And now without further ado: Here is the H Family!! Aren’t they awesome!?  We had so much fun!! J and B THANK YOU for bringing your gorgeous family to me!  I usually write so much more but I have a baby asleep in my arms and he just woke up, smiled at me, and then slung his leg over my arm so I am typing with one hand LOL!!!  I guess it’s off to bed for the both of us   I hope you enjoy the peek – there are more where these came from!!   Night night everyone!!! ♥

But I know you have another mommy who dreams about you too…

Life on earth can be painful, things just aren’t as they should be,

but we’re thankful God can take our hurt and fill our hearts with peace.

Our God places the lonely into loving families

and we know He has plan for you, a family we will be.

I’ve been dreaming, dreaming… I can’t wait to hold you close.

I’ve been praying, praying…by God’s grace we’ll bring you home.”

~ Music and Lyrics from the heart of an adopting mommy,  Emily Robertson

Emily and her husband have since brought their precious son home and he is such a blessing.  ♥

 Here we have little O…a precious little soul – full of laughter and love.  She was recently adopted by her mommy and daddy so as part of my photography ministry we had a fun little “welcome home” session.  It is such a joy to meet with these children…children that God has hand picked for these special parents.  Thank you J family for bringing your beautiful, sweet, funny, adorable, precious, and *loved* little girl to me.  I so enjoyed taking and working with these images – every time I stare into your sweet little girl’s eyes or remember her amazing laugh…I feel the sweet love of our Heavenly Father…love for us in sending His son to die for our sins…and love for sweet little O.   Thank you for your awesome example of God’s love right here on earth.  ♥

Click below for more info on the Adoption Ministry at our Church and to hear the beautiful song above:

http://openheartsopenhomesministry.blogspot.com/

{{Love, Rosie ♥}}

See you soon!! {{{♥Rosie♥}}}

I hope you are all enjoying the onset of summer (at least it is in central Illinois anyway!)  I have been reading status updates of other photographer friends who had SNOW recently…I am not sure what I do if we were still having snow (probably freak lol).  Tornados and golf ball size hail I can handle for this time of year – snow I cannot.   Speaking of tornados, I am totally kidding.  We had one touch down in this area the other day and I was completely UNAWARE of it – totally freaky.  I cannot believe I missed that (or rather the internet missed it.  I was on weather.com all day b/c I was supposed to shoot a session and there was nothing about a tornado, a tornado warning, or even a tornado watch in my area.  Flash flooding?  Yes.  Tornado? No.  Crazy stuff – one of my worst parenting nightmares is having to grab all my kids and run to the basement for cover while a real tornado ravages my neighborhood/home…eeks scary!  (I have a  list of worst parenting fears by the way.  Just felt the need to share that.  Not sure why…maybe b/c it’s 2:58 a.m?

Other than that just trying to finish up school, enjoy the outdoors (it’s Slip ‘N Slide time baby!!!), enjoy my three boys, get out and walk/exercise/lose 28.5 lbs.  (and enjoy that too obviously lol), cook more for my family, etc. etc. and coordinate all that with photo sessions!   It has been interesting let me tell you, but so fun!  And every single day when I am THIS close to going to Casey’s and getting a Diet Coke from the fountain pop machine I stop myself and drink water instead (well most days)…because it’s healthier.  But trying to do all the above definitely makes me *want* that Diet Coke!!  So if you see me in Casey’s at the soda machine just know it’s been one of *those* days.  I have no idea why Diet Coke makes it all better it just does.  It could be because the smallest size they sell their “bucket o’ soda” in is 32 oz. which is very very good and very very bad all at once.  Oh and I recently started doing word finds to strengthen my brain.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannd that concludes the random thoughts and ramblings from MY brain tonight – how are YOU doing?? I feel like I have been gone forever.  Well I guess I have been (mentally anyway ha!).  Lack of sleep will do wonky things to one’s brain that’s for sure.  This past winter is sort of a wonderful, warm, cozy, fuzzy, and vague blur.  I really meant to blog more but it just didn’t happen…and I’m okay with that, sorry!   I hope you are all well and finding time to take tons of pics of the important people/things in your life.  We are so blessed to live in this digital age where we CAN capture every.single.moment if we want to.  I have bajillions of pics of lil’ J…just need about 5 more hours in each day to get them all prettied up and posted

Okay, I shoouuuuld probably get to bed (not for sure on that though) – If you are not on facebook then please know that my sessions for this shooting season (June-October) are limited because of (see above and if you get lost in the ramblings it’s mainly b/c of my new little *squishy* in the words of one of my besties and my two older boys.  Life is moving at a pace I cannot control (which bothers me)  and I want to enjoy as much of it as I can so I will simply be shooting less this year and have come to embrace that whole notion   As a result, June and October are already booked and if you’d like a session in July, August, or September please contact me a.s.a.p. so we can get your session booked.  I will be booking newborn sessions during the weekday mornings and all other sessions (family, seniors, children) on either Friday or Saturday evenings. 

