We love Thursday mornings in our household because of....

Jake will sit and look out the window all morning just waiting for the garbage trucks to come by! :)

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

Oh Happy Monday! | Julie Marie Portraits

Although the temperature in Rochester has returned to freezing cold, it was great to wake up and see my niece's birthday party featured on Amy Atlas Event's site!  If you haven't been to Amy Atlas before, you must check it out!  It features some of the most fabulous parties ever, and it is such an honor to have my photos up on her site!  Yay! :)

So, a little bit of background....I did a photoshoot with Libby Lane Press, and I fell in love with the whole pajama and pancake themed invite that she had.  Of course, I instantly called my sister and told her she had to do my niece's birthday party that way.  My sister had some ideas and asked LLP to design her a pink chevron stripe/navy invite, and voila....the party planning began!   It was nothing short of spectacular, and my niece LOVED everything about this party!  Great job to my sister!   (and check out her site to see where my nephew's birthday party was recently featured!)

VENDOR CREDITS:

Party Planner and Mom: Jennifer V Designs 

Cake and cupcakes: Dakota’s Custom Confections

Pajama Cookies, Chevron Stripe and Polka Dot cookies: Stephanie Patisserie

Fruit Loop Pops & Faux Bacon & Eggs:  Julia's Nana

Pajama Pants party favor gifts: Kylie’s Closet Online

Invitation & Banner: Libby Lane Press

Party hats: Babydarling

Striped cups: In The Clear

Favor bags and paper striped straws: The Party Fairy

Pink twine for necklaces: Banana Splits Boutique

Cupcake wrappers: CupcakeLiners.com

36″ round balloons: Bargain Balloons

Hi Everybody!  Hope you're having a fantastic week!  It's been a little crazy around, and we've been traveling some.  Anyway, I think I owed you all a blog post since it's been a while.  You may remember this little guy from a little over a year ago....so stink in' cute and so, so big! And now he has a beautiful little sister!  Hope you enjoy!

The Beautiful Miss L | Julie Marie Portraits | Rochester, NY Children's Photographer

Love, love, love this cutie patootie!  Seriously, can she get any cuter?  Umm, no!  She's not only beautiful, but she is seriously the sweetest little girl!  She's also extra special to us because when we moved to Rochester in the fall, Miss L & her mama were one of our first friends here!  We love getting together with them, and Jake loves all the cool toys that she has at her home! :)   Hope you enjoy the pix!  

Weekend Visitors | Julie Marie Portraits | Rochester, NY Vacation Photographer

We're so excited to have some visitors in this weekend...

Happy Weekend! | Julie Marie Portraits | Rochester, NY Photographer

Pretty in Pink | Julie Marie Portraits | Rochester, NY Children's Photographer

Hope you all are having a great week!  I wanted to share some photos of my gorgeous niece from this past weekend!  Can you believe she's only 4?  And check out her outfit....I would so wear that dress!  (I probably wouldn't look too cute in the tights, huh! )  She is absolutely beautiful and so sweet!  

And I had to share one from our Pittsburgh trip...Jakey with his cousins!  He had the best time seeing them!

Happy Weekend! | Julie Marie Portraits | Rochester, NY Photographer

Happy Weekend, Everybody!  Check out these two who belong to my cousin!  So, so stinkin' cute and so well behaved!  

Happy 2012! | Julie Marie Portraits | Rochester, NY Photographer

Happy New Year 2012, Everybody!  Hope you had a fabulous holiday season!  We got to spend Christmas in Ohio with my family, and we had the best time!  It was so nice to be home and just relax....and let all of my family chase Jake around while my hubby and I just sat and watched! :)

As all of you know, we moved to Rochester in October, and everybody kept talking about the horrible winters that Rochester gets...well, for some reason, we must have brought them some good luck because we've had a really mild December and January thus far.  In fact, on New Year's day, Josh, Jake, Dexter and I went for our first 2012 walk outside.  It felt a little weird to be walking outside in 40+ degree weather on January 1st and no snow!

Which now brings us to today.....another incredibly warm day for January!  And, well, you guessed it...that meant time for some new updated photos of my on-the-go-at-all-times 21 month old little Jakers!  I must say...he really is impossible to photograph right now, but M&M's do the trick to make him stop in his tracks!  I'm thinking we need to buy stock in M&M's because he now knows his colors because of them, they've helped him calm down from the temper tantrums that seem to occur quite often, and we're hoping they'll help him with potty training when that begins (very soon)!

Jakers @ 21 months with his shaggy hair and blabla doll.  And check out Jake sporting a bowtie!  New favorite shirt from Somebubby Chapman Apparel.

 I'm not sure what he's doing, but this look sort of cracks me up!

 And without M&M's - this is what photos look like....no cooperation at all, but oh so fun! :)  Have a great weekend!

Wishing You All.....

Happy Holidays!  I have some sessions to blog, but I thought I better wish you all Happy Holidays before 2012 gets here!

A Weekend Project?? | Julie Marie Portraits | Rochester, NY Photographer

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving!  We spent Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh and had a great time visiting with family!

I wanted to share with you what was going on in our neighborhood.  I'll give you a little background on it...we live in the Park Avenue area of Rochester, and we absolutely love it!  It has beautiful old homes and lots of restaurants and shops that we're able to walk to.  It's a very quaint area.  I especially love that Jake and I can walk to get a coffee and cookie everyday at the coffee shop just down the street!   Anyway, our neighborhood had their 18th Annual Park Avenue Holiday Open House.   I wasn't really sure what to expect, so I took my time on venturing out to check it out.  I was amazed....there were so many people down here and all of the merchants were open for folks to stop in and shop, eat, and just mingle.  

So, because I wasn't sure what to expect, I went out with out a camera, but I did have my iPhone and was able to get a few pix.

I think my favorite thing was this newspaper wreath that was displayed in a store's front window.  How fabulous is this!  We were walking by, and I stopped to check out the beautiful (very full) wreath in the window and realized it was made out of newspaper.  

Doesn't it look great?  The other side is a dress made out of newspaper.

I tried to get up close to see how it was made....I'm thinking this could possibly be a weekend project to try?

And this was too funny.....we had just walked down the street and we saw Tigger & Big Bird walking down the side walk.  Jake was excited, scared and not sure what to think.  He wasn't into talking to Tigger at all, but he was somewhat excited to tell Big Bird hi & bye.  As you can see, Jake is squinting in the photo...that's because my iPhone flash is soooooo bright.  It's not the best picture, but I think Big Bird & Tigger look great!

Just a glimpse of the traffic lined up down the street looking for parking.  

Next year, I will be prepared as I know what to expect, and I will be out there earlier to do some shopping!

Have a great weekend!