{Lifestyle Portraiture} Baby Shower - Celebrating life! | Palatine Lifestyle Photographer

One of the best ways to celebrate life is to celebrate a baby! :) - A new baby brings so much with it - not just it's physical presence but a sense of purpose, a sense of calm, sense of beauty and awe for all that is precious about life. 

A few weeks back, a small group of us gathered to celebrate a mom-to-be and a dad-to-be as well a baby waiting to be born soon. We had a great time - shared some great laughs and stories about childbirth, baby names and baby antics. Everyone had some advise to share and it was wonderful watching mom-to-be take this all in - she had the sweetest smile on her face - the immense joy in her heart was so evident for all to see and feel.

Congratulations A & I - eagerly waiting to meet your baby boy :)

{Personal Expressions} Home made and finger licking delicious! | Naperville Lifestyle Photographer

What a wonderful way to spend an evening indoors - making home made pizza. We used store bought dough and sauce, added a whole bunch of cut vegetables, layered on some low fat mozerella cheese and 20 minutes later - home made pizza.

Next time we are going to try making the dough at home too and using grandma's secret recipie for pizza sauce. It cannot get more wholesome that this - Move over Papa Johns, there is a new pizza in town and it's right here in my kitchen!

{Personal Expressions} I Heart Faces - Books | Naperville Lifestyle Photographer

I instantly knew which photograph I wanted to submit for this week's I Heart Faces photo contest. This picture is from a few months ago but is so appropriate for the theme and just brings such a smile to my face!

I believe in training them young and encouraging reading anywhere! and yes, it is a book about plants in Hawaii! :)

Check out some of the other cool entries here

{Personal Expressions} Happy Birthday to Ms. B | Naperville Lifestyle Photographer

Happy birthday to the "bestest" girl in the whole wide world!

{Personal Expressions} Visions of Winter - a contrast of colors and temperatures! | Naperville Lifestyle Photographer

This year, winter has been such a contract of colors and temperatures. Every morning we check the weather report before getting ready for the day. It seems like Mother Nature is perplexed on which way she wants to go. While we have enjoyed the mild December and January, we know that somewhere down the road, this is going to come back and bite us!

January, thus far, has been biking and sledding season - how did that happen? We went from 50deg to 10deg with snow and ice showers. We had a winter blizzard that seemed to melt away in less than 5 days!  - followed by freezing rain. Are the weather gods confused? It sure makes for some very interesting weekends :)

Look mom! - I can ride by bike on grass...who knew!

Snowfall can be so captivating to watch...and watching others watching it is even more fun :) 

I cannot decide which is my favorite thing to do in winter - ice skating, sledding, or running around in the snow!!

Or perhaps, we should all just drag our sleds around to see how much snow we can gather...

{Travel Log} A quick winter break close to home! | Midwest Outdoor Travel with kids

How did you spend your winter holidays? Did you travel somewhere exotic? Or did you just go down the road to visit friends and family? Were you in shorts and t-shirts during Christmas? Or wearing cozy flannel sitting by the fire sipping hot coco?

Regardless of where you went, I hope you were able to kick your feet up and take a break - a reward for being good all year long :).

In keeping up with our family tradition, the Memorable Jaunts gang took a quick trip out of town. Not too far, just far enough to say "we took a well deserved break". The weather was great - not too cold and not too warm - just right! 

We did all the things that we love doing - we hiked, we saw wildlife (a few deers and a whole bunch of hawks!), we explored a huge cave and looked for mammoth fossils because a certain someone claimed that the cave was so huge that it MUST have housed a mammoth.

This had to be the highlight of our trip. We loved watching the ferry shuttle cars across the river and also got to see a huge barge make its way across the river. It was such a delight...did you know this ferry operates 7days a week and is one of the few FREE ferries in the country...who knew!

 

We passed by the cutest little towns and I was amazed at the beautiful Christmas decorations at every storefront. We tend to think that the bigger the city, the more dazzling the Christmas displays but this little town outdid itself...they even decorated old, historic buildings!

This picture reminds me of "gentle rolling hills" - minus the greenery, of course...but think of how awesome this must be in Spring and Summer....definitely worth a re-visit.

The quick trip away was much appreciated by all and we had a great time! - We are back rejuvenated and ready for 2012!