Nichol and Carl Engagement Session <3

Congrats to Nichol and Carl! It seems as though we’ve been planning their wedding photography for such a long time but 2011 has seriously(!!!) flown by and their wedding is almostttt herrrre! Yay!

October 1, 2011… Mark my words… It’s officially DESTINED to be perfect weather since we had to reschedule the engagement shoot about seven times due to icky, rainy, windy midwest weather. I am anticipating 80 degrees and blue skies with big, fluffy clouds for the big day, just like the day we ended up with for the engagement shoot.

I absolutely lovvvvve this couple. They are so sweet! I will sooooo miss Nichol after the wedding is over. I love our planning emails. :) We’ll have to keep in touch and chat about everything else going on post-wedding!

I’ll stop chatting now. :) Here is their slideshow:

Nichol and Carl – we’re so happy for you guys! Can’t wait for the big day!

xo!
Ann

Felise and Max ~ Best Cousins :)

Okay so I have a lot of amazing BFF’s that I’m blogging about today!  I am soooo lucky to have all of them in my life!  One of them, Heather, has an AWESOME family and two sisters of loveliness!  One of her sisters, Jamie, asked me to photograph her daughter for her first birthday photos!  The *only* problem is that Jamie, Nate and Felise live in Madison.  :)  Instead of going to Madison (it wouldn’t have been a hardship to roadtrip there – I assure you!  I love Madison!), I went to Iowa City to Heather and Jamie’s parents’ house to take the photos.

It was so cute to think how much fun Felise and Max will soon be having over each of the holiday visits to Grandma and Grandpa Bozek’s!  We always LOVVVVED holidays with our cousins and had such a blast :)

Miss Felise certainly lives up to her beautiful name!  How super-adorable is she!?!?  And her little Pebbles-style pony tail!?  OMG LOVE!!!! I can’t wait to see what a little beauty she grows up to be!

Heather’s little guy, Max, was approaching six months at the time but not yet sitting on his own.  So, Heather brought him to the farm after he was sitting and we were able to get some seriousssss photos of fabulousness!! Include a short series I like to call The Many Faces of Maxwell:

And omg how I lovvvvvvvve all of these…

Thank you SOOOOO much to Jamie, Nate and Felise and to Heather, Mark and Max :) :) And congrats to Grandma and Grandpa B for being blessed with such gorgeous and sweet grandbabies! xoxo! ~Ann

Ty is 1!! <3

Baby Ty is not a baby anymore!  :(

Nicole is another one of my Deere BFF’s.  Lovvvvve her.  We have had about a million laughs together!  Love Jay and Ty, too, of course!

I’m happy to say they have moved away from the QC and now have been back for awhile.  Hopefully, they are here to stay.  They live in a sweet casa in Falcon territory.  Holla.  I would LOVE to go watch this little guy play football and baseball for the best high school in the world – Davenport West.  ;)

Now, for his one year pics!  :)

Nicole and Jay’s friends sent Ty this sock monkey before he was born.  They took his pic with it every month since he was born!  And now he’s bigger than the monkey :)

And how cute are these…one of these tire pics shall hang in the new studio.  Along with about 30 other pearl canvases and metal prints from photos taken this summer :)

Ha!  He’s so serious in that last one!  Love!!

Nicole and Jay ~ thanks for coming out to the farm!!  It was awesome to see all of you, as always!!  Mucho love!  xoxo!  ~Ann

Little Ashlyn is 6 Months :)

Baby Ashlyn is six months!  I can’t believe it!!  It doesn’t seem like that long ago I was visiting one of my BFF’s, Jessica, at the hospital when she was born.  Now, she’s growing right up and becoming such a little fashionista.  I was dying over these tiny little outfits, of course!  Eeeee!

Absolutely adore and love this little princess.  Can’t wait to see her again for family photos in July and her nine month photos in the fall!  xoxo!  ~Ann

Miss Sadie Bug is 1!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SADIE!

I’ve known Sadie’s lovely mama, Trish, for most of my life!  She has always been such a great friend to my own mama.

It’s so great to now be able photography Trish’s little ones!  I could not even STAND the cuteness of this little princess when Trish brought her to the farm for her one year photos.  Ahhh…there’s just something soooo sweeeeeeeet about little girls!  I kind of want to steal her.  Hehe.  <3

Trish and Sadie – thanks for coming to the farm to see me!  Can’t wait for our Fall photos with you and big brother Landry!!  <3

xoxo!

Ann :)

Happy Birthday #3, Nolan!

Mr. Nolan celebrated his third birthday at the beginning of June!  I was so sad I couldn’t attend his party, as I was participating in an intense lighting workshop out of town.  :(

Nolan LOVVVVES trains.  Loves!  His lovely mama is sweet enough to often take him to the train yard in Rock Island to watch the trains.  She had the idea to do his three-year pics there and I, of course, am absolutely DYING OVER THEM!!

Here they are :)

Thanks so much, Merissa and Nolan!  xoxo!!  ~Ann

Char and Doug ~ Engagement Shoot

Omigosh!  Charlotte and I go wayyy back to the John Deere audit staff days!  <3  A few years ago, three of my good work friends, including Charlotte, decided to be adventurous and transfer to Des Moines.  Saddness for me (I’m stuck in the Quad Cities FOREVERRRR) but it turned into MUCHO happiness for Char!  Not only did she get to move to a wayyy more fun city, she met Doug (such a great guy AND a farmboy <3), fell in love…and now I’m photographing their wedding of small-town fabulousness just north of DSM!  Yay!

I am a HUGE fan of photographing weddings in small towns.  I love their people, churches, streets and especially their little downtowny Main Street areas.  And I love that they are normally a five-minute walk from some type of field or weedy area.  Less travel time = more sweet wedding photos.

They are just one of those couples that is soooo cute and soooo happy together, they just make everyone around them happier.  Including me.  I’m overjoyed for them and soooo excited for their big day!

Some of you may have seen the video on http://www.facebook.com/annstewardweddings already…here is their engagement slideshow <3  <3

Congrats, Char and Doug!  Only a little over two months to go!!

xoxo!

Ann :)  :)

P.S.  Sorry!  I have to load the video as low-res so it can be viewed on mobile devices :)