This can either go in the senior book or be ordered as a 10x10 or 6x6 print or canvas :)

I FINALLY finished editing the entire set of Aleigha's pictures and I can't stop with the last image I put up yesterday. I have just a couple more I can't help but share here. This is really it though.
I'll get all of these on a CD for you guys ASAP and put it in the mail! If you need anything else, let me know :)
Thanks again for this opportunity. Aleigha is amazing! So glad I got to meet her.





So sweet! Lovin mama


love how Katie is looking down at little sis :)


And the whole fam... :)

Aleigha's dad sent me an update from last November till now of Aleigha's story.

In November 07 Aleigha relapsed. Her Drs. told us that this time the cancer would take her. That hit us hard, but Aleigha she looked at her Dr. and told him he didnt know what he was talking about, and preceded to tell him she would beat it this time too. Aleigha was put on an experimental clinical trial in Nov. 07. She goes to Riley ever 21 days for one day to start each round of chemo. She has 3 chemo meds to take. The first one is only on the first day. She gets that thru her PIC line and then the other are for 5 days and they are oral chemos. Day one is at Riley and days 2 thru 5 are at home. She cant stand the taste of them but takes them anyway. Then once a week we go to Lutheran Hospital here in Fort Wayne for lab work and check ups.
It was very hard to hear that the cancer would eventually take her. We had long talks and decided to live with no regrets. That is to do what ever Aleigha wants to do. That way we never have the regrets of not doing something. We also let everyone know that Aleigha was in charge and we will fight this with her as long as she is able.
The scans started to show small shrinkage in each of the three hot spots. Then in June the scans stayed the same no changes. That was good that they stopped growing and are now stable. In August 08 we went to teh PPB family get together and conference in Bloomington Minnesota and met other PPB families and the top Drs. in the study and treatment of PPB. Aleigha is patient 203 in the world and now there are only 254 cases in the world. We learned both good and bad news, and made connections with the other families and we keep in touch with them. The bad news that we leaarned was that no one with stage 3 PPB has survived after relapsing. We learned that our Drs. are doing an awesome job, and we believe Aleigha will survive this and pave the way for others to beat it too. The trial we are on ends in November 08. We will discuss with her Drs. what the next best coarse will be and continue on that path.
Aleigha has been just amazing through all of this and has maintained a positive strong attitude that she will win. Aleigha is our Hero and has many followers on her web-site that encourage her and the rest of the family to fight on. Thanks go out to God, Aleighas Power of Pink, and all thoughs who pray for her.

Daddy of the Pink Princess


I'll leave you with that and this final image from my photo shoot with Aleigha. I just had her look out the window, but the way she's looking up in this one almost looks like she's having her own conversation with God while I'm snapping away. I love it.

For those of you who are following this blog and Aleigha's story, I encourage you to keep visiting her site and leave her a message of encouragement now and then. After meeting this little girl, I know if anyone can beat this, she will :)

Not much diff than the others I posted, but w/out the hat :)

I like parts about all 3 of these... I can't decide which is my fave. Not that it matters, they'll get them all! This one really speaks to me. I think there's a lot of symbolism here.

If you go back a few posts to the C family photos, you'll see the awesome woman who made this tutu for me! I LOVE it. Aleigha was my first 'model' and she looked absolutely beautiful in it. Can't wait to use it for more sessions!

This isn't a client picture, it's not even a GOOD picture... at least not technically speaking. I just happened to have my camera out and was playing around with my new flash the other night when I saw this moment and couldn't let it get by. Every time I look at this picture, I tear up a bit because I know that these moments are about to get put on hold... I know the next time I get photos like this, my little baby is going to be a big 3 year old. My middle son will be 10 and my daughter will be 11 and a half. It's with a heavy heart that I tell those of you who don't know, my husband is leaving for Iraq again very soon. We're looking at another 18 month deployment when you count all the training beforehand. So even though this isn't the best photo I've ever taken, I'll treasure it every day for the next year and a half, and I wanted to share it with all of you :)

