Click on the title of the blog post to view the entire entry.
It is an honor to photograph newborns. It is especially meaningful when I get to photograph someone close to our hearts, such as this sweet baby Naomi, our newest niece.
Congratulations to my sister, Rebekah and her family on welcome this sweet girl. Baby Naomi has the most adorable cheeks, round button chin, and gorgeous dark hair. I look forward to watching her grow.
It’s been quite some time since I posted any photographs of our little one. As you can see, she is developing her own spunky little personality and can be quite a challenge to keep up with. I picked up this adorable handmade boutique outfit at the last Just Between Friends, JBF, Consignment Sale. She looked great in it for our Easter events but I couldn’t let her outgrow it without a little photo session. Our local Japanese stroll gardens, offered a free entrance day so we headed out to the park.
It is important to me that our daughter enjoy her photo sessions. I plan on a lifetime of photo sessions, so I don’t want to us to have many negative experiences. The majority of the time this means our little sessions involve a lot of creative play with some direction from Mom and never last very long. On several occasions, I have also given up, admittedly sometime with slight frustration and disappointment, and decided to try another day. My role as an understanding, patient, loving Mommy is more important than perfect photographs of my daughter. There are times when she will ask for me to take her pictures and I’ll drop everything when that occurs. Hopefully, as she grows her attention span will lengthen and I can involve her in the creative process more so she can feel more ownership in her sessions.
One of the many roles I currently play is the one of a Mommy Photographer. The term “Mommy Photographer” has actually developed a negative connotation among differently circles. Mostly because some women, who are also mothers, will try to operate a photography business in a way that is not professional or of the best quality. I, however, love my title of Mommy Photographer even if it can be one of the most challenging.
It’s been a while since I shared any photos of our little girl. She is on the go and likes to “cheese” it up these days so it can be a challenge to capture her. I love how this set of photos taken over a month portrays the different aspects of her personality.
Our first Fall with Emiana was absolutely incredible. We embarked on our first family camping trip and was surprised how much our little one loved playing in the dirt, sleeping under the stars, and exploring the outdoors. She probably ate a little too much dirt but what a joyous adventure.
Emiana and I got all dressed up for a night downtown with Daddy for his birthday. I love this photograph we captured before we went shopping at the market.
Our sweet girly attended her first Fall Festival as a Princess Polar Bear. We borrowed the bear costume from a friend and although it is adorable it just wasn’t girly enough for me. So, we added a bow, a crown, and a tutu, all in pink of course. Months 9 and 10 were packed full of amazing memories.
My blog has been silent for sometime now, actually more than six months. I’ve felt that before I return to business on the blog I need, and want, to write about our family’s recent loss. However, making yourself sit down and express your feelings about the death of a family member is just plain hard, hence the months that have past.
On Christmas day, my mother-in-law, Carolyn passed away. It was then, and is still, difficult to believe how quickly everything happened. Early in the Fall, Carolyn was surprised to discover that she had cancer that was incurable. Over the past several years, she bravely faced multiple major surgeries and had battled her way through them and the recovery associated with each one. However, before the last diagnosis she was gaining strength and energy and feeling better. So, we were shocked.
During the times of her surgeries, I had the opportunity to help care for Carolyn. Often, it just meant being there with her but it was so much more. We had a lot of time to exhange stories, laugh together, and on a rare occasion shed some tears. Being in a situation in which you feel you have to carry so much more than you can really forces us to grow individually, grow closer together, and grow in Faith. Carolyn and I had very different personalities and the majority of the time our viewpoints about most everything stood at opposite ends of the spectrum. Yet, somehow in the past few years we were able to understand each other more.
I hurt for my husband, all of Carolyn’s family, and I hurt for our daughter. I hate that Emiana will grow up without personally knowing her Granny. I will always remember how Emiana could make Carolyn smile, even up to last week of her life. Now it becomes our job to share memories of Carolyn with her and try to instill character qualities in Emiana that would make Granny proud. Our garage is now full of boxes of Carolyn’s belongings and items passed down to her from previous generations. We long to display them in our home, share them with our daughter, and preserve them for future generations of our family. The time will come soon that will work our way through all of it, but for now it is just too hard.
