| BONUS Blog Post | BabyB Turns THREE | Our Own Portraits |

This week we have an extra blog post to show off our little big girl….

In April, our little gal turned THREE! Since I knew we’d have newborn portraits coming up in just two short months and my deal with Ryan is one family session a year (I’ve yet to meet a dad who loves family portrait day!) I opted to let B have 90% of the spotlight all to herself before baby sister came along. And I needed a few headshots too so we did a ‘just the girls’ session and I’m so glad we did. You pretty much can’t squeeze more personality into this little girl and giving her the chance to let that shine on camera is a blast (plus how fun are these images going to be to show her and/or recreate when she’s older!).

People ask me often about photographing my own family and are often shocked to hear that I do not do our own family portraits (heck no)! Even just doing Baby O’s monthly photos is a hot mess. Photographing my own kids (on anything other than my cell phone) has never been fun for me. I prefer to sit back, relax (hahaha) and just be mom on photo day (and all you mommas know that is NOT relaxing). BUT after the fact, waiting… getting to be surprised by the unveiling and seeing my kiddos true personalities shine is beyond fantastic.

Thanks to Natalie for yet another fun session together. Photos by Oh Love Photography.

| Aubrey | Children’s Portrait Photographer | Two Years Old |

This beautiful little girl shares a birthday with my momma so celebrating with her with a milestone session brought a huge smile to my face. Happy birthday to this sweet happy little gal, I know it will be a fantastic year for you!

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If you’ve got a little angel coming up on a big birthday (and let’s be honest, they’re all pretty huge) give me a call and let’s celebrate it together.

| First Christian Church Decatur IL | Baby Dedication Day |

This year I got a unique opportunity to photograph these beautiful families at the First Christian Church baby dedication celebration. This church does a wonderful brunch celebration with the families and we took our mobile studio to be sure that each family got an adorable portrait with everyone all dolled up (are they not the cutest).

Most of the time our mobile studio is used for more corporate events with headshots and the like so this was a really fun change of pace (and no offense to all my corporate clients but a smidge cutter too!).

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A big thank you goes out to Stephanie at Green Tree Media on this shoot too. As this was just days before my due date we had a contingency plan for her to step in if baby girl decided to arrive early OR in dramatic fashion while we were at the event. Luckily, there was not an extra little one arriving to the party that day so she was there to be my extra hands and it’s always so fun to work with her.

| Violet | Pageant Headshots |

Today I get to share a recent session with the lovely Violet! If you’ve been around the blog recently you’ve seen we’ve been busy with professional headshots for some upcoming graduates at Richland Community College and the Decatur professional community and even the senior class at Warrensburg-Latham High School. Well, another really fun headshot session I get to do every so often are pageant headshots (like these last fall with Rebekah).

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Ms. Violet needed some updated images for a pageant coming up this summer so we brought her into the studio for our quick and simple 15-minute headshot session. My favorite part about these sessions is that they are an all-inclusive one hour appointment. Of course, we start with a quick phone consult so we can plan outfits/backdrops/hair & makeup, etc and then the day of the session we have 15 minutes of camera time (which usually allows for 1-2 outfits!) and then in just a few minutes we’re viewing those images on our 106″ projection screen to select your favorites and design your order! And just like that, you’re work is done and I get to work editing and artworking your selections.

With our and our kiddos busy schedules this is the perfect way to get a quick updated portrait all in one day!

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Good luck to Violet in her upcoming pageants! Be sure to give her some love on our facebook page & IG!

| Samuel | 2 Years Old | Jefferson City Missouri Photographer |

Today we have an awesome little guy to share with you on the blog today, I know him since he was the smallest baby and he has to use this small car seat from Babyzoom.net. I’ve loved watching him grow up over the last 2 years and he’s now definitely graduated out of our ‘baby’ program into a smart, fun and active little boy!

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Many don’t know we have a full TWO year ‘baby grows’ program that includes a full newborn session, and 4 additional mini children’s sessions we suggest using for 4, 8, 12 and 24 months. This lets us follow your little one as they enter the world, discover their tiny hands/feet, sit up and start to explore the world around them, take their first tentative steps into that world and finally discover and share their unique personalities.

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And don’t forget the family…. Your family changes over those two years as much as your little one does. For the Star family that means they just leveled up and welcomed a beautiful baby girl to their family but we were so happy to give Samuel his moment in the spotlight before his promotion to big brother.

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And yes, you read that blog title right, this lovely family lives in Jefferson City, MO (my hometown) and though I don’t take a LOT of sessions back home each year I have a few opportunities to return and photograph on my old stomping grounds.

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