Welcome Logan’s sweet little brother, Luke!!  This family is amazing and I just loved that I got to spend the afternoon with them.  Logan & Luke’s mama and I go way back to junior high if you can believe it!!  She has been a part of my life for so long…she was a bridesmaid in my wedding too!!  Funny though as life tends to be and we get busy we had a few years that we lost track, but don’t you love technology and how it can reconnect you!!  I sure do, I have been reconnected with so many over the last few years!!  ANYWAY, now we only live a few miles from each other and get to see each other much more often, although with our little ones it still makes it a little difficult to get together as much as we would like!!  Well, Mr. Luke is one of the cutest little guys I have ever seen!!  He stayed asleep for the first part of our session and we were able to get some sweet little shots of him!!  Then we got some shots of big brother…being just that “big” and showing us how it’s done!!  Congrats, S Family!!  It was a privilege to photograph your growing family!!  Love you guys!!

These outdoor shots were taken just outside their back door!!  Gorgeous desert right now!!

Also, two big things that I will be posting about soon…one is my LOGO is just about finished and I can’t wait to show you!!  It’s Awesome!!  I’ll tell you all about that and my amazing designer once all of that gets finished up!!  Second, I have had the amazing pleasure of second shooting two fabulous weddings the last two weekends with one of my best girlfriends!!  I will be posting some of those images VERY soon!!  April is a VERY VERY busy month for me…with two destination weddings, newborn. maternity and family shoots!!  Going to be a wild one, but am so excited!!  The month of May will start my slow up since my belly bump seems to continue to be growing and growing!! 

Blessings!!

Janelle

Did you get pinched today?  We actually all wore green shirts except for Daddy…he had to do blue with a small green stripe.  Apparently, “green” is not part of his wardrobe, but that’s ok, blue was actually first associated with St. Patrick’s Day anyway!  :)  I find St. Patrick’s Day a particularly interesting holiday.  It is amazing to me that so many of our “holidays” revolve around Christianity and the belief in Christ and yet our country is constantly trying to kick him out of everything…hmmm.

Do you know the history of St. Patrick?  Here is a brief history lesson.  He was born in mid 300 AD.  He came to Ireland basically as a missionary to witness to the Irish people.  Although there are much more successful missions later after Patrick, he is given much credit bringing Christianity to the Irish.  He was a missionary for nearly 30 years.  He died on March 17, 461.  The coolest part…is where we get the tradition of the shamrock.  It was said that Patrick used it to explain the Trinity to the Irish people…three separate leaves…yet one shamrock.  Isn’t that cool?  There’s a little history for you on why we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day…

Well, a couple of years ago I signed up to be a rep for a company called Once Upon A Family and their whole mission centered around family & traditions you create as a family.  Well, one of their suggestions for St. Patrick’s Day was a “Lucky Us” book.  Something really simple…basically you declare St. Patrick’s Day as a day to reflect on just how “lucky” you are to have your family, friends, etc.  Well, I wouldn’t say that I really believe in “luck” per say, but we have used the word loosely and this will be the 3rd year of our “lucky us” record in our book.  I feel so lucky/blessed in so many ways…family, friends, community, life…but mostly, that I know God has a plan.  That I don’t have to depend on “luck”!!

Today we had some dear friends up to our home.  Our kids are all the same ages…and they all just have a ball the entire time they are together.  I just love that.  We made some Shamrock cookies in honor of the holiday…however this is the sole survivor after six children came through the house in a whirlwind…

I hope that you had a GREAT St. Patrick’s Day!  If you haven’t had a chance to think about how “lucky” you are…take some time to do that.  Write it down…date it and put it in a place where you can reflect on it often.

Blessings!