As most of you know, I JUST joined The Littlest Heroes project last week. The day I sent in my application I got an email back asking me if I could do this session. No, "you're accepted, here's the rules" just an email with a link to Aleigha's caring bridge site. I was excited, but nervous. I couldn't get ahold of anyone from the team to answer my questions either, so it was all on me. I emailed the family and got things set up to meet at Riley on Friday. I was hoping for outdoor pictures, but of course when I woke up on Friday it was raining, and it continued to do so all afternoon. My nerves got even worse! I just got my external flash a week ago and was nervous to do my first indoor shoot with it so soon. I had practiced a lot though, and got pretty good results, so I knew I'd be ok. It just wasn't the ideal situation. I prayed ALL DAY that the rain would stop before I got there. No such luck. It was pouring bad when we walked out of the parking garage and over to the hospital. We (Makayla went with me to assist)walked in and Tom, Aleigha's dad came over and introduced himself. Super nice guy. I relaxed a bit. Then we went over to meet the rest of the family. Aleigha wasn't standing there just yet, but I met the rest of them. Super nice family. Then Makayla and I went to check out the Ronald McDonald house in the hospital where they said we could do the pictures. It looked like it'd work pretty well, but I was dying to go out in the courtyard right outside it. Too bad it was still raining... ha.
So we went back to where the family was and this time Aleigha was standing there. She wouldn't even look at me when her dad introduced me. Uh ohhh. Nervous again! Then I gave her the build a bear that the kids made for her. That seemed to help a bit. She went and showed it off some while her mom was getting her clothes. We all went back to the Ronald McDonald house and the girls went to change. I asked if it was ok if I opened the doors to let in a bit more natural light and whatta ya know, the rain STOPPED! YAY! We got to do the entire session outside like I'd hoped! So anyway, once she changed into her first outfit, Aleigha was not the shy little girl I met in the lobby. She was so cute and sweet and fun. She had a blast changing into all her cute little clothes, and I had just as much fun taking pictures of her. It was an amazing experience to hang out with their family and do these pics. All of them were great. The older girls were super cooperative and gorgeous as well!
As you can see, we are STILL on the first outfit in these pictures. *I've edited more than 5 total. I'm not THAT slow,haha* but these are my faves and there are lots of similar pictures in the same poses, so I'm picking and choosing what to share right now.
Enough of me, here's more of Little Miss Aleigha :)









This is one of my absolute faves so far. LOVE IT.



From the left... Katie, Aleigha with her new build a bear, and Jessie. Such pretty girls!

Like I said, my blog is going to cover Aleigha over the next several days. I won't put ALL of her photos we took on here, but I will put them all in a gallery and link to it when they are all done. I will, however, be putting up a few at a time here as I get through them. I realized this afternoon as I was pulling them off of my camera card that this is going to take awhile! I got a LOT of pictures!
I'm going to paste the story that Aleigha's parents emailed me here today along with another picture and a link to her caring bridge site. Please take some time to read through some of it. Aleigha has overcome a lot. She's such a strong little girl, but she could still use everyone's prayers:)
The next time I post I'll add more than one picture at a time and I'll tell you more about meeting with her myself.
Anyway, enough rambling from me... Here's Aleigha's story from her parents. Her newest picture will be at the end:)


www.caringbridge.org/visit/aleighasweet


"I may have cancer BUT cancer DOES NOT have ME!"
11/5/07- We are once again in the battle to save my daughter the cancer is back



7/23/02 is when our journey with Aleigha began.. She was born at Parkview Whitley 4 weeks early. She had an abnormal heart beat and she did not pass the hearing test. As soon as the heart dr could get us in we were there the same with the ENT.. The heart dr did a dopler on her heart and the PDA had closed on its own (god answered our prayers) the ENT went in and removed some wax covering her ear drum and she could hear(another answered prayer) at 8 months old (3/03) Aleigha contracted Invasive Group A Strep.. and was life~line to Saint Vincents Childrens Hospital in Indianapolis after dancing in the light for 4.5 weeks god answered yet another prayer Aleigha came back and was a normal child, she only had 5% chance of making it BUT she DID..

