Meet Baby Julianna…. Such a cutie! She is about 5 months old for her session….. and she made her appearance 5 weeks early!  She was ready to come into the big ole’ world…..

Kim (mommy) was telling me that she was at Home Depot…getting some things to work on some house projects, and labor started…and her precious baby was here!

So cute! Love her expression!

Here is the sweet family… Joey, Kim, and Julianna…

Loves little toesies….

Love Kim’s face…. Such a sweet moment of mom and daughter.

It was a long day for Julianna…and I we tuckered her out.

Thanks Joey, Kim, and Julianna!!! Such a sweet, sweet family!

m.e.

There is a family that has taken care of my husband for the past 5 years… and I am so grateful for them. When my husband Josh moved to Maryland, he met Randall at work… and they became great friends. Every Wednesday night Randall’s wife, Stephanie, hosts “movie night,” and my husband heads over to their house to spend time with Randall, and a few of their buddies….

Stephanie is the other (often better) wife that I am referring to. Not only does Josh head over there for some much needed man time, Stephanie makes dinner for the boys every week! So, generally speaking I am off duty on Wednesday evenings…..and quite honestly, I am terrible in the kitchen to begin with. Wednesday is the day that I have always known my husband would be fed well… no thanks to me. For his sake I wish every day was Wednesday… He did not marry a domestic goddess, and I am the very first to admit that!

Stephanie and Randall, thank you for being so wonderful to Josh all of these years and taking care of him…. and being so kind and generous in every way. We appreciate you more than you know!

I did a family session with this family about a week ago… and we headed over to the local park… Randall and Stephanie have 3 boys… Caleb (the oldest), Ian (the middle guy), and Lucas (the teeny guy)…

They are gorgeous children!!!

Super sweet kiddos…. but Stephanie and Randall’s hands sure are full with 3 boys!

Stephanie and Lucas…

This might be one of my favorites of the day…. Here is Ian!

And the whole family…

This little guy is BRAVE!!! He was 100% fearless, and would have climbed anything if he were just tall enough…

Caleb….

The future football star… Maybe he will play for the Steelers?!

Thanks Randall and Stephanie! We love you guys!

m.e.

I met Alex and Therol about 2 years ago. A great client of mine who has referred so much business (Thank you Judy) recommended they contact me for some photographs… and I am so glad that they did! We did a session at Centennial Park… You can view their session here. They were super cute and so much fun to photograph… so I was THRILLED with Therol contacted me about photographs with their new addition, Ethan!

He is just a little charmer! He will be turning 1 shortly…and he did such a great job, especially considering the heat that day that we shot.

Ethan and daddy!

I have to say that this is my favorite photo of the session. It is so much fun to spend time with new parents… I think I love it because I am about to head into that journey myself and I am excited, but also frightened… The photo below of Therol and Ethan honestly makes me tear up. I look at it and it makes me feel selfish for the parts of our pregnancy journey that I wanted to turn back… I just look at that image and see the  P.U.R.E.   J.O.Y.  that Therol has on her face because she loves being a mom so much. I adore it, and it is a reminder that the new chapter of our life will be scary, yes, but also the most amazing journey that Josh and I will ever take. Thank you Therol for showing me how amazing parenthood is by your simple interaction with Ethan.

He is getting ready to walk…. needs a little help right now, but I am sure that he will be cruising around in no time!

The Happy Family…

Love, love his eyes!!!!

The sign clearly said, “No Wading,” but it was hot…. and it looked fun….

Thank you Alex, Therol, and Ethan! I had such a great time with you guys. It is such a blessing to watch my clients lives grow and change. It is such a privilege to document!

m.e.

A few days ago I shared a few photos of Lorelai, who just turned one. I thought I would share a little bit more of her session…. and her 1st Birthday Party!  Lorelai is a super cutie, and if you hadn’t seen the previous post, she came 2 months early…. and so it is such a blessing that she is healthy and doing so well. Her parents Meg and Steve are great friends of ours, and it has been fun to watch them on their new journey of parenthood…. Soon we won’t just be watching though… as we will be joining them! Crazy how time flies and how life seems to move at such a fast pace. I know we are old enough to start our family… but sometimes I think, “are we really that old already???”

Anyways, back to Lorelai. I met Meg when I was teaching in the Baltimore City Public School System. I taught Kindergarten, and she was the speech pathologist. We figured we were destined to be friends for a number of reasons…

1. We were both named Meaghan, and both spelled Meaghan. She was the first person that I met who spelled her name the same way as me.

2. I cried at one (really many) of our staff meetings because I was so frustrated about the school and the school system, and how there were a lot of people at our school who really didn’t have the best interest of the kids in mind. So, Meg decided that I must be nice since I was so stinkin’ sensitive. We both loved the kids and wanted the best for them… so we had that in common too…We came from suburbia hoping to make a difference and felt completely powerless to do so

3. We both went to Penn State (major points for anybody)

Those were the 3 main things… but it turns out that there are so many more things that we have in common…. and we have grown to be great friends. Meg stood beside me as a bridesmaid when I married Josh, and I am sure that we will have so many fun memories ahead of us…

So, on with the post! I headed to Leesburg, VA (Meg and Steve moved away…) for Lorelai’s 1st Birthday Party…. Below is the cookie cake that Meg made. Her chocolate chip cookies are AMAZING! So, so good, and it had been way too long since I had had one!

And Lorelai’s piece of cake to get messy in!

There were a lot of people… not sure if Lorelai knew what to make of all of the people watching her.

Especially when I was there with a camera in her face…. Lorelai liked her cake….but this was the messiest she got. If I were her… I would have been all over that! Just sayin’

Opening presents…

Not sure what to say about this one….  She looks pretty happy with that bottle of wine. Where are her parents for goodness sake?!?  ;)  Just teasing Meg.

The Happy Family.

The following weekend Meg and Steve came up to visit and I had a little photoshoot with Meg and Lorelai…

It was her first time on the swings and she loved it!

Lorelai was almost walking without any help…. and it turns out that I saw them again about a week and half ago, and she has mastered it! She can walk without any help now. It is so crazy how fast kids grow and change.

Thought this was so cute! Go Lorelai Go! Watch out Meg and Steve….

Thanks for being such great friends!! I love you guys so much!!!

m.e.

Just wanted to share a few pics from a little cutie that I shot a few weeks ago! This is Lorelai… and she just turned 1! I took some photos at her birthday… and then did a session with her for some 1 year portraits. Love the colors of her outfit to bring out her pretty blue eyes and they look so fun against the green grass. I have more photos to share from this session, but didn’t want to be a “non-blogger” today.

I am still working on a few things for a wedding post of last weekend… and plan to share those goodies with you tomorrow.

Hope Lorelai’s smily brightens up your day!

TThis was her first time on the swings and she L-O-V-E-D it!

And…. just so you can see Lorelai as a babe…. She was born about 2 months early… and she was a teeny tiny little cutie…

Here is a pic from her newborn session. What a blessing to watch her grow up to be strong and healthy!

m.e.