One of my favorite things to do besides taking pictures is making cards out of those pictures. Since Maddie is in Kindergarten this year, we decided to make custom Valentine’s Cards. It was actually quite an event to get some pictures because it was so cold (and wet) prior to then. We finally had a day of sun and decided last minute to take some pictures outside on the driveway.

We started with this… Just too bright! I couldn’t get her to quit squinting.

And then she wouldn’t smile right!

Then finally we ended up with this! Here is the front.

Then the back.

I had these printed on 4×5 cardstock with UV coating. They turned out great! I wish I would have done them sooner so I could have used them to advertise for others Valentine’s Cards.

So keep that in mind! I can create any occasion card you are needing. Any holiday, birthday, thank-you, showers, parties, etc. The options are limitless.

So with Maddie we started cereal with her at 4 months. She was our first and we were excited to experience the firsts as soon as possible. She wasn’t ready much to our surprise… I don’t think she was ready until closer to 6 months. So with Haidyn, we waited. After researching we discovered it was best to start solids at 6 months due to their guts not being truly developed and ready. Well, she wasn’t ready! It was closer to 8 months that she was wanting to explore her palate.

Fast forward to the 3rd child. Caleb… THE BOY! We waited until 6 months (and two weeks). We wanted to make sure his tummy was ready, he was sitting really well, etc. So we tried rice cereal this week (organic) mixed with a little breastmilk. He is a champ! He liked it from the first bite! So every night now he has ‘dinner’ with us and if you don’t shovel it in his mouth fast enough he fusses. Such a boy! They recommend like a tablespoon of breastmilk to however much cereal to make it liquidy… well the BOY went from a tablespoon the first night to 2 oz. of breastmilk mixed with a ton of cereal! LOL!

Here’s some pictures of his first experience…

Looks like I’ll be going to the store for more cereal and maybe some fruits and veggies for next week. I’m still debating making my own babyfood though… Like I have time for that with 3 kiddos! Do you make your babies’ food or have you?

ETA… These pictures were taken by Kevin since I was obviously the one feeding him.

Most of you have seen my old logo… It was dated to the year I was shooting… Well it was old and the person who created it no longer was doing logos. So I was able to find someone to update it. We kept it the same for the most part, but we also added a little color to it.

How do you like it?

I’m hoping to update my webpage eventually and this logo will be the basis and color scheme for the new design.

I actually accomplished one of my goals for this month! I took Caleb’s 6 month pictures. Woo-hoo! I’m still editing them, but I’ll post a few that I’m done with. And actually there are a few more poses I want to do now that I’m done, but at least I got these done. Haidyn was my helper and believe it or not, he smiled in almost all the pictures!

So here you go…

This last one is probably my favorite because it shows his blue eyes. I’ve got lots more to edit, so be on the look out for more pics.

I’m also adding one more goal…

• A group picture of the kiddos

Oh and for those of you wanting to get better pictures of your kids, family, etc. Let me tell you my setup… Breakfast nook, kitchen table, black sheet, and a sunny day with the blinds open. Well, and then a little photoshop to fix the wrinkles in the black sheet. So see… you don’t need all that fancy stuff (most the time)! All manual settings and natural light (no flash). Enjoy!

I actually accomplished one of my goals for this month! I took Caleb’s 6 month pictures. Woo-hoo! I’m still editing them, but I’ll post a few that I’m done with. And actually there are a few more poses I want to do now that I’m done, but at least I got these done. Haidyn was my helper and believe it or not, he smiled in almost all the pictures!

So here you go…

This last one is probably my favorite because it shows his blue eyes. I’ve got lots more to edit, so be on the look out for more pics.

I’m also adding one more goal…

• A group picture of the kiddos

Oh and for those of you wanting to get better pictures of your kids, family, etc. Let me tell you my setup… Breakfast nook, kitchen table, black sheet, and a sunny day with the blinds open. Well, and then a little photoshop to fix the wrinkles in the black sheet. So see… you don’t need all that fancy stuff (most the time)! All manual settings and natural light (no flash). Enjoy!

So I’ve been challenged or should I say motivated to update more often. It seems as if more and more people I know are blogging, so I figured I better step up to the plate and do my share. I’ve set 3 small goals to complete the month of March.

1. Take Caleb’s 6 month pictures
2. Take Haidyn’s 3 year pictures
3. Take Maddie’s 6 year pictures

Shouldn’t be too hard, huh? I’m embarrassed to say that the photographs I have hanging in my house now are of our family when Haidyn was Caleb’s age (6 months)! And our poor son has no photographs hanging in his honor. Isn’t there a saying about the photographer’s child never being photographed?

I do have some wonderful news to report… well, it’s wonderful in my eyes. We have been blessed in so many ways and recently Kevin purchased a computer for me for an awesome price! I mean literally nothing for a perfectly good computer and it’s a Mac at that. I’ve never used a Mac before, but so far I’m really enjoying it and I’ve heard that with the graphics most photographers usually go Mac. Don’t they say, ‘Once you go Mac, you never go back?’ LOL! Oh and then today I got in on the last day of the sale offer on CS3. Many thanks to the people that enabled me to get it or it would have been a long time before I was able to even think of purchasing it. I am on cloud 9 and can’t wait to try out my new presents.

So I’ve been challenged or should I say motivated to update more often. It seems as if more and more people I know are blogging, so I figured I better step up to the plate and do my share. I’ve set 3 small goals to complete the month of March.

1. Take Caleb’s 6 month pictures
2. Take Haidyn’s 3 year pictures
3. Take Maddie’s 6 year pictures

Shouldn’t be too hard, huh? I’m embarrassed to say that the photographs I have hanging in my house now are of our family when Haidyn was Caleb’s age (6 months)! And our poor son has no photographs hanging in his honor. Isn’t there a saying about the photographer’s child never being photographed?

I do have some wonderful news to report… well, it’s wonderful in my eyes. We have been blessed in so many ways and recently Kevin purchased a computer for me for an awesome price! I mean literally nothing for a perfectly good computer and it’s a Mac at that. I’ve never used a Mac before, but so far I’m really enjoying it and I’ve heard that with the graphics most photographers usually go Mac. Don’t they say, ‘Once you go Mac, you never go back?’ LOL! Oh and then today I got in on the last day of the sale offer on CS3. Many thanks to the people that enabled me to get it or it would have been a long time before I was able to even think of purchasing it. I am on cloud 9 and can’t wait to try out my new presents.

I recently noticed I get great light in my breakfast nook. So I was off to take some pictures just to see how great that light is! Caleb was almost 5 months in these pictures. This first one is a little dark, but the rest were brighter. I can’t remember if there was a cloud or if I changed my settings. I’ll have to look it up.

So I’ve decided to start blogging. My goal for 2008 is to take more pictures and eventually grow my photography business. I also want to update my website with more recent images.

So here I go! I hope you enjoy!

Feel free to contact me either through my website:

JC-Originals Photography

Or emailing me directly at:

jill@jc-originals.com

Or by calling me at:

214-502-8612

**I look forward to hearing from you!