{Jackson, TN maternity photography}

You can't choose your family. But sometimes you get blessed by whose in it. I married into a great family. I married into a great extended family. I have been embraced by both the immediate family and extended family and feel as though I've always been a part of them, even though I haven't. Rachel is my husbands cousin. Now she's my cousin (well, like 9 years ago anyway). Since Greg and I have been married Rachel has lived in India, Colorado and now is back in St. Louis. I was honored when Rachel and Matt asked me to photograph their wedding...back in the film days...and now they are getting ready to welcome their third child (first girl) into their family.

Rachel and I took all five of our kids to the St. Louis zoo the weekend I took the kids there alone. We had fun walking around with the kids, riding the carousel, the train, seeing some animals and an attempted two extra mini photo shoots. I talked to Rachel about doing some maternity photos and although she wasn't too keen on the idea I was talking to her about how important I think they are and how her daughter will treasure those photos when she gets older.  I haven't had many photos taken of me with my kids so I asked if Rachel wouldn't mind taking a few. So we swapped a few minutes and by few I really mean like 2 to 4 minutes and not much longer. The kids were more interested in seeing the tigers than getting their photo taken. But these kids know their moms and know that if they just cooperate for a few minutes they get to be done sooner...plus a snack reward doesn't hurt either. Jordan was not in the mood to be photographed and Xavier can move so fast that I'm impressed that I even captured him! Rachel and I both agreed that if all we got was one (maybe two) photos then we'd be happy. I got a few that I love and wanted to share them here.

Thanks Rachel for taking some photos of me and my kids. Thanks also for allowing me to capture you and your sweet boys and your beautiful baby bump!! Can't wait to meet that sweet little girl...your boys are going to LOVE her!!!

On Monday morning Rachel and I took the 5 kids to the St. Louis Zoo. I love the St. Louis Zoo and it's been a while since I've been there. We live about an hour from the closest zoo so we go whenever we get the chance. Rachel and I had ulterior motives besides wearing the kids out...we were both hoping to get some photos of us with our kids. Love it when I can swap photo shoots! It would have been awesome to have Greg around so we could have gotten a photo for the Christmas card but that will have to come later! I got a few cute shots of Rachel interacting with her two sweet boys but those boys gave me a run for my money and didn't want to see my camera at all! Rachel is also expecting a sweet baby girl on Valentine's Day so I'm hoping that she'll allow me the honor of photographing her and that sweet baby bump at Christmas.

We got to the zoo and went straight for the carousel since it's free during the first hour that the zoo is open. Micah LOVED it. He kept telling me that his tiger was running so fast and was winning the race. We got to see lots of animals and had a good time taking some photos, eating some snacks and having lunch at the zoo as well. I cannot wait till we can go back to the zoo with Rachel and the boys again! (and the new little girl as well) Xavier and Micah loved checking out all the monkeys and orangutans.

Naomi, Micah, Jordan and Xavier and then we added Hannah to the mix...she didn't sit still very long! Such a cute little guy...even when he sticks his tongue out at me! Sweet girl without her fake, posed smile! Xavier and Micah are new best friends. They LOVED playing with each other and I still hear Micah asking to play with Xavier every day. It's fun to have a cousin (or second cousin) who is exactly six months older than you (I have one!!). I can't wait to watch these little guys grow up together and be good friends!! Rachel handed out some snacks after the kids "cooperated" for some photos with mom and we realized we've got all the ages covered. Hannah (1), Jordan (2), Micah (3), Xavier (4) and Naomi (5). Just to prvove that we did see some animals too!

Some more snacks before the train ride! And there is that sweet little man again. This was a blind shot, I just held the camera out and hoped for the best. Can't believe that I actually got Hannah in focus! Another blind shot just trying to capture the children and their excitment! They loved the train ride.

I hope to share some photos of Rachel with the boys...very soon!

I had no part in decorating, cooking, baking, or preparing for this amazing Dr. Seuss baby shower. I simply attended the party and took some photographs because it was such a well planned and beautiful party. I thought maybe some of you out there who may be planning a party sometime soon could use some ideas that the amazing Rachel and Katie used to make this super cute Dr. Seuss baby shower come to life. I am so glad that I was brave enough to take the kids to St. Louis by myself so that the girls and I could attend Jamie's baby shower and so that we could see our family and some friends. Jon and Jamie are decorating baby boys nursery with a Dr. Seuss theme so it was appropriate that the shower had the same theme. Here are some of the details from this great baby shower!

