momblog – ittybittywhitty

Little Man

Choo Choo – all aboard the Conor express!

March 15, 2018 ittybittywhitty4 Comments

I cannot believe Conor is already 7 weeks old! The time is flying by and we are loving this new life with our little man.

This past month has been BUSY! In between bottles, naps, and diapers, Bryan and I have officially set up Conor’s nursery. We decided to do a train theme to celebrate our town’s history. We live a few miles from the C&O Canal and train tracks and the town itself is known for being the “Home of the Railroaders”. In addition to setting up the nursery, I decided I would take Conor’s newborn photos myself! With Lucy’s newborn shoot, we used the incredible Annette of Stadkind Photography, but this time around I wanted to take on the challenge myself (but we SO look forward to having her take family photos of us this spring).

I used Conor’s train nursery theme as inspiration for his shoot. Below you will see his nursery, lifestyle photos, and some up close and personal portraits of our little man!

Photo overload! I just cannot get enough of him ❤ I hope you enjoyed these photos. A huge thank you to my brother for taking the photos with me in them.

As to keep up with tradition – our photo wall in the morning room has been updated as well! I love seeing our family photo wall finally complete.

love & lots of whit – jen xo

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Crib & Dresser: Baby Cache Harbor – Navy Mist (BabiesRUs)

Glider: KACY Collection Madison Glider – Ash (BabiesRUs)

Accessories:

Personalized Hat (Etsy seller: All Aboard Whistle)

Swaddle (Etsy seller: Sweet Lullapie)

Bedding: All Aboard Crib Bedding (Crate and Kids)

Paint: Cathedral Gray (Behr)

The 12 Doors of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…a fun photo project in Waterford, Virginia.

December 22, 2017 ittybittywhittyLeave a comment

One of the (only) highlights of having a long commute, is passing through the quaint Natural Historic Landmark town of Waterford, Virginia on my way home. After paying tolls and battling traffic, the last stretch of the commute is actually SO beautiful. As I am driving through, its hard not to admire the craftsmanship of the beautiful old homes from the 18th and 19th century that have been so carefully preserved over the years. It almost feels like you are venturing back in time while traveling through.

It is obvious that the owners of these homes put so much love and care into them. As the holiday season approached, I started to notice all of the beautiful doors being decorated with stunning wreaths and it sparked an idea! One day after work, I decided to take a stroll through the town and capture as many of the festively decorated doors as possible. For a very pregnant me, this was only about 30 minutes of walking before I had to call it a quits, so I apologize to the houses further down the road that I didn’t capture! I hope you enjoy looking at these “12 Doors of Christmas” as much as I do!

Door.love. ❤ Swooooon.

Of course, since I had to narrow it down to 12 for this post, I had to omit a few but I can’t bear to not include those ones too so please see the rest in this collage.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

love & lots of whit – jen xo

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

You better watch out, you better not cry, better not pout, I’m telling you why…Lucy’s 2017 Christmas Photoshoot is sure to put a smile on your face!

December 5, 2017December 5, 2017 ittybittywhitty1 Comment

This holiday season compared to last year is a whole new experience for Lucy and our family. She is slowly catching onto what Christmas is all about, well in toddler terms that is. She lights up looking at her Christmas tree, can identify Santa in an instant, and helped me set up the nativity scene complete with the tradition of kissing baby Jesus before laying him down. She surprises me every day with all that she learns and can pick up on. Her latest talent is singing jingle bells and deck the halls at the top of her little lungs!

Last year, I stumbled across a photographers Christmas paradise while visiting the Old Lucketts Store in Lucketts, VA, which I pass everyday on my way to work. They strategically set up all sorts of Christmas displays and allow photographers to utilize their beautiful grounds. Here are a few of the highlights from last year (which I strangely never posted!) when Lucy was 9 months old:

This year 20 month old Lucy and I ventured back, but with photographer BACKUP! If you have a toddler, you know how unpredictable they can be. Last year was so simple since Lucy was not mobile, but this year the idea of going alone with Lucy and a camera scared me to death! My friend and fellow photographer, Tammy of Berks Nest, came with me and ended up taking most of these photos of Lucy while I was on get Lucy to look at the camera and smile duty (LOTS of elephant impressions)! There are a few mixed in that I was able to snap, but being on toddler duty proved to be full time job. A couple key hints when photographing toddlers: 1. Bring distractions – you will see a little present and a bell in Lucy’s hands in most of these photos – without these props it would have been harder to keep her attention. 2. Allow them plenty of time to venture around themselves in between posed/planned photos. This is also KEY to a great nap afterwards!

Please enjoy these photos of my fiery little Christmas Lucy. A huge thank you to Tammy for capturing her with these beautiful photos!