{{Happy sigh….}} Thank you for the “chat” – I feel so much better!! lol – Please tell me what you are all doing this summer – I wanna know!!  I hope you are having a great Thursday!!!

Our baby J is already e.ig.h.t.e.e.n. weeks old…{tear!}  I cannot believe he is 4 1/2 months old already!! He’s squirmy, barely wants to be held like a baby anymore (prefers standing in my lap etc.) but the upside!?!? He is the smiliest, giggliest, and happiest baby EVER! Only I can’t capture that on camera…he won’t let me lol   (figures huh?)   Everytime I put the camera up to my face he thinks I left so he stops smiling and just stares blankly into the lens   I’ve plenty of those shots – will have to add some here very soon! 

Until next time!! Princeville is having the townwide garage sale event for the year tomorrow – come on out and SHOP!!

{{{Rosie….and all the boys }}} 

My first official session back to work was a complete joy!!  Here we have sweet little L..and when I say sweet I mean SWEET!! She slept like a little angle, made the cutest little noises, smiled, snuggled, and oh my goodness I wanted her mommy to just leave her with me forever (of course she politely declined   (As if having one newborn in the house wasn’t enough right?   I say not – (shh don’t tell my hubby I said that though lol)  I would gladly keep little L ♥  We had a great session with her proud mommy, daddy, and big brother whom I have been photographing since he was just wee little guy.  Truly it is so neat to get to know and capture families as they grow…funny story, dad “J” kept calling me “Aunt Rosie” LOL - he tried to stop and then just gave up.  Funny yes, but really I do feel like my clients are family.  Capturing their beauty through my lens and making those moments tangible for them and their families to enjoy for a lifetime does that sort of thing.  I can’t help but fall in love with my sweet little clients when they are so precious! :)

Here you go Josh and Julie – I hope you love these, you have such a beautiful family – thank you again for the honor of capturing your beauty through my lens! Presenting Bably L – born on Saturday, March 13th!  (Little L really like her sweet little hands all tucked under her like that, already knows what she wants out of life lol- too cute!)

and a little collage…♥

and 1 second after we took the brother/sister shot above – FUNNY little guy little L is

On another note - been receiving inquiries for the 2010 shooting season already wahoo!!! I’ll be starting up again in June (unless you have a session pending from 2009 due to a cancellation from bad weather etc. OR for another reason)  I’ll be officially booking come April 2010 except for births and newborns (I’ll need to know when your due date is etc.)  Due to baby J this year bookings will be *LIMITED* this 2010 season so please inquire asap in April for your outdoor session June – October.  As always I’ll be shooting mainly Friday and Saturdays.  Well, that’s all for today – hope you’re enjoying your weekend.  Need to go and use the rest of my *alone* time to shower.  (Yes, glamorous huh?  {{sigh}} the life of a mommy, I love it so much!! ♥)

Until next time!!

♥{{Rosie}}♥

We are so excited to share little Jeremiah with you!  He ended up being born at 36 weeks and 2 days due to polyhydramnios (waaaay too much amniotic fluid for no apparent reason (apparently about 10 lbs of extra fluid?!? – mommy measured 42 weeks at 36 weeks yikes!) and via emergency c-section due to cord prolapse (because of all the fluid, the cord went before baby J and that was NOT good!)  All is well now and baby J is as sweet as ever!  I can hardly believe he’s 10 days old already today.  Recovery is slow but going well and his big brothers are overjoyed to have him join our family.  The day I came home and they arrived from Grandma’s they sang him a welcome song (totally improvised which made it unbelievably CUTE!! lol), shared their lovies with him (and made sure he had his), gave him kisses, danced around for him, and brought all kinds of things they thought he needed (b/c we discussed it earlier) like 20 diapers from the drawer, baby blankets to keep him warm, etc. etc.  Really my heart is so full - God was so faithful in answering our prayers (some in a slightly different way than I expected) but in the end He knows best and hindsight being 20/20 – He really did have everything under control (duh!) – but it’s just so neat to see how everything worked out.  I’ll have to post on that another day, though, because now it’s time to rest again.  

Here’s Jeremiah at 5 days…our little J Bear ♥

 Here he is at 5 days and then 8 days.  I am waiting for some more goodies to come in the mail (one being a “hiney cover” lol! – can’t wait to use it!! (It was fun convincing my hubs that “yes J needs a hiney cover” – hee hee!!   More images to come as I have my very own newborn to play photo mama with yay!!

Thank you again for all your prayers and love – we are overjoyed with our new son and are so thankful for him and all the joy he has brought our family so far.  I hope you are having a wonderful winter so far (I’ve only experienced it from the window lol) but it looks beautiful!  Until next time!

♥♥♥{{Rosie}}♥♥♥