Kids & Summer

Ok, I admit it....I'm really behind on blogging.  This Summer has offered a little bit of everything in the way of being busy. We've had some really great sessions,  a few weeks of hard core home renovations, an unexpected visit from some appraisers with the State Road, and now Alyssa's in Kindergarten and just finished up her second ballet recital two weekends ago.  We were so proud!...and tired.   I'm working on getting my permit to be a substitute teacher in my free time...I'll let you know when I find my free time, btw!  Don't worry, I'm still doing pictures too! 

Here are two pictures this proud momma has to post before we move on to business news!

Alyssa's 1st day of Kindergarten!

Alyssa's 2nd ballet recital (Dancing to Swan Lake)

Because I'm so terribly behind in blogging I'm going to do something I usually don't do...Combine different shoots into one blog.  Terrible of me, I know. 

Today's blog is focusing on two shoots I did in one day this Summer. 

The first session was for the Clevinger family.  I've known Mom Clevinger for about 14 years.  We sat next to each other during Homeroom in High School and have kept in touch via the Internet for the past couple of years.  I've watched her family grow in wonderful and exciting ways in a very short amount of time.  Since mid-2007 I've read her blogs about adoption. Through reading these entries I've laughed along with her, cried along with her and was so incredibly happy for her the day that she finally held her son in her arms miles and miles away from home.  I continued on her adoption journey via blogs and status updates as she went back to Ethiopia to bring her daughter home in early 2009.  A few months later came child #3.  The day we did this session I told Lindsey, then expecting baby  #4, that I felt like I knew each one of her children personally through all of the posts and updates that I've read about them over the years.  I was so happy and excited to finally meet these precious children in person!

On to the pictures....

Love this one.  Little Pyper kept her balance very well considering she was not yet hardly 1.

Youngest to oldest, meet these 3 wonderful children!

Look how sparkly Pyper's eyes are!

Ian has the most handsome smile.  It's contagious!

My bets are on Cecily to be a model one day!  She's gorgeous!


And here are some of the fun shots from the day!

A smiling, happy Ian who's Momma was tickling him!

Here's a beautiful wobbly legged Pyper in her tutu in honor of her 1st birthday that was right around the corner!

And the last frame of the day.  Cecily turned around with Pyper's tutu on her head and smiled.  So cute!  And I love that you can see a little of the entire family behind her!  The end to a fantastic session!

Lindsey you're kids are so adorable.  I can't wait to one day meet baby Cruz!

And then it was off to the park for a triple birthday party & more picture taking fun! 

Meet the Parsons family!  Toni & Jeremy are incredibly lucky to have 3 beautiful kids whose birthdays all fall within the same time period!  That means they get to throw one big ole' birthday party for all three!  It was a SUPER FUN EVENT!  I've known Toni for a long time too.  I graduated High School with her sister Kim and we remained friends throughout college.  Toni & Jeremy's wedding is one of the few weddings I went to with (my husband Jeremy)  before we actually got into the wedding photography business. 

A quick family picture taken at the end of the party..

This party was great. There were 3 themes!  (Ben 10 for Maddox, Hello Kitty for Allara, and Dr. Seuss for Lincoln)!   The kids even had a magician and balloon creation specialist keeping everyone entertained!

Here's a great one of big brother watching the magician pull a dollar out of an orange...How'd that get in there?

Do not stand close to this pinata!  Sister had a good swing!

The balloons were a big hit!  I think sister Allara had a sword here.

When it was candle blowing out time we were in a major hurry to get this party wrapped up.  The heat from the day had brewed up a terrible storm and the clouds were moving in.  Luckily, the rain held off and we got all of the activities for the party knocked out.

I wonder what he thought about eating cake!  He sure did pucker! lol

Love this one!

Everyone got a little messy for this picture, but it was all in good fun!

Location:  Pikeville City Park
Magic & Balloon Creation:  Magic of Ricky
Main Birthday Cake: Robin's Cakes


Thank you to both the Clevinger family & the Parsons family for allowing me to continue to be a part of your lives.  Working with your children, (all 6 of them) was so much fun.

Current Backdrop Color Choices

I've been receiving many requests to see the color choices of muslin backdrops that I offer.  Below you will see each of the color choices that I have made available for formal portraits.  Please keep in mind that other colors of fabric may be draped if requested to give a more dramatic appearance to your backdrop.

Multi-tone Grey 10x10

Hand-Dyed daVinici Multi-Tone Brown (Chocolate Pudding) 10x20

Hand-Dyed da Vinci Multi-Tone Green (Irish Blessing) 10x20

Hand-Dyed da Vinci Multi-Tone Blue (Polarizer Blue) 10x20

Solid Black 10x20

Jaime & Michael's Big Day

Jaime & Michael

July 17, 2010

One of my favorite formals of the day!

Venue: Charleston House Holiday Inn in Charleston, WV

Wedding Coordinator: Valerie Oyler
Cake: Nancy Atkins
DJ: Ed Roberts
Hair: Ginger Cummings

Colors: Orange and Pink

Songs:
Unity Candle Lighting: Love of My Life by Sammy Kershaw
First Dance:  Amazed by Lonestar

I loved this wedding and this family and the staff from this hotel! Jeremy and I left on Friday for the rehearsal and spent a laid back afternoon checking into the hotel and doing some test runs on lighting, placement, scheduling, etc. for the next day.