Janelle

I had the AMAZING privilege back in October to spend a few days with some incredible people.  All of them peers in this photography industry all of them absolutely wonderful people.  I don’t just say that.  For a group of photographers to come together and “hang out” and when I say “hang out” I mean…learn, teach, share, laugh, absorb and “hang out” too, that isn’t all that common.  Don’t get me wrong not that it doesn’t happen, but to come together with the intent to share what we have learned…”secrets” so to speak…places we have shot…and have no fear, but only excitement about doing just that…seriously AMAZING!!  Anyway…I mostly absorbed all that I could learn from each of these wonderful people and surprisingly for most of you that know me personally, didn’t talk all that much.  There was too much to take in!!  Anyway, we spent some time taking pictures too!!  This all so sweet couple put on their wedding attire and let us put them here there and everywhere!!  I wanted to share some of the images with you…I just first had to dust them off and edit them…it only took five months!!

Thanks to all the other photographers and to those who put everything together!!  AMAZING!!  I learned so much!!

Blessings!

Janelle

Do you remember this little guy?  This is the fourth time I have photographed him & his family…the first time while he was still cozy in his Mama’s belly!  I can hardly believe that he is already one years old and on the move.  I met Holden and his parents up at the park not far from my house to get some shots of him in this “don’t want to miss a moment” stage!!  He is definitely on the move any way he can get there and he is giving Mom and Dad a run for their money!  Can you even resist those sweet eyes??  He has an easy out when he gets in trouble, just flash those babies with that too cute grin of his!!  Thank you so much K Family for spending some of your afternoon with me…it was so great to see you!!  Here is a few of your little man!!!

Hugs, K Family!!

Blessings!

Janelle

I hope you don’t mind, but today my post is very personal.  One thing that I love about this blog is that it gives me a vehicle to share.  Share my photography with you, but also my life.

Today is a day that is forever imprinted on my heart, on the heart of my whole family, especially my oldest brother and his wife.  You see, today is one year that they delivered their little girl who’s life had already been taken up to heaven.  My heart grieved a loss that was only partially mine, my niece.  Sometimes God just doesn’t make sense, but without God where would we ever find hope?  Are there questions…yes, many.  Here is what I know to be true, God is always good.  He never changes.  He is always faithful.  There is no gray here…you either believe those things or you don’t.  Yet, if God is good, how could He allow the pain of such a tragic loss…well, I don’t think I know the answer, but I only have one puzzle piece and God has all of them.  We live in a fallen world and it is full of sadness and pain, of anger and hate…but through Jesus we have joy…we have hope…we have faith… and we have His undeserving grace…

So, today this is a story of my older brother, Jason and his wife, Melinda’s children…a story of joy, hope, faith & grace.  God does restore hope and brings back joy…through our faith in Him and His beautiful grace…

Meet Ava Joy…she is my oldest niece (actually her Mommy & Daddy have produced all my beautiful nieces).  Her middle name fits her perfectly…she is full of joy and full of life.  She has a smile that lights up a room and the bluest of eyes that dance when she is excited.  She is a wonderful mix of both of her parents in personality and in her looks.  She is a joy…

For those of you that walked with Jason and Melinda, really our entire family, through the devastating news about their unborn child last year, you never got to meet her.  As a family we were all their to see her, to hold her, to sway her back and forth…to say “we love you”…to know this little baby was already in the presence of Jesus.  With permission, I would like you to meet her as well…Sweet Mya Hope…quite fitting a name because she does give us hope for what it to come…we will one day see her again.

We never know God’s plan for our lives.  Neither did they…God allowed a very real, tragic loss in my brother and sister-in-law’s lives.  One that shook them to their core and allowed them to question things they never questioned before…for one their future…What would God have for them, for their family?  Could they ever endure to “try” to have another child?  Actually, they weren’t really in a place to even ask that question, when God answered it before it was spoken.  He said…no you won’t “try” to have another child.  I have a plan for your family.  So, He made the decision for them and despite the shock of His plan initially, it was even more evident that it was His plan.  And wouldn’t you know that God blessed them beyond they could ever imagine…TWINS.  I still remember Melinda telling us, “they saw TWO” after her first appointment and she was still shaking after the 30 minute car ride…so many emotions.  Yet, God is good…He is faithful.  Exactly 11 months after they delivered Mya Hope, they were given two amazing gifts…not to put Mya in the shadows she will always be a part of their family and all our lives, but to only more clearly give us a glimpse of what hope is…

