Speaking of babies, Claire is three months old now! I can’t get over how much she has grown and changed in these short weeks. We went down to the studio yesterday for a few shots. Her patience was very short-lived, and when I laid her down in her little green dress, she cried for a moment, looked up at me and the camera, then rolled on her side, closed her eyes tight, and fell asleep. When she’s done, she’s done!

We started cloth diapering Claire a few weeks ago due to a nasty diaper rash that we just could not get rid of. Needless to say, I am addicted to adorable dipes! I’ve also been making many of my own, which has turned into my “zen” at the end of the day!

Aaaannnnnd… “I’m done!”

I LOVE the colors and pure fun of her circus birthday! They served popcorn and cotton candy at her actual circus birthday party, too!

Back in December, we shared Maddie’s 9 month session, entitled Once Upon A Time, which can be seen here. It was crazy popular and went viral worldwide, something we never expected! Maddie’s mom, Nicole, had already decided to do a second fairy tale session, long before the first set went viral, and we started planning right away! Costumes, props, locations, sets – we even recruited another one of my clients, little Mr. Jarrett, for help to finish one of our tales.

We took three of our sets on location this time as well, venturing across town to Dankwardt Park for Hansel & Gretel, and visiting the Des Moines County Heritage Center for Belle and Rapunzel. I want to especially thank the women at the Heritage Center for letting us shoot in the stacks of the old library, for helping with my newborn during the session, and for not minding the 6 feet of hair we spread out all over the floor!

I hope you enjoy these fairy tales as much as we loved creating them!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

(minus the bears, of course!)

Hansel & Gretel

Featuring little Mr Jarrett as Hansel

One evening, Nicole and I were at dinner, brainstorming, when Rapunzel came up. We both had been thinking about how to do her fairy tale, but with a bald baby, it just didn’t seem possible. Then it hit me, why would Rapunzel be bald? Give the baby scissors! Of course, there was NO way we were giving Maddie REAL scissors, and when Nicole found these gorgeous, hand-carved, oversized wooden scissors in Etsy, we knew this would come together perfectly! I promise, they were not sharp at all, couldn’t cut paper or hair, and actually fell apart into two pieces very, very easily.

Belle, Beauty & The Beast

The stacks of the old library might be one of my favorite places in town. I did a wedding shoot here a couple of years ago, too, and it is just beautiful in there! I knew it would be the absolutely perfect spot to photograph Belle, the book worm.

Aurora/Briar Rose, Sleeping Beauty

I love cake smashes for babies first birthdays. In the movie Sleeping Beauty, the fairies that look over Briar Rose attempt to make her a birthday cake without using magic, one of my favorite fairy tale movie scenes of all time. How absolutely perfect to recreate this in real life? Huge props to Nicole, Maddie’s mom, for making this super cute cake!

It’s a wrap, folks! Keep an eye out over the next few weeks and months for more beautiful sessions of other babies and children! We have several clients that have come to us with ideas and we are excited to make these dreams become reality!

Stay tuned for Baby Ella’s newborn session!

Jaxson was the winner of our Baby Bump contest, and I cannot wait to see him grow up this year!