The next day we had plenty of time to get pictures of often rushed "little details" that sometimes just don't fit into the schedule. They're often my favorite parts of an album.

Here's Jaime's dress hanging in the window. So much light came through the windows in this venue! Always a plus!

Usually at church weddings, this is an almost impossible shot. Oddly enough. It seems that most churches that I've done weddings at don't have a lot of Bibles laying around. Lucky me, I knew right where to find one in the hotel! Nightstand drawer! SCORE!

I loved Jaime's shoes! I probably took as many pictures of her shoes as I did anything else!

Here's one of Jaime getting ready with the help of her mom.

My view from the ceremony ..... Michael and Brayden had the biggest smiles on their faces. Happy times!

Jeremy's angle. LOVE Jaime's grin! This smile is contagious!

So Romantic!Welcome to the reception hall!!

And the cake dismantled :)I absolutely loved Brooklyn's entrance into the reception. Look at that jump!

First dance as a married couple...

And a close up! I could have done an entire blog off of this reception alone!

Time for parents' dances!LOVE THIS!

Love this one of Michael and his mom. You can just tell that she is so proud of her son!

I think I could have turned every shot I took from this wedding into a black and white image and I would have been completely thrilled to do so...Don't worry though Jaime...I didn't! lol BUT....I did use a lot of them for the blog! lol

Here's my friend the D.J. announcing what's next on the agenda... Boy, the two of us really butted heads that night...No seriously...he came to tell me he was going to announce the cake cutting as a heads up, so I could make my way to the other end of the reception hall. When I leaned my head over to hear him better over top of the music we collided and literally almost gave each other a concussion. lol I almost died from laughter, because it was in the middle of everything and I'm sure half the crowd got a great laugh. Oh well...if I've shot with you, you know that I can get hurt a great number of ways from simply standing still. You start to get used to it after a while.

THE THREAT. Yes, it worked. Michael played nice with the cake icing. Jaime didn't have to do whatever it was that she was threatening him with.

Look how cute they are!

One of my favorite bouquet toss pictures in the history of JDP :)

Y M C A! It really was a great party!

See how much fun everyone was having!

I knew this groomsman (Steve) was T R O U B L E three minutes into the rehearsal. He did not let me down! That's what groomsmen are for though. To keep the atmosphere light during all the waiting and stress of the day. Weddings are long and tiring events! You've gotta have someone to break the whole party into laughter!

I'm not sure what he did to Jaimie here...but he thought it was funny!

Could these two be ANY cuter? Everyone had fun here!

And courtesy of Valerie (wedding coordinator extraordinaire) and that "big favor" she called in for Jaime on her wedding day.....the rain stops for us to get those outdoors photos I'd been dying to shoot... and...... A RAINBOW! lol Too bad it was almost dark and it was fading fast. (Note: This was right about the time that the KY floods were going on...little did we know at the time. )

The walk over to Haddad Riverfront Park was totally worth it! This beautiful scenery was just across the street from the hotel! It was getting late...getting dark...and I knew our opportunity for sunset pictures was slim, especially with all the rain. We were incredibly fortunate to be able to go outside and get these.


Bride & Groom Picks:
Most Memorable Moment:  Jaime:  Mikes reaction when he saw me.  Mike:  Jaime walking down the aisle.

Favorite Detail:  Jaime:  Wedding party dancing into the reception. Mike:  Dancing with Jaime.

Funniest Memory:  Jaimie:  Mike taking a deep breath and blowing it out into the microphone during the ceremony.  Mike:  The groomsmen holding me up for a picture.

Most Emotional Moment:  Jaime:  The vows and the rainbow.  Mike:  Jaime looking into my eyes during the ceremony.

What would you change about the day?  Jaime:  Nothing  Mike: Nothing

Favorite purchase:  Jaime:  Holiday Inn (they were wonderful)  Mike: Wedding Rings.

Jenni's Favorite Picks:

1). Spending lots of time with Jaime, and her ladies before the wedding. Jaime was so calm/happy. The lighting in the suite was perfect for taking all of those details pictures too!

2.) Jaime's color choices. PINK AND ORANGE! So pretty together and so different than the norm.

3.) Jaime's gift to Michael: Altoids hand delivered by yours truly... He laughed!

4.) Jaime reading the card that Michael got for her.

5.) Not having to get into my car even once that day for anything. Waking up and taking the elevator upstairs for a wedding was fantastic!

6.) Valerie, the wedding coordinator and all of the nice things she did for EVERYONE. Thank you Valerie!

7.) Last and certainly not least: The note left in Jaime's room by the housekeeper! So sweet, and such a nice touch! It really says everything about the venue as a whole and how they took care of Jaime and everyone involved in the wedding to make sure that she had the perfect day. I think she did.

Jeremy's Picks:
1.)  Everyone getting into the dancing @ the reception and all of the laughter that was taking place.

2.)  Sunset session with Jaime and Michael at Haddad Riverfront Park.

3.)  Valerie was a wonderful coordinator.

If you're a fan of Jaime and Michael now is the time to let them know.  25 blog comments on this post from friends and relatives* scores the happy couple a free 5x7 enlargement with their package! (*Steve this does not mean you personally can comment 25 seperate times...lol)