So, here are the two newest members of their family…Christa Faith and Jada Grace…

This is Christa Faith…

This is Jada Grace…

So, today is a day that has some sadness, but mostly hope…a renewed hope of God’s plan and His gift of joy.  We don’t know His plan, but He does.

Thank you for letting me share from the heart today.

Blessings,

Janelle

This sweet little face, Emery, has the most wonderful Mommy.  She is one of my dearest friends and I treasure her like a precious jewel.  That is not an understatement…she is one of God’s many blessings in friendships to me.  She meets me right where I am, tells it to me straight, but full of grace and compassion.  She encourages me and she loves me just for being me.  Can you tell why she is like a precious jewel to me?  I love you, K!

Well Miss Emery joins five beautiful sisters.  That’s right this family has been blessed with now SIX precious girls.  They are all unique in their own special way and of course beautiful inside and out!!  Once Emery is a little bigger I am sure there will be some photos to post of all these girls!!  But for now…let’s welcome just Emery.

She is just the cutest little peanut, although now she is almost two months old already (yes, still catching up on my blog…and yes I still have more to catch up on!)!  I got to get a few pictures of her while hanging out with her Mommy for a couple of hours…best of both worlds if you ask me!! 

Also, tomorrow I will be blogging something very close to my heart, so I hope that you will pop on over again tomorrow!! 

So, here are a few favorite pictures of Miss Emery…

Love all of you guys!!!

Blessings!

Janelle

I have said it before, but this part of town is so fun!  I really hope that it continues to get business and stay afloat!  In the fall it just has beautiful green grass and fun color all around!  This beautiful family met me down there back before Christmas for their family photos.  We walked around and took pictures here and there.  How exciting too that M is pregnant with #2.  I have to share a super cute story too.  They had gone in for their mid point ultra sound the week that we took photos and they asked their tech to “peek” and see the gender of the baby, but to not tell.  She put it in an envelope for them and took it to their baker.  They asked the baker to make a cake with pink and blue flowers on the outside, but on the inside whatever the gender of the baby to make the cake (either blue or pink).  So, we took pictures the week of Thanksgiving and they were going to do the big reveal on Thanksgiving!!  Well, I just recently found out that they cut into the cake together to find PINK inside!!  So, excited for your family!!  Mr. J is going to be a wonderful big brother to his baby sister who is coming next month!!  :)  So, here are some images from our time together that I loved…

Thank you, again F Family!!  I can’t wait to hear about your precious new bundle of joy!!

Blessings,

Janelle

Have you figured out that life isn’t easy??  Sure sometimes the road seems smoother with less bumps and other times you need a serious off-road vehicle to navigate.  I am always reminded whether the road smooth or very bumpy that I am not in control.  I have no way of seeing beyond this moment to know what my road may look like ahead.  Sometimes that is a blessing and sometimes a curse.  However, I have a God who knows my road…every bump, every crack, every curve…whew, to me that is a huge load off my shoulders and a reminder that I can only live one moment at a time.  I hope that you have not been overwhelmed this week with life…with worry…with stress…I pray that you too can live each moment to it’s fullest and sit strapped into the passenger seat securely knowing that God is in control and that He is driving.

