6 months!

Oh my Goodness! Where in the world has time gone?!?! Seriously! I can't believe we're half way done with the first year! whew! Although, her first birthday does seem far away still, I just can't believe we're at SIX MONTHS! :)

The last month was great, we traveled to Georgia to shoot Anneliese and Frank's engagement session (pics coming soon) and while we were there, we decided to have a little family get together :) John's brother and sister live in Virginia, so they drove over to Atlanta and we had a great reunion. Joel,( John's brother), and his wife are expecting their first child this fall, I CANT WAIT! Yay! Harper will have another cousin to play with! :)

Oh happy day :)

Here is just a quick shot I grabbed of Harper on Easter at my parents. Isn't she friggin adorable?! :)


...and I give you a clip from our Georgia trip...


p.s. we have teeth now! ahhhhh!!! ;)

5 months.

I love what I do for a living, especially since it takes us to places we've never been before and allows us to create new friendships that will last a lifetime.

About a week before Harper turned 5 months old, we traveled to Colorado to do a newborn session of Jeff and Colleens new baby girl, Cora. Pics coming super soon! It was incredible out there. I was in complete awe at everything, including the fresh air :) Its funny, because we landed in Denver, and I was surprised at how flat everything was...John and I are HUGE fans of the movie "Dumb and Dumber", so this scene played in my head over and over as we were landing.



Ah, but when we did finally make it up to the Continental Divide, I was beside myself.

Jeff and Colleen made for some great tour guides and I'm really glad we had the chance to stay with them and really get to check out Colorado. Thank you Jeff and Colleen for flying us out to Denver to take pictures of your beautiful baby girl, for being so wonderful with showing us around town and for making us feel right at home with your family :) We almost didn't want to leave, lol.

Since I've been sharing clips the last few months of our home videos, below is one I put together of Colorado :)



Harper-doo at 5 months!



Our 2nd night in town, we drove over to Golden, CO for Dinner.




John took this picture of me (which is so me) I've got Harper strapped to me and I couldn't resist getting a shot of a truck, which is right below this one.

There is something so sexy about a man wearing a baby, lol. ;)


On Wednesday we headed up to Garden of the Gods. just wow.

I don't know who this guy was, but I thought it looked cool how tiny he seemed next to the rocks.

Stud.
I found this image very peaceful.

after our little tour of Garden of the Gods, we stopped off for a little picnic.

Then on Thursday, Jeff drove us up to see the Continental Divide. wow, wow,wow.

The boys kept doing this goofy pose they called the "Burt Reynolds" lol


Clearly, I couldn't make this happen, haha!

Thats all for now, but next month..."Hot-Lanta!" (ummm for those who don't know, thats code for atlanta) ;)

4 months.

wow. really? 4 months? whew, that went fast. Every day is a blessing, and its so fun to watch her grow!

We've had such an eventful month and we're enjoying watching her hit all her little milestones. My favorite so far is her laugh and her smile. She smiles at everything and most of everyone :) Just like her mommy. (and daddy) ;)



Below is a video from the other day when I was playing a french translation on my phone. It was saying "Harper is a beautiful little girl." I'm not sure how accurate the translation actually was, but Harper found it hilarious. :)

Since we did a retro-re-do picture in January, Here is another one :)

This one is of John and 2 of his best friends, Wes and Kevin. The 3 of them have known each other since they were 8! Isn't that awesome! Its so cool to see them all grown up and with families of their own now :)

From Left to Right: Wes, Kevin, John

Wes (with Nathan), Kevin (with Enzo) and John (with Harper) (Johns shirt says "this is what a really cool dad looks like." a little something from Harper) :)

She loves her daddy!

For Valentines day, John got Harper and I fish :) Thats my husband, always thinking outside the box.

