Fresh 48 Session

I don't blog much on here about my photography. These last few years, I have learned so much and continue to learn and grow within this new found love and passion of mine. I continue to challenge myself in every area and try new things all the time. This year I have found a new favorite session of mine. They are called 'fresh 48' sessions. This is a session within 48 hours of having your baby while you are still in the hospital.

I had the pleasure of taking pictures of baby Cameron within this perfect time frame to capture the fresh skin, hospital bracelets, and those adorable brand new details. I want to show you just a few of the pictures I took for this particular session.

Welcome to the world Cameron....

 Love those tiny little fingers wrapped around Mom's finger

 For some reason the black and whites of these sessions are my favorite

 ten little fingers and ten tiny little toes....

 

 I hope to do more and more of these sessions in the future.  Just as my clients are thankful for my pictures, I am thankful to them for allowing me to capture them. So I made Christina a cute congrats card on treat.com

 Love the little details on this card like the fonts and border on the inside!

 Oh and check out that cute little profile on the back!!

 If you're interested in a 'Fresh 48' session and in the Grand Rapids, Mi area, please contact me. You can also follow along my photography on my Facebook page.

Summer Visit from Grandma Candy

The last time we went to visit Jason's parents and relatives in the U.P. was when Ava was a few months old. Sooooo needless to say, it's been wayyyyyy too long. It was a tough trip. And that's putting it nicely. We had a great time visiting relatives but the tough part was keeping Austin happy and occupied throughout our visits. I don't expect everyone's home to be toddler proof nor that they have all his favorite toys. And we certainly didn't do the best of job of packing all the right stuff either. I didn't get any sleep as usual so it left me with a bad taste in my mouth about heading back so soon. I was hoping the kids would get better in regards to traveling in the car, but what was I thinking!? That never happens, right!?

Ok so enough back story. Grandma Candy was dying to see her grandchildren and who could blame her!? So she planned a trip during July when Kirk was going to be home from Seattle (he works there and comes home to the U.P. about one weekend a month).

She always does a good job of asking what the kids are 'into' so she can bring them a few presents.

Austin is in love with all things sharks. She brought him the absolutely bestest present ever! A large plush shark. And shark tattoos. And a shark backpack. And they wouldn't go together unless he wore his favorite shark shirt. Duh!

 

 Cheeeeeeeeese!

 We had such a great weekend. We spent Saturday at the Byron Center Days Parade and Festival.

 Kirk always holds a special place in his heart for Lily. He loves dogs! And who wouldn't love a fat, snuggly, snorting pug dog??

 Lily!! These pictures were supposed to be of just Candy and Kirk! I can hear her now 'Thank goodness someone is FINALLY scratching me'.

 This picture couldn't have come at better timing. I just ordered Austin's invitations for his 4th birthday party. It's a shark birthday party. Are you surprised?

 Mom! Take a picture of just the shark! He's gonna bite you!!!

He didn't let that shark out of his sight for weeks! It went with him everywhere! Teenage mutant ninja turtles took over his next obsession for a while but Sharks trumped over them for his birthday theme. I was shocked when he picked that over TMNT only because all of his friends are having ninja turtle parties. I'm secretly happy because the shark theme is something you can really sink your teeth into! (ba dump shhhh, or however you spell that symbol sound!)

So off we go to the U.P. in just a few weeks to visit again. Start the prayers now that we all survive the 7 hour car ride. I better start doing some sleep training....for myself. Or start stocking up on Benadryl!

Blueberry Picking

My cousin Kate and I were working hard on trying to check off things on the bucket list for the summer. One of the items on our list was picking blueberries. It's getting later in the season for blueberries so we decided to head out towards Holland to Bowerman's. It was perfect 'picking' weather!

 They have a small playground outside their front doors that the kids just LOVED.

 Who doesn't love sticking their face in those windows!?

 She makes a cute little blueberry if I don't say so myself!

 This is one of those moments I secretly wished I had brought my new macro lens. I still had my 85mm on my camera from a family photo session the night prior, but this is one of my top fave lenses I own. Those blueberries in the early morning were so beautiful to me, but to the kids...they were breakfast.

 Kate's an expert when it comes to blueberry pickin'. She helped show Ava which ones to pick eat.

 This is going to have be an annual thing!

 More beautiful blueberries. I'd post even more pics of these beauts, but let's get back to those cute kiddos!

 Jackie may have a mouthful of blueberries here. Who would blame her!? They were delicious!

 More please!!!

 These two ran up and down the aisle of bushes just giggling away.

 I wonder who can fit more berries in their mouth??

 Ava was getting the technique down too....

 Yummy!

 We can't forget about Grace! We have to watch this one because she's a veteran. She already came here earlier this summer, ate blueberries galore, then they all came back up, then she ate some more.

 Hopefully she learned her lesson the first time around because she is wayyyy too cute to say 'no' to.

I hope the kids had as much fun as I did. I know Kate did! We were chatting about it all weekend. I wanted to make sure that I showed Kate how much I appreciate her tackling our bucket list this summer with us.

Jackie and Grace had sent us a really cute photo thank-you card earlier this summer for going with them to Craig's Cruisers. I loved that it sat out near my window for weeks with their smiling faces reminding me how thankful I am for my family.

I headed over to treat.com to make a similar thank-you card. It was hard to pick one out since there are so many cute options. I had to pick one with quite a few photo options because I wanted Kate to see those same smiling faces every time she walks by it.

Here's the card I sent her.....

I got this stand at an antique store in Holland. I love that every time I get an invite or announcement in the mail, that I get to display it for others to see until the next one comes.

Can't wait until apple picking soon (I'm craving a honeycrisp apple right now!!)