So, I have to share an epiphany!!  Like I said, life just isn’t easy sometimes.  As a mom of three little ones, one being in kindergarten, our mornings can sometimes get a little hectic.  Let me first say that if there had not been the invention of coffee I probably wouldn’t even be awake at noon.  I am not a morning person.  Ask my parents…they yanked me gently awoke me each morning over and over again until I quite literately rolled out bed.  I spent most of my high school years in my pajamas, ask my husband I didn’t even bother to get dressed for school!  Sometimes genetics are a funny thing in what your children will inherit.  My son got the please leave me alone in the morning gene too, uh-oh!!  So, the morning is somewhat of a whirlwind for me because my two more than cheery girls wake up bright and early and my son and I lay lifeless in our beds until the clock tells me that if I don’t get up right now I will be in big trouble.  Then it’s change a diaper, maybe get dressed, pour the coffee, do something quick for breakfast, brush our teeth Gage’s teeth, now hurry everyone in the car…last one in is a rotten egg, right?  And seriously, if you leave one minute late you will be punished by a loooooonnnnnggggg line of parents in vehicles all waiting patiently & cheerfully, to drop off their kids.  Did you notice in my haste to get out the door I forgot something?  How about my son’s lunch!!!?????  Ok, so I have to admit this has happened on more than one occasion.  Soooo, this brings me to my epiphany…sorry it takes me awhile to blurt things out sometimes!  Why not make life in the morning a little less hectic and a little less embarrassing for my son who’s mother can’t seem to pull it together to make him lunch…so this is what I did this morning…

I bought two loaves of bread and decided to premake peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and freeze them!  I know they make these in the freezer section of Fry’s however this was a lot cheaper to do it yourself!!

So, I started spreading the peanut better on jelly on almost twenty slices of bread!

Then I used my cut-n-seal from Pampered Chef.  Do you own one of these??  This has to be one of the best inventions ever!!  It’s only $9 and it makes the best little sandwiches because it does just what it claims…cuts & seals!!

Aren’t they cute??  I popped each one in a ziplock bag and threw all 16 of them in the fridge!!  Of course wouldn’t this have been a smarter project on Sunday instead of Friday, but now we will be prepared for Monday morning at the Zeller House!

If you have any time savers for getting your kids out the door…post a comment and let me know!  I can use all the help I can get!! 

I’ll be posting a family session from back in November that was taken in downtown Glendale in the morning…so check back!!  I hope you have a wonderful start to your weekend!!

Blessings!

Janelle

Oh my there are so many things on the horizon right now, both personally and professionally.  I can’t wait to share some of them with you.  At the present moment I am overwhelmed with things to do that are never ending!!  Do you ever feel like there is so much you don’t know where to start?  I have sat down at the computer on several different occasions to “work” and I find myself staring blankly at the screen because I don’t know quite where to start.  Which is why I haven’t posted to my blog lately, bad I know!!  Seriously, my Google reader is about to explode when I open it because I haven’t looked at so many of my favorite blogs, again where do I start when the number a the top of the reader says over 100 new posts!!

Lately, my pregnancy brain has been getting the best of me (at least that is what I blame it on!! - haha!!) and I have been forgetting my train of thought as soon as it comes into my head.  Perhaps that is why I am overwhelmed…I can’t even remember my own thoughts!!  Yikes!!  However, I want to share with you some of my thoughts (if I can remember them) and what is coming soon.  Then I want to share a photo my girlfriend took…many of you have seen, but I wanted to share it here!

So, my random thoughts.  One is where have I been with this whole Twilight series??  My friend, Erin bought me the first book for Christmas and I left it on the nightstand for the last few months.  So, one night I decided to just pick it up and see what the hype is all about.  Two days later I am reserving the remaining three books from the library.  I have finished book #2, but am now pausing a moment as I have a few priorities (like talking to my family, making dinner and sleeping) that went lacking while I became a bookworm and couldn’t tear myself away.  I feel like a love struck teenager as I read through these silly books, but although I must say that even though I do realize that my husband is not a vampire I am seeing him through the eyes of a love sick girl looking at her soul mate more and more…haha!!  See these books do benefit him after all.  So, I am sure that I will give in and book #3 will become an obsession before the week has ended.

