Sweet baby Jane, 5 hours old and 5 days old

There seems to be a bit of a baby boom going on in my family right now. My nephew Timothy was born back in April, last week Jane joined the family, and then I'm due in December. My parents will definitely have their hands full with so many grandbabies!

So, just about everyone was sure that little Jane Elizabeth was actually going to be born Drew Bennett. Todd and Becky chose not to find out what they were having, but everyone just seemed to think "boy" with this baby. You can imagine everyone's surprise when we went to the hospital and Lily and Henry (big brother and sister) unwrapped the blankets and found the baby dressed in pink clothes! We were lucky enough to get to go down the day she was born, so I snapped a few shots in the hospital (the first two in this set are from the hospital) and then we went back down a few days later for Jane's first official photo shoot. I couldn't believe how much she had already changed in just a few days!

Welcome to the family little Jane!

Lily gave her new little sister a special little teddy bear in the hospital, and Jane promptly fell asleep with it in her arms...

I love this one because it was a sweet moment for the three siblings together. It was Henry's turn to hold Jane, but he wasn't sure about holding up his arm to support her head. We positioned Lily's arm under Henry's for support, but before I knew it she had grabbed his hand to help him on her own and they were holding up Jane's head with their clutched hands. Jane's a lucky little sister! :)

My precious nephew Timothy, 7 days

Ok, so admittedly this is WAY overdue. My little nephew was born back in April and I was lucky enough to have been able to spend his one-week birthday with him. :) Fortunately I was able to get the pictures taken in a timely fashion -- it's just posting them that has taken me forever! It was so fun to get to spend the day with my sister and her family (and to get some special newborn cuddles with Timothy!) and Benjamin of course loved the chance to play with his other two cousins.

It was fun to watch Peter and Nathanael take on the big brother role, although Nathanael is a pro at it by now since this is his second crack at the job. Hopefully they'll both be able to teach Benjamin the ropes for when he becomes a big brother this Christmas! :)

Big brother Peter loved to serenade us on his guitar!

Apparently, taking pictures is exhausting -- Benjamin had to crash in Aunt Melissa and Uncle Josh's bed for a snooze. :)

Sweet Little Jed, 3 weeks

I was so excited to get to take pictures of little Jed! He is the baby brother of Jack, the first baby I posted newborn pictures of on this blog, so it was fun to get to see Jack as a big brother for the first time! There are so many similarities between the two, but Jed will definitely be his own little man, too. I can already picture him following his big brother around as they're playing in the yard together -- they'll definitely be good buddies!

Thanks, Erika and Kyle, for giving me the chance to photograph another special moment for your family!

Fahrenholtz Family

What a fun family! I started out with the Fahrenholtz family on what seemed to be a beautiful Saturday morning, and it was beautiful -- and very windy! The kids were troopers through the snow, but after a little while we decided it would be best to finish up indoors. Between riding on a sled, playing with hermit crabs, and dressing up as a fairy princess, you could tell how much these four kids enjoy being together. Getting to spend a couple hours around that kind of happiness was the perfect way to start a weekend!

Christmas, 2010

Well, here it is mid-January and I'm just now posting Christmas pictures. In my defense, though, we didn't get to celebrate with my side of the family until last weekend. Regardless, it was a wonderful season! We did a lot of baking, which was fun since Benjamin could actually help with it this year for the first time. I ended up spending a lot of time at the sewing machine, too, since Benjamin decided to ask Santa for something that didn't actually exist. The ONLY thing he wanted from Santa was a Warehouse Mouse doll from the Imagination Movers show. Go figure -- the one thing Disney doesn't sell. So, I took to the sewing machine and made up the best replica I could come up with. Thankfully it was a hit, as was the castle that fits over our kitchen table (those of you who remember the Dragon Slayer post back a couple months ago will get the relevance of this). We also got to celebrate Christmas with both of our families, which was a big part of what made it so special. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season -- here's to a fantastic 2011!