Stacy's Stuff
Traci's Stuff
Posted on July 28, 2009
Traci is more to me than just a second shooter. She’s my Traci Girl, and with out her I would honestly be lost. She has become not just my co-conspirator, but a very dear friend. I always know if I need honest advice, and a straight answer, she is going to give it to me. And really she doesn’t even have to say anything, her face can say it all. For instance when I decided to go crazy this winter and dye my hair dark, it was her first look that reassured me that it was awful and I should have asked for my money back. Traci and I met through a mommy group that she put together, I have to give her kudos on that one. How she manages that, a toddler and a her husband is beyond me. (Paul you know I am giving you heck) She’s pretty fantastic! When she called me the night she found out she was pregnant I probably right then and there volunteered to throw the baby shower. Traci and I are a lot a like when it comes to many things, and the biggest is our love for the little details. Often it is scary how a like our minds work. And I love it how we can talk and not even finish sentences, because we know what the other is going to say. I have this little motto that I learned from another very dear friend, and excuse me Becky if I say this wrong: Friendship happens either for a season, a reason or a lifetime. And I truly hope and wish that Traci is a lifetime friend. She’s pretty neat and it was a blast to put this together for her. Baby Sydney is going to grow up one lucky little girl. She’s got a pretty rockin mom and her dad is pretty ok too, I guess. Ha! Ha! She’s going to have that daddy of hers wrapped around her little finger! With the help of Jana and Stephanie Traci’s shower was beautiful and very well put together! Thanks girls for everything! So on with the show…..
The weather could not have been more perfect. We held the shower at Pleasant Ridge Park in Fairview Heights. I was going for something with a little down home charm for Traci, our Georgia peach. When I saw this park had hills and lots of trees, well it was a done deal.
To go with the down home feel of things, the menu had to match. We had fried chicken, potato salad, sandwich spreads, lemonade and sweet tea. And of course for dessert there was peach cobbler (Thanks Nicole). In the jelly jars I had made a Peach Berry Salad. It was really easy and delicious. Peaches and black berries are in season right now, and they compliment each other so well. I also threw in some red raspberries and blueberries. It has become a favorite in my house and the girls seemed to like it too.
She received so many nice gifts. I am sure she is working hard on those thank you cards. ;o)
Ok I think I have raved about Artistry on Cakes before. But I cannot say enough about these amazing and scrumptious creations. Each one is a true work of art. My jaw about hit the ground when Summer pulled this out of the car. I never in a million years could have imagined a more perfect baby shower cake. Nancy took pictures I was using as inspirations for the shower and created this….
It seemed kind of wrong to cut into something so beautiful, but what is a pregnant gal to do when she wants cake?
I hope everyone that attended had a great time and enjoyed a down home, kick back and relax kind of baby shower. I know I did! Best wishes to the mama to be and I look forward to shooting the belly pictures soon! And we can’t wait to meet Miss Sydney!!
Y’all come back, ya hear!
Please note: not a single baby shower game was played. The shower was very green and surprisingly very low cost. If you or anyone you know is interested in having a party like this please shoot me an email! We love a good party!!!
Posted on July 23, 2009
Today a fellow photographer shared this link on a forum I am part of. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to share it with all my readers. Never have I seen anything like it… and I wish I could see the rest of the wedding on video as I would imagine it was a blast! Enjoy!
And honestly if I were to have a couple tell me they were going to do something like this, I would only have to give them one heck of a discount.. because this would rock my socks!!!
Posted on July 22, 2009
Often times people assume I have all these amazing photos of my kids. And I am here to set the record straight. No I do not have a house full of amazing and creative pictures. I have a handful of nice pictures of the boys. Don’t get me wrong, I have lots of great memories scattered throughout this house. I have attempted the yearly birthday picture and have found once they hit the age of two the camera novelty has worn out. With lil’ A if the mood sets him he’s all smiles and cheesiness. But when it’s an off day, it IS an off day. Here is an attempt to get a decent picture of all three of them under one of the many little arches that could been seen around St Louis for the All Star Games. I was tickled to find it and we even waited for another mother to load her three kids up after taking their picture under it. And of course they posed wonderfully, which left me excited to see what MY kids would do.
And as you can see, it was an off day for all three of my boys. So we headed inside the Missouri History Museum for a day of fun and hands on learning. I love that they have make and take for the kids, and I also love that in the exhibits they have things for kids to interact with. We had a great time learning about Charles A. Lindbergh and his plane The Spirit of St Louis. And I was thrilled that the make and take was this great paper airplane. This is the mac daddy of paper air planes.
A new feature they have at the museum is a model train track. I wasn’t able to get a picture of them enjoying the train as someone had to potty and another one was having a mini fit. I am sure we will be back to Forest Park soon and hopefully we’ll get to spend a little more time exploring this great museum.
