JET - Two Months Old Today | Julie Marie Portraits

My how the time has flown....can hardly believe my sweet baby boy is 2 months old today!  And even better, he slept for a five hour stretch in the night!  What a great 2 month old gift for his mama! :)

#WHATIMWORKINGONTODAY #BROTHERS | Julie Marie Portraits | Toledo, Ohio Children's Photographer

Happy January | Julie Marie Portraits | Chicago Children's Photographer

Hope everybody is having a great January!  We are enjoying our downtime so much along with all of our visitors that have been here!    I really didn't have much to say except that I wanted to pop in to say hi and of course, post some pix of my boys!  To give you an update, big brother Jake is starting to acknowledge his brother somewhat.....i guess the good thing is that Jake does not want to be near his brother, so he's not bothering him at all!  However, I was able to get some funny pix of the two of them yesterday.  Also, yesterday Johnny was 4 weeks....my how the time is flying!

One of my favorite blogs did a picture like this below for every week of her daughter.  I, however, am going to do a monthly picture just to show how big he gets.

love, love, love this one...i'm not even sure what Jake is telling Johnny

and some fun pictures of my Jakers....2.5 years old and ornery as can be and so much fun!

Happy Birthday & Best Buds | Julie Marie Portraits | Chicago Children's Photographer

I just wanted to wish my dad a Happy, Happy Birthday tomorrow!  We wish we could be there to celebrate with him, but we were lucky enough to have some birthday cake with him this past Monday!  I can't even imagine what I'd do without him....he is the best dad without a doubt, and I owe him so much for all the help and work that he did for us this past week for our move (and my mom gets a shout out too for all the help)!  We love you dad, and hope you have the best birthday!!

If you can't tell, Jakey loves his Papa!  He's asked everyday this week if NanaPapa were coming to our new home when daddy got home from work, too!

And one more favorite from this week....Jakey and his best bud, Dexter!  Love those two!

Happy 2nd Birthday to our Jakey Jake!

Happy, Happy 2nd Birthday to my handsome little guy today! 

It's funny how I think about how sad I was last year at this time with him turning one, but this year, I absolutely LOVE this age.  I love that he can now have conversations with us, tell us he loves us, sings his abc's, counts to 10, talks about all of his cousins and grandparents, talks about his friends, loves on his doggy, Dexter, plays with his cars and plays ball ALL OF THE TIME, uses his manners (pease, thanky, cuse me), feeds his doggy every day, LOVES to read books, sings lots of songs and most of all, I love those little kisses that he gives us and his armless hugs.  He has truly brought us more joy than we could have ever imagined!  We love you, Jakey Jake!  Happy Birthday little guy!

And here's his two year pic....

and his month by month picture April 2011-March 2012

Fish Lips, Fireworks & Fun | Julie Marie Portraits - My Life

I can't believe it's July already!  Where is the summer going?

We had the best 4th of July back in Ohio/Michigan visiting with my family!  On Saturday, my cousin and her family as well as my aunt and uncle came up to my sister's place for the day!  The kiddos had a great time swimming and playing together!  It was so nice to see everybody!

  As you will see, I did not bring a flash with me and all of these photos are SOOC (straight out of the camera except that I sharpened them for the web) with no editing at all.  Part of the reason for no editing is because it has been extremely BUSY around here!  I am not complaining, but after this weekend, I'm looking forward to being at home for two weeks before we're off again. 

So, enough of me talking.....here is how we spent out 4th...minus daddy as he was down at the beach for the weekend with friends.

The sunsets were amazing at the lake.....love this one with the flag in the background!  Very 4th of Julyish, huh!

 The boys....(no white balance fixing on this either!) :)

Sparkler time....

 My cousin and her beautiful family! 

My aunt having some fun with the sparklers!

My sister....

 Jakey with my sister and niece on his first paddle boat ride.

 My beautiful sister and her gorgeous kiddos!

 My beautiful niece!

 My beautiful niece again...

 The three musketeers.....who's kiddos doesn't like the camera?  Oh, that would be mine...nor does he like to sit still! :)

 checking out the fishies that he caught!

One proud boy!~

Making fish lips!

 Almost bedtime - Jakey hanging with Aunt Jeje - my son eats his blanket in case you can't tell! :)

And last but not least.....a photo of my grandpa, mom & Jake!  Jakey wanted nothing to do with grandpa at first because he had about a 10 minute nap, but then he started giving him his ball.  However, he wouldn't cooperate for a photo, so this is what I got....still love it!  

A Perfect 1st Birthday! | Julie Marie Portraits

When I started thinking about Jakers' first birthday party, I thought Pittsburgh would be the perfect place for it.  It's 5.5 hours for us to get there, it's a 4 hour drive for my family to get there, and my husband's family is all in Pittsburgh.  So once that was decided, I started thinking of what I wanted to do for his birthday party.  I came up with an invite that was orange and turquoise, and I enlisted the help of my sister to help with the planning.  

I was a little nervous as to how Jake would react at the party, but he had the best time and was full of smiles!  He had so much fun playing with his cousins and friends and loved hearing everybody sing happy birthday to him.  It truly was everything that I hoped it would be and even better for my little guy!  Thanks to all of our family and friends for making it so special!

So, here's a little peak of his party:

My mom made the buckets - she covered them with some fabric that I found.  I made the banner across the back - just printed off some paper and cut it.

I wasn't sure how to decorate the tables that everybody would sit at, and my sister said to throw some colorful paper lanterns on the table.....great idea and super inexpensive!!

I made his party hat, but he wanted nothing to do with it.  In other words, he screamed when I put it on him!

I wanted one picture of all of my nieces and nephews, and this is what I got! :)  Everybody is looking one way or another, and Jakey didn't want to smile as you can see.  Oh well, at least I got one!
 Jakey loves his cousins, and they love him sooo much!  He's such a lucky guy to have all of them!

Some friends brought these pretzels.  How fun is that!  It was such a huge hit for the kids at the party....I am definitely going to be doing this again!

He loved his cake!  In fact, I had to take it away because I think he would have eaten the whole thing!

We caught Papa stealing a lick of frosting!

The invite is on the left, and I copied off my sister and took a picture of Jake holding a thank-you sign for his thank-you's!

• The lollipop cookies and cakepops were brought in from Toledo.  Stephanie (who made them) is AWESOME and can do anything!  Check out her facebook page to see more of her stuff! 
• Jake's t-shirt is from an etsy store called Bowdacious Baby!  It turned out just perfect!
• The cupcake party favors boxes on the right, cupcake toppers and water bottle labels were party cupcake mix party favors.  Check out their shop on etsy here.  Michelle is awesome to work with!
• Photo banner and high chair banner was made from the Etsy shop, Any Good Ideas.  She did an awesome job!