Sarah is celebrating her 1 year birthday today! Like most parents, I can’t believe how fast it’s gone by. Sarah is likely the last baby for us, so all this year I had little pangs of “finality” when hitting milestones, such as being done nursing or watching her move from the crawling to the walking stage. She is really a wonderful baby and made the transition from one child to two a breeze. Here are some images from her last year - newborn, 3, 6, 9 and then 12 months (compliments of her birthday party on Sunday!)

Sarah is my mini-me. The dress below is my dress from when I was 6 months.

All photos & text copyright 2007 by Meggan Jacks Photography

My son doesn’t ask this a lot, so I enjoy indulging him when he does. Today it was playing around by the patio door in the studio and making silly faces while asking him to look for the bug in my camera (about the only trick that still works to get him to look at the camera.) His “feeling photographic” mood doesn’t last long - This time I had three minutes to fire off as many images as I could before he was getting to squirmy.

At the end he grabbed my hand, so I asked him to let me take a picture of our hands together. Someday soon his hands will eclipse mine in size - sort of a daunting thought.

I need help. Sarah turns 1 next week and I have no idea what to buy her. Likely my problem is that she has almost everything already! I am leaning towards something that she can ride around on in the house (until it gets cooler outside and then she can ride around the backyard). Here are my two ideas:

or (now this one would be indoor only - we have other “peek-a-boo block” stuff from when Kevin was little, so this would be a nice addition to our set.

And here are a couple snaps of her from today because it would be rude of me to talk about her with out showing a picture or two.

and maybe I got a little carried away pushing her on the swing this afternoon…

For all the heavily pregnant gals out there, I want you to know you have a sympathetic friend here. Both of my children were born in the summer (8/18 & 7/31) and I can attest to the fact that there is nothing quite like enduring an Arizona summer when you are 7-9 months pregnant. The first pregnancy wasn’t so bad - I worked in an air conditioned building and I spent much of the evenings and weekends in the pool. The second summer pregnancy about did me in. Let’s just say Kevin learned to wear flip-flops VERY early that summer! I couldn’t even see my own feet let alone bend over far enough to tie his shoes. I will also admit that most days he ran around the house in his underwear unless he managed to pull his own pants on. It just took too much effort to get him dressed!

I have also come to the conclusion that pregnancy is 4 weeks too long for a reason. By week 40 you are so desperate to get that baby out that you don’t really care WHAT methods it will take to extract that child out of there, you just want her born NOW! I am a huge fan of epidurals, but this time last year when I was pregnant with Sarah, I was prepared to go all natural (and sell my first born! LOL) just so that I could come to the conclusion of my pregnancy!

So, my word to the wise for the Arizona ladies out there - try to avoid conception from August to December so that you don’t spend weeks 30-40 of your pregnancy in prime of the AZ heat! However, if your little one demands that they be a summer baby, I highly recommend lounging in the pool with a cool glass of water or lemonade or a little shopping therapy at the mall to distract you from the heat!

Announce your baby’s arrival in style with our adorable birth announcements! We’ve been offering these unique, dual sided cards since January and I can’t even tell you how incredible the response is! I’ve had several moms email me to say that their friends and family are impressed with the style of the cards that show off how adorable the tiny newborns are.

Each card, professionally printed on a rich watercolor paper, is individually tailored for you - whether we work from the wide variety of samples that I have available or design a card from scratch, I guarantee you that your announcement will capture the joy and freshness of your newborn that you want to share with your family and friends.

Twenty-five birth announcements are included as part of the Maternity/Newborn Package or may be ordered as an add-on to any portrait session. This style of card will also be offered this fall for our holiday cards!

Meggan Jacks Photography is pleased to receive positive reviews from Miss Elizabeth. At her recent portrait session to commemorate her first birthday, Elizabeth was all smiles (well, mostly smiles - a few tears when it was determined that her favorite hair brush wasn’t quite the right accessory for her birthday dress).

And more from her session:

Showing off her 6 teeth!

What a difference a year makes… this picture is from last August.

and from recent…

For the past six months I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, and photographing, the newest siblings of a group of playmates. These moms are all good friends and their kids are partners in mischief and mayhem (aren’t all toddlers?) The tally for the additions to the group, so far, were 3 boys and no girls… until Paige arrived. I have a feeling she’s going to be the beautiful mastermind behind the brawn of the boys in a few years.

The outtake of the session was big brother giving her some kisses - I am not sure what crossed his mind, but he must have decided she needed a good licking.

My good friend Marnie came over earlier this month and I grabbed her girls to photograph - they are the most adorable set of sisters that I know. Just had to share.

July 20, 2007: Quick peek at who I met last weekend. I swear I am a lucky gal that I get to cuddle with newborns each week as part of my job.

July 3, 2007: As promised - here is the little miracle from the belly shown below - Mr. Aidan. Talk about a VERY alert little boy! At two weeks of age, I expected a little more snoozing time out of him, but he was MUCH too interested in the happenings during his portrait session. Mom said he is a very typical little boy - ALWAYS hungry!