On Monday morning Rachel and I took the 5 kids to the St. Louis Zoo. I love the St. Louis Zoo and it’s been a while since I’ve been there. We live about an hour from the closest zoo so we go whenever we get the chance. Rachel and I had ulterior motives besides wearing the kids out…we were both hoping to get some photos of us with our kids. Love it when I can swap photo shoots! It would have been awesome to have Greg around so we could have gotten a photo for the Christmas card but that will have to come later! I got a few cute shots of Rachel interacting with her two sweet boys but those boys gave me a run for my money and didn’t want to see my camera at all! Rachel is also expecting a sweet baby girl on Valentine’s Day so I’m hoping that she’ll allow me the honor of photographing her and that sweet baby bump at Christmas.

We got to the zoo and went straight for the carousel since it’s free during the first hour that the zoo is open. Micah LOVED it. He kept telling me that his tiger was running so fast and was winning the race. We got to see lots of animals and had a good time taking some photos, eating some snacks and having lunch at the zoo as well. I cannot wait till we can go back to the zoo with Rachel and the boys again! (and the new little girl as well)


Xavier and Micah loved checking out all the monkeys and orangutans.

Naomi, Micah, Jordan and Xavier

and then we added Hannah to the mix…she didn’t sit still very long!
Such a cute little guy…even when he sticks his tongue out at me!

Sweet girl without her fake, posed smile!


Xavier and Micah are new best friends. They LOVED playing with each other and I still hear Micah asking to play with Xavier every day. It’s fun to have a cousin (or second cousin) who is exactly six months older than you (I have one!!). I can’t wait to watch these little guys grow up together and be good friends!!
Rachel handed out some snacks after the kids “cooperated” for some photos with mom and we realized we’ve got all the ages covered.
Hannah (1), Jordan (2), Micah (3), Xavier (4) and Naomi (5).

Just to prvove that we did see some animals too!

Some more snacks before the train ride!
And there is that sweet little man again.

This was a blind shot, I just held the camera out and hoped for the best. Can’t believe that I actually got Hannah in focus!

Another blind shot just trying to capture the children and their excitment! They loved the train ride.

I hope to share some photos of Rachel with the boys…very soon!

I had no part in decorating, cooking, baking, or preparing for this amazing Dr. Seuss baby shower. I simply attended the party and took some photographs because it was such a well planned and beautiful party. I thought maybe some of you out there who may be planning a party sometime soon could use some ideas that the amazing Rachel and Katie used to make this super cute Dr. Seuss baby shower come to life. I am so glad that I was brave enough to take the kids to St. Louis by myself so that the girls and I could attend Jamie’s baby shower and so that we could see our family and some friends. Jon and Jamie are decorating baby boys nursery with a Dr. Seuss theme so it was appropriate that the shower had the same theme. Here are some of the details from this great baby shower!

Rachel made this great ABC print to hang in the little guys room.




And one quick photo of Hannah with her great Aunt Bonnie and Naomi with great grandma. It was so good to see them!

Here are a few more images from our mini photo shoot at Greg’s grandparents farm.
Want to know more of the story, read this post from Sunday if you haven’t already.
Remember how I told you my settings were messed up…that’s why the photos look grainy…but I love them anyway!

Hannah’s “ready for some football”

Remember I said the baby wasn’t happy…here’s some proof…

But she did give me a few smiles…


Naomi of course was all smiles and excited about the photo shoot from the beginning!

LOVE this one…it is SO my girls!
Hannah loves her big sister so much! And Naomi adores Hannah as well.

I was able to get a few shots in the front as well, just before the sun went down.

And Micah joined us for one quick photo! Love this one too!

We took the kids to St. Louis the weekend of Labor Day so that we could catch a Cardinal game with our family.
We spent one night at Greg’s grandparents farm house…
and I knew we may have a chance to get some photos in some great light.
So being the crazy person I am I packed some extra “photo shoot” outfits for the kids.

The light was great.
But we were running out of time.
We drove to town for some soda and then needed to find a gas station…
all eating up precious moments of beautiful light.
The kids hadn’t eaten and it was getting close to 7pm…
but the girls (Naomi) was willing to get changed and allow me to take her photo
(Hannah just had to go along with it since she doesn’t have a say in it yet).
Micah wanted nothing to do with photo shoots (and that’s okay).

The light was great.
The outfits were cute.
The mood was good for a little while.
My camera wasn’t set properly.
I was too worried about catching the great light.
I made a big mistake and didn’t check ALL my settings.
I was playing the role of the forgetful mom and not the precise photographer.
The baby wasn’t happy.
The photos are grainy.
But I love them.

Here is one of my favorites…that I will share today for i heart faces a touch of light challenge!
check out some more touches of light at i heart faces

I will be posting more photos from this mini session later this week!

Last weekend we took a quick trip to St. Louis. It’s nice that visiting family and taking part in family celebrations is much easier now that we live much closer. The drive to St. Louis only took us four hours and that includes a bathroom break. We drove to St. Louis on Thursday and had to come home on Saturday since Greg had to preach. We went to celebrate Greg’s grandmother’s 90th birthday. We spent Friday morning at the zoo and had a great time. We caught up with Greg’s sister and her family there as well. It was fun to see many of the animals enjoying the water…I would have too, it was hot. We spent the evening at one of Greg’s aunts house with lots of other aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was fun to hang out with everyone again, it’s been a while. Grandma loved seeing and holding Hannah, she sure does love babies.

On Saturday we went to Meramec Bluffs where grandma lives and spent the day at the Log Cabin where we had lunch, and spent time just hanging out and being with family. It was so much fun to spend time with those we love. We had a big family photo that my cousin Rachel took and then we also got some of the individual families and we got a photo with my in-laws and family too. It’s moments like these that I find so important to have photos from. It’s not every day that everyone is able to be together. Capturing those memories is so important and really fun to look back on and remember when we get older. Here are just a few of my favorite photographs from our quick trip to St. Louis.

{San Antonio Lifestyle Photographer}

My husbands grandparents live in the country, with a farm, tons of trees, acres and freedom.
Well, freedom to roam, not necessarily freedom from work.
While we were on vacation in May we took the kids to the farm for a day (and one night)
and they loved it. They loved the open space, the animals and just the farm in general.

I can’t wait to take them back again.
Here are some of my favorite photographs from our day on the farm.

We went to the St. Louis Museum of Transportation and they just happend to also be having a car show. I’m not a huge car person but I love the look of the old time cars. I had a great time photographing the cars…they stay still and you don’t have to tell them how to pose !