Just editing these photos made me out of breath :) Colin, Becky, and I headed down to the City Garden last week to take some photos to commemorate Colin’s upcoming birthday. While he looks deceptively innocent with those big blue eyes, don’t let that fool you! He’s got enough energy to run, climb, and evade a camera for hours! (the dictionary.com definition of “evade” is this: Escape or avoid, esp. by cleverness or trickery). He’s such a cutie though. We didn’t get to shoot for long as we could hear thunder rumbling close by and decided to choose our safety over more cute photos :)

Can you tell from this photo he’s getting ready to run away from me?

We decided our best bet would be to change him into his swim trunks so we could play in the water…

And he LOVED it!

“Hmm…what’s this little hole in the ground? Let me see it up close…WHOA…water in the ear!

He tired enough to sit for 10 seconds…

And then went back to exploring!

Thanks guys! Becky, I bet we’ll be able to get Colin to sit for his 3 year old pics, right? :)

Last week I met up with the Suarez Family. They’ve graced the blog a few times now! It is so fun as a photographer to watch these kids grow up! Photographing 3 little ones is a tough job! I have to remind parents that at this age it’s going to be hard to get those “formal” smile-at-the-camera shots…and I think it’s so much more fun to just catch their personalities in action!

They brought along a wagon for the little guy…he looks a little nervous with his sisters behind the wheel :)

He dances every time mom sings to him!

I just love these two. Their different personalities are really starting to show now that they are toddlers.

At the end we all got to make silly faces :)
Have a wonderful summer!

A few months ago I donated a session for a trivia night through work, and Mary won! She is a fellow SLP and will be relocating out of St. Louis soon…so she thought it would be fun to do a session with her nieces who are so important to her :)

We had lots of fun during this session…the girls were all showing me their gymnastic talents…and I would love to blog more, but WHOA am I busy…and tonight is my hubby’s birthday! Hope you enjoy your preview!

Here are all the beautiful ladies…

Helen is the oldest sister…

Followed by Gracie…

And Sarah is the youngest!





Mary! Perfect facebook profile shot!

Three sweet sisters…


Have a great weekend! I’ll be celebrating Griff’s birthday…shooting Maryann and Mike’s Wedding on Saturday, and a family session in Edwardsville Sunday!!

Over the last year there has been a shift in my business toward shooting more and more weddings, with less and less families and kids. It wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision…I just got so busy shooting weddings I didn’t have time to add family sessions and was turning some people down, which I hate to do! This upcoming spring I left myself some time to squeeze in some portrait sessions because I missed doing them!

Monday I got to meet Sam and Juliana who are 7 and 10 years old. It’s always nice to photograph kids who are old enough to follow directions :) What I didn’t know was that not only can they follow directions but these two REALLY love each other! I didn’t see any bickering or meanness (which I remember from when my bro and I were little!) They laughed and played and hugged…it was so sweet!!

Not your typical children’s portrait…

…followed by a very nice one :)

Sam and Juliana’s mom wanted some photos that were more “them” than the ones you can get at the mall. I think we accomplished that!

So pretty…

…and her handsome little brother…

Love this photo!


I had lots of fun capturing this brother/sister relationship! Thanks for looking :)

On Christmas Eve I met with the Caleo Family out in St. Peters. Christmas Eve?!? Yep, Christmas Eve. I’d been talking with Sandi for months trying to set something up for when the whole family was in town for the holidays. And well, Christmas Eve was the only day it was gonna work :) Of course it was a cold, snowy day, so we decided to do some fun stuff at James and Kristen’s home. You may remember part of this family from our last december photo shoot!

Here are all the kids + grandkids

They later changed into some regular clothes, and looked cute and coordinated :) I believe this pose below has been done at each girl’s wedding :)

James and Kristen in front of their lovely fireplace…the photos behind them were taken by a great photographer back in Pennsylania.

Sandi is the one who booked me, and we have already discussed doing another fun shoot this summer out in the sun (remember the sun? I know, it’s difficult…)

I knew since we’d be stuck inside we might want to do a fun activity as a family…so time to bake cupcakes!

I love when kids get to be kids without adults hovering and controlling their every move. They had so much fun!





Mmmm…sprinkles….
Thanks for having me out to your home guys! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!