After all that Aleigha was a normal little girl, except for knowing she was a princess.. After almost losing her our entire family and friends ALWAYS treated her as though she really was one.

On Aug. 11 she told her dad and I that she needed to see her lung dr. her chest hurt, so we called him, we also called his wife who is her ped. they right away sent us to Parkview to make sure she didnt have phemomia.. she had been coughing but a child with asthma coughs alot and that is what we all thought it was the week before.
Tom took her right up to Parkview where our lives changed forever! The CT scan showed it wasnt what the Drs had thought at all it was worse, much worse, it was a mass about the size of a baseball sitting on her lung. Once again her wonderful drs had to send her out to get the proper treatment.. the Lutheran Childens Critical Care Unit came to Parkview and took Aleigha down to Riley Childrens Hospital.. where we waited 24 hrs for another CT scan. The scan showed the tumor had grown and now took up 2/3 of the chest compressing every organ down and to the left. The bioposy showed it was Rabdomyoscarmo.. we agreed to have it sent off to make sure, it was nothing more, Later that same night 8/15/06 Aleigha was sent to ICU to be intabated, it seems that her 2 treatments of radiation, and hr 1 dose of chemo shurnk the tumor enough to let it slip and go over her tracha. Aleigha had already told Dr. Pradhan "I am a supergirl princess with the power of pink so I dont need your stupid medications." so our power besides prayer became PINK!

On 8/18/06 we were informed that her tumor was actually PleuroPulmonary Blastoma ( a rare childhood lung cancer) we were shocked our next plan of action help find a cure and to cure Aleigha. Aleigha was put on 11 different medication to keep her asleep and she fought them off, her nurses never left for the day NOT tired, after several rounds of chemo Aleigha was allowed to wake up.. the first thing she wanted was a potty chair, (9/28/06)

We were able to do surgery to remove 98-99% of her tumor, she has so far had 31 rounds of radiation and 6 courses of chemo.
and still we know she will make it with the positive prayers ( we do know god hears them shes proof) and her POWER of PINK.

Please take time to read our journals life aint always beautiful but its a beautiful ride!! and sign her guestbook she love its!


PET SCAN-8/9/07 100% cancer free still!!! Spots improving on spine.. Spot on lung no change!! Praise God!

PET SCAN-5/1/07 100% CLEAR!! PRAISE God and Pink Power
Currently Aleigha is in remission with (PPB)PleuroPulmonary Blastoma We know that with the positive power of prayer and Power of Pink she will WIN forever! Please join us on our journey

This little princess is going to take up a few posts over the next few days on this blog. She was my first photo session for the littlest heroes and I totally fell in love! I plan on featuring her story here in the next couple of days once I get all of her photos from our session edited, but I wanted to quickly put a sneak peak up for her family and my readers to view. I can not wait to get through these. She had some adorable little outfits and such a fun little personality.
Thank you guys so much for allowing me to photograph your little princess! It was wonderful meeting all of you!

Yesterday my daughter's friend wanted to do some pics, so we all went for a walk and took some silly and some good ones! Thought I'd share a few of my faves...

Heh


I love it when kids WANT their pic taken and they just pose however they want... fun stuff :)

I've had several requests to see the "senior proof book" I am selling. It's actually a great book for many occasions. It makes a great guest book for weddings when filled with your engagement pictures, a great open house/ party guest book for any occasion, or just a nice coffee table album for your family portraits.
I just had one made of my daughter's softball season. I normally sell these as a 10x10 or 8.5x11 but I had this one done as a 5x5 just to carry around as a sample. It is gorgeous! Unfortunately my product photography skills are quite lacking, so these photos don't do it much justice, but for anyone wanting to see an example of what can be done w/ this book, click on this cover picture!





This particular book has 20 pages. Additional pages are an extra fee. I only uploaded a few samples to give you an idea. I custom design EVERY page for every single person. No one's book will look a like. I will probably add a few more page designs from that book to the blog, only not pictures I took of them, but the original layout so you can see them more clearly.

