I was so excited to get to shoot pictures of baby R.  My sister’s best friends Lindsey & Doug just had a baby, my sister has been telling me how awesome Lindsey is for years, so I was excited to spend some time with her & her new family.  My sister doesn’t lie, they’re both very sweet.  Plus I’ve been hibernating a bit for the winter, so it was nice to start shooting again. I can’t wait for spring!

Here are a few of my favorites so far.

Who wouldn’t love a face this sweet!

I love baby toes, how cute.

It’s the beginning of a new year, so I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite pictures from 2009.

It’s hard to pick my most favorite, but the one at the top of this post certainly makes me smile!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season & I hope you all have a 2010 that’s jam packed with awesomey-goodness!

I can’t believe it’s been a whole year already! It’s been so great watching this little guy grow from a tiny newborn. Now he’s walking & starting to talk! It was so cute hearing him babble throughout the shoot! It was so great getting to know him & his wonderful family over the past year.

As usual, it was pretty hard to pick only a few favorites. He has so many cute expressions!

Peek-a-boo!

I think he was blowing kisses here.

He’s such a happy little guy.

This one just makes me smile.

I have the cutest, sweetest couples, I’m so lucky! We had some wonderful weather to work with too.  I hope it stays this way (no snow please!!).

Here’s a few previews from Jenny & Ben’s engagement shoot. I can’t wait for their wedding next spring.

Cory took this one, it’s one of my favorites!

We had the hardest time getting the leaves to cooperate with us for this. The wind was just crazy down by the river.

This one was Jenny’s idea, I love it!

If you’re wondering where I’ve been the last few weeks, we’ve had quite the busy month.  My sister, my daughter & I were all born in August, so we had a month of birthdays! I turned 29 this year, not quite used to that yet, but it’s been a good year. Crystal just turned 9, and both the kids started new schools this month, so we’ve been getting them adjusted.  Last night we picked up Crystal’s first Viola, she’s starting orchestra this year (I’ll have to get some pictures up soon). We also had one of my best friends come up from Arizona to stay with us, so it’s been a bit crazy. I’m happy to get back to some photo shoots!

Those of you who know me might be thinking that this blog tittle is a bald-faced lie, and ordinarily you would be right.  I’m not a morning person at all, it might have been partially because of all the night jobs I’ve had over the year, but regardless, I’m not generally cheerful first thing in the morning.  I think all that might be changing though, we did this cutie’s photo shoot bright and early this morning, and the light was amazing.  So pretty I might be forcing myself out of bed early more often!

I probably posted way too many pictures of this little guy, but I couldn’t help it, he’s so adorable! His little smile was just contagious, and he’s at such a fun age, you start to see a bit of a personality emerging, it’s wonderful!

If the above picture didn’t make you smile, you might be a grump.

Gotta love those raspberries.

Oooh! I love this face!

There’s that pretty light I’m loving!

This little guy is such a momma’s boy, it’s adorable. I love how sweet they look together.

Especially when they’re choking each other, lol. No brides were harmed during this photo session.

Abby & Scott were so much fun, I can’t wait for their wedding next year!

I wanted to share with you the story of how Abby and Scott first met, because it was pretty cute. Abby was going to a Cubs game with some of her family, and Scott was going with quite a few of his friends, and one of them was related to Abby, so it was really just one big group. When they got there, they had a bit of a seating mix up and Scott got stuck sitting next to Abby. Apparently they weren’t too happy about the arrangement (The picture at the top might be a  dramatization of what happened), but it all worked out in the end. So of course when it came time to propose, where else but another Cubs game? I love it!

I shoot in some weird locations, but I’ve never had any weird run-ins with people like we did for this shoot.

First off a friend of mine, Teresa Ousley from Wiz of Oz Photography, was doing a shoot with a bunch of bikers and Sturgis Scooter Girl. I knew about the bikes, but I think we were all a little shocked to turn around and find 10 bikers and a scantily clad scooter girl. Teresa posted some pics on facebook, but they’re definitly not for the timid (and not safe for work).  We did get to borrow a bike for some pictures, so the whole thing worked out great.

After we left Sylvan Island, we headed to some downtown Rock Island areas to use some of the cool buildings. We were there about 5 minutes before someone started shouting out a window to find out what we were doing. A few minutes later, someone walked by & asked to bum a smoke.

Anyways, it all worked out well & we got some great pictures.

That bike was rockin’!

As paybacks for choking her, Abby tried to eat Scott’s nose, tasty!

Catching up some more pictures from two sessions a few weeks ago.

What a cutie!

Carrie & Travis are so sweet together!

Carrie’s got some gorgeous eyes!

I’ve got some crazy stories and more pictures coming soon.

Cory & I got to go shoot little Skyler today at Vanderveer Park in Davenport.  He was one of the winners in my Autism Awareness contest back in March.  Isn’t he just the cutest? He was such a sweetheart!

Cory took this one, I love it! He does so well with kids!  I had to use a new processing style I’m trying out.

More to come…