It is hard to believe...

that Claire will be 2 months on Sunday. The past 8 weeks have been amazing and life with two children is better than I could have ever imagined. Now it is time for our season to begin. We will be starting the month of March off pretty heavy with sessions and look forward to sharing them with you. Our weddings will begin in April...so stay tuned. :) Below you will see a sampling of some of the ways we will be documenting some of our sessions in the coming weeks. Enjoy!

Thank you again for all of the love and support you have given us as we prepared for (and are now living) life with two. We have been truly blessed with amazing families, friends and clients! We look forward to sharing life and living life with you. May God bless you all! Much love...

Claire at 7 weeks...

It has been another wonderful week with our new addition. She is full of smiles and loves to talk with you...it is absolutely adorable to watch. Claire continues to have longer stretches with her sleeping...giving me more time to sleep as well. I won't lie...I enjoy my sleep. ;) Check back for her 2 month pictures coming soon. It is so crazy to think about how much time has passed already. I continuously stop and remind myself that I need to enjoy all of these special moments I have with her and Gabe. Before long...they will be all grown-up...aahhh!!! :( Anyway, my maternity time is finishing up and we will be starting our season next week. We have some wonderful sessions coming up that I am already looking forward to sharing. My mind is spinning right now with all of the new and exciting things we have taking place this year. Stay tuned for more!

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep...

I am honored to say that I have been accepted to be an Affiliated Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Photographer. I found out about NILMDTS at the WPPI conference last year and my heart fell in love with the program. NILMDTS is a non-profit organization that uses local photographers to document families who have suffered the loss of an infant...providing them with images that will keep the memory of their little one alive forever.

In January of 2001, Jeremy's brother and sister-n-law, lost their precious little boy, Isaac Matthew, at 6 months gestational. It was a difficult time for all of us, but especially Scott and Julie. I remember seeing the pictures the hospital took to preserve his memory, and while they are an invaluable memorial, they do not reflect the work of a skilled photographer. I don't say this in negativity to the hospital because I understand that they are not photographers. However, there are those of us that have the ability to document a life and I so wish that they could have had that kind of documentation...celebrating his life.

As a result of our personal experience and the heart I have for those who have lost a loved one, we decided that I would check into it on a deeper level. I know that this will be a humbling/difficult, yet gratifying experience for me. Jeremy and I talked a few years back as to how we could give to the community and be an example by using the talents and abilities that God has given us...this is one of them. I hope that as these times develop that I will not only be able to provide lasting memories, but be a comfort during this devastating time. Check back for future posts.

Smilers and Winners...

First of all, I wanted to share a couple of shots of the kiddos from today. Claire started smiling last week, but has made it quite difficult to let me capture it on camera. They come and go quickly at that age. ;) I have been trying to get some pictures since she started, but have failed miserably. So, I talked Gabe into smiling for me...and I got a couple... and he was done. :) Then, later on this afternoon I finally captured Claire on camera. Now my lighting was on the verge of going and the background...well, there wasn't one, but her cute little grin was all I needed. I may be a little biased, but we have some cute little ones and I just had to share. ;)




Now, the "real" reason for this post was to share what our winner, Megan, had won from the contest we had when Claire was born. We just shot Megan and Tim's wedding in November and I figured they still have some decorating to do, so I am sending them a gift card to one of my favorite places...Pottery Barn!! I'm saying this with a small amount of jealousy. ;) Happy shopping Megan! Congrats on winning the first CPD contest! More to come...

Our last six weeks...

It's hard to believe that Claire is 6 weeks old today! It has been wonderful having so many of our friends, family and clients sending well wishes our way. I've gone back through our little Canon point-n-shoot and have wonderful memories of those who came to welcome our little one. I put a little slideshow together of our past 6 weeks. There is no obligation on watching the whole thing...believe me, there are a lot of pictures. ;) I just wanted to give you a small taste of the many friends, family and clients who came to visit us (and please remember these are with our point-n-shoot:). I had so many more pictures I could have shared, but I thought this may be overwhelming enough. My highlight of this weekend was having 3 of my closest friends from Ohio come to meet Claire. I absolutely love them and are truly thankful for their friendships. I value those in our life who love us and challenge us to reach a potential that we didn't know we had...family, friends, clients, etc. We are looking forward to this coming year in our personal lives and in our business. We love and appreciate you all!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Gabe, Claire and I spent the afternoon at a friend's house...actually the house where my friend, Joy, is a nanny. Anyway, we celebrated with some yummy Valentine cupcakes. Of course, I had to snap a quick picture. :)

We hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Love to you,
Gabe & Claire
(and Jeremy & Melody, of course:)

Our little gems...

All I can say is that I am loving being a mom of two! We couldn't have asked for anything better. Every day I am thankful...even in the midst of frustration or sleep deprivation. God has blessed us beyond words in every area of our lives and we are so thankful for that. It is easy to forget all that you have when you are going through the motions of life. I'm trying hard, every day, to be thankful...even when things don't go my way or when I feel too busy to notice. I hope you enjoy the pictures of little Claire. She is one of our many blessings and I just had to share these adorable pictures of her. No worries...it won't be long before we are up and running again... sharing the memories of our wonderful clients...and maybe a few of Gabe and Claire here and there as well. :) Love to you all!

Something new at CPD...

We are getting anxious about some of the new products we will be offering in 2008. The first one we would like to share with you is the flush mount album we will be offering our portrait clients. Our wedding clients have been enjoying this awesome product and we decided that it is time we bring it to our portrait clients as well. Below is a sampling of a newborn album. These albums will include 20 sides. Feel free to touch base with us if you are interested in these albums or would like to see a finished product.









Of course, I had to post some new pictures of little Claire. She is growing like crazy! At her 1 month appointment last week she weighed in at 9 lb. 6 oz...quite a difference from her beginning weight of 6 lb. 9 oz. You go girl! ;) More of these fun pictures to come!

More on Claire...

It is hard to believe that our little Claire will be 4 weeks old on Sunday. We have been adjusting so well. She even went 5 hours last night which was a huge blessing for me. :) As you can see, Gabe is quite the big brother. He just adores his little sister and is aware of her every move. If she cries, he says, "It's ok Baby Sister, Mommy will feed you." Or, "It's ok Baby Sister, I love you." It brings tears to a hormonal mommy. :) We are finding out more and more every day how blessed we are. Life with 2 children and an amazing husband couldn't be any better for me. Enjoy the pictures...plenty more to come. :)










On top of all of the newness we are experiencing in our own family we also have some newness coming to CPD. We are in the process of getting a new website up and going...which I am extremely excited about. We will be changing things a bit with how we present portrait sessions and so much more. I will explain everything in more detail as we go through the process. It is going to be an exciting year for our family and for CPD. We look forward to sharing it all with you. Below is a bit of an experiment for our website. Your thoughts??