Things that are on the horizon…well there are many.  Personally there are a few that immediately come to mind or what is left of it.  One is that I am more than halfway through this pregnancy, which is hard to believe.  We had our midpoint ultra sound a few weeks ago and everything looked beautiful and this little one was VERY active.  In fact, I was surprised that there were any pictures from the ultra sound since the tech could hardly get this baby not doing somersaults.  However, the baby did pause as we got a perfect toilet between the legs and I believe that there was no mistaking that this is a little boy!!  So, that makes us even at the Zeller house…2 and 2!  We are all thrilled to meet this little man.  As for names, well we are still in negotiations and I think the reveal will be after we get to meet this guy!!  Other things on the horizon…we will be moving sometime in about three months.  Only about a mile away, but there is nothing quite like moving with kids or how about moving right when you are supposed to be nesting!!  Haha!!  Hopefully, this little man stays put until we can at least get somewhat settled, but only God knows and it will all work out.  We are excited about the move and what it brings for our family as we simplify life a little bit, if there is such a thing.  The last thing that I will share personally is a huge step for our family and that is we have decided to enroll two of our kids at a Christian School in the fall.  It’s huge because it is a huge commitment for us in the financial department.  We have come to know that our money is not our own, it’s Gods.  It’s nice that he loans it to us while we are here.  Knowing that it isn’t ours has made this decision a little easier, but as humans we still get nervous on the hows.  However, if God presses something on our hearts (which He did for both my husband and me) and we continue to pray and ask his guidance, how can I then not be obedient to Him because of a fear that is nothing for God.  All I hear in my ear is…Trust me, I will provide. I do.  I still have a twinge of fear that likes to creep in now and again, but then I hear it again, Trust me, I will provide. So, wow I love that God is always faithful and I do know He will provide.  We just have to make the steps to be obedient and I am always excited to see what God does with that.  It is rarely what I expect.

Whew…so now to business!!!  There are so many things to share, but I will keep it a little short since I just got way long winded back there!!!  Haha, I am a preacher’s daughter - it comes with the territory!!  :)  So, I can’t wait to reveal my new logo that is currently under way!!  It will be completed soon and I can’t tell you just how thrilled I am!!  One of my wonderful brothers did my first logo, which I loved, but I have known for a little while that it was time for a change.  I needed something that was 100% me!  The concepts that sweet Aleta has come up with have been just that and we are finishing up the last touches…oh I can’t wait!!  So, more to come on that!!  Other things that are coming…I am changing my structure a little bit and the way I do my pricing.  I want to better meet the needs of my clients and make things as easy as possible for them.  So, as all of that comes together I will be sharing more soon!!  A lot of things I have been dragging my feet a little bit because I want to use my new logo, so it is coming soon!!  I am so excited for some up and coming weddings these next couple of months.  Two of them out of Phoenix!!  I have always loved weddings…being a preacher’s daughter I have been to my share of them (over 50 at least), so it is fun to be able to be more than a bystander and to share in the joy of two people joining together in front of God, family and friends AND to get to capture that with my camera so, that those precious memories from the day are forever remembered, it’s just amazing!!

One last thing, although most of you have probably given up on all my ramblings at this point!!  Those of you that are still hanging onto every word I type…haha!!  Since summer will bring a move and a baby upon our family I will be taking the months of June, July and August off.  If you are wanting to book a session before then please contact me soon.  I have many of my clients with little ones turning a year in May that will be taking up many of my weekends…I can’t wait to see how big these cuties have gotten, so if you haven’t officially booked please contact me soon so, that I can get you in before June!!  Thanks for letting me ramble and share with you.  I love that I can do that on here.  It’s almost like my own version of  a journal, which by the way would love to start doing again in my spare time, however I haven’t found any of that lately!!  :)  Here is the photo of my family that I promised…by far one of my favorites.  If this doesn’t show the personality of my kiddos right now I don’t know what does!!

Blessings!

Janelle