There is nothing more special than a new baby! I was blessed to be present as this beautiful girl entered the world two weeks ago. I posted a few pictures from the birth but did not share the slideshow - so here it is - Enjoy!

I visited with Jenica & Steve earlier this week to share the birth photos with them and to take some more pictures of Lyllia. I will be following their family through 2007 to chronicle Lyllia's first year so look for more pictures to come! In working on this project I have made new friends and look forward to the next photo session.

Here are some of my favorites from the session last week.

Jenica, again I want to thank you and your family for the opportunity to be at Lyllia's birth it was an amazing experience!

See you soon,

Cat

On Monday, I had the amazing experience to witness the birth of baby Lyllia. Jenica and Steve have opened their home and hearts to me and I am ever so grateful.

Jenica called around 6:30am and I arrived at their home around 8:30am just ahead of the midwife. We were joined by the midwife's apprentice, and Jenica's friend Charity and Mady. The morning progressed slowly and Steve even made us breakfast while we chatted and knitted. Steve and Jenica walked and worked through the contractions.

Later in the afternoon as labor was in full swing Jenica and Steve worked together beautifully and at 5:43pm with their older children, Colin, Jacob and Jazlyn at their side, baby Lyllia was guided into the world by the Jenica and midwife. After a few minutes of cuddling with mom and a very special prayer, Colin pronounced "It's a Girl" and he even cut the cord. She weighed in at 8 pounds 1 oz and 20" long, she was nursing beautifully as I left.

It was an amazing experience and I look forward to sharing the next year with Jenica and her family!

Here are a few pictures from the day. A slide show will be posted soon with more pictures.




Cat
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Yesterday our daughter, Emma, had her birthday party. She is turning 9 on Monday and what else would a photographer's daughter want to do at her party, have her picture taken.

She came up with the idea of a "Red Carpet Party" and picked out the decorations from the party store, so I ran with it, scouring the thrift store and my closet for dresses, accessories and jewels. Up went the black velvet backdrop, umbrella flash, and rolled out the red carpet. Our oldest daughter, Tracie and her friend helped me with hair and makeup to get them ready to strut their stuff.

They had a blast posing for Mike as you can see in the slideshow.

Here are some of my favorite pics:








>^..^<

Cat

Melinda & her husband welcomed their first baby on Christmas Eve, what a wonderful gift!

I was thrilled to visit with them on Sunday and photograph 2 week old, Caleb. Mom and Dad had fun showing off with him and all he really wanted to do was eat.

Here are some of my favorites from the session along with a slideshow of more images.









I can't wait till our next session to see how he changes.

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Cat

Before the Holidays I had asked my doula and midwife friends to help me find some expectant mothers that wanted to have maternity and baby photographs taken. Jenica is the first of a series of families that I will be following around with my camera this year. She is expecting her 4th baby any day and I am looking forward to photographing her baby's birth.

I had lots of fun photographing Jenica and her family, especially her little daughter who had a hard time giving my blocks back.

Here are a few of my favorites!





There are more in the slideshow

Enjoy!

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Cat

Mike, the kids and I spent the afternoon at my parent's house on Sunday playing "Crash Test Dummies" for new reciepies for Concept Events (the catering company that they run). My brother, Chris, and his family joined us and I was able to take some photographs of my nephew, Gabriel, who is 2 weeks old.

Here are a few of my favorites:





You can view the slideshow HERE

He is such a cute baby, but does not like getting undressed. We'll have to work on that for the next photo shoot.


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Cat

Our family was blessed with a new addition this Christmas. My brother, Chris and his family welcomed baby Gabriel Ian Jones on Thursday, December 21st. Making the celebration much more special.

Here is the first picture of GI Jones with his father. This picture was taken by my mother at the hospital. Chris is adapting well to his role as a father of a newborn!



More photos will follow when we get back to our house and process the many we took over the weekend.

Congratulations to Chris & Robin and to the new big sisters Casey & Ashley.

Cat

Last Saturday was the start of Atlanta's annual Festival of Trees, a week-long major fundraising event to benefit Childrens Health Care of Atlanta. This show is comprised of mainly Christmas trees of all sizes and descriptions, which are decorated and donated for auction to help raise funds for different programs. Along with the many hundreds of trees, are Christmas ornaments and other goodies for sale, a gingerbread house showcase, arts and crafts, shows, concerts, carousel, a build-a-bear workshop, and a few other kid activities.

Our youngest daughter was dancing in one of the Christmas dance shows comprised of different dance companies from the area. We spent the morning taking in the sights of all the beautiful and innovative tree decorations, as this was our first time at the event. Emma was on stage at Noon, so we wandered over to watch some of the other dancers before it was her time. Emma always dances with "attitude", and we really enjoyed watching her dance since we have not seen the routine they had been working on the last month. Below are a few pictures from our morning out.

Here are a couple of the cool trees for auction.



Cat took this portrait of Emma and her bear "Vanilla Creme" reflecting in the Christmas ornament! How cool!



One of Emma's dance instructors and her friend. We will be shooting a portrait series for her in the near future.



One of the showcase gingerbread houses. I liked this one since I went to GA Tech when I started college.



(more to follow)

There were hundreds, if not thousands of trees for auction.



Emma dances with attitude on the main stage!



Vanilla Creme comes to life in the build-a-bear workshop.



The kids really enjoyed the carousel. I liked this shot the best.



To get to the World Congress Center we go through the CNN center. Photo opportunity in the big CNN logo outside. Inside the front entrance is this huge picture wall of CNN images. Really cool!

The weather is cooling off, shoppers jam the stores, and the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season has arrived. And along with the holiday festivities, Santa has made his appearance!

Thursday evening was the Baker Elementary Holiday PTA fundraiser, and Catherine and I were there to shoot "Pictures with Santa" as a way to help raise funding for new playground equipment. We spent a few days prior to the event putting together a faux window backdrop and Christmas tree setup for the shoot. We put together a package that includes a 5x7 and 4 wallet pictures that the parents are sure to enjoy! We will also be producing a slideshow that they can link from the PTA website. Proceeds from the shoot go to the PTA fund.

We would like to thank Baker PTA (and Santa) for including us in their fundraiser, and hope that next year we can get even more kids to have their pictures made! Santa was awesome! The kids had a blast talking with Santa and telling him their Christmas wishes. We had a great time hearing some of their requests! And of course, there were plenty of big smiles for those getting their picture made! Here are a few of them!