If only this fish could talk! He would tell you how great my class of 22 is in their own little ways.  He would tell you how much we have already learned and how much fun we have been having.

He would tell you we forgot to feed him once or twice last week!

It was one heck of an August!  My head has been in school 24/7.  At school I think about school.  At home I think about school.  In my dreams I think about school.

I’ve been super busy with school.

Tomorrow there will be a FUN blog post about the first week in First Grade to wrap it all up.

Then, my life will get a little bit more routine and back in the game with everything else…because today starts September!

Tonight Shawn and I spent the evening in a field.  Not the whole evening, it was more like twenty minutes.  It just felt like the whole evening, for Shawn anyway!  We were eaten alive, my hives got really bad, and we left with those sticky things that attached to our clothes.  Not to worry though, we ended with a picture for the newspaper and I was able to play with my new camera!  Using a tripod and running into the picture just is not the same as a photo shoot, but it helped my urge a little!

Since my camera was on a tripod and I was running back and forth in tall grass to get in the picture, a few of the pictures were out of focus and I was a sweaty mess.  Guess what?  They are ended up as my favorite, but I’ll spare you.

This one isn’t in focus either, but I’ll share one.

And I’ll leave you with the one that will go in the newspaper.  Shawn requested black and white.

I wanted to be different.  Sure, I love those magnets people send with their cute engagement pictures!   I’m a photographer, so the whole photo magnet thing would be a bit too predictable for me to do!  I love to get creative so making this type of thing for the wedding is right up my alley.  I wanted our Save the Dates to look festive for New Year’s Eve, as well as the wedding, and be unlike anything I have ever seen.  “Unlike anything I have ever seen” meant I was able to create it myself. I got my inspiration from Wordle, which I have used for other various things.  I didn’t use the website to create my image because words weren’t placed where I wanted them.  So I did it myself.  There were times I would step away from my computer and come back and realize everything was wrong.  With Shawn’s help, I was able to get most of the words where I wanted and I think they ended up turning out great.  Once the image was complete we sent it off to be printed on a postcard.  Of course, I added a little picture of Shawn and I on the back with our wedding website information.  Here is the front…

Oh yeah, go check out our wedding website!  The “About Us” cracks both of us up to tears.  The last line pretty much sums up our life and is a whole new blog post that I’ve been meaning to write forever!!!

Shawn walked in the door and annouced, “there is this special event coming up this year!”  I thought for a millisecond and replied, “your 30th birthday?!”  Then when my head got out of a fog I realized he is only 28 and I am getting married in December.  Getting married is the most special of events!

It’s August.  What does that mean?  That means school started for teachers, and on Tuesday I’m back to being “Miss Stasiak” again!  (As someone mentioned, this is my last year of being Miss Stasiak!) I just couldn’t be more excited about everything in my life right now.  A new bunch of kids to meet and love, a growing photography business, and an awesome wedding to plan (not in any particular order!!!).  So August for me means busy!  Seriously,  I feel as though I  could not be busier!!!

Which brings me to this point:

I want to stay creative with teaching, photography…and wedding planning!  What this all means for me is I need to take a deep breath and just limit how many shoots I do in the fall.  I don’t really know a number in my head, but I’m hoping it comes to me!  I do have a few dates on the calendar but I am not booked up.  I want to keep shooting seniors especially, because I have loved all of my high school seniors this year!  Families, if you are thinking about booking in the fall for Christmas cards (yes, seriously Christmas is way closer than we think!) then let’s put a date on the calendar.  Really, let’s plan on a date.

I’m in love with how my senior rep cards have been turning out!  It feels funny sending out “Katie Stasiak” cards when I’ll soon be “Katie McCaw” but I have so many new ideas for Katie McCaw!

Sweet Macy was a sleepy little thing and slept during her whole photo shoot.  Which is awesome, because I love sleepy little babies and the way they look when they are asleep….especially in black and white images.  Black and white really makes you look at every little detail of the photo.  Babies have a lot of detail.

The weather was nice on the day of her photo shoot so we were lucky enough to go outside.

My heart melts for this.

Here is Macy with her big sister Mia.  I’m sure these girls will grow up to be best friends one day.  This picture kind of makes me want a sister!

I love black and white but I also love color!

I adore Mia in this photograph.  What a great big sister!

C.u.t.e.

This is such an amazing family.  I am really happy for them!   Again, Mia in this picture…LOVE.

She looks like a real doll in this picture.  Doesn’t she?!  One of my favorites!

This girl had me at “Sugarland Concert”.   Let me explain.  I always add my clients as Facebook friends so I can get to know them a little bit before I show up with my camera and start shooting them.  It makes it easier on both of us and I just like to meet new people so it is fun!  Alyssa is a big Sugarland fan and wrote on Facebook page how she was at the concert.  I was so jealous I wasn’t there (the video I linked is my favorite song they sing.)  Anyway, the more Alyssa and I started talking, the more we realized we had a lot more in common!  Like both being big fans of vacations in Michigan, the love of photography, and she goes to the same High School I graduated from.  I love this girl.

Her mom had the awesome idea of bringing balloons to the shoot.  The first one is one of my favorites!

I  love it…

We found this great spot where the light was amazing.  Of course, I got really excited!

Be happy you were not in my house when I edited the following pictures in black and white.  They seriously blew me away.

This girl is gorgous.

One of my favorites!!!

Thank you Alyssa for an amazing shoot!  You were such a trooper on the second hottest day of the year!  It might have felt like we were in an oven but you made the oven a lot of fun!

Have an amazing senior year!

Ice Cream, Old St. Charles, Balloons…and over 100 degree weather!  More to come soon!

My visit to Virgina Beach was perfect!  I finally met little Becca and let me tell you, I’m in love with her.  Let’s just let the pictures talk on this post.

Before we start-please note:  These pictures were taken with an old camera and are not the best!  I was there to visit, enjoy, and spend time with my BFF and this new little cutie!  I didn’t go to take pictures so I didn’t travel with a good camera..so the pictures you are about to see are for me to remember my trip to visit my best friend and her new little baby!

Here is Amy and Becca on the beach!  We went for a quick walk on the beach in between Amy’s doctor appointment and Becca’s doctor appointment!

Here is Becca’s first picture with her Aunt Katie!

Doesn’t Amy look amazing for just having a baby?!  Lucky her!

My favorite! She’s sooo precious!

Pineapple Princess 2.0

Here are a few pictures I stole from Amy!

We had a lot of fun over the long weekend!  Amy and Becca come to St. Louis in two weeks so I get to see them both again soon!

Here is the sweetest little thing ever!

This session made me so excited to come home and edit because, well just look at her!  I am so lucky to be getting all of these amazing people to photograph lately.  Beautiful from head to toe!  Emma’s parents were both so sweet and laid back during her session.  I think Emma gets her personality from both of them because she was willing to sit in feathers and in a bucket with little to no complaints.  Oh and check out her facial expressions in these pictures.  We were all getting a kick out of her modeling skills during the entire thing.  Emma has so much personality already.

I love a baby in a huge bow!  Really, I love all bows and I love all babies!

Look at those baby blues!

For sure one of my favorites!!!

All smiles in this one!

When Emma’s mom was little she had her picture taken in a sailor outfit.  I love that she put Emma in one as well.

Does this one look familiar?  Well, if not, go to the top of my blog.  Yes, I finally had time to update my blog header!  Emma makes an appearance with this one!

The next few just make me melt!

Love, love, love this little girl!