Something tells me this little girl is going to get spoiled by Santa this year! Merry Christmas to all & PEACE AND JOY TO THE WORLD!

love & lots of whit – jen xo

It’s a…Golf Gender Reveal!

Celebrating and embracing the realization that we will have two under two!

September 18, 2017November 27, 2017 ittybittywhittyLeave a comment

Once upon a time…

we found out we were expecting another BABY!

Lucy provided her adorable self (along with a super cute Big Sister shirt from Target) and made the announcement to our family and friends. Baby number two is due late January and we couldn’t be more thrilled! Just when having one child starting getting easier and easier, we are now hitting the reset button! I really never thought we would be those parents with two under two, but ready or not, here we go!!

After we announced back in August, it was time to play the waiting game until we could find out our sweet little one’s gender. The entire time I thought it was a girl and Bryan thought it was a boy.

The time has come and the results are in! To announce our sweet little bundle, we tried something new this time. With Lucy, we found out right during the ultrasound from our technician what the gender was. This time we wanted to surprise ourselves a bit – no no we are not waiting until birth, I don’t have enough patience in the world for that – instead we had the technician place the gender in an envelope and seal it and about two hours later we did the reveal. Please watch our video below to find out the gender!

Golf Gender Reveal

Will baby number two be pink or blue?

Find out with us:

We couldn’t be more happy to welcome little one in just a few short months. Now I will leave you with a behind the scenes photos of how little miss Lucy REALLY feels about this…

love & lots of whit – jen xo

baby bison | newborn photos

When a dear friend has a baby, you can’t help but celebrate it with as much excitement as if it were your own baby!

May 26, 2017May 26, 2017 ittybittywhittyLeave a comment

There are some people in this world that change your life for the better. Shaina and Jason are two of those people. They radiate happiness, adventure, love, and kindness and their virtues and values are stronger than anything. I have been blessed to call them my friends for many years now. Last year, I cried happy tears when Shaina told me they were expecting as I couldn’t imagine two people who were more ready to become parents. As you will see below, I had the joy of capturing their baby announcement photos last fall. They have a wild sense of humor and I couldn’t think of a better announcement concept than these clever mugs that Shaina created! As fall ended we fell into the long winter and we all waited and prayed for the safe arrival of sweet Baby Bison in the spring. Baby Bison is the adorable nickname Shaina and Jason referred to their baby as during pregnancy and you will see why when you see the amazing nursery they created for him. I counted down the day’s until my dear friend’s due date like a small child waiting for Christmas and then finally in the middle of April, baby Silas was born! As you scroll through these dreamy pictures of the new perfectly complete family, please note the INCREDIBLE Bison mural featured in Sila’s nursery which was handpainted by Shaina’s talented brother, Zak Parsons.

Now to the moment we have all been waiting for, photos of the sweetest new arrival, Silas.

Swooooooooon. That little FACE!

Welcome dear friends to the most incredible journey of all time, parenthood – and welcome baby Silas to life with your fantastic mommy and daddy.

love & lots of whit – jen xo

Rubber Ducky You’re the ONE

Highlights from sweet Lucy’s first birthday party, quack quack!

April 7, 2017April 7, 2017 ittybittywhittyLeave a comment

Lucy is ONE! How is this even possible!!?!

When deciding on her first birthday theme and after months of trying to rack my brain for something super creative and unique, it all just hit me one day – this party is for HER not me, and what does Lucy like? Ducks of course! Besides mama and dada, the only other REAL words in her vocabulary are duck and quack quack. She literally can’t get enough! From her ducky bathtub, to her ducky books, to her ducky toys – her face immediately brightens up when she see’s a cute yellow duck! With help from my amazing sister the theme was set in stone, “Rubber Ducky You’re the ONE.”

To start, I knew an invitation had to be created. I found an adorable ducky costume and put my little Lucy duck in the bathtub and viola – her invitation was made 🙂

With help from my family and friends, this party came together and Lucy had such a blast! Bryan’s amazing friend, Amanda, made us the most perfect ducky cupcakes and smash cake. It was as delicious as it was adorable, and Lucy LOVED getting her little hands into that cake. We had wonderful food catered by JB Seafood, and my sister created amazing signs to play off the theme and name all of the foods (my favorite, the Quack-N-Cheese)! We had ducky beach ball party favors for all of the kids and set up a bubble machine outside in the park for them to play in! Please enjoy some pictures from Lucy’s big day!

A huge thank you to all of my family and friends that helped make this party so fun for sweet Lucy! She is growing into such a loving, silly, beautiful little lady!

love & lots of whit – jen xo

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