Our family is treading through waters of which we have never been before. We are definetly still fighting an upstream battle. We’ve had a lot of family and friends reach out to us but I find it easier to try and keep it all in rather than letting it go. However, I believe that doing so has made my grief continue to grow and here I am six months later trying to sort through it all. It seems so callous to say that our lives must still go on but it is the truth. In a way, all the arrangements and details of Carolyn’s care, then the services, caring for the house, and financial arrangements kept us busy and made it easier to delay feeling the finality of everything. However, all the arrangements are being tied up. No more delay. Now, we’re trying to transition from just making it to doing better.
My husband and I have spent many days and long nights discussing how to move forward. How do we remember Carolyn in a way that is honoring and will help our daughter know the Granny she won’t personally remember? Are we living our lives in such a way that if something happened to us the people surrounding us would know that we loved them and that we loved the Lord? What arrangements should we make so that when Emiana is forced to deal with the loss of a parent it will be as easy as possible?
I’m not sure this post really has any closure but it’s fitting as I don’t yet feel much closure myself. I know I can say that I’ve grown a lot lately but I’ve also feel more unsure of my days and have struggled with anxiety. Hal and I have recently encountered several family members and friends who are beginning the journey of dealing with a loved-one’s illness or death. Now, I just hope that we can offer some words of comfort or encouragement or simply be willing listeners that can lift them up in prayer.
This Momma is in dire need of a little encouragement. This time of year, I almost literally have to work around the clock and we’ve been struggling with illness at our home for the past week. Last night I was editing and working on client galleries until the wee hours of the morning. It helps to feel like I was able to get some things accomplished but looking at photos of our girly always makes me smile. So, today I’m sharing my favorites from month 8 with Emiana. What a fun stage!
I’m pretty sure we’ll be purchasing a storyboard similar to the one above for our home. I LOVE these three photos together. Emiana still does not have an abundance of hair but it is filling in some and we get many comments about our little red head. My family has a tint of red in our hair but I think she gets it from her Daddy. Not many people have seen my husband, Hal with facial hair but when he grows any it looks just like the color of Emiana’s hair.
The photo above where she is standing at the fence was taken a few minutes after sunset. The hour or two before sunset, and the time immediately after, is frequently referred to as the “golden hour” for photography. I absolutely adore how the color of her eyes, lips, and red(ish) hair just pops. I have two general rules of thumb for the timing of photo sessions- 1) If you have a young child in the photograph base the time of the session on their happiest time of day. If this happens to be a time of day when the sun is intense, plan your session in a shaded location 2) In most other cases go for the “golden hour” before sunset. The next best choice is the time immediately before sunrise and the hour after before the sun becomes too intense
Finally, a little playground playtime. Emiana is a climber. She has not taken a step on her own yet. However, she is becoming quite efficient to arrange multiple items to climb on and reach onto the higher shelves within our home. Yikes! Her love for climbing does equal a love for the playground and we have had many an evening full of smiles and laughter watching this girl play at the park.
Hoping to share some 9 months photos soon since I have a little ground to make up so I’ll be ready to share the photos celebrating her first birthday which is quickly approaching.
I just couldn’t head to bed tonight without introducing you to my brother, Josh, and his family. Emiana is the eighth grandchild on my side of the family and five of those are in Josh’s family. I had a great time spending a little time with each of my nephews and my niece for their individual photos. As you might imagine, with so many kids running around there is rarely a quiet moment with each one individually.
The two youngest boys are twins. Honestly, I have a very difficult time telling them apart. Since I had the opportunity to spend a little more time with them on this trip than usual, I almost had it figured out. However, the boys have recently had hair cuts so I’ll be starting over in my twin identifying mission. The top family photograph features our nephews Nathan, Ronson, & Ian (LtoR) in the top row and our niece Ella, my brother Josh&his wife Sandra, and our other nephew Josh in the bottom row.
I’m sure the orange and black, Fall theme worked alright for my brother however I think he’ll just think of it as OSU orange.
Spending time editing this session was almost as emotional as editing Emiana’s sessions. The always changing and growing kids are a constant reminder of how quickly time is flying by. Josh&Sandra hope you all love the pics and cherish them as much as I do.
During a recent jaunt to Tulsa, I had the privilege to photograph Miss Katelynn and her little brother, David. It has been several years since we tried to capture some images of these two, my niece and nephew, together. The entire session was spent on the move, as are all sessions featuring children between the ages of 2-5.
It just makes me smile how we were able to capture some moments between these two that really show their special relationship. Although, in the midst of a sibling argument their mom might wonder, it is obvious these two really love each other.
