Baby Henry | Maple Grove Newborn Photographer

I always forget how tiny newborns are until I see one again for one of my newborn photography sessions, and I still am in awe of how light they are, too.  I'm at home constantly lifting a 32-pound 3-year old.  Then I go into one of my newborn sessions and go to adjust a tiny 8-pound newborn and I need to remind myself not to lift them too much or they may just go right out the window!

It's also amazing in how just a few years you forget how tiny and precious their little toes and fingers are, or how much "peach fuzz" they have on their shoulders and backs right after they are born.

This is exactly why I love doing newborn photography and why I so much regret not having this done with my son when he was a newborn, but I was going through so much then.  He was born with a club foot, colic and was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at 2 weeks old.  The last thing on my mind was "oh yeah, let's document these moments".  Seriously, I was just trying to get through those days without going completely insane.  So, I totally get that there are some moms and dads out there who want to forgo documenting these first couple of weeks, but please try to get past it and just do it.  Call me.  I will take your baby's photos and listen while you vent and/or cry (if you need to).  I know firsthand that it ain't always easy.

I am glad that once we made it through the storm, we did have our first professional photos done when he was 8 months old and I still have the full picture collage hanging in his bedroom documenting that time (and have had several more family photos taken since then, too).

They are only this little for such a short time.  Enjoy it. :)

Hello, Handsome! | Elk River Baby Photographer

Here is a little update from my last blog post:  we have hot water!  Wow, what a pain in the butt that whole ordeal was.  I remember our inspector specifically saying in regards to our hot water and in floor heating system "this is a complicated system", but we never realized how much until the hot water heater broke down on us.  For those out there with both systems installed in your home, I would love to hear how you have yours set up.  For now, we have one tank fulfilling the hot water needs in our home and unfortunately (for now) we are foregoing the in floor heat.  We'll address that next Fall.

In the meantime, I have been busy, busy with my babies!  Well, not my babies, my clients' babies, but they kind of feel like my babies.  My Grow With Me Package has been "blooming" this year (all puns intended) and with that I am revamping my packaging just for that.  I have been researching and researching eco-friendly packaging and have come up with a unique and useful packaging idea.  I'm still working out the kinks, pricing and which vendors I'll be going through, but am hoping to have it all set when my next round of Grow With Me sessions start the first week of May.

I am also revamping my regular session packaging as well.  I really want to stick with the eco-friendly theme for my business, so going forward all of my packaging materials will be made from recycled materials and/or will be useful in some other way....more on that to come!

If you or anyone you know are interested in the Grow With Me Package, please send an e-mail to alicea@alicearosephotography.com or you can check out the detailed session info here.

And without further ado, a little share from last month's session with Mr. C.  Talk about handsome!  Oh my, this little guy is going to be one little heart breaker when he grows up.  He did awesome for his 6-month portrait session and we've already got his 9-month session scheduled for next month.  I can't wait and am crossing all limbs, fingers and toes that this snow is gone by then.

Baby's First Valentine's | St. Paul Baby Photographer

This week has been rough people, rough.  For those that don't know, my family and I moved into a new house last summer and for the most part have truly enjoyed our new home.  Ok, so yeah, we had to buy a brand new washer and dryer right off the bat, and then we discovered the dishwasher was a big piece of junk, so in came the new dishwasher, but one thing we didn't expect was to have water rushing into our basement through the wall in the middle of winter followed by our hot water heater breaking down (again, more water this time in the middle of our utility room).  Thank God, this all happened on a weekend when my husband was here!

We fixed the water intrusion through the basement wall by fixing a gutter that was leaking near the side of the house.  Ok done.  Yes, we're still dealing with a musty smelling basement until it completely dries up and we're able to shampoo the carpet, but it was a quick and easy fix.  The hot water heater...not so much.

In our home we have 3 zoned areas that are heated (supplementally) with radiant floor heating.  Heated with the water heater.  No folks, this is no ordinary water heater.  It's the mac daddy water heater with water for the house and a boiler for the in floor heating system.  Total cost to replace? $5000.  Um, yeah, no.

Luckily, I have the best dad in the world, who was once a sort of contractor, but definitely the king of DIY'ers, who was able to come through for us and figure out a better and cheaper solution.  So, today he came over to start the installation of our new basic water heater for our house so we can do those every day things we take for granted, like showering, something I haven't seen in a few days.  And in a few months, after we do a little rearranging to the utility room, we'll have a tankless system installed to take over for the house and reconnect the in floor heat to the tank.  Voila!

For now, I just want to take a hot shower and not feel like a big greasy mess.  We've managed to "clean" ourselves, very middle-of-the-woods-camping-style, but a hot, hot shower is defintely in order.

So, anyway, that's my story for the day.  And I will leave you with these adorable photos from this 6-month photo shoot taken down at the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul.  I know this momma will never set foot inside another retail studio again. :)