This is number seven, cooking away! I’m getting close enough to the end to start planning my maternity time off. This means a great deal for you! To celebrate, and to give me something to do after I stop doing sessions, and am just sitting around waiting for labor to begin, I am offering a great deal to fill my last few weeks of shooting time.

The first three people to schedule and pay the session fee will receive 7 desk/gift prints as a gift from me! That includes 8×10, 5×7, and wallet sets of 16. Session must be scheduled to be done by August 31st, my last day of shooting.  You can contact me to schedule by commenting on this blog, leave me a comment on Facebook, or send me a call or email. This offer expires July 28th.

But wait! There’s more!! My generosity is not limited to just those lucky three people. Anyone who books a session, including paying the session fee, and schedules their session to be done by Aug. 31st, will receive 21% off their entire purchase. Why 21%? Well, because that’s my due date! But don’t hold me to it. I’m quite comfortable going a couple of weeks late. Babies come when babies are ready! This offer expires Aug. 21st or when session times are filled. That’s right. They are limited, so schedule soon!

The middle girl is sporting a scratch given to her by the boy on top. And, if you can believe it, the bottom two boys are actually twins! Fraternal, obviously. Well, here’s my crew…. or most of it.

You really are interfering with my nap, Lady.

Really? You’re still there? I’m so bored with this.

OK! Enough already! I’ll just bury my face until you go away.

OK. So this is Max. He’s the best cat in the world. He jumped up into my studio set up and I just couldn’t resist. I figure I show my kids on the blog every now and then. I shouldn’t leave out my favorite feline kid.

Outside pictures will be taken at Crystal Lake at the boathouse. I took my family’s fall pictures there last October and loved how they turned out, so that’s where we’ll go. Here are some samples of those portraits.

If you prefer that studio look, and many people do and that’s fine, here are some samples of what you can hope to see of your student. At this time, I have white, brown, gray and black background available. You’ll have to choose ahead of time, so be sure to take a good look to help you decide.

And just because he’s so stinkin’ cute (yes, I admit, I may be a little bit biased), I had to include this picture of my Ian. He walked in just as I finished doing a quick shot of Hannah so you could see a brown sample. He’d just gotten up from his nap, but wanted me to take his picture. So I did.

Now that you’ve read through all my jabber, and had a good look at my sweetie, here are the important details. Portraits dates will be May 6th and 7th. The 6th will be the outside sessions and the 7th will be the studio sessions. After I get an idea of how many people want which type of session, I will announce times. You’ll get those by email.

If you are interested in having spring portraits done of your home schooled child, and their siblings, fill out the form below and I’ll get you added to the schedule. If you are not a home school family but are interested in something like this, let me know and I’ll add you to my mailing list and let you know when I’m doing mini-sessions that will include you.

Click Here to download the price list for packages.

[contact-form]

Can’t wait to get the prom pictures!

We got a lot of snow over night/early this morning. I mean a lot. In fact, shortly before these were taken, Emily and I went and pushed our neighbor through where she got stuck in the middle of the road.

Anyway, my van was stuck in the drive. My wonderful daughter decided she’d shovel the drive for me. She’s so cool. That’s her on the right. She was working hard. She got a lot done. Then after a bit, I hear the noise of a snow blower. That’s our neighbor, Lou. He’s not the one who got stuck. She’s in the next house over from Lou. Well, as I was watching Lou snow blow his drive, the contrast of how hard Emily was working and how quickly Lou was working. It made me really want to go out and buy a snow blower. I couldn’t of course, because my van was stuck in the drive way. About 5 minutes after I took these pictures, this happened:

That’s Lou snow blowing our sidewalk. He went ahead and did the whole driveway. He’s so cool. I think we’re going to go back him cookies or brownies or something now.

These are the shots I took for our Christmas card this year. Well, I didn’t take all of them. Hubby helped out. He took the shots of me. I was very excited to learn how to make my youngest give me a real smile instead of one like this:

Yep. That is his smile when I say, “smile.” I even tried it his way. When he pretends to take a picture he says, “pile.” That doesn’t work either. I had to go way traditional and tell him to say, “cheese” and it worked. I really love his goofy smile. In fact, this is the picture I printed big and chose to display in my home last year. I guess I should have told him to smile for his goofy picture. But, he has this thing he likes to do called “see my ew.” His “ew” is what you see when he pulls his face down from his eyes like that. So, I decided I needed to memorialize his “ew” and share it with my entire Christmas card list and now you, my blog reader.

Anyway, we have a great card that I’m very happy with. It’s too late for this year, but never too early to plan for next year! Custom photo holiday cards are great and people love to receive them. However, they aren’t just for Christmas. Birthdays, just moved, birth announcements are all great times to use custom photo cards. Let me know next time you have a special event you need to announce!

Thanks to Holly Birth Photography for coming out and capturing my crew with me included!! We don’t have many shots with me in them, so this is such a nice treat, and she did a great job!

I decided I needed to show a few more of her from that session.

OK. And I couldn’t resist one more totally cute one of her with her boyfriend.

Today, we celebrated my second daughter’s eleventh birthday. She is going into middle school in the fall. Growing up so fast!! I took this as she as blowing out her candles. It’s my favorite shot of her whole birthday. Happy birthday, Sweetie!!

This is my sweet baby boy. He looks up at me with those sweet, innocent little eyes. However, I, his mother, know this is just a facade. Behind the surface of innocence is the orneryest little guy every to walk the planet. I’m just glad, in moments like these, I can take a moment, and smile fondly at his potential to be the sweet little boy every mother dreams of.

This was taken by my teenaged daughter. She also did the effects and text. I think there’s some budding talent in there!

Isn’t she gorgeous?? Of course, since people say we look alike, I suppose I have to say that. But, really I do think she’s beautiful. She hasn’t had a nice portrait of herself in years, so when we went home over Christmas break, I had to take some shots for her. Her hubby got in on the act, too.

I took pictures of her three children last summer when they came to visit me. You may recognize those eyes from somewhere. Maybe….. here?

That’s little sis. Here’s big sis, who I was finally able to take pictures of so they all match now.

And just because they are so silly, I have to leave off with proof of that silliness.

Here is my oldest. She’s nearly 16. Wow. That’s so hard to believe.

Here is my tomboy. She hates having her picture taken and it’s always a fight to get her into the mood. But, I ended up not just with one I could live with, but one I really like!

Here is Thing 1. And let me say, after having two girls, these guys really do qualify as Things!!

And here’s Thing 2. It’s hard to look at them and imagine they are twins!

Here is my little princess. Actually, the picture I took of her at this session didn’t really show her to her best. It’s the little one. A few days later, I took one at home that really is more “her.” So, even though it doesn’t match the set, I think it’s the one I’m going to frame with the other kids. Or maybe I’ll put the matching one in the group display, and print the other one to hang somewhere else. First, the one with the other kids, and second the one I like better.

And along came Thing 3. Dr. Seuss didn’t write about him. It was too scary for a children’s book. This little guy is a crazy, fearless, daredevil!! He’s also quite ornery. Can’t you tell from that smile? Yes. He thinks he’s smiling in this picture.

I couldn’t end the session without some group shots. Well, actually, I started with these. You can tell it’s early because my cranky girl refused to smile.

Fortunately, in this shot, it didn’t matter if she smiled or not! This will be going over our fireplace.

That’s it! It was a very quick session, but we got everyone done! Oh, and just ignore the fact that my title contradicts this last image. They really do have shoes!

Just a little ps: I LOVE that my new blog allows me to show images bigger!