Family Get-To-Gether at Rend Lake

For the past few years, my Dad's side of the family has gotten together the Saturday before Labor Day at Rend Lake in southern Illinois. It's about 2 hours away from St. Louis. My grandparents love to camp and they are often camping in one of Rend Lake's campgrounds that weekend. My grandma rents a pavilion for us and my Dad, his brother and two sisters and all the kids and grandkids come together for a fun family BBQ. We always have such a good time!

In the past, it's been SO hot on our little family reunion of sorts, but this year the weather was absolutely perfect. It was in the upper 70's and there was a wonderful breeze blowing off the lake. It really couldn't have been better.

   

My Grandpa Stoffel with my nephew Emerson!

The 2 newest babies of the family.

My dad with my nephew Emerson. ♥

This particular pavilion is nice and big and secluded. There is plenty of room for the kids to run and play! 

My Aunt and Uncle always make homemade vanilla ice-cream for everyone, which is always a fun treat!

My cousin Dallas. He's so cute!

Emerson loved the ice-cream too. Just look at that smile. :-)

I also took a few pictures of Avery down by the lake. She's a stinker and wouldn't really sit still for a picture, but I tried my hardest to get a few cute shots.

Avery also enjoyed several other snacks throughout the day! I think almost every picture I took of her that day, she was eating something. Ha.

 My grandpa also made a fire in the fireplace of the pavilion for us to roast marshmallows and make smores. Yum!

It was such a fun day and so great to see everyone. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Painter Family | St.Louis Family Photographer

This was my second photo session with the Painter Family! I took their family pictures last year when little Leo was just turning one and it was so good to see them again. They are so sweet and very easy going and little Leo is just adorable!! Leo was turning two, so they wanted some 2 year pictures of him, some family pictures and a special picture to announce that they are expecting baby #2!

We met at a beautiful little park near their home and I think we got some really cute pictures!

This next little outfit that Leo is wearing, used to be his Daddy's outfit when he was a little boy. Such a cool idea!

Five on Friday

 

Happy Friday!

Today I'm linking up with Christina, April and Natasha for Five on Friday!

One
 This past Sunday, there was a church near our house that had a "Touch a Truck" event. They had several big trucks and vehicles, including a helicopter that we could touch and learn about. We had a lot of fun so I thought I'd share a few pictures.

Two
We recently got new blinds for our basement family room. There are 5 long windows down there which I love, but the morning sunlight shines right in these windows and if you're sitting on the couch, you get blinded by the sun. I knew I didn't want to do just regular blinds. I wanted it to look nice and I wanted it to be something that would hold up. So I thought about it and looked around and we ended up finding these nice faux wood blinds from Walmart of all places. It took me going to 3 different stores to get the 5 sets that I needed, but I got them all and my dad hung them up and they look so nice.

Three
Last week, we got both kids new bikes. It was a late birthday present for Avery since we never actually got her anything (parents of the year) and an early birthday present for Jackson. Avery didn't have a bike and is just really big enough to ride one and Jackson has outgrown his bike so we decided we'd go ahead and get them now so they have time to ride them before it gets cold. They both love their new bikes.

Four
Our magic bands for our Disney World trip came this past Saturday!! We only have 21 more days until we leave!! I can't wait.

Five
A couple weeks ago, I took the kids to a Paw Patrol Toddler Time Event at Sky Zone. It was SO much fun. The kids and I brought Maw Maw along too and we all had a great time! It was the first time Jackson or Avery had been there and they had a blast. They both loved jumping on the trampolines. They had Paw Patrol themed music playing, paw patrol themed crafts and 3 of the Paw Patrol were there to meet and greet the kids. Chase, Marshall and Skye were there! Jackson went right up to them all and gave them all a hug. He stood and took pictures with them and loved every minute of it. Avery squealed with delight when she saw them and was very impatient in line to meet them, but when it got to be our turn, she was a little apprehensive. She would say hi from afar and even got brave enough to give Skye a five, but she wouldn't give them a hug and she didn't want to take a picture with them. I figured she'd be a little nervous around them, so I was happy she did as well as she did! It was a great time and we are all registered for their next Toddler Time event this month, which is Mickey Mouse themed!! Just in time for our Disney Trip.

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August has come and gone and I can hardly believe it. August was another great month!

We voted in a primary election and brought Jackson along to see the whole process, we celebrated my Papa Reg's birthday, we took a trip to the Zoo, started planning for back to school, played outside a lot, bought Avery and Jackson costumes and t-shirts for our upcoming Disney World trip and started decorating our built-ins in the downstairs family room.

We went to open house for the kids new school and they started their first day on Aug. 17th! We went to a Paw Patrol Toddler Time event at Sky Zone, celebrated Ethan's birthday at a Go-Kart track, played at the park and I got a new camera!! Yay! We also got the kids new bikes, saw some old vintage planes fly over us on the highway and got our Disney Magic bands for our Disney Trip. We went to a local church for a "Touch a Truck" event there and Jackson had a "Stuffed Animal" day at school where he brought his new Kion stuffed animal and wore his matching Lion Guard shirt!!

It was another great month and we're really looking forward to September and our Disney trip at the end of the month!

A Back-To-School Mini Session | St. Louis Children's Photographer

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of shooting a back-to-school mini session for the Stanfield Family, who also happen to be very good friends of ours. Haven and Olive are so cute and I think we all had a lot of fun with this little mini session. 

I already had the old desk (from a thrift store) and ladder (from a vintage market) and happened to find the globe at an antique store here in town. Holly brought along the apple and the old books were passed down from Haven and Olive's great-grandmother, which made it that much more special. 

Both kids rocked their session and I think the photos turned out really cute!

New Camera

Jake bought me my first DSLR camera, a Canon t2i, back in 2012 for Mother's Day. After having Jackson in 2011, I wanted to be able to take better pictures of him and better pictures for this blog, so I looked into buying a DSLR and came to the conclusion that the t2i would be a great fit for me, and it was. It was a great camera and I learned so much on it. I'm proud of all I've learned and continue to learn about photography and my love for it just continues to grow each time I have that camera in my hand. I'm proud of the little business I've built with it and all I've accomplished so far.

For the last year or so though, I've felt I had kind of outgrown my t2i and started looking into getting a new camera for my business. I wanted a camera I could grow and learn even more with. So after a lot of research and advice from other photographers, I decided on the Canon 6d. It was a big purchase, so I didn't want to take the decision lightly. I wanted to be 100% sure it was what I wanted. 

So 2 weeks ago, Jake and I made the decision that it was a good time to invest in a new camera and I'm so excited to have my new Canon 6d. I haven't had a lot of time to play with it and figure out all the new features it offers, but what I've learned so far I love!! 

And here are a couple pictures I've taken with it in the past few days that I've had it.

I'm really loving the sharper images and the low-light resolution it offers.