Most of you have probably noticed that I've redone my site a little bit, and in the process I have added a new banner. I am proud to announce that I was recently accepted to become an affiliated photographer for Now I lay me down to sleep.
A little about NILMDTS...
"Pregnancy and birth are miraculous journeys. This amazing time of life is full of mystery, anticipation, joy, hope, and wonder. Feeling the powerful energy of birth and new life, watching as a new family is born unto each other. These things humble and amaze. These are the things that we celebrate when a baby is born.

But there is another aspect of pregnancy and birth. There is an unexpected place in this journey where some families may find themselves. When a baby dies, a world is turned upside down. There is confusion, sadness, fear, and uncertainty that cannot be explained. There is sorrow where there should have been joy. During this time, it might be impossible for families to know what they might need in order to heal in the future.

This is the place where the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation gently provides a helping hand and a healing heart. For families overcome by grief and pain, the idea of photographing their baby may not immediately occur to them. Offering gentle and beautiful photography services in a compassionate and sensitive manner is the heart of this organization. The soft, gentle heirloom photographs of these beautiful babies are an important part of the healing process. They allow families to honor and cherish their babies, and share the spirits of their lives.

The Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation (NILMDTS) administers a network of nearly 3,000 volunteer professional photographers in the United States and eight International countries. At a family's request, a NILMDTS Affiliated Photographer will come to your hospital or hospice location and conduct a sensitive and private portrait session. The portraits are then professionally retouched and presented to the families on an archival DVD or CD that can be used to print portraits of their cherished baby.

Our entire network of affiliated professional photographers graciously donate their time and talents to our families and we are proud to be able to offer our services at no cost.Your Donations are greatly needed and greatly appreciated."

I know I have at least a couple of local photographers who check out my site. If this is something you might be interested in, please go to the NILMDTS site to apply. There are very few photographers around here who are involved, none in my zip code besides me. We are about to introduce this service to Hancock Regional, so I expect to start getting some calls soon. Also, if you know anyone about to go through a known loss, or who is going through a loss, please let them know about this service. We come in as a guest to the patient, not the hospital, so even if the hospital does not know about us, you can still use us.
Thank you to everyone who supports my photography and made it possible for my application to go through!

I love this place. You walk in and it's like stepping back in time. The Ice cream is SO GOOD too. Especially their milkshakes. YUM. Naturally, when mom told the kids they were going to get ice cream if they did a good job for the photo shoot, I thought of this place and ice cream dripping off of chins and how cute the pics would be. Their Momma went a step further and asked if we could bring some chairs outside, so here they are... probably my favorite pics of the entire session.

We went out again to add a few shots we weren't able to get the other morning. Here are 2 of my faves from this session. I have a LOT more faves from in front of the Soda Fountain, but those will be coming shortly in a new post.

Delanie and Jase are my niece and nephew. We went out for their 3 and 1 years pictures yesterday morning. I got to take them around downtown Greenfield, which was fun. Jase wasn't really in the mood. He was so funny stomping his feet and grunting. On top of that, he moves FAST and looks at the ground a lot! I was worried I wouldn't end up with anything good, but I am pretty happy with how his pics turned out. I actually think I got more eye contact from him than Delanie and she cooperated with me wonderfully! Go figure! We had quite the group with us though. I know she wanted to keep looking at them. They were way cooler than me and my camera;)
Anyway, I had fun! Here are a few sneak peeks! Gotta LOVE the faces Delanie makes! Such a character.

Baseball memory mate
Originally uploaded by shawna1978

Lovin the sports stuff this year! Just another composite I designed.

My little pitcher
Originally uploaded by shawna1978

Just trying some new more creative composites! This is my daughter pitching. It's her first year and she's doing really well! We're proud of her! I just LOVE the look of determination on her face in these pictures.

Just wanted to put up a couple of my absolute faves from this session!
I LOVED doing the team thing. Wouldn't want to do the contracted ones that shoot 400 kids in a day's time, but single travel teams would be a blast, so if anyone is in need, contact me!
Easier to pick my faves of other kids than my daughter! I loved both of these ones so I couldn't choose just one!



























Also my absolute FAVE Team shot...