Merry Christmas!!!

Though I am sure you are all enjoying some fabulously fun time with family and friends, I thought that I would take a second to wish you a very Merry Christmas from me and Bluejay and Baby Bird! Being pregnant at Christmas is so wonderful! It makes the real meaning of Christmas so much more real. I love that Jesus Christ was born a tiny baby; fully God AND fully man! I am thankful that he was born and lived a sinless life so that he would one day die on the cross at Calvary for that I can be forgiven of my sins! What a wonderful, miraculous plan our Lord had! Because of Jesus' life, death and resurrection, we can have eternal life! I am reminded of this truth every time I feel our little baby kick inside me and I think about Jesus kicking inside Mary all those years ago. Wow!

Merry Christmas to ALL!!!

Have a Holly, Johnson Christmas - 2011

As soon as it snows each December, I drag Bluejay out into the blistering MN cold to take Christmas photos with me (2010, 2009). This year it snowed a few inches in early Dec. It was pretty, but the weather quickly warmed up and the snow began to look dingy and dirty as it melted. I figured, since we had a 18' blizzard last December, that we would have another chance at a white Christmas, meaning snowy Christmas photos. I couldn't have been more wrong. It's been so warm and rainy the past week that some of the grass has begun to get green once again! So here we are, a week before Christmas, and it's brown and ugly outside. We made the best of it and got inspired by a cute vintage Christmas Tree sign at a nursery by our place. Then we found a scrawny Charley Brown-like pitifully small tree that we decorated. Sometimes when things don't go exactly how you plan, they end up even more fun! Honestly, it doesn't matter if the weather is lovely and snowy or not. I love these photos because they are the memories of our last Christmas of just Bluejay and me before Baby Bird comes!

On Saturday we leave for Christmas in Ca. I originally thought it would be strange to have Christmas without snow, but now I'm thinking that we may see more snow on the mountains on the horizon at my parents home in Yucaipa, Ca than we ever would have here! Plus it will be lovely to "waddle" my preggo self around without wearing a million layers and trying not to slip on ice.

Talk about windchill! It was freezing!

 Baby Bird's first Christmas ornament!

Cousins

I have shot photos of Dylan a few times now. He's such a sweet little guy. So I was excited to shoot some holiday photos of him and his cousins. While it's difficult to shoot photos of four children under the age of five, we had a lot of fun just playing and being silly together. If seeing pictures of cute kiddos in front of a Christmas tree doesn't get you in the holiday spirit, you may be a Grinch and my suggestion is to drink a gingerbread latte, listen to some Bing Crosby Christmas Music, and then come back to see these photos! It will be worth it!

Baby Adelaide

This was the first newborn session I have done since Bluejay and I found out we're expecting! So, it's an understatement to say I was excited for this shoot. Adelaide is so tiny and sweet and soft and warm. Everything a newborn should be! Her big brother, Sheppard, was so very proud to show me "his baby" when I got to their house. Baby Addie was really alert and awake at first, so we got some fun photos with her eyes open. After a quick snack, she was as sleepy as can be and put up with all our hats and bows and different positions. She was wonderful! I quickly fell in love with her. I really can't say how excited I am for our own baby to come! He/she will be the most photographed kid ever! For now, enjoy these photos of a blissfully sleeping adorable newborn. Congrats Cornell Family, she's quite the doll!

Happy Thanksgiving Surprise!

There are so many things to be thankful for this time of year. If you've followed my blog for any amount of time, you would know that this season is leaps and bounds in front of any other season when it comes to being my favorite! I love everything about it: the first snow, the colorful decorations, the sparkling lights, the warm beverages and snuggles with loved ones!

This year, Bluejay and I have a special little something extra to be excited and thankful for. We're pregnant! I am 20 weeks along, meaning we're already half-way done! How did that happen so quickly! We were overjoyed this summer when we saw those two pink lines appear on the pregnancy test. Now we're joyously anticipating our Easter baby to come in April. We had our ultrasound last week and saw our little baby moving like crazy. Nothing prepared me for that swell of love in my heart. I can't wait to meet Baby Bird! We aren't going to find out the gender so we are ALL going to be surprised this spring.

Now, I don't want my photography blog to become a "mommy blog", but I'm sure I'll post pictures here and there. If you want to see more, I started a personal blog for family and friends who live far away. Since I LOVE all my clients and feel as though we are friends, even if we just met, please feel free to stop by and say hi- www.thebajas.blogspot.com.

The Dobak Family {ducklings}

I shot Cory and Christa's wedding last month. They ended up booking me just before the wedding and so we didn't have time to schedule an engagement session. So, we ended up doing a family session last weekend instead. Their daughter Taylor is adorable! She is turning one this weekend so we wanted to make sure to get some photos of her, some family shots and a few of the newlyweds. It was so much fun to hang out and chat with this sweet family for the afternoon. It's that time of year when things start to slow down. It's getting chilly outside and everyone is preparing for the holidays. This means that instead of all of the hubbub of scheduling, editing, and packaging all while getting backed up, I feel like I get to treasure and enjoy every session as it comes. I love this time of year!

Heather & Jason {lovebirds}

Apparently a common theme of autumns in MN is that the weather gets increasingly unpredictable. We had to reschedule this session a whopping FOUR times due to weather! Once, it was raining. Another time it was ridiculously windy. Another time we began to take photos, and we got rained out again! Ugh! When we finally got to take these photos, we were all excited just to be without rain! It was so fun to meet Heather and Jason (a couple times). Since they met going to school at the U of M and got engaged at Lake Harriet, it was obvious where we should do photos... both places! Jason proposed to Heather after enjoying ice-cream at the lake. Heather recalled that he ate his cone so quickly that he actually made her toss the rest of her cone away because he was so anxious to ask her to be his wife! Adorable! Congratulations on your engagement. It was really great to meet you two!