I love my family so much! Seriously, all of them so very much. God has been beyond gracious to me in the gifts He has granted me in the area of my family. And, believe it or not, I include my “in-laws” within this statement! 🙂 Not everyone is as blessed as I am to have such an amazing family in their in-laws! Yesterday,in Memphis, was just beautiful! My little nephew, Grayson, almost 2 1/2 years was in need of some new photos;and, I was in need of wanting to be outdoors and do some shooting! I haven’t done an outdoor session since November,and I was itching to get out and play with God’s light! We included my awesome sister -in-law, Krissy, in the photos yesterday, too. She’s so beautiful, isn’t she? Love them and love these photos! Enjoy spring!!!

This group of pics with the two of them steal my heart!! Oh, I need to get some pics done with my own babies! 🙂

A.J. took his sweet time to make his big arrival into this world, arriving several days after his due date! But, oh, wow! He was worth the wait! I have worked with this precious family for several years photographing A.J.’s big sister, Kaitlyn. It was such fun going to their home on Friday and seeing the joy that this little guy has brought into this family. And, A.J. is just a beautiful baby….seriously beautiful! I could just squeal from happiness at the results of our session. He was a little angel at the session and did such a great job at only 4 days old!  I know that you will enjoy these photographs as much as I do….how can you not be filled with joy? 🙂

In his Daddy’s arms…

A cute little smile of a 4 day old baby!

And, I saved the best for last! You should have seen A.J. and Kaitlyn’s mommy and myself doing a little happy dance after this shot. We KNEW it was magic! 🙂 Congratulations to Staci, Alan, and Kaitlyn! So happy for you!

I know. It is cold. It has been snowy! My goodness, it was 13 degrees here at my home in Lakeland this morning! But, just remember that this is just a season and it won’t last forever! The older I get, the more I have come to appreciate the true seasons of weather we get to enjoy in Memphis. Not everyone gets to have that. I am learning to embrace it. And, that way, when the spring arrives, I appreciate it all the more. And, just to remind you that it’s not that far away, I wanted to leave you with a few of my favorite spring pictures from last year. All of these were taken at the end of March or very first week or so of April. That’s only about six weeks away and it’ll be here before we know it! And, as a plug (I’ve gotta add the plug!), don’t forget that we will begin scheduling for outdoor sessions taking place in March, April, May or June on February 22nd! If you are already on our mailing list, then you will automatically receive information about this next week. If you aren’t and would like to be added, send me your email to julie@117photography.com and I’ll make sure you get added! Happy Friday ya’ll! Here’s the taste of things to come!

Little Women has always been one of my favorites books and movies. I couldn’t help but think of that when I went to photograph little Miss Jane last week. The youngest of three sisters. What fun these ladies are going to have growing up together! Having a sister is one of the greatest joys in life and I am so excited for this sweet family with the addition of their third beautiful little girl. I can only imagine the amounts of dress-up clothes, baby dolls, and pink that will overflow this household in the years to come. Katie and Ward, your family is simply a beautiful piece of God’s goodness. I am so happy for you all and hope you enjoy your sneak peek! Congratulations!

A newborn grin! Love it!

Oh, how we are all in love right now in our family! In love with a beautiful, new baby boy named Graham Joseph! I’d like to introduce you to my adorable little nephew, Graham. He is the son of my “little” brother, Jeff and 1:17’s fabulous Jodie, whom all of you that work with me know well . Graham is the brother of my sweet nieces Kinley and Kallen. These girls could not be more proud of their little brother and they are so sweet with him already. Graham is named after my grandmother, Alice, whom we all love dearly and called “Gram”. She is in heaven now and I know she is smiling so big at this precious addition to Jeff’s family!

Graham is a big boy and I just love his full little legs and arms and wrinkles…and that squishy face!! Ahhh….love!! I am so happy to share these images with you and so proud of my family. Enjoy! 🙂

First, we took a few with Graham on a piece of family history. The trunk on which Graham is sleeping on once belonged to his great-great-great Grandfather on my father’s side. It’s dated somewhere in the 1800’s. Kinda neat, I thought! We also included big sisters on these as well because Graham was so happy in this spot!

A couple with Jodie! Graham is so blessed to have such a wonderful Mommy!

And, now, his moment. Sweet boy!