I wonder how the boys feel about the art museum. Hmmm
Posted on July 21, 2009
I’ve spent the month of July just kicking back with the loves of my life. I blacked out the whole month of July just to be able to reconnect with my family before we rush back in to school days, crazy schedules, the fall wedding rush and then the holidays. Life slips by so fast and it’s been amazing to be able to slow things down a bit and take it all in; one day at a time. These little men I have been blessed with are such amazing fellas and it’s been great. We’ve been busy the past few weeks rediscovering where we live. Last week it was all about our favorite places to go in St Louis.
If you have not been to the City Garden, it is a must do. The boys had a blast and I enjoyed watching them and listening to the laugh as they ran through the spray plaza. I am looking forward to shooting a session here soon.
And it wouldn’t be a visit to St Louis with out a stop in Forest Park. And what trip is complete to Forest Park with out stopping at one of the best zoo’s in the United States? We have a membership and actually frequent the zoo. We come so much it still seems so silly that we all have to stop and get a map each time we come. For now on I will keep one in the bag and pull it out when we go. I’m sure we have one for each of them around here somewhere. They like to bring them home and play with them at home… you didn’t know I lived in a zoo, did you?
A favorite is always the hippo’s! And we have found that the evening is the best time to catch these guys in action.
Come back by soon to see the other wonderful places we have gone to. I need to get to bed. Keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain tomorrow as we have another fun filled day planned.
Posted on July 16, 2009
I love facebook, and I have so many great supporters there. You should come check me out over there! Click HERE to follow us on Facebook. I felt I needed to give them something so I held a contest for a free session. I love contests, I mean who doesn’t. I decided a contest would be great because…..
* Contests are fun.
* I love doing what I do.
* Getting paid doesn’t always make it more enjoyable.
* I get to think out of the box.
* Giving is better than to receive.
* I like meeting new folks.
* Dust up on my skills.
* Get out of the house.
* Discover something new.
And I am sure I could come up with a few others but Stephanie is telling me to stop or else no one is going to read them. :p
I briefed the boys this morning on the hat drawing. L seemed a little confused, little A went with the flow and the J doesn’t question me anymore, he’s learned to just go with it and smile. So here are the results.
And the first winner is….
Annie Utley if you can’t read upside down.
And next up was little A, he was very eager to participate.
And out he pulled Jennifer Griffin! YAY little A!
Next up is J. His enthusiasm was minimal compared to the other folks around the hat. But none the less he stopped his game of soldier and agreed to participate.
Amanda Wickenkamp was his pick. Everyone cheered and then the hat pullers come up with a grand idea! “What about you and Aunt Stephanie?” We thought for a second, and said “SURE!”
So we both grabbed a piece of paper and look below to see the bonus two winners.
Victoria Wisely and Katie Kurtz.
Congrats to everyone, and be on the look out in your email for more details! And thank you to everyone who participated. Don’t be discouraged, this is going to be happening again. It’ll be announced here, so be sure to come back often to see when it’s announced!
Again here is the list of winners:
Annie Utley
Jennifer Griffin
Amanda Wickenkamp
Katie Kurtz
Victoria Wisely
Posted on July 15, 2009
Welcome to Snapshots. I thought I’d start blogging about the special people in my life and throw in some of the ordinary day to day things as well. I take a LOT of pictures and many times they just sit on my computer. What better way to use them and share with everyone. This is my sweet sweet and sometimes mean as heck little A. He turned 2 this past week and it seems to be such a blur sometimes. Where do the days go? We celebrated his birthday at home with just his mama, daddy and his big brothers. We were also joined by Mamaw and Aunt Stephanie. We actually celebrated his birthday July 3rd as daddy had to go out of town and was going to miss the actual day. So here are some shots I got in. The cake was originally pretty, Steph worked hard on it. I can bake I cannot decorate. So I placed wax paper on the cake stand so she could ice it. And well we will just say maybe I put down a little too much paper and it kind of destroyed all her pretty work when we tried to pull it back out. 
But have no fear… the cake was SCRUMPTIOUS!! Little A loves blueberries, so his cake was made with a simple white cake mix with frozen blueberries added to the mix. Easy and delicious!!
Thanks for stopping by.
Posted on July 14, 2009
How My Garden Grows
With loving hands.
And an open mind.
The earth I sow and up pops
Cone Flowers in a row.
With smiling faces.
And silly races.
Daisies will grow.
With dreams in sight.
And moon lit nights.
Black Eyed Susan’s take great height.
This is how my garden grows.
This is how my love is shown.
Thankful to feel the earth in my hands.
Pure pleasure of watching it all grow.
Peace in knowing that with my nurturing
they will all take flight and GROW.
