Maternity Photographer in Algonquin, IL

One of my BFF’s is having a baby. A sweet little girl. And they won’t tell me her name.
She’ll probably have red hair, love the color pink and be covered in glitter at all times. That’s about all I can assume at this point.

Just that, and the fact that she’s going to be loved by EVERYONE she meets :).

I met this Mama in 7th grade, when our last names (M & O at the time) forced us in the same quad of desks during Mrs. Bishop’s art class. It was love at first sight. The little blonde girl with glasses and a weird butterfly obsession (she was SUPER cool, as cool as a jr high kid can be) was silly—the sort of silly you want to hang out with. At the time, my first impression of her was that she was crazy, and I was right. But the good crazy. (Her AOL screen name was CRAZYLJ….seriously…she’s self admitted bat-crap crazy).

Not sure if you remember Jr. High. I think most of us try to block those early teen years out.  What I do remember is Laurie being nice. Beyond nice. When kids weren’t always nice. And I’ll always owe her for that. I’ll never be as kind as the glasses/Umbro soccer short wearing 13 year old was, or still is. I’ll never be as obsessed with butterfly paraphernalia as she is, either.

That year, we got to “shave” our legs using Nair—this was a big deal to us at the time. High school came, and it was a blast. We dated best friends. Laurie’s Dad drove us around a lot until her Mom let us borrow “the Breeze”. I gave her a Mickey Mouse antennae ball thing that she kept on the car for like, 5 years. She didn’t laugh when I slipped on ice in the middle of the night when we snuck out of her house. I did numerous amazing up-do’s (her preferred style was and still is cornrows. Or is it cornrolls? I’ll google that later) on her hair for every high school dance. I sang at her sisters wedding, (drank too many White Russian cocktails that night…sorry about that. NOT!! Best night ever!!) and tried to marry 2 of her 3 cousins within a 4 year span (sorry I couldn’t snag at least one, Auntie Allison. I know you’re still upset that I’m not officially in the family). Laurie’s brother, Tony, dropped me on my head a few times. Mostly from his terrible dance moves. He split his pants at the above mentioned wedding because of his “sweet” moves. I do not lie.

Years went on, she went to U of I, I went to EIU. She cracked her head on concrete on her 21st, I laughed. We saw Britney Spears together in our mid 20’s (that poor thing). She met her husband in a bar. He razzle dazzled her with a ring a few years later (it’s their 3 year anniversary today, BTW) and I gave an amazing speech at their wedding. Then BAM. Just like Emril, she’s having a baby.

And I.CAN’T.WAIT.

Baby J–you have the best Mom in the world, and your Dad isn’t too bad either. I hope you get his excellent financial management mindset and good taste in cars. Let’s hope you don’t get his Wisconsin accent or love for the Green Bay Packers.

Here are a few sneak peeks from Baby J’s Maternity Session, I hope you love them as much as I do 🙂 🙂 🙂
(See that first picture?? She’s laughing because a GIANT horse is running stampede-style towards her. Laurie doesn’t “love” animals, lets put it that way).
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July 16, 2014

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