Well, the title should read “Jane Olivia and Friends” because technically her mommy and daddy and big cousin Bentley were in on the shoot as well, but lets be honest little Jane was the star of the show.  Jane was weighing around 6 lbs when I had the opportunity to photograph and everything about her seemed so tiny!  Maybe that’s because my Stella-belle is weighing a whopping 11 lbs by now, or maybe not.    Regardless of size, I think Miss Jane is going to be full of personality.  She certainly made sure that I knew who was boss.  Before the shoot, her mother swore up and down that all little Jane did was sleep so I thought my work would be a breeze.  Not so Mama, not so.  Miss Jane did everything in her power to foul up our session, including ruining her daddy’s shirt.    But, babies will be babies and I’m more than used to that by now.  And when all was said and done, I think we got some really sweet shots.

While we were in the middle of a wardrobe change for Miss Jane, we took the opportunity to catch a few shots of her ever-so-handsome older cousin Bentley.  It didn’t take long before Bentley’s mama had him laughing along to The Itsy-Bitsy Spider, and drooling excessively.  Just look at those beautiful eyes!  Really, drooling is permissible when your eyes sparkle like that!

So I kept looking through the pictures I edited from Scarlett’s little session and each time I felt like something was missing.  I had quickly ran through the pics on my camera as we drove home from Pike and I  remembered there being one really fantastic picture.  Maybe it was my lack of sleep, maybe I was rushing through when I edited in hopes that I could finish before Stella woke up again, or maybe I have permanent “pregnancy brain”. . . . but somehow I left out the absolute gem from the session.  This picture beats all the rest by a mile if you ask me.

So here it is in both color and black and white.  Which do you like best?

My little Scarlett turned two a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been wanting to get pictures of her to mark the occasion.  Today we finally made it down to Pike Place Market with photography on the agenda and I am so glad we did.  Scarlett hammed it up as usual and I think we got some great shots.

Scarlett, I adore you.  In all of your sassy glory, you are MY daughter and I love every inch of you.

You may be thinking “why would you want a picture of the back of your kid’s head?”  I love this one though, and I think it is because I could recognize the back of that head in a crowd of a million and instantly know that it belonged to me. 

And you may have noticed Dylan got in on a few shots.  Unfortunately, most pictures of the two of them are totally goofy.  What can you do?

FINALLY!

Finally I’m posting because FINALLY she’s here!  Okay, well she’s actually a month old today- but who’s counting. . . I’ve had my hands full!

Miss Stella Jane Tucker was born on June 28th and weighed 7 lbs 10 ounces (and that’s a week early!) and was 20 inches long.  She is absolutely the sweetest and she is the perfect addition to our little family.  We’re both doing great and enjoying settling into our new life in Seattle.

So without further ado. . . here is my littlest girl!

The pics above were taken at less than 1 week.

Below were taken at 2 weeks exactly.  Notice the pink heart birthmark she has on her side? Cute, huh?

And one of both of my little girls.  Ah.  Love them. 

Today I was deleting all of my memory cards to make room for what lies ahead.  Next Monday, the 28th, I’m going to be induced and we’ll have our baby Stella.  Yay!  (read: YIKES!)

So there will probably be a pretty big break in the blog action around here.  I’ll try to get a post of Stella up, but I can’t guarantee when. 

But in the meantime, I thought I’d leave you with a few gems from my now deleted cards.  I happened to have my camera with me one day when we stopped at the park, or the WHEEEEE! as Scarlett calls it.  How can you resist stopping at the park when your little girl is yelling “WHEEEE!  WHEEEEE!  Wheeeee!!!” from the back seat?

Then the last one was taken today of Brad and Scarlett.  We decided to take a break from packing to enjoy the pool and nice weather.  Sadly after a whole year of living right above our apartment complex’s pool, this will probably be the only time we get to swim in it this season.  Anyway, we swam and then everyone napped and when Scarlett woke up she wanted her Daddy.  How sweet is that?

The Swain family received a session as a Christmas gift last year from one of my other wonderful clients.  How nice, right?  My apologies to all who have been anxiously awaiting this blog post- I can only play the “pregnancy/moving” card. 

I arrived at their beautiful house bright and early at 8:00 am over Memorial day weekend to find a delicious spread of breakfast treats and two handsome little boys with bare bellies.  The Swains have twin sons who are 18 months old and such a handful!  A few minutes later we were joined by two sets of grandparents and the star of the show, their little girl Ella.  I sat back and watched as the family chatted and had breakfast and the little ones played.  Ella was kind enough to show me some of her favorite toys too.  It was fun to have such a laid-back and natural session!  And I couldn’t help but notice how lucky these little kids are to have so many people in their lives on a daily basis who clearly adore them!

The Nilson family was a part of the Preschool CO-OP that Dylan went to this year.  In February, the CO-OP held a fundraiser auction and the Nilsons won the package I donated.  It was really nice to be able to make a contribution to such a wonderful organization and get to make this beautiful family happy at the same time!

We met last week and the weather was supposed to be nasty so we found a location that would work rain or shine.  Lucky for us it decided to shine.  The Flour Mill in downtown Spokane has a really fun variety of backgrounds and a good mix of rustic and park-like settings.

The little Nilsons were just about the cutest things I’ve ever seen.  Do you see the big brown eyes on those kids?  With such an adorable family, how could I go wrong?

Chris and Lindsay were so much fun.  When I talked to Lindsay before the wedding about what she wanted for her bridals, she said she wanted to hit Riverfront Park and ride the carousel.  Does that sound like an easy-going bride or what?

Chris and Lindsay’s big day was May 15th and despite all of the crummy weather we’ve been having, it was beautiful and sunny.  We did, in fact, hit Riverfront Park as well as another one of the bride and groom’s favorite spots- The Elk Public House where the wedding party celebrated with a toast after the ceremony.  The reception was held at the beautiful Lincoln Center and the bride and groom made their way to the reception in a vintage pick-up truck.

Thank you Chris and Lindsay for letting me tag along for all of the fun!

Last week I had the opportunity to photograph the Little family and it was one of my favorite sessions of all time.  This family is so sweet.  The girls were absolutely precious and Andrea and John were just about the nicest people ever.  Add to that PERFECT light and you have the makings of a wonderful evening.

We met at Manito in the Perennial Garden and then took a little side-trip to a more natural area of the park with beautiful tall grass and bare rocks.  The sun was just going down and we got the most beautiful back-light which absolutely made my day.  Then the girls came across some untouched dandelions – the full, perfectly round ones that are just begging to be blown to smithereens.  I had so many good shots from this session that I had a really hard time narrowing them down!  I love it when I have that problem. 

A few months ago a very nice woman contacted me about gifting a photo session to her cousin’s family.  She spoke very highly of Randy and Maria so I was really looking forward to working with them.

I met the Leaver family met at Manito Park on a beautiful evening and I was pleased to find that they were relaxed, happy, and so nice.  That has to be one of my favorite things about this job!  It is so fun to spend time with families that are genuinely kind and loving.  I always go home from sessions like that with a smile on my face, excited to be with my own family.

Randy and Maria have two beautiful little boys, Paul Michael and Brenton.  They are such handsome little ones and they were very cooperative, even though it was getting close to bedtime.

All in all, it was a really nice evening and I think we got some beautiful shots.  Isn’t this just about the nicest gift for a family with young children?  I hope they think so!