Posted on July 13, 2009
I’ve tried numerous times to blog about Nicole and Jim’s wedding day, and I have had such a hard time summing it up. Where do I begin? How do I end? Their wedding location was amazing! The ceremony was touching, I laughed, I cried and I couldn’t stop watching. When we met up and did formals I honestly have never met a group so calm, cool and relaxed. Everything went perfectly and flowed so smoothly. I was thrilled to spend a little extra time with just Nicole and Jim for some one on one formals of them before we hit the reception. Nicole and Jim were high school sweethearts, attending homecomings and proms together. They grew up together. And their love grew right along with them. You will see it in the pictures, it’s obvious he thinks the world of her and I think she’s pretty fond of her BEERMAN! 
Once the sun began to come down it was time for us to get to the party. And let me tell you right now, if I were to give out awards to my couples for the “best of” this reception would blow it out of the park. Don’t get me wrong, all my couples have had great receptions, but this one’s feel was so different than all the others. It was comfortable, it was warm and it was ROCKIN”! Their DJ Zack from Complete Music had the dance floor jumpin all night long! It was great, he was great and this I will scream from the rooftops, Zack is by far the best DJ I have EVER come across! He was well organized, you could tell he worked hard to give his couple and their guest a great time. And there is no way anyone walked away from that wedding saying they were bored!! I hated leaving myself, I didn’t want the night to end. So thanks so much to Nicole and Jim for allowing Traci, Stephanie and myself to be a part of your amazing day!! Cheers!
Nicole’s dressing room was massive. I walked in and she had me at large beautiful window light. I love natural lighting!
Is this grandpa not the sweetest?
I love Nicole’s style. Simple, classic and stunning. Her flowers were amazing.
This wedding was the first in many that ran right on time. Everything went so smoothly. At exactly 6 p.m the organ pipes filled the sanctuary and Nicole, on the arm of her very proud father, made her way down the aisle to her sweetheart.
From laughing over their dreams of having a dotson ranch to the tears of the handfasting ritual, they kept this gal on her toes. It was a great ceremony if I were getting married again here in the area I would have Lamira Martin from Your Ceremony, Your Way officiate it in a heart beat!
We had a blast with the bridal party.
And off to the reception. Again I can’t say enough good things about Nicole and Jim’s vendors. Be sure to check the end of the blog to get the detailed list of them.
A special shout out to Traci, if it wasn’t for her amazing eye for the little things I don’t know what I would do! And for Stephanie, what can I say, without her I would be a mess. She keeps me moving and organized. I would and many things would be lost with out her!
Nicole and Jim, we all wish you an amazing life together!
Their fantastic vendors:
Cake: Artistry on Cakes (Nancy Robinson- Belleville, IL) AMAZING!!! Check back soon as I am hoping to get to the shop and do a feature on the blog about them!!! The cake was to die for and I seriously stalk their storefront!
Florist: Flowers and Balloons (Mascoutah, IL)- they only did the bouquets. Nicole made the centerpieces herself- bulk tulips from Sams Club. AWESOME!!
Hair: Elite Retreat Day Spa & Salon (Belleville, IL) not only was Nicole’s hair beautiful, her mom had a great haircut from them!! i can’t wait to get in there and get my new do!
Dress: Davids Bridal (Fairview Heights, IL)
Minister: Lamira Martin {www.yourceremonyyourway.com} words cannot express how I felt about her ceremony. It was truly one of a kind!
DJ: Zach Lorton (Complete Music)- he did an amazing job
Reception: Shalafly Tap Room
Posted on July 12, 2009
I am the queen of throw it together meals. With three little men (four including the hubby) I don’t have a lot of time to go through recipes or spend prepping and making a meal. When my guys are hungry, they are hungry right now! And with everyone’s busy schedules these days, who does? So I threw this meal together a few months ago and it has quickly become a favorite. My picky 4 year old even asks for it. I don’t measure so I will try and explain it the best that I can.
I buy frozen precooked shrimp, place it in a casserole dish with sauteed onions, garlic, olive oil and I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter, probably two large spoon full. I sprinkle everything with Greek oregano, so that is on top as well. If you have not tried Greek oregano, YOU SHOULD! Then I sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the entire top and pop it in the over set at 350 degrees.
While that is cooking I start the pasta, whatever you are in the mood for. In a pan I make a pasta sauce with again sauteed onions… we love us some onions around these parts. 
) I add 2 cans of diced italian tomatoes and 3 oz of cream cheese. Of course there is Greek oregano all over this. I also add a little sea salt. I cook it till the cheese melts and then simmer it while the pasta cooks.
I let the shrimp cook about 15 to 20 minutes or until it’s bubbling and the top is a little golden. Serve the sauce over the pasta add an easy loaf of frozen bread to the oven while cooking the shrimp and TA DA!!
It’s super easy, delightful and tasty!!