illinois trip - day 4 :: zachary's birthday party

saturday, september 27

saturday morning we did our family photo session and then i did 5, yes f-i-v-e client sessions. (i'll have previews of them up soon). i had so much fun seeing everyone and just click-click-clicking all day. i felt stretched creatively, in a good way. but boy, that was a long day.

after all of my sessions i went back to grandma and grandpa's house where jonah was napping, and then we all headed over to my cousin shannon's house for cute little zachary's 1st birthday party.

happy birthday to you, little guy! look at how cute he is!

when we arrived emily came out to greet us. she is just so sweet with jonah. she just loves him so much and he loves her. now that i think about it it's even more sweet because when we had faith i remember emily being very inquizative about her. i ran into shannon at our chiropractor's office just a few weeks after we had faith and emily was asking me some questions about what happened to my baby. when i told her she was in heaven she just accepted it and seemed ok with the idea. it makes my eyes well up just thinking about the innocence of her questions. grown-ups are so afraid to talk about stuff like that, but kids will just say what they're thinking. it didn't upset me that she brought faith up. it made me happy knowing her memory wasn't just being swept under the rug and emily cared to know about her.

anyway. tangent. so as i was saying, emily just loves jonah and he loves her and so that whole story to say i wonder if there is some sort of connection there. kids are so cool like that, ya know?



the birthday boy



grandma peggy cake. super cute, grandma!

i'm ready for my pinata! lemme out!

big brother tyler playing guitar

big sis, emily

big sis, abby

zachary pulled the first string, but no luck.

jonah went second

i think everyone got a turn, so tyler did the honors of yanking the bottom to bring the rain.

woo hoo! it's raining candy and small toys!


jonah got a little stash with a little help from his generous cousins.

the birthday boy with mommy & daddy

lemme at it! zachary wasn't shy about digging into his cake.

hmmm... using your hands takes way too long. let's go direct.

zachary, how old are you? he's so smart.

hee hee

wow, i'm pooped. i'll have my people open my gifts while i watch.