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Thoughts on Thursday | Personal

Posted on May 10, 2012

I am totally kidding with that title up there. Thoughts on Thursday. HA! I’m just never cool enough to remember to do Ten on Tuesday or What I Wore Wednesday (sweats every week would bore you, no?) or any other cool blog thing that other cooler bloggers do. Because I’m not cool. And I’m not in any cool blogging circles. But that’s ok.

For two days I thought we had a major plumbing issue in our one and only shower/tub because the water was draining SO slowly until I realized tonight that the stopper was half-way up. I’m a total genius.

One of our awesome sitters came over for 30 minutes today so I could go run 2 miles. For free. Because she’s awesome. And I was so proud because even though my legs hurt today I ran two miles without stopping to walk (a month ago this wouldn’t have been possible) but when I told Chris tonight he said he thinks I need to up my mileage. That he bets I only burned like 100 calories or something and it’s not even doing anything. WTF? I almost punched him in the nose! He quickly recovered by telling me how thin I look and how proud he is of me right now but DUDE! Up my mileage because I’m not running enough to lose any weight? Doesn’t he know he just took any momentum and excitement I had over my own personal HUGE accomplishment and flushed it down the crapper? Ugh. Up my mileage. Shit.

So I’m at the end of three weeks and NO fountain soda. NO Mountain Dew at all either. I am drinking a TON of water with a can of orange soda here and there when I need a treat. But honestly, now that I know I’m not burning anything with my runs I think the little treats might be done too. The difference between this time and ALL the other times I’ve tried to quit is that I don’t miss it. Usually it’s a struggle every single day without my Mnt. Dew fix but this time it just kind of grosses me out. I’m working really hard right now to try and lose about 15lbs so I think that motivation is finally helping.

Thursdays are my ABSOLUTE favorite day of the week because I LOVE me some TV. Oh man! I DVR SEVEN shows on Thursday night and that gets me through until Sunday which is another favorite night! What’s funny though is that as much as I love watching tv at night (while I edit/blog/answer emails) I’m kind of looking forward to summer when my shows take a break because I have a big pile of books I’m waiting to tackle!

My kids are sick this week with this weird super high fever and crazy sore throat sickness. So I’ve had no babysitting or school this week to give me a break. Oh man. And I hope they get better soon because Sunday we have some fun plans for Mother’s Day!

Speaking of Mom’s Day… I have a few things we’re doing for our own moms that I’ll try to share next week. The kids and I got our craft on while we watched movies this week!

Ok. I just needed to chat. I tried chatting with Chris when he got home but if I talk too much about too many mundane/random things his eyes kind of glaze over and I lose him. And it’s too late to call my girl friends. So I blogged. Tomorrow night I have another sweet newborn to share on here and this weekend I’m catching up on personal photos that I got edited today while the kids watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua. It was either edit some personal stuff or stab my eyes with a fork… why are so many kid movies SO stupid? Anyway! I hope you had a great Thursday!

Shoot for Seamus | Year Three | St. Louis Children’s Hospital NICU Photography

Posted on May 8, 2012

Every year on April 23rd we celebrate the little life of Seamus Johnston by going to the NICU at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and photographing other babies. Every year it is a huge honor to meet new families and hear their stories. Every year Seamus shows up in some way… like this year there was a baby born on his birthday and at the same gestation (the Johnston’s call those little coincidences “God-incidences” because they aren’t ever totally random). Every year we see nurses and doctors we’ve grown to love. Every year we get to spend the day with Tom and Sharon (best part!). Every year there are tears. And every single year there is so much love, joy and laughter filling those hallways in the NICU.

This year we met and photographed eight families and ten babies. They are all fighting for their lives and as you scroll their photos please say just a little prayer that they all get to go home very soon!

The NICU is a sacred place. When you walk the halls the prayers are almost palpable. The life and death that those walls have witnessed is almost overwhelming. Being there when Seamus died was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do but coming back every year to celebrate his life is always one of the best days of my year! Shoot for Seamus has become the best way to spend the anniversary of his death for Tom and Sharon too I think… if I can assume that for them. They get to see his room. They get to remember his short life spent there. They get to hug and visit with nurses and doctors that kept him alive for those seven and a half weeks. They get to walk the halls they know as well as their own. And then they get to go up to the garden. The garden where Seamus took his last breath but also saw the sky for the first time.