Rachel made this great ABC print to hang in the little guys room. And one quick photo of Hannah with her great Aunt Bonnie and Naomi with great grandma. It was so good to see them!

Spoiler Alert....if you are a grandparent to my children...don't LOOK! This is a gift for you, if you look then please act surprised at Christmas when you are given this as a gift!

Today for the 12 weeks of Christmas crafts I have a craft for grandpa...but really it could be for anyone. I cheated a little bit with today's gift. I actually asked my mom and dad what they would be proud to display in their home that their grand kids had made for them. I told them I didn't want to make some totally cheesy craft that gets an "oh that's cute" and thrown away the minute December is over.

I wanted them to give me a few ideas for gifts that would mean something to them, something that the kids and I could make for them, and something that would be useful. My mom gave me lots of ideas and one that I really liked and have actually thought about doing before is the hand print calendar. My mom said she loves any gifts that include the kids hand or finger prints...she used to teach 2nd grade so she's gets it! So, I looked for a good starting point for my calendar and happened to find everything I needed at ABC Jesus Loves Me (which is the homeschooling curriculum I would use for my little ones if I was homeschooling). They have the hand print calendar all laid out for us! yeah! So, you don't have to reinvent the wheel and you don't even have to do any typing!

Now, there are different versions of the ever famous hand print calendar. I happen to like this one because it includes a scripture passage for every month and I love having scripture surrounding me! The cool thing, there are three different sizes all ready for you to print out! yeah! Like I said, fool proof! I used the small ones because I wanted the calendar to be 11x8.5 and it has two kiddos hand prints on it! If you're looking for one with poems on it just google hand print calendar and you'll see lots of different versions of the same thing!

I started with making the handprints. The great thing is, on the ABC Jesus Loves Me website she gives you some tips and pointers on how to easily do the handprints. Like do all the ones that include the same color together so you're not making more work for yourself. She also says to maybe do the handprints in two different sittings so the kids don't get worn out...well, that would have been nice to do but I knew I needed to get this done quickly (so I could post a finished craft for you...imagine that!). The kids did really well and actually enjoyed it. It's a great rainy/cold day activity. Naomi did get a little restless near the end but we prevailed and got everything done. And not only did I get enough hand prints for one calendar but I got enough for three. One for grammy and papa (my parents) one for grandma and grandpa (Greg's parents) and one for us! So, make sure to think about that as well while you're creating the handprints, better to get it all out of the way at once.

So, you need cardstock in white, blue and brown and some paints (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, white and brown), and a paint brush. Oh and some kids hands and foot! Follow the ideas on the ABC Jesus Loves Me site for how to make the handprints and then print out the scripture passages (or poems from another site). Then I made a new document in Microsoft Word and just created a calendar. There was no template for 2012 so I just used the 2011 calendar that was there and changed the dates. (If you want the calendar email me purejoycreative at gmail dot com and I'll forward you the calendar template in Word.) Then I just printed the calendar and after I made sure that everything was in the right order and facing the right way I taped the handprints down to the oposite side of the calendar page it was facing (does that make sense...hard to explain but I think you get what I mean). Then I took all my pages to Office Max and had them laminate the front page and bind them. They charge a lot for laminating so I decided to just do the front page and figure out something else for the other pages.

I was thinking that it might be neat to just make blank calendar pages, have it laminated and bound and then you could use the calendar for years and years. BUT...I'm not a big fan of white erase calendars...too easy to loose info. But if that's what you like...then there's an idea for you! So really, this is just a calendar to know what date it is and not anything special. I probably will add in the birthdays and such and then figure out how to make the handprints stay on better...hmmm...

Took a lot of counter space to let the handprints dry...so take that into account when you start this project.
 Here are our calendar pages. Let me know what you think. And I'd love to know what you would have done differently. I've still got to finish the other two and maybe you can help me with (laminate or not, dates or not) the details of the next ones!