009 from jodie allen on Vimeo.
It seriously makes me smile!
It was the BEST way to start all of our holiday events.
We are blessed.
Merry Christmas!
Filed Under Uncategorized | 10 Comments
jennifer + scott – [St. Louis Maternity & Newborn Photographers]
Posted on December 23, 2009
Yet another fabulous expecting couple who rolled right with the change of plans because of the wicked cold & wind on Saturday.
While I hadn’t met Jennifer yet, her family has already touched me and been apart of things very important to me. I first met Jennifer’s sweet niece, who is a CDH survivor, at St. Louis Children’s Hospital when I photographed her and others effected by CDH. More here and here.
And I’ve also been with her sister who works in the NICU as I’ve photographed some last moments for families for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, we’ve cried together and I have such huge respect for the work she does.
So I was so excited to meet Jennifer, and she was as gentle and sweet as I’d imagined. Beautiful inside and out. So sweet, you can’t really hate her for being so gorgeous! With the most perfect baby bump.
oh yeah, and Scott was there too… and put up with us all giving him a hard time, and showing off his dead pan dry sense of humor.
um, did I say she was GORGEOUS!?! STUNNINGLY GORGEOUS. Yeah. She is. Totally.
Thanks again, Brinker Family! Can’t wait to meet your little girl…. and most of all, find out her name!
the growing Heddell family – [St. Louis Maternity Photographers]
Posted on December 22, 2009
So our plan on Saturday was to meet up with the Heddell family for an outdoor maternity mini-session… only after attempting our first family session of the day resulting in all of us being miserable and freezing and wind whipped, we quickly turned it into an indoor at-home session! Not only was the temperature warm in the Heddell home, so was the conversation and just getting to know their sweet little family.
Christina was gorgeous and glowing
with the cutest little baby bump
and Jay was great and fun with an apparent hidden talent as a stylist (::snicker::)
but there was a little miss that maybe stole the show
maybe just a little
okay, so she completely stole the show!
this gorgeous girl is about to be a big sister! such a little peanut and a such a sweetie!
Thanks for the great *warm* afternoon, Heddell Family! We look forward to returning to meet your sweet new baby! And I’m still thinking Christmas Eve would be pretty darn awesome!
Filed Under children, families, in home session, maternity | 11 Comments
my secret elf.
Posted on December 22, 2009
Kim and I have this group of friends. Most of us have never met and yet we share our highs and lows, our ups and downs, our joys, our sorrows, our excitement and frustration. We are all moms to either one or seven. We all have littles ones. We all work from home. We all are photographers.
And to celebrate those friendships and to add some fun into Christmas for ourselves, I suggested we do secret santa gifts for each other this year… and MAN am I glad I did!
Because MY secret elf had Imo’s bring me not only TWO Mnt Dews last night but also a piece of cheesecake!
Sorry the photos suck, it was LATE last night!
And although that would have been enough to make me INCREDIBLY happy, she went and did something totally and completely amazing!
She asked Tara Whitney to email me!
your secret elf is thinking of you today and hopes you are having a good day.
xo
Tara
Let’s just say I almost peed my pants b/c I LOOOOOOOVE Tara!
I don’t know for sure if my secret elf is Tami or Lyndsay or Bridget or Betsy or Kim but THANK YOU GIRLS for making my life so great and for being such awesome friends!
Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments
merrill family & the very blustery day – [St. Louis Family Photographers]
Posted on December 21, 2009
First off, a note to let everyone know Jodie’s house is dealing with illnesses again, so keep them in your prayers that they will all be well to enjoy Christmas! Also means Jodie is behind on emails, so hang tight if you are waiting on a response!
So, Saturday, we had a full day of shooting scheduled, starting off with the Merrill family. We knew shooting outside in December would be chilly, but Saturday was downright FRIGID and WINDY! We braved it as much as we could, but everyone was just miserable, so we called it quits and will do a reshoot once it warms up. They were all such good sports (as evidenced by them even being willing to throw off their coats) and we laughed a whole lot, but we were all quickly becoming human popscicles!
So is it spring yet?!
Filed Under families | 2 Comments