I love the cute creative ways different couples hold hands!

A little bit brighter processing for this next one–I wanted her cute shoes to pop!

I am so stinking excited to photograph all the big events in this baby’s life.  From her birth to her first lost tooth to her graduation from law school…I’m going to capture it all from a front row seat AS HER GODMOTHER.  I’m hoping this little baby has her momma’s eyes, her daddy’s patience, and most of all her momma’s ability to make me pee my pants with laughter.

Here’s the “fun pose” from our 5 minute photo shoot Saturday.  Fine print: I totally stole this from another photographer, so we can’t take any credit for it.  Except for growing the baby–that I claim credit for.  And for making Nic take the picture.  And for the rad “ferret stripe” down my belly that takes a detour at my belly button.  Did that with Will, too (although with Will it showed up much earlier and was much darker)!

As Nic was drawing on my belly (eyebrow pencil–although Nic really wanted to use a permanent pen and let me go to the hospital like that) Will was sooooooo excited.  “Can I draw Baby Ellie?!!” he wanted to know.  So after we fired off a shot or two we turned the pencil over to him.  He ever so carefully added eyebrows and was working on some beautiful newborn hair when the pencil broke.  I would have loved to see how he would have finished it all off!

I am crazy excited for him to meet her.  Unfortunately because of the hospital’s “swine flu” policy, no kiddos are allowed, so he is going to have to wait even longer than Nic and I…if my current plans fail.  (My current schemes involve dressing him up like an old man with a cane, putting him in a carseat box and smuggling him in, or saying “Ummmm–he’s 74.  Haven’t you seen Benjamin Button?!”)  Today we were running last minute errands and he saw a girl with her younger sister, ran right up to her and asked “Is that your Baby Ellie?  I have a baby sister Baby Ellie.  Your Baby Ellie is so big.  My Baby Ellie is so small.  She’s in Mommy’s tummy.  I like your Baby Ellie.”  Which made me so excited for Ellie to make her way into the world and see what a great big brother is waiting for her!

Anyone want to play “guess what date/time she will arrive?”  The person who has the closest guess will win an AMAZING prize.  (And by amazing, I mean something like a candy bar.  I’m no Pioneer Woman.)  Background scoop: Will was either 2 or 5 days early, depending on which of his due dates you go by.  And (on a conflicting “but she might be late” note) I won’t induce/strip membranes/etc, so it IS possible that she could be a February baby.  But she’d be a fool to wait that long with a big brother as cute as hers waiting on her!

There’s a field by our house that is filled with wildflowers that I’ve been dying to shoot in, and Larissa gave me free reign on picking the location of the shoot.  I learned an important lesson, though, in location scouting–get out of the car.  The field was a giant anthill and thanks to some swampy water nearby, it was swarming in mosquitoes!  (I’m itching away as I type this post!)  But the pictures turned out so well that it’s tempting to just stock up on bug spray and keep going back!

Larissa is such a gorgeous expectant mother!!

Larissa and Shawn are so sweet together.  I know they’ll make amazing parents!

The best part of photographing out in Falcon is that we get much nicer evening light out here than when we shoot closer to the mountains.  I love how soft and golden our closing shots were!

It was so much fun to get to photograph something a little different!  Thanks Larissa and Shawn!

Try not to be too jealous, but this is their neighborhood.  Gorgeous!

Brandi and Sam are so cute and in love!

Glowing mom alert!

A couple of inside shots…

Sam had done some awesome location scouting before the shoot and it was his idea to finish off their shoot on their deck.  Brilliant!

Thanks for a wonderful shoot, Brandi and Sam!  It was so much fun to meet you!

They have two excited helpers ready to be a big brother and sister!

I loved working with this sweet family and wish them a wonderful journey as they become a family of five!

Here’s what’s going on around here:

- First snow of the season on Sunday. “Woo-hoo!” as my son would say (Nic taught him to say that whenever it’s cold.)

- I have some very exciting things coming in the mail that will ensure that this blog gets the attention it deserves. I’d share the news, but that would ruin the surprise.

- I am watching Chuck while I type. Hence the spelling errors (if there are any). I am loving the new fall tv line-up. Chuck and Life are the absolute best. Journeyman, Bionic Woman, and The Next Iron Chef also get my vote. But if you aren’t watching Chuck or Life, you need to start.

And last, but not least, new photos from a new session!

Little Elizabeth was born Friday morning and weighed in at 7lbs, 13oz. Her parents had me come over Sunday, when she was just two days old! In fact, they’d only been home from the hospital for an hour or two when I arrived! Just a couple of weeks ago, this tiny thing looked like a bump on her mom’s belly:

It was an honor to get to spend part of Elizabeth’s third day with them. What a sweet angel she is–tons and tons of thick black hair, and lots of sweet little newborn noises. She has many out of town admirers, so I wanted to quickly post one of my favorite photos. She smiled for us a few times, and this was one of the bigger smiles!

We made some good memories–I hadn’t even fired off a frame before naked Elizabeth pooped all over her dad’s arm. While we were cleaning him up, she peed on her mom…and then as we cleaned that up, she pooped on her, too! We laughed a lot, and then got back to our photos.