,

My baby is growing up too fast...freeze time!

,

Clara is my youngest and she's 20 months. I love everything about this chunky stage...her toddle, new words every day, slapping the table when she doesn't get her way, laughing at her brothers jokes, dancing with her sister, cuddling - ohh the sweet cuddles AND of course her smile. I have posted tons of other people kids on my site lately - tis the season. I'm taking a little break to show the end of the summer pics of Clara. Isn't she beautiful? Yup she is!

, , ,

Mini Sessions - The Kovats Family Portraits - Minneapolis, MN

, , ,

Family Photography done well is such a blessing. It is tons of work getting together schedules, outfits, hair, make-up, not to mention trying to arrive with happy kids who stay happy for 25 minutes. It always works out. thankfully I've been doing this for a few years and I always have a trick or two up my sleeve. I felt like I totally knew this family 2 girls and a boy...ages 6,3,1 sounds familiar right?

, , , ,

The Sweet Colleens - Family Fun at Monkey Dance Spooktacular!

, , , ,

SAVE THE DATE

THE SWEET COLLEENS SECOND ANNUAL

HALLOWEEN MONKEY DANCE SPOOKTACULAR

Hey folks! With Labor Day behind us, it's time to start thinking about... Halloween! And what better way to spookify your Halloween weekend than coming out to "The Sweet Colleens Second Annual Halloween Monkey Dance Spooktacular," a not-so-scary kids concert and dance party taking place the Saturday before Halloween (the 29th) at the fabulous Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, 11 a.m. to noon. If you made it last year, you will know what fun the Spooktacular was (see the pics, below). We will have...

The Sweet Colleens rockin' songs off their acclaimed kids CD, The Monkey Dance: All the Kids Are Doin' It! The Mini-Mosh Pit, with lots of room for kids to dance and move around Interactive musical fun for the whole family. A great chance for kids to give their Halloween costumes a "dry run" before the big night. Special musical guests the wonderful Madrigals choir from Field Middle School (who promise to show up in full trick-or-treating attire!) Special prizes.

Speaking of costumes, all guests, but especially kids, are invited to wear their Halloween costumes (although please no costumes that may be offensive to others).

Mark Your Calendars! The Monkey Dance Spooktacular will take place from 11 a.m. to noon on Saturday October 29, 2010, at the Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Ave S. in Minneapolis (doors open at 10:30). Admission is $12, $7 for kids age 2-12, and free for kids under 2! For tickets or more info, call the Cedar Cultural Center Box Office at 612-338-2674, or visit www.thecedar.org.

If you haven't been to the Cedar before, it's a wonderful music venue. A warm, welcoming space with a great sound system. They also serve up some delicious refreshments. There's easy access. Parking is plentiful in the area, with street parking available and several ramps and lots close by. The Cedar's site has directions, a map, and parking tips.

Last year's Spooktacular was a near sellout, so reserve your tickets early! We'll see you there...and don't forget your monkey-dancing shoes! Stay tuned for more details. Sociable! --The Sweet Colleens

p.s. Please help us spread the word by forwarding this e-blast to anyone you know who might enjoy the Monkey Dance Spooktacular. And if you know any good places to put up a poster or two, let us know and we will get the posters to you. Thanks!

Hope to see you there!

The Sweet Colleens

http://www.sweetcolleens.com/

, ,

Mini Sessions - the Peterson Family Portraits - Minneapolis, MN

, ,

Every photographer loves repeat customers...it means your clients liked you enough to come back! I'm honored to be capturing this family again. Want to check out their sweet twins a few years back? Cute right? I know. They've added to their family and they are cuter then ever.

, ,

Mini Sessions -The Eidemoe Family Portraits - Minneapolis, MN

, ,

Those of us who are parents of toddlers totally understand that any given day is amazing and crazy and terrible and amazing every moment of any day. We pray that it's an "amazing" time when you have 25 minutes to capture your family. And when kids are kids it's up to me to still capture this precious family at this precious stage of their life together. What is not so cute in the moment my end up being our favorites in the years to come. I don't know if this will help, but I walk away from EVERY photo-shoot of me and my family hoping that the photographer got at least one of us...but knowing that would be a miracle considering the shoot we just had! It always works out.

I hope you are happy with the end result!

, ,

Mini Sessions - The Antonovich Family Portraits - Minneapolis,MN

, ,

This is a family I haven't shot for awhile...I'm glad they are back. They are absolutely lovely! I got to capture them as a family AND THEN I got to capture the girls as Junior Viking Cheerleaders! (those pictures are coming!) for now, here's the family ones:

,

The First Day of School - Aspen Academy, Savage, MN

,

So I know this is long overdue...but, I have tons of clients waiting for pictures so I haven't posted this yet! But, enough is enough. You have to see these cute shots of Adriah (my tall 6 year old) and Avery (her friend from birth.) Just in case you were wondering they were so excited to go to school! Even though they won't be in the same class this year they are still great friends.

