christenBphotography blog » holland, mi || lifestyle and portrait photographer || children, baby, maternity, family, couples, engagement, weddings, stories

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West Michigan Portrait and Lifestyle Session: Meet Barbara

It was such an honor to capture some portraits for Barbara’s new website. (This session was taken when I was 38 weeks pregnant which explains the delay in sharing this session with you.) I miss the beautiful autumn colors and light!  Barbara is one of those inspiring women who encourages you to dream big and work hard to see God’s kingdom come. Barbara has a lot of exciting things that she is working on: new ministries; trainings and teachings; and a book that I can’t wait to read. If you know Barbara, you know that she is often on the go, and I wanted to capture some of that while still capturing her ability to be present with you even when life is moving quickly.  She is incredibly exuberant which definitely comes out in this sneak preview. I had such a hard time choosing which images to share with you. Thank you Barbara for hiring me to capture a glimpse of who you are.

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You just never know what’s going to happen when you are with Barbara.;)

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LOVE this light!

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Barbara has a great sense of style and color!

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Would you believe me if I told you this wasn’t planned? It wasn’t.  Here is Barbara with a long time friend and partner in ministry.

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Barbara, you are gorgeous!!

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Thank you Barbara for allowing me to spend a few hours with you while capturing the joy you add to the world around you. You are a beautiful and inspiring woman of God who I respect greatly. I can only imagine the hundreds (thousands, even?) of people you have impacted in significant, life-changing ways.

January 22, 2012 - 9:03 pm

TonyB - Barbara has been a non-stop encourager, rebuk-er, visionary, prayerful, fun, energetic, thoughtful, and caring person in my life since I met her in 2001… Blessed to be her friend and co-laborer!

January 22, 2012 - 1:57 pm

shannon leith - christen——- these are vibrant! such a great job. i wish i knew her!

January 22, 2012 - 12:53 pm

Rebecca Brown - These pictures encapsulate Barbara’s character so well- a woman of integrity, confidence, and joy- all of it brought on by the Holy Spirit in her life. She taught me so much of what it means to be living for Christ and to be prepared to share the hope of salvation with everyone I meet. I have a much more missional perspective than I did before meeting her. Thank you, Barbara, for being such an amazing mentor and friend.

Baby Isaac, 7 Days New: Newborn Photography: Holland, Michigan

It was wonderful to meet Baby Isaac last week and spend some time getting to know this new family of three. Amanda and Ben’s love for their little guy was so evident – as well as their natural instincts in meeting Isaac’s needs. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with Baby Isaac and see why Amanda and Ben are over the moon for him. Isaac has a very sweet personality and has the same curiosity and thoughtfulness as his parents.

World, meet Isaac. Isaac, meet the world.

 

These expressions followed Ben sharing with Amanda how amazing she was during labor and delivery.

Amanda has been working on this amazing quilt that will be a keepsake for Isaac for the rest of his life. I can only imagine all the thoughts, prayers, emotions, and dreams she has sewn into each of these pieces.

LOVE LOVE LOVE the wrinkled forehead in this little man’s expression!! And check out those eyelashes!

Isaac is SUCH a honey!!

Like father, like son. I think we have a future musician on our hands.:)

There’s nothing like the comfort of his mama…

such beautiful peace…

  Congratulations Ben and Amanda! Thank you for allowing me to witness the sweetness of Isaac and the beauty of your growing family. What a blessing!!

 

 

 

 

Capturing the Sacredness of the Daily: Shannon Leith Photography

For the past 5 1/2 weeks, my husband and I have been enjoying the steep learning curve of family life with a newborn. We welcomed Baby Samuel into our lives on Nov. 26 and it has been unbelievably amazing to get to know him and fall in love with his absolute sweetness. The magnitude of thoughts/emotions from this whole experience can be paralyzing on the blog update front because its so hard to know where to begin with sharing how deeply we are thankful by his presence in his lives.  I realized in those early hours how sacred it all was:

**Having the amazing, undeserved, opportunity to labor through contractions for over 30 hours and feel every bit of welcomed pain that came with the birth of someone so beautiful.

**Baby Samuel being put on my chest as soon as he was delivered and his crying subsiding as he looked up at Tony and I with wide eyes while all I could say over and over again was: “He’s here! He’s here! He’s here!” I could hear Tony’s voice in unison with mine saying: “Hi Samuel! Hello son!”