In honor of Seamus they have purchased a tree in the garden overlooking their favorite place to sit where they could see Forrest Park. It’s in the most perfect spot. And you know what? When I went back to read THIS post (my original post about Seamus), like I do every year, I realized that the branches in this photo are from their tree. Seamus’ tree.

See, when I took that last shot I was standing in front of a bench… the bench where they held Seamus as he died… and if you peek through those trees you see a gap… that’s where I stood to capture the photo from three years ago. Just another God-incidence if you ask me!

I love that his tree stands taller than the others, reaching for the sky and waving in the wind. I love that there is such a beautiful place to go sit and remember him.

Tom and Sharon! Two of the most amazing people you could ever meet! Because of them all of those families got sweet photos of their babies last month! They’ve become two of our dearest friends and have the sweetest baby boy, Mac, who my kids are kind of obsessed with right now! Bailey asks me constantly when she’ll be old enough to babysit Mac! This is a horrible snapshot from the last time they were over but it’s the most recent photo I have of Mac and I just have to show you guys how CUTE he is!

SO after the world’s longest blog post….

A huge thank you to all the families we met that day. Thanks to all the nurses that made the images possible! Thanks to the parents that shared their babies with us for a short time. Thanks to Kim for being my friend and totally understanding all of this. Thanks to Tom and Sharon for, well, everything! Oh and for taking us to lunch every year at my favorite sandwich shop!

Shoot for Seamus YEAR THREE was a huge success!

Carsyn | St. Louis Childrens Photography

Posted on May 6, 2012

For the last several years I’ve gotten to photograph Carsyn (and her brother and sister!) on her birthday. We’ve gone to the city and a park and other places but this was by far my favorite session with her! Carsyn, in the past, has been kind of hard to crack. She’s slow to smile and hard for me to make laugh. Last year we tried shooting down by Busch Stadium because she loves baseball but even that didn’t make her all that happy to get her picture taken! So this year we decided to let Carsyn design her own session. Her and her mom talked A LOT about what she wanted to do and settled on a “camping” session based on her current favorite book, My Side of the Mountain. It just happens that was one of my all time favorite books when I was her age too! Amy went all out bringing things that would help make it look like Crasyn had run away to live off the land! And aside from the insane heat, bugs and my allergies going nuts it was so much fun! It was neat to finally see her engaged, happy and really loving her little pretend world! No fake smiles at all! HA!

Then a quick change so mom could get a few shots she wanted (ie: pretty portraits!) and we were done! She had fun, she played, we shot and were done! Super quick and worked perfect for Carsyn!

 

Thanks Amy+Carsyn! You guys were awesome!

Edie turns one | St. Louis Children’s Photography

Posted on May 4, 2012

The same day we photographed Addie we got to see Edie (say that ten times fast!)! Nicole had the most AMAZING outfits ready for her! Even a one year old session can benefit from our awesome stylist Katie Mohr! Did you know you can hire her just to come to your home to pick out the clothes for less cost? Totally worth it! Nicole is completely stylish on her own so her and Katie together… watch out!

Edie was pretty funny… she was NOT interested in what we wanted to do until we shooed mom and dad upstairs to watch tv and had her to ourselves… then she thought we were pretty funny! It’s hard for parents to leave the room I think but they were awesome! SO easy going and were totally happy to let us play with Edie… so all of these shots are surprises! They haven’t seen hardly any of them! I hope you guys love them!

This one makes me laugh so hard! Doesn’t she look like a little Buddha baby? Meditating or something! So funny!

We snuck in this one last set-up before a VERY sleepy Edie gave up and started fussing. So we got mom and dad and went outside to just beg her for a few shots with them… but she had other ideas!

She fell sound asleep in Daddy’s arms!

When she was REALLY asleep we got mom in there and we just adore this sweet shot of a family we truly adore!

Thanks so much to Nicole, Chris and Edie! We can’t wait to see you guys again in the fall!

