Mills Children Photo Session -- Sun and Shadows

Josh, Magnolia and I spent a half of a month in Michigan this June/July and while I was there, I was lucky enough to meet up with a friend from elementary and middle school for a photoshoot of her kids!  Mary and her two kiddos, Joe and Ann met me at Mrs. Stocks Park in Hillsdale, Michigan for a session on a bright and sunny day!  Immediately, I could see the shadows everywhere and I loved including the shadow of every object into my shots!  The kids ran around in the beautifully landscaped scenery of the park, which, if it was in Colorado, would be packed with people and dogs, yet its nearly empty each time I have been here.  A gem for a photo shoot!  

Photo Sessions for the Denver area!

I am excited to offer photography sessions for the Denver metro area!  

We all know that a good photo is priceless, and long gone is the day when we step into the portrait studio with fake backgrounds; instead taking photos at a favorite outdoor location, or in your home are much more memorable and intimate.   Photography sessions should be fun, and when they are; the greatest moments can be captured digitally and remembered forever.  
Check out my pricing options below; I like to keep it simple:  Book a session and receive a CD and digital copies of your edited photo session with rights to print them as you'd like. 

Am I hearing things? I think I am....

Can you hear her crying?  I can!

Ever since we had Magnolia and brought this little bundle joy home, I've heard a baby crying.  Lots of it. 
Magnolia cries a lot, or at least she did until 6 months of age; but even when she's not actually crying, I can still hear her.  Do other mom's have this?   There are days where I can barely get the crying out of my head and I wonder; am I going a little crazy?   Am I going to hear phantom baby cries for the rest of my life? 
Not only do I hear her cry, but I hear her laugh, I hear the musical toys playing and I hear her squealing.  The other night, her musical toy kept playing over and over as I sat downstairs as I was relaxing on the couch, and I couldn't understand why my husband was not turning to toy off, surely it was annoying him too?!  Finally, I went upstairs and quickly realized, there is no toy playing music, I'm just hearing things again. 

Monthly Milestone Photos

A few months ago I found this idea from a blogger on pinterest; take a good photo of your child and add all of their monthly milestones to it!  I loved the idea, mostly because it's easy and fun to make.  I found the idea when Magnolia was 4 months old, and created a photo for each month, even though it was hard to find photos that offered space to type.  For her 6 month birthday I did a photo shoot (basically dressed her in something cute and took a bunch of photos), chose one that I liked that offered space to type, and then waited until the end of the month to fill it in.  Magnolia will be turning 7 months old on the 5th (where did the time go?) and I'll do another photo shoot for her pretty soon.  I hope to create a frame for all of the photos, maybe for a year, or maybe longer; we'll see...

Things NOT to say to a new mother

Fussy baby Magnolia -- can you hear her?

While I was pregnant, I blogged frequently about how many people feel the need to force their opinions on you about pregnancy, health and babies; and I had hoped it would go away once the baby was here, but how wrong I was!  No matter what, people feel the need to open their mouths and comment on everything about baby.  I have had a few encounters that left me feeling very upset and sad.  But first, I should mention that Magnolia was a colicky baby, the definition of colic means that a baby cries more than 3 times per week for more than 3 hours at a time, for more than 3 weeks.  Check, check, check.  Yup, colic!   Magnolia would cry for HOURS on end, no matter what we did for her, nurse, rock, walk, drive, stroller, carrier, soothe, etc etc etc...nothing worked!  She just kept crying.  So as a frustrated mama, I would mention this to people; who would respond with, "whats wrong with your baby?"  Which, of course, never makes any mother feel good.  You begin to think, what IS wrong with my baby?  Why is she so fussy?  I began to look for things that were wrong, does her stomach hurt, is she scared; we spent a LOT of money on alternative therapies for her to make her stop crying, cranio-sacral therapy, naturopathic medicine, numerous homeopathic remedies, trips and phone calls to the doctor, to the midwives, to my mom, my husband, in tears...why won't she stop crying?  But she did, finally.  At 5 months, she chilled out and went from being the biggest fusser to being only mildly fussy.  What was wrong with her?  Nothing.  

I'm back!

I'm back!  Well, sort of.  My blog is back, and that is good news, but my website is still missing a web host (any suggestions?) and then the actual time to transfer it (anyone want to send me some spare time?) and then I'll be fully back.  For now, I am just happy to be back to blogging because I missed it so much.  Let me update you with all the on-goings of life in the very short time Magnolia is napping. 
First, I have been very busy as a mama, Magnolia is now 6.5 months old and I can't believe so much time has flown by!  Every parent always says 'they grow up so fast' and I always nodded my head, not really fully understanding what every parent meant, until now.  

Magnolia is such a blessing, she is a feisty, determined, smart little girl that keeps me on my toes all the time!  The last 6 months have been the hardest of my life, but also the most rewarding.  Much more on this to come.  

Following up on baby sleep schedule and new etsy items!

I finally got another chance to blog, something that I have been thinking about for weeks since my last post!  Since then, I have gotten a little more organized; I have been writing down Magnolia's schedule on a calender tool that I found, cozi.com, and she has been a little more regular with her sleep schedule, but nothing definitive.  She takes a morning nap, afternoon nap, and a bunch of catnaps in between.  While she doesn't go down for rest at the same time each day;  I am hoping that we can work toward that in the future so that I can have some predictable work time.
The calender tool that I found is called Cozi (www.cozi.com); it just so happens that it's the same tool that Josh and I have been using for our grocery list for the past 6 months, and I decided to try to use it for everything else too.  While its not ideal for what I need, it is the best that I can find so far.  I am able to use the calender tool to write down Magnolia's daily naps, feedings and other information; cozi also has a shopping list where I jot down groceries and other items that we need and it interfaces with Josh's email so that he logs in and sees what is on the list and can add his own items.  The calender also has a  "to do" list that we use for what needs to be done around the house and there is even a 'meal list' where you can save recipes that you enjoy.  The downfalls are that the recipes don't show up as images, just links, and the calender doesn't interface with other social media tools.  However, while its not perfect, its usable and that is what I am looking for right now.