Harper and her "Sophie". I don't think we go anywhere without her, lol

Babies, Babies, everywhere! I LOVE IT. Our friend Kim is about to pop, and it seems everywhere I turn, someone else is pregnant. So, In Lieu of the Preggo Invasion, I have an announcement. No, I'm not pregnant...yet ;) , but I am now officially offering Maternity and Newborn sessions again! I have all sorts of fun "props" that I recently got in and I'm ready to put them to use! woohoo! email me if you're interested in a session. I have a few coming up and I can't wait to share them! The first one is of baby Taylor when we travel to Colorado :) Email kenzieshores@gmail.com for details!

3 months!

Happy 3 month birthday to our baby girl Harper! Wow, I can't believe she's three months, but on the other hand, giving birth to her feels like a lifetime ago! We played "dress up" this morning to get a few cute pictures, she's so flippin cute! I couldn't resist. :)



I'm a little behind on blogging, but the pictures below are from when she was 2 months :) We LOVE YOU Harper-doodle!



Obviously I'm big on documenting life, especially our life. So every year I put together slideshows of home videos and photos from the past year and special events. Here is just a clip from Harpers first trip to the beach that I wanted to share with you :) (p.s. the people in the video with us is John's dad and stepmom who came to visit for christmas) :)

Harpers first trip to the beach from Kenzie Shores on Vimeo.

Happy New Year!

2010 was an amazing year. We found out we were pregnant in the early part of the year, and then, just in time to celebrate the holidays, Harper blessed us with her presence :) I can't say enough just how much in love I am with being a mom :)

and now, I'm looking forward to 2011 being a rewarding year of watching our daughter grow, and I'm super stoked about all the traveling we'll be doing this year for weddings and baby shoots :) Starting the year off in Colorado to shoot a newborn session for Jeff and Colleen. (we shot their wedding last May, which you can view HERE.) Then to Atlanta, GA for an engagement session, followed by another trip Colorado for Sean and Leah's wedding. Hitting the fall with Ron and Becky's wedding in Pittsburgh, PA, and rounding out the year in Hilton Head, SC for Anneliese and Frank's wedding. It's going to be a great year :)

John and I last night shooting Scott and Lindsey's wedding (sneak peek coming soon) :)



and as soon as we got home we couldn't wait to love on Harper and bring in the New Year with her too :) (lol, she doesn't look too pleased about being up)



as a side note, we took Harper to the beach for the very first time and I had to recreate this shot of me and my mom :)

Mommy.

I love motherhood. The last 20 days have been the most rewarding and amazing days of my life. I never thought I would enjoy waking up through the night countless times to change a diaper or to nurse a hungry baby. I look forward to it. Crazy, I'm sure. But its wonderful and I can't remember the last time I felt so content with life. I'm not going to lie, the first week and a half she was here was almost too easy. She wanted to sleep through the night, and nap most of the day so I was still able to get stuff around the house taken care of. Then week 2 came along and wow, new baby. haha. She only wants me, and I can't seem to put her down for longer than 2 minutes. So the moby wrap has definitely been put to use, and nursing while I respond to emails and edit has become a must. I've always been a multi-tasker, but it has an all new level now, lol.

Harper is growing daily and she looks like a different child all the time. I love day dreaming about the type of person she's going to be :) *sigh* and I try to think of all the things I want to expose her to. For one, we're listening to a little Rachmaninov to start our day. My mom used to play classical music in the car for my sister and I when we were younger and she would have us pick out the different instruments that were playing in that particular piece. To say the least, we had a great appreciation for classical music and I eventually took up playing the violin, which led me down many other incredible paths. I like to think music had a lot to do with it and it all started with listening to one particular song that absolutely moved me when I was a child. It was Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini: Variation No. 18. It actually moved me to tears, and I was only 12. I wanted nothing more than to live my life out like the rhythm of this song, with its great ups and downs. It just sounded like a beautiful love story and a life of passion, and I was determined.

So as we listen to this music this morning, this is my wish for Harper, to grow an appreciation for the arts, and to follow her heart in life.


Here are just a few photos from our newborn session we had done by our great friend Briana! Thank you again Briana!!! We LOVE you!!!!