, ,

The Dalida Family Portraits - Prior Lake, Mn

, ,

Sara and I go back a long way...and we have a shared love for photography. She was one of my first clients that I actually saw print, frame and hang right after a shoot! I know that seems obvious but you'd be surprised at how often pictures get left on the CD - ahem, my summer photoshoot still hasn't been printed and displayed!

,

The Jensen Family Portraits - Stillwater, MN

,

I have been shooting portraits all summer and when I get at chance to shoot in a brand new gorgeous location...I'm so happy! This shoot was taken Pioneer Park, Stillwater, MN. It's gorgeous! The advantage of having an hour and a half for the photo-shoot is the pace. We get to capture life as it happens and have fun doing it. I am going back to shoot in Stillwater, MN on October 1st...I HAVE ONE MORE SPOT AVAILABLE for the morning. It you're wanting to capture fall colors for your Christmas cards THIS WOULD BE PERFECT!

Back to our lovely family.

, ,

The Willcock Family Portraits - Part 2 (the adoption story)

, ,

As promised here's the second half of the portraits from the Willcock Family shoot. AND EVEN BETTER, Vicki talks about adoption in her own words, "I’ve always had a soft spot for adoption in my heart. It’s just a good thing. In the years leading up to 2010, adoption seemed to bounce into my thought life frequently. At the time I was maxed out with my three young children and trying my best to keep up with life. So why did adoption keep peeking at me around every corner? Well, I thought, maybe when our kids are grown up we can adopt.

Then I got an itch and started doing what I love to do – roaming around on blogs and looking in bookstores – this time, for information on adoption. I kept coming across families who adopted and were in a similar stage of life: small children, doubting they could add much more to their plates, the absence of a huge bank account, feeling a call from God. My heart began to swell. Maybe this wasn’t so crazy.

I felt like the Lord was opening my heart to desire to give up what I strived for since I became a mom – peace and quiet. J At the time my youngest was one. Oh and I forgot to add that the Lord asked me to home school the previous year. So it was going to get a lot crazier if we added another.

I had seen enough families who were radical and giving up every comfort to help children in need. Some adopting multiple children and those with special needs – and living in houses smaller than ours!

In a story that’s as dramatic and awesome, my husband was given the same heart for orphans. So we started to know that adoption would be in our future (when we had more money and had a better handle on our lives, of course). Then the earthquake in Haiti hit in January 2010 and our hearts about jumped out of our chests. This begged the question: would you adopt any of those children? Of course! Well, if you’d do that why wouldn’t you move forward with adoption otherwise? Doh! After wrestling with the Lord, we said yes.

We were moving forward now. Right away we got an egress window put in our basement to make another bedroom and started our homestudy in February 2010. We started the process of adopting a little girl from Rwanda in March. We were homestudy approved in July of 2010. We were approved by the Rwandan government in August 2011 and we currently wait (not so patiently) for our referral.

We have learned so much about the Lord’s heart for the poor and needy through this process. We have met so many people who are walking our His commandments in radical ways and it challenges us to live more sacrificially, intentionally, and simply.

I want to appeal to a few people right now:

*those whose hearts are beating a little faster right now - I know the feeling

*those who think they don’t have enough money

*those who don’t think they have enough room in their home

*those who are afraid their spouse will never agree to adoption – pray!

*those who feel weak (I promise I have you beat on this one) “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” I Corinthians 1:27-28

*those that feel you’re too old or too young

*those that think your children are too young or that you have enough already

*those who are just scared by the idea

I don’t think everyone should adopt, but I know there are people out there who have similar thoughts as I did and need a boost.

Here’s a list of blogs and online resources – most are ones that moved me personally :

http://thezoefoundation.com/ - Awesome foundation that has many adoption resources

http://weloveourlucy.blogspot.com/ - Blog of a family who adopted the cutest little girl. Watch her coming home video – you have to scroll down a bit. It moved me big time.

http://joiningthejourney.blogspot.com/ - Adoptive mom blogs their journey. Especially touching is their story about Josie who has HIV

http://www.projecthopeful.org/ - Blog advocating for HIV orphans and other waiting children

http://www.christianalliancefororphans.org/ - Christian Alliance for Orphans

http://www.safe-families.org/ - Safe Families – organization that finds temporary homes for children whose families need support for a short time.

Here's more pictures for their FAMILY PHOTO-SHOOT!

,

The Moger Family Portraits - Prior Lake, MN

,

I want to tell you about commitment. This next family accidentally scheduled their photo session smack in the middle of the VIKINGS game AND THEY STILL CAME! I love that. Tivo is a wonderful thing. Hope these pictures make you smile...even when the Vikings loosing streak gets you down!