Aaron and I are proud to introduce our sweet baby boy, Maximus Xavier! He arrived on April 23 at 12:38pm and weighed 5 lbs. 8 oz. and was 19 3/4 inches long. I am on maternity leave through June 1, but will do my best to reply to emails and phone messages as quickly as possible. Thanks for your patience!! And please leave me a comment if you’d like… I love comments!







My little mouth breather.

He was not as excited about this one as I was!

There’s this “rule of 7″ in my family that went for a full 49 years before it got broken. But starting with my mom’s oldest sister, my aunts, mom and most of my female cousins on my mom’s side are separated by 7 years, including my sister and me. It’s kind of a neat thing if you ask me.

Speaking of years, I’m really proud of my sister Stephanie for a lot of reasons. We have a lot of stories between us, ranging from leaving her at a Cracker Barrel once in Ohio (she tells that one every chance she gets) to her having the fattest steer at the Jr. National Hereford Expo in Montana one year. Then there was the time that she didn’t get accepted to the theater department at U of I, so we drove around campus for half a day talking to the admissions office and the art department trying to get her into one of the programs at Illinois. I think I told the admissions lady something along the lines of “She WILL go to school here eventually, whether it’s this year or down the road.” I guess we did something right because within a couple weeks she was accepted to the art department and she’s been there ever since.

Mostly though, I think she deserves the most credit for graduating in 4 years while raising my nephew for 3 of those years. Steph jokes that Nevan (now two and a half) is also graduating from college so he got to be a part of the photo shoot. And if Aunt Holly has anything to say about it, Nevan WILL go to Illinois someday.

The “safe” headshot in case Mom doesn’t like the other more artsy ones. Haha…

Special thanks for Scott and Barb at Memory Lane Photography for letting me borrow the cap and gown for a few hours!

I got to visit my friend Stephani and Joel a couple weekends ago, just about 8 days after their new baby Walker was born. Good thing we moved my visit from the weekend before like we originally planned! Walker was welcomed home by big sisters Miriam and Cora. You may remember them from their session last winter.
Daddy’s hands with Walker’s tiny little feet:

I was the first person to say that he looks more like Cora and Miriam. Time will tell, I suppose!


I did not Photoshop her eyes in this photo. They are just that gorgeous. I just wish she wasn’t giving me that goofy grin!

She seems so pensive here. I wonder what she’s thinking about…

They’re going to have so much fun growing up together–all three of them.

And a personal update… I am now at 20 weeks in my pregnancy! A reminder to those looking to schedule sessions next spring, I will be on photography maternity leave from March 28 through May 7 (and some days after that too, but will be working part-time).

I can’t believe that little Max is already 6 months old! He was born on April 30 and you can see his newborn session back in this post. His big sister Lydia is soon to be 3, so we also snapped a few pictures of her. She was cracking me up with all the faces, so of course I had to make a little storyboard!



He wasn’t too crazy about the tub at first but they we let him chew on the rubber ducky for a bit and he was content once again.

A little different color treatment here:





While Max was getting changed, Lydia and I took advantage of the nice weather for a few minutes to get a few more shots of her.

Max’s mom wasn’t really needing any Christmas pictures per se, but I asked if I could use Max as a test subject for a couple shots. This supposed baby Santa hat fits NO baby’s head, so I’m in the market for a new one!

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Here’s baby Max’s birth announcement. I ended up removing the diaper line from his cute little bottom too.
Here’s big sister holding her new little brother. She wasn’t sure at first what to do with her hands, but she did a great job! We got some great facial expressions out of her too.

Big sister is a beautiful young lady herself, so precious little Max is in good company. Look at those big brown eyes and long lashes!

Favorite!!! I’m ordering this one for myself it at least an 8×10. And I’m thinking about getting a canvas of it. My tiny little 10×10′ office is going to be wall-to-wall canvases if I don’t stop this addiction!
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He loved looking out the window. I don’t think he turned his head the other way the entire session.

Not a happy camper at this point. Poor little fella!

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Same one as the sneak peek, only a little bolder and with his eyes open. I’d say that oval basket was a good business investment from Michael’s!
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