Lately I’ve been spending A LOT of time working. I rarely make it into bed in the p.m. hours. So, I’ve been missing spending time with my sweet girly. I thought I would post some new pictures as I am nearly three months behind on showcasing her little sessions. 
1 So far Emiana has been able to wear her clothes past the suggested size. We put together a little fashion shoot with some of our favorite 0-3 month clothes before we packed them away
2 Love me some Black&White on this girly!
3 Emiana spends the majority of her waking hours wearing a bow or a flower. They end up in various positions such as the bow tie position. I happened to catch this bow mishap which resulted in the nickname “OneEye”. A little photography note, professional backdrops are not always necessary. This “backdrop” is a vinyl tablecloth that was on clearance for $2 at Old Navy.
4One of our “official” sessions in the fancy pink dress passed to us by our friend Emme. Each time I have the equipment set up in our home for Captured by Sarah sessions, we leave it up until we can fit in a little session with our model. I frequently wish I had a separate studio space, as it is not always easy to keep our home client ready with Emiana around. However, it is a good motivator to make sure I capture photographs of our girly as well as my clients.
5 Celebrating the 4th of July at I Love America. Emiana is sporting a bow by Butter Bugs, Designer Tonya Jackson. She makes all styles of bow and acessories and does custom work, too. You can find her on Facebook as Butter Bugs or E-mail mybutterbugs@gmail.com.
6 Emiana enjoyed swimming in Papa’s pool. Grandma Anne picked out this adorable floaty for her.
Well, I’ve also been missing my brother and sister-in-law. Not only are they family but also great friends and encouragers. They have spent a lot of time deployed with the Air Force lately and are currently serving a long deployment. Before they left we had a chance to visit. We went to the rodeo, ate a delicious brunch a Bass Pro’s Hemingways with our Dad, and visited the Japanese Stroll Gardens. So, I’m featuring Emiana’s rodeo session with her pink boots and some snapshots of Jake & Linsey. We Love & Miss You!
A special thanks to Miss Crystal, Nick, & Connor who gifted us with Emiana’s rodeo outfit.
Our family primarily uses cloth diapers and makes our own baby food. Although I appreciate the idea of being “green”, I have to admit our primary reason for choosing cloth diapers was the financial savings. My husband and I have both made many sacrifices for me to spend so much time at home, with our daughter, while she is young. So, I consider it one of my Mommy duties to find all the ways possible to parent with frugality. I just didn’t know I would enjoy it so much a long the way.
We started our daughter, Emiana on cereal at six months and followed it with solid foods. In the weeks leading up to to the introduction of solids, we stocked the freezer. I perused many different websites researching the best order to introduce the foods. Boy are there many varying opinions. However, our primary resource in the beginning and even now is a fantastic book, Cooking for Baby: Wholesome, Homemade, Delicious Foods for 6 to 18 Months by Lisa Barnes. We were blessed to receive it as gift from a dear friend of ours, Jen.
Homemade baby food is able to maintain many more nutrients than its commercially prepared counterparts which are cooked at extreme temperatures to extend its shelf-life. I’ve tasted all of Emiana’s food before serving it to her and have found it to be pretty tasty (the asparagus was a little much). One of my favorite features, no baby food smells! The main downside is that the food has to be refrigerated so if we are on the go I pop it in a small lunch box with a few ice packs.
I prepare the food in large batches and was pleasantly surprised by the ease of the whole process. The basic process that we use includes washing the fruits&veggies, steaming, pureeingin the food processor, freezing in ice cubes trays, and storing in labeled Ziploc bags. I have also saved the water leftover after the steaming process, combined it with the vegetable trimmings and fruit cores, and used the broth in other recipes. Another resourceful way to add a few more nutrients.
If I had to make an estimate, I would say that in the three months (6-8) in which my daughter consistently ate purees, I spent between 15-18 hours total preparing her food. More about this in another post but, I am still batch preparing food only now it has switched to chunkier foods able to be devoured by little fingers.
I have found making Emiana’s food to be extremely gratifying and I’m so glad that I had the chutzpah to follow through.
Update, the time for guessing has ended so…. the foods featured in the post are brown rice, peaches, plums, asparagus, blueberries, carrots, zucchini, sweet potato, sweet peas, pears, apples, mango, green beans, butternut squash, and avocado.
