Spring Family session {Toledo family photographer}

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I am so excited for this (almost) spring weather! Soon my calendar will be filled with maternity sessions,  births, fresh baby, engagement and family sessions like this adorable session.

If you are dreaming of updating those family portraits, or if your walls are empty because you haven’t had an updated session in years like most families, be sure to contact me asap! Before you know, those kiddos will be graduated, off to college or military, and those family sessions will be few and far between. Trust me, as a mama of 7, it’s so very hard to get all my kiddos together at one time!

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Now scheduling April and May sessions. Sessions begin at $525 and are limited to 3 per month with my busy birth and wedding schedule.

So, let’s set a play date and have some fun making memories!

The Palmer’s found a rainbow!

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If you are a new follower and don’t know who the Palmer’s are, let me take a minute to introduce them.

I first came to know Scott and Katie when they came to meet me about photographing their wedding. Little did we know what God had planned for this friendship… but He is all knowing and had a plan for sure!

I knew pretty much within minutes of them arriving at my home office that this meeting was going to be different. We hit it off immediately. It wasn’t until years later that Scott and my husband Brian became best buds that refer to each other as “Punkin’ and “Buttercup”. (I know Good lawd what have we created!)

Brian was used to me making friends and bringing clients home from even my early days as a portrait photographer in Virginia. But THIS… this was God driven. We now call our combined families “Palmerkowskis”!

I photographed Scott and Katie’s engagement session, then wedding. Then a few month later Katie found out she was expecting. Yay!! Maternity and birth photos followed. Bryson was born two days after their first anniversary.

Then, one crazy, horrible day in January, almost five months after Bryson was born, Scott called to tell me Bryson was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma cancer. Around that same time Katie realized she was expecting another baby. Braydon was born in Cleveland a few weeks early that August while Bryson was undergoing treatments there. That year Bryson fought like a soldier and beat cancer! Although the fight wasn’t quite over… about a year, year and a half later they found out the chemo had ruined his lungs and he was once again, fighting for his life.

My husband and I were able to grow even closer to this family as I continued to photograph them as often as I could, and we were even blessed to be able to help them out by keeping Braydon with us sometimes as they traveled back and forth to St Louis (Katie had to stay there 6 months with Bryson!) Braydon was like one of our own.

At the age of 4, right at Scott and Katie’s four year anniversary, and right before Bryson’s golden birthday, he received a pair of new lungs… a DOUBLE lung transplant saved his life JUST in time.

God is so good.

( I promise to show more images, but this story is worth the read!)

Fast forward a couple years and they were ready to grow their family even more, now that Bryson is thriving and things have ‘normalized” as much as they can (Bryson is still under close watch and continued prayers are appreciated for no rejection of the new lungs).

Katie became pregnant again and was due last June with a sweet baby girl!!! The nursery was painted pink and grey, girlie things started to fill their home, and I had gotten to photograph their maternity session.

A week later, at 35 weeks, Katie went in to the doctor and all was fine. The next day, she hadn’t felt the baby move. Another trip in to the doctor confirmed there was no heartbeat.

Sweet angel girl Lola was born asleep on May 8, 2015. Two days before Mother’s Day.

Six months later Katie and Scott anxiously started to try again to give a sibling to Bryson and Braydon. Once again, the devil stole their joy with a miscarriage.

Prayers galore for this sweet family. As I type, I fight back tears because I love them so much!

Alas, Katie shared with me that she is expecting again!!! Keeping it a secret from most until she felt secure, we were able to photograph this joyous time and finally announce, rainbow baby Palmer due this December!!

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Won’t you join me in congratulating them??! Can you relate? Miscarriage isn’t widely talked about, but we know it happens way more than is made known. I love each an devery mama out there!

Katie loves reading the comments and seeing the love pour in for their family! And if you are the praying type, we would love your prayers for them and baby as well!

 

 

Welcome Home {baby} Miles

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Birth photography is quickly becoming my specialty of choice! After a birth, I am so excited to

meet the parents at home with new baby, welcoming all the changes bringing  a baby home entails. A quick little portrait session in the master room, and sometimes baby nursery is so meaningful and personal.

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Oh, but those first smiles.

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Dad’s arms, so strong, yet gentle. Loving hands that cradle baby’s still delicate head.

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Welcome home Miles. Welcome home.

At home with baby B

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I can’t tell you how excited I am to post this sweet little family’s images on the blog.

I started out  being hired to photograph the birth of Benjamin, their fourth child and first boy. We began with her maternity session which was actually a beautiful milk bath session (posted here)

Julia delivers SUPER FAST, and by super fast I mean, her second child was born in her hallway at home by the firemen! We kept in close contact those last couple weeks because she knows how fast she goes and I needed to be on the ready. The other birth photog they had hired for the last two births had missed them because of that as well, so I wanted to be sure to run.

The only days I wasn’t available are the weekend of September 25,26,27, as my son was getting married that Saturday and I was shooting another wedding Sunday. No problem she said.. She had planned on going in the 28 Monday. (she knows her body!) On Friday night she said “No worries, I don’t think he will arrive before Monday”.

Saturday morning at 7:30a.m. her hubby called and said it was time. :(

I was so bummed.. if it wasn’t my own son’s wedding and if I didn’t have my hair and makeup person coming in an hour I would have went.  And I should have. She delivered 10 minutes after they arrived at the hospital!

That’s only the second birth I have missed in 12 years! UGH.

Nonetheless, we changed the packaged to a lifestyle session at home and I am SO PLEASED at how it came out!

Enjoy!

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I was so glad Craig was able to come home for a bit to join in. Then we got some snuggles in with big sister when she woke up from her nap.

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I completely adore how big sissy jumped up with her bottle as baby B was nursing… sweetest moments captured are those unplanned.

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These moments.. these precious, fleeting moments..

The days are loooong, but they go by in a blink.

Thank you Brandi of Beauty By Brandi for the makeup that day that helped Julia feel so pretty as a new mommy again!

 

 

Craig Family {Wildflower Field}

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I have had the opportunity to have these lovelies in front of my camera a few times now, and each time it gets sweeter and sweeter! Beginning when Lauren and Mike were expecting Leah, their first daughter, and then newborn imagery with her, maternity with the littlest one, Kylie, and now these again. These moments are so fleeting, as I say all the time.

 

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Sometimes, we get tears. and guess what? This mom was okay with all that, because THAT is their life right now. That’s how she chose to be that day. And THAT is what I love capturing… LIFE. REAL. LIFE.

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PRINT. YOUR. PHOTOS.