My favorites of the day…the first one just because I love the blues. And the last two because it’s never too early to be a Tiger fan! Go Tigers!! 🙂 Oh, and please note, he has his little finger up showing #1 on the first Tigers pic! Jeff’s idea. 🙂

Saturday was such a fun day as I got to photograph two sweet little newborns. It was so funny though as my first one, Emme, was about 10 pounds. Then came sweet little petite Fera at almost 6 pounds! I love this precious family and met them years ago back when I was first starting my business. When I first met Jeff and Sharlie, I photographed them for Sharlie’s maternity photographs with Fera’s big sister, Shelby and then, again, for Shelby’s newborn pictures.  Shelby is now the proud big sister of Miss Fera. It was such a joy to come full circle with them. We had such a great afternoon playing with Fera and posing her in different outfits. She was a little angel! Congratulations ya’ll! I am so very happy for you!

First, a few in the tutus! Every little girl needs a pink tutu, right? And, big sister jumped in for a few as well and did such a good job. And, look at Fera’s happy smile and laugh…LOVE!!

And, these next ones? Some of my new favorite newborn pics ever! Love, love, love! Fera’s Daddy is a big hunter and he had the idea of using a deer skin rug as a backdrop for some photos. I used a new cloth I had with me and hooray: a beautiful set of photos!

I love this family as they are a part of my “extended” family. Meet precious little Emmelia Reese, Emme. Don’t you just love her little full cheeks and chunky legs. So adorable. And, can we talk about this hair? Oh my! I have known Emme’s momma since the day she entered the world and she has always had gorgeous looooong hair herself. (Except for that time when she decided to cut off only one of her 12″ long pigtails…but, I won’t go there, Kim!) 🙂 Seriously, though, Kim and I were starting to wonder if sweet Emme would even have the opportunity to have newborn photos made. We had great intentions of getting her session in when she was about 1 week old; however, bouts of some serious jaundice, and several days of snow and ice messed with our nicely laid out plans. However, we persisted and I am so glad we did. Even though Emme was about 19 days old at her session, we were still able to capture her beauty. I am so happy for ya’ll! Congratulations to all of you!!

My third newborn of this week took me on a drive out to Covington, TN! I had the pleasure of having a session with these beautiful ladies: 10-day-old Molly, 18-month-old big sister Adalyn, and beautiful mommy Amanda!

Amanda was the picture of a perfect mommy! Poor thing had frozen pipes the morning of our session, a newborn and an 18-month old and she was just graceful and happy as she could be. She and I had the best time playing with little Molly and trying her out in all kinds of poses, props, and clothes. Molly was a champ and slept comfortably through almost the entire event. We ended up with so many beautiful images and I had such a hard time narrowing down which ones to feature here. It was truly a joy working with these beautiful ladies! Welcome to world, Molly! You’re one blessed little girl!

January is full of beautiful newborn sessions and I am loving it! I drove to Olive Branch the other day and met beautiful Gray and her mommy! This little bundle of beauty had me completely stumped as she did not want to fall asleep at all during our session. Mom and I worked and worked at it, but Gray decided there was too much excitement going on and she didn’t want to miss out. Having done newborn sessions for almost 5 years now, little 9-day-old Gray is definitely the exception to the sleepy newborn rule. But, guess what? I LOVE IT! I strive to try and make each and every photography session that I do something new and different and Gray made it easy for me this time. We captured so many adorable big-eyed looks straight into my camera which turned out just lovely. Meet lovely Miss Gray!

A couple with Gray’s gorgeous Mommy! I adore the image on your left. Looks like Gray is laughing her head off. This moment was actually as we were getting settled and posed for the mother/daughter shots so the lighting was really correct. But, too adorable not to share it!

And, finally, the princess sleeps!

Christian is 11 weeks old and such a happy little guy! Those who follow me know that I don’t normally like to shoot “newborn” sessions past 2 or so weeks. But, I made an exception for little Christian as he was in town from San Francisco (poor kid to have to grow up there!) visiting his Grandma, and, well we work with what we have, right? I am so glad to have had the opportunity to meet this sweet family. We shot the session in a gorgeous home down in Harbor Town overlooking the Mississippi River. The room in which we shot was a photographer’s dream studio. Walls of windows, bright sunlight reflecting off of the river and the freshly fallen snow, and white painted walls and white carpet! It was yummy light for sure. We tried our best to get the little guy to fall asleep…and he did…for about 5 minutes! HA! However, it worked out just fine because he was full of smiles and laughter that’ll make your heart melt. Take a look for yourself. Enjoy happiness!

Smiles and then some sleep for a few minutes…

And, then, some more happiness!