children’s portraits

July 25, 2019July 3, 2019

| DeVico-Stalets Family Portraits | Decatur IL Family Photographer |

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It can often be hard to get the family all together when you aren’t close but one wonderful thing about us being located in central Illinois and easy to access from Bloomington, Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Peoria, Springfield, Champaign, etc is that we can be your central meeting location and coordinate with you and your family to bring everyone together for a whole family portrait!

That’s exactly what we did for this beautiful family. And it was wonderful to meet them on session and create images that can bring them all together even when they are afar.

July 11, 2019July 3, 2019

| Willa | 2 Year Old Portraits | Decatur IL |

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I have such a soft spot in my heart (and a HUGE burst of gratitude) for the families that have been with me for years. I’m thrilled to say that I’ve been working with Myra since before this little lady existed! It’s been a treat to watch her grow (check out her first birthday session here) and we had such fun on her session this year playing in the dandelions.

January 28, 2019January 28, 2019

| Parker Fall Family Portraits | Decatur IL Photographer | Sarah Jane |

Well after prepping this post to go live Friday a very sick toddler threw off my plans and I didn’t even realized until today that I hadn’t actually clicked ‘publish’ so we have a bonus post this week (aka late post from last week, but better late than never ya’ll and it’s going to be a great way to START your week!)……

Today I get to share with you a family that’s become an important one to our little family. Three years ago we faced the daunting task of finding a babysitter for our little lady “baby B” … Though we’ve been in the Decatur area for nearly 9 years now, times like these you realize that there are not a lot of people you really know personally so we reached out to our wonderful neighbors and on facebook to trust in the word of those in our circle to help us find someone we could trust with our brand new baby.

That one choice is so huge and being new parents we didn’t even know what to look for or what questions to ask or how this whole thing even worked. Well Jinny was the first and only sitter we went to visit with… we knew we’d be taking essentially a blind leap of faith and just hoping for the best and we could not have made a better choice. Not only is she super flexible with us with a not so set schedule that is the life of an entrepreneur but my kid feels just as much a part of their family as she does ours (like no joke she introduced herself as “B Parker” for like a year before we convinced her that no she was actually a Shorthose just like us).

Even having a sitter is something that I think many working moms struggle with but when your kiddo gets excited and runs to the door when Ms. Jinny comes (yes this awesome lady even comes to pick up my kid from here often) and when she asks at least once a weekend if she’s going to Ms. Jinny’s today it makes it 100% easier to let her go. She’s somewhere she loves and is loved and that warms my heart so so much.

Ok now if you’ve stuck in here this long through the ramblings of a super grateful momma I guess it’s time to show you some images we created this fall for Jinny and her brother to gift to their momma for Christmas. I was so happy to be able to create these for them and give each of these kiddos a bit of their own time in the spotlight as we know these moments don’t last long. I hope you join me in showering these beautiful people with love!

If 2019 is the year for YOU to update your family portraits (whether it’s been a year or a decade since the last one) we’d love to talk with you and design something special for the personalities in your house!

November 15, 2017December 27, 2017

| Taylor 2017 Family Portraits | Decatur IL |

I’m so excited to have seen this family again this year. Our last session was in 2014 (you can see it here) and these guys survived a crazy COLD windy miserable day for their session then. So we were all thrilled to have their session on a, still windy, but much warmer day this year! And I cannot believe how much these kiddos have grown. They are so full of personality it was a super fun session!

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And, of course, we had to give each kiddo their own moment in the spotlight to let their personalities shine!

Now that their Christmas cards have been sent I thought I’d update their blog post with their adorable Christmas card!

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March 28, 2017March 28, 2017

| Jamie + Mike Engagement & Family Portraits | Decatur, IL |

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OMG you guys! I cannot tell you how much I’ve been chomping at the bit to show off this snowy session. I’m honored to be photographing Jamie & Mike’s wedding day this year and this gal wanted a snowy engagement session SO BAD and we were almost certain it just wasn’t going to happen for us. After some disappointing snow flurries early in the season which amounted to little more than a dusting that was melting by the time either of us was on the phone to begin planning logistics we both resigned ourselves to hope for a late season snow but things were looking pretty bleak (ie sunny and WARM). I knew how much Jamie really wanted a snow session so I had even started calling around to my photography friends in other northern cities to call me if any snow hit their area and we’d just make a road trip…. it wasn’t looking promising.

But then….. this lovely and random one-day blizzard arrived in true mid-western style! And it was just what we needed! The stars really aligned for this with both Jamie and Mike off work that day already and the opening in my schedule falling right after school these two were able to pick up their little guy and make it over to the park in the midst of a gorgeous snowfall! After that perfect session we’re all so happy we hadn’t jumped the gun and tried to make a session work with a tiny bit of snow because our patience was rewarded with this BLIZZARD!

And from a kid’s point of view how cool is it you get to PLAY IN THE SNOW for your portrait session?!?!

I’m so excited these guys have opted to share their wedding day with me and have me be a part of creating their family legacy and even more thrilled we were able to create exactly what Jamie envisioned for their engagement/family session. We have ONE opening left for a 2017 wedding and are currently booking 2018 (only 8 openings left) so don’t hesitate to call to schedule a time when we can chat about creating your portrait vision. And be sure to pop over to Jamie & Mike’s facebook album to give them some love.