6 month old "Y" {Belvidere IL, Rockford IL baby, milestone, family photography}

I love how this session turned out, we had so much fun shooting it too.  "Y" is such a cutie, she was so great for the camera.  This is a really fun age to photograph as the babies are starting to develop their personalities are sitting up and are just plain cute at this age.  "Y's" mom has loved mermaids since she was a little girl and at the 4 month session brought up an idea of doing a mermaid picture.  I am so happy she did and I hope I met her expectations with the picture.  My mom is so amazing and I am so thankful she can make my props for me.  It makes it so much easier and more convenient and she rocks at it too.  Such a beautiful family.  I am happy mom and dad chose me to photograph the milestones in their baby girl's life.  Thank you guys.

"Js" 6 month old session at the park {Belvidere IL, Hoffman Estates IL, child, baby photography}

Do you remember "J" from his newborn pics?  He gave me a run for my money at his newborn session, LOL.  He is now 6 months old, I can't believe how time flies.  This session went much smoother, he still wasn't too fond of the camera but we had so much fun.  His face is expressive that I think it makes up for it.  Definitely a variety of different expressions in all the pics. I do love that, I think that looking at the pics down the line will sparks some memories based on the expressions.  You do forget those little moments in their lives when they get older so it is a treat to get to catch them in the pictures.  His expressions brought a smile to my face while editing and I hope it will do the same for mom and dad.  Here are the sneak peeks from his session.  Enjoy!!!

This was "J" at his newborn session:

And here is he now:

Tea Party {Belvidere IL, Roscoe IL, family, child photographer}

This idea has been in my head for a while so when I knew I was going to have  a shoot with two sisters it was time to try to make it happen.  When I mentioned the tea party set up to mom during our scheduling she was on board with it.  Since little Ms. "K" is only 6 months old and big sister is "K" is 2 I was not sure if we would be able to pull it off but let me tell you it was the highlight of the entire session.  We probably could have done a whole shoot around that idea, the girls had so much fun.  It made my being able to photograph those moments.  We went from having to chase big sister around to get her to pose for pics which is the usual scenario during 2 year old sessions, to her not wanting to move out of that chair.  I photographed 6 month old "K" as a newborn and it is wonderful to see how much she has grown and changed.  Enjoy the sneak peeks from this wonderful session.

1 year old "N" {Belvidere IL, Rockford IL smash cake photography}

I am happy to finally present this gallery to "N's" mom and dad.  It feels like I have been working on it forever now.  "S" contacted me a while back to schedule "N's" 1 year cake smash and I was so excited to meet this wonderful family.  "N" was a little shy at first and unsure about the pictures.  Part of it was probably because the first part of our session was indoors.  She was at a new place, new faces around and me telling her where to sit and look.  She did warm up a little bit inside thanks to mom and dad helping out.  Once we went outdoors, "N" was a totally different girl, you can tell she loves being outdoors and her personality lit up.  She also was a big fan of the cake smash and who wouldn't be with the yummy cake by Ali Beth Bakery.  Not only did we get to do an outdoor cake smash we did it in the evening and the light was just gorgeous.  Thank you so much "S" and "M" for choosing me to capture those memories for you.  I had such a great time working with you guys and it was a pleasure meeting you.  Here is a preview of the session.  The gallery is all done and I will be sending it to you shortly.

6 month old baby "S" {Belvidere IL, child, family photography}

I had the pleasure of once again seeing this happy face of Mr. "S".  I photographed him at 3 months and now again at 6 months.  He was as happy this time around as he was at his 3 month session.  He is such a easy going baby.  We scheduled an outdoor session and it was cloudy that morning which was ok but as our session went on the storm started rolling in.  It was a mini session and we were wrapping up anyway so we made sure to get our last pics in before it got bad.  As mom, dad and I were admiring the beautiful looking sky we decided to capture one more family pic against it.  I love how it turned out.  It is definitely a pretty unique photograph as we can't really plan around nature.  Gotta love when it actually turns out in our favor.  Enjoy the sneaks from the mini session.

Super fun cake smash {Belvidere IL, S Elgin IL, 1st birthday photography}

What fun did we have with Ms. "S" during her photo shoot.  I got a little worried the day of the session because when I woke up in the morning the sky was cloudy, I had the cake ordered and made and we planned a fully outdoor session including an outdoor cake smash nowhere near my in home studio.  I was so ecstatic when we got there and I saw the location "K" found the night before and the rain was holding off.  The little area she found resembled an old Italian village.  Truly a photographers dream.  The park we went to for the cake smash was equally beautiful.  I just loved how this session came together.  Ms. "S" has so much personality and she also loves "Bubble Guppies" which I do as well :) It was the cutest thing when she was singing the theme song.  I am so happy to have met "S" her mom "K" and dad "M".  Thank you guys so much for the opportunity.  Here are the previews from the session.