David | Newborn

I was super excited when my friend and former co-worker shared the news with me that she was expecting. I had to keep it a secret for a while and was killlliiiinnnnggggg me! Full disclosure, I'm TERRIBLE at keeping secrets. Anyway, naturally I told her that I would be doing her newborn photos for her, yep I called dibs.

It was love at first sight when I met David, he's such a good baby and so relaxed. He was a natural in front of the camera. Mom and Dad say he likes to keep them up in the middle of the night but I don't believe a word of it. 

I'm so glad that Dan & Julie shared their bundle with me for a bit and let me get in my cuddles and smooches, they even fed me lunch! They both have such great personalities and crack me up so I'm very excited to watch this little one grow up and I'm positive that he will be a little character as well.

Mommy and Daddy have a similar baby picture we were trying to replicate for a collage. He was  hungry and getting mad at us.

Kind hearts

The kindness of others never really ceases to amaze me. I received a beautiful, simple yet uplifting gift in the mail yesterday that brought me to tears.

My husband and I have been trying to conceive for about 10 years now. We tried some years back our 6 cycles of Clomid, but unfortunately that didn't work. These sort of things can take a toll on a marriage, and it did ours. We took a break from "trying" while trying to smooth our bumpy roads. Recently we both have finally worked up the courage to start again.

So started the doctor visits and the required testing. I have this irrational fear of blood work, my anxiety goes through the roof, and of course they had to stab both of my arms and dig around then finally go to my hand for the tests, confirming my fears. We had our follow up appointment and got the news we didn't want to hear...we have to go see a fertility specialist.

So, here we are mustering up our courage to go face more fears and more tests with that glimmer of hope that we will some day be able to be parents. That small glimmer was starting to fade fast and I was beginning the talk with myself that maybe it just wasn't meant to be and maybe I shouldn't go through all of this heartache all over again. Maybe I should just spare us the pain.

Then I get this beautiful little message in the mail, from a family member that is going through her own hard times and battle with this. Yet she found the time to put her energy into encouraging us. I can't tell you how much just this simple message means to me. Thank you very much Des, I'm sending lots of prayers and baby dust your way as well.

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© Photography by JenniLee 2013

10 years of love and marriage

In the spirit of me sharing a glimpse into my personal life I thought what better than to show you all the images from our 10 year anniversary session. Emily Sack of Expressed images did a fantastic job with these and we had a blast with her. Go to her Facebook page and show her some love, tell her Jenni sent you. You can find it here.

In our typical day you will find us laughing a lot.

She was still testing the light in these and caught such great candid moments.

Life is short.

 These images are from around Christmas when we went to visit my mother-in-law at the nursing home. I had contemplated on bringing my camera with me several times, worried that it would seem rude or uncomfortable to take pictures of her being sick and in her diminishing health. But I do not regret getting past my own qualms because I see none of that in these images, all I see is the love in our family. The love my husband has for his mom, the love that his dad has for his wife and the love that I have for my mother in law. I will cherish these images always. She is still with us but we never know for how long and I don't want to live with that regret of not doing something.

Tater (like the salad)

Just testing out some new software to create blog posts, rounded up and bribed my pooper doop a bit so I could snap a few images. Meet Tater, my love and pain in the rear.

Gilbert 50th Anniversary {Ripley,NY}

These adorable people are my grandparents and this past October they celebrated 50 years together. Within those 50 years they have "collected" 5 children, 15 grandchildren, and 29 great grandchildren and counting. With all of that family come a whole lot of love and I'm proud to say I'm a member of that crazy bunch, we fight, we laugh, we cry and we are ALWAYS there for the good and bad times.

I hope you enjoy looking at these images as much as I enjoyed capturing them.