**Learning about his dangerous billirubin count and his need for 1 week of photo-therapy and supplemental feedings where all of a sudden he went from being in our arms and looking at us to having his eyes covered and being wrapped in a UV blanket… where we were praying his count would not spike to the twenties which could cause blindness or brain damage. And the reality that you cannot always protect your child from bad things happening sank in a bit.

**Walking into the nursery on our first night home to see Tony sleeping in the rocking chair and Samuel sleeping in his arms. My first thought: “How precious!” My second thought: “That’s a little dangerous.” My third thought: “If I wasn’t in pain, I would walk downstairs and get my camera.”

**Learning the beauty of the Super Swaddle (Thank you Rachel!) and eventually, the miracle of the Double Swaddle for our little blanket wrangler.

** Loving: his yawns and stretches; his superman pose when I lift him, unswaddled, out of his crib; his obsession with the ceiling fan, oven, and architecture; squeals and giggles; half smiles like his dad; his love of the crib mobile and how he follows them around; the way music calms him as well as inspires him to kick his legs and move his arms more; and the list goes on…

Throughout the first month, Tony and I were (and still are) completely over the moon for him and honestly, we were (and still are) loving life as a family. I am more in love with my husband than I ever thought possible — and increasingly grateful for his selfless love for both Samuel and I. I could write a whole blog post on my love of Tony alone, but that would be a little lengthy to combine with this one.

Can you believe I forgot my camera when we went to the hospital?? Honestly though, I’m not sure I would have even thought to take many photographs as I was so immersed in the moments themselves. Thankfully, my Dad had his camera with him so we were able to have a few photographs from our first few hours together… Thanks Dad!

After our first week home, I realized that you never get back the newness of those first few days in learning how to be a family – and I really wanted someone else to capture who we were, in those awkward moments, as a family. Shannon is a dear friend who I got to know during our 3 years in LA who shares my passion for capturing the authentic moments of everyday life – and I began dreaming out loud about how amazing it would be to have her come to Michigan. It was a complete ‘pipe dream’ until Tony surprised me by booking her plane ticket to get here. He knew how much I valued photographs and wanted to make it happen even if we couldn’t necessarily afford it. I am so thankful for the ways she captured the newness of it all… and shared in our ‘Did you see that face?‘ kinds of moments.

Shannon did a preview of her favorite photographs on her blog here but she gave me permission to share my favorites on my blog too. She has started doing SHINE sessions for women that you can learn about here but what she did for us was a family SHINE session. It was wonderful to see the world in photographs from someone else’s perspective… which is why I love capturing the daily life of children and families…because its such an amazing gift to capture the unique beauty of a single friend, new family, seasoned married couple, or the relationships between siblings.  It’s a lot of pressure to try and capture the moments yourself — and there is just something about trusting someone else to see the beauty in what you are experiencing firsthand so you can live in the moments instead of stepping outside of them. I hope that makes sense to at least a few people.

Without any further rambling, here are a few favorites… although not all of them, since some of my favorites include feeding Samuel.

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Samuel, we love you. Thank you for turning our world upside down in the best way possible.

Thank you Shannon for capturing this beautiful, upside down world we now live in.

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I am excited to see where God leads our growing  family.

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January 5, 2012 - 12:32 am

Janneke - What a beautiful little boy and family! Thanks for writing this post, it brings me back to a very familiar time that we experienced 16 months ago, including the double swaddle:). Enjoyed the pictures very much, makes me feel a little closer to get a glimps of this special time in your life. Love you guys! X

January 4, 2012 - 8:26 pm

jada - Absolutely beautiful moments captured in photographs. Thank you for sharing them with us. We love you. MOM (Jada)

Holland, Michigan Weather Forecast: Snowy

I think God knew I needed a little fun surprise today… I was coming down the stairs from putting Baby S down for his nap and I saw this:

Holland resident Lindsey had just received this sled for Christmas and was training her dogs, Dash and Lightning, to pull her in it.

January 2, 2012 - 5:10 pm

admin - You can always come to Holland and sled here!!

January 2, 2012 - 3:44 pm

Beth - How cool. Wish we had enough snow to sled.