Amelia | St. Louis Newborn Photography

Posted on May 3, 2012

Oh you guys! I have been SO excited to blog this session simply because if I am able to blog it it means that Amelia is officially Adam and Janel’s daughter! I was actually able to be there the night she was born, waiting in the next room with Janel and Adam when the nurses ran this brand new baby to the warming bed! It was the craziest thing I had ever seen! And I know I could blog her birth photos, and maybe one day I will, but for now I feel like that’s Janel’s story to tell. She’s been waiting so long to share her baby with the world I don’t want to steal her thunder. SO for now I’m going to show you some of the sweet images we got at their in-home lifestyle mini newborn session.

You’ll notice my editing on these images is a bit different than usual. Janel loves all things retro so I worked to give them a bit of that look to them. And also it was raining on the day of their session which meant little to no light. Luckily I’ve known these guys a long time and they know how to embrace the grain! HA! I think it actually adds to the images, fits the feel we were going for a bit and just sort of works with the grain… plus it’s kind of fun to play with new editing techniques you know? Branch out a bit sometimes! Anyway, the other thing is that I haven’t done a lifestyle newborn session in years. YEARS. I was SO nervous and then the light was so bad I was even more nervous… but again, I think forcing ourselves to step outside the box and do things that scare us is so good from time to time. It helps us stretch our creative muscles and learn new things. A huge thank you to Janel and Adam for trusting me as a friend and artist to capture their sweet miracle baby girl!

Their first baby, Catalina, was SO curious about her new little sister!

I love this… X marks the spot!

Welcome to the world Amelia.

You are one of the luckiest baby girls around. So incredibly prayed for and wanted. God does not make mistakes and you were born to have Janel and Adam as your parents. You are in the arms God designed for you to fit into. You are loved and cherished by so many people. Luckiest girl around.

I’d love you guys to go read Janel’s blog… you can follow their whole story there and continue to watch baby Amelia grow! You won’t believe how big she is already at two months old! And SO stinkin’ cute! Oh my gosh!

Addie turns one | St. Louis Photography

Posted on May 2, 2012

Last weekend we got to see two sweet one year old baby girls in the studio! It was a long day of shooting but SO much fun! We love watching our baby plan babies graduate! And of course it’s always fun to work with Kim now since we don’t get to see each other multiple times a week like we used to!

I only have a few minutes today before I have to go get kids and do the homework/dinner/choir/showers/bedtime routine so I’m going to get these posted before the crazy happens! And since I’m TWO WEEKS off the Dew I’ve been going to bed a ton earlier… funny how taking one super unhealthy thing out of your life helps get other things in line! HA! I’m running more times a week, thinking more about what goes in my mouth, haven’t had a fountain soda and am drinking more water… oh and getting more sleep. No body changes yet but it has to happen sooner or later right? I’ll keep you posted! Maybe I won’t be horribly embarrassed this summer in a swimsuit! OR I can keep dreaming! HA!

ANYWAY… here is sweet Addie!

I’m going to mention some of the new things we played with for this session… like those super cute twine flowers Kim made! She swears they’re easy but she’s also crazy talented when it comes to stuff like that so I’m not sure if I should believe her or not!

One of the new things in this shot is that string of doilies… All I did was take felt and paper doilies, cut hearts/circles and hand stitch the felt to the paper. On a few I just stitched straight on the paper. It was a great way to spend a day when I just needed to be away from the computer for a little while!

Do you see that little stinker? She almost nailed me and we laughed so hard when we realized that just before I ducked I actually caught the throw! Total outtake but so funny!

Thanks so much to Justin, Sara and Addie for spending time with us this year! We loved seeing her again!

The Saykes Family | St. Louis Family Photography

Posted on April 30, 2012

Does anyone remember back (March 2011) to when we did like a ZILLION sessions in one day to raise money for the Mohr family? I think we did 27 actually but it sure felt like more! Well people were SO generous that we ended up gifting a few other sessions after that big day. The Saykes are our last family from that time! I won’t share their story here but little Will has some challenges so far in life…he is doing GREAT though! After so long it was great to finally meet them!

Isn’t Will adorable? His parents are pretty cute too!

Catching up this week…. hopefully! So far so good for a Monday! Welcome to a new week!

 

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