Miss A is a miraculous little thing. She was born 10 weeks early by emergency C-Section. Her dad was rushed back to the states from deployment to be by her and her mom’s side and they spend 6 long weeks in the hospital. Here we are 6 months later and if her mom hadn’t shared her story, I wouldn’t know the difference. She even took a snooze mid-session so I could get some sweet, sleepy baby pictures – my favorite!
At 36 weeks pregnant with her 2nd baby girl, I was really hoping I’d get to also photograph a labor & delivery that night…. but baby ‘K’ wasn’t ready quite yet. When I last saw Lauren at her oldest daughter’s 6 month session, her husband was serving overseas for a full year. I had just found out my husband’s deployment would be cut short so he’d make it home in time for our 2nd baby to be born and I wished her the same luck. I am so thrilled that this family was blessed to have their husband and Daddy home early and for good! Congratulations Jones’ – I hope to still be in town to meet this little one!
Melissa, Jaime and Miss Samantha are good friends of ours. As is often the case, the Marine Corps has kept Jaime from his family for the majority of the last year – I couldn’t be more happy to welcome him home, this time hopefully for good!
Wow, 2011 is almost over?! Where did it go? I’ve seen a few of my favorite photogs posting their ‘best of’ shots of this past year and it has been fun to look at. I set out to do one of my own and it is a daunting task to go back and choose favorites. I limited myself to one (or 2) per session and I tried my best to choose shots I haven’t already blogged (but they are often my favorites!).
As I started browsing, in no particular order, trying to decide it it was worth the hours of searching – I caught myself laughing out loud before falling apart into tears. Each photo was a memory for me. I am in the business of making memories for other people and truth-be-told I have a personal attachment to each one. So, here they are. The are rarely the most technically accurate portraits, seldom the ones my clients choose for their “big print,” hardly ever the fan favorite – but they are the ones that speak to me and I’m hoping they will to you too.
Without further adieu, in random order (with watermarks placed in awkward spots since I batch edited them), here is my best of 2011…
There were sleeping babies…
There were fun announcements…
genuine moments with real families
…babies that were in mom’s belly last year, turned into toddles this year.
There was happiness so great it lifts you for days
and sadness that brought me to my knees…
There was a lot of watching babies grow…
and sweet sleeping babies.
A little waiting …
a lot of smiles…
and a few tears of joy.
More babies growing…
First steps to daddy!
Then the early morning homecoming where 17 Marines will not go home… and a few hours later I learned my own husband would deploy.
This little girl became my daughter’s best friend.
And this baby waited his whole life to meet his daddy…
The most peaceful of births happened at home…
6 month olds…
…turned into 1 year olds.
There were many “see-you-laters”
balanced by many “welcome home’s”
did I mention sleeping babies…
I’ll never forget praying after hearing about the tornado that destroyed this families home and rejoicing as I followed their amazing recovery.
I know there are many that I missed, but there you have it – a year full of life, love, joy, laughter, tears…
I wish all of you more love and light in every moment,
Jill
About a month ago, my baby girl turned two and I didn’t stop to tell you all how much I adore her – so I’m going to do it now…
My Lilah is just about the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen. Her hair is finally starting to grow and it’s blonde and just might curl as it grows. It finally fits into piggy tails and she can finally wear some of the dozens of bows we have.
She loves her Clo-Clo and Bow-Wow (Crimson and Clover), but her Papa is her most favorite love.
She is a big sister now and Madeline adores her. That baby smiles so big when her sister is around.
She spins in circles all the time – and bounces from one wall to the other after she’s dizzy…
Delilah loves moo-bees (movies) like “I-on” (Lion King) and “Boo” (Blue, but she means Rio) and Pooh Bear (she says that one clear as day).
We count a lot – her favorite number is two. She says ‘please’ and ‘tan-tooo’ and sometime she still signs it too.
This past summer, Papa was in Afghanistan and I tell you what, this little girl held me together <3
There are many cliches about parenthood, but there is nothing I can say to explain how amazing the last 2 years have been having Delilah in our lives. Her ‘squeezes’ and kisses and snuggles are the best part of each day. Her curiosity is inspiring. Her humor is hilarious. There isn’t a single thing about her that I would trade for all the world.
I love you with all my heart, Delilah…
XOXO,
Mommy
I’ve been trying to figure out what to say in a blog about this family for a long time. Megan and I met for the first time when I did her maternity photos a little more than a year ago and since then we have became best friends. While both our husbands were deployed, we spent many long summer days together wrangling children in restaurants, prop shopping up and down the Crystal Coast and giving each other plenty of things to laugh about when it was hard to find a reason to smile. In the last 2 months, her husband came home, her oldest turned 3 and her youngest turned 1…
and this is what it looked like…
You can see just how much this family loves each other – there is nothing fake in their smiles and nothing posed about their embraces.. and that’s just part of the reason it was so hard to say ‘good bye’ this morning.
The Soko’s continue on their Marine Corps journey today and head out to California. One of the hardest parts of this life in the military is saying farewell to the people we grow to care about. And I’m not the only one who will miss them, her 2 little boys are some of my daughters’ first friends.
Such is this military life and I’ve learned not to be too sad when we say good bye. I certainly shed a few tears, but our paths will certainly cross again (say, March 2013 in Vegas… 😉
Fair winds and following seas, my friend. It has been such a joy getting to know you over this last year – I’m not sure if I would have made it without you. And thank you for all of our wonderful photos – I know you of all people understand how priceless each image is to me. Safe travels and hopefully it won’t be too long before we are in the same time zone again!
My friend, Megan, was photographing a homecoming and she saw a girl crying. Her photographer had an emergency and had to leave just under an hour before the buses arrived. I was technically on maternity leave, but she called me just to check and sure enough I was just sitting at home. So I loaded Delilah and Madeline in the car and rushed over. I was still loading them in the stroller as the buses pulled up but I got there just in time 🙂
