Thankful

Good Morning and Happy Thanksgiving! It is early on Thanksgiving morning and I have so many reasons to be thankful. So many reasons that I woke up early and couldn’t fall back asleep. My heart is full. My life is blessed. My joy is overflowing. And I’m thankful.

*I’m thankful for the salvation I was given through God’s grace.
*I’m thankful that my sins are washed away by Jesus on the cross.
*I’m thankful for an all powerful Lord, who does perform miracles, who does heal the sick.
*I’m thankful for my family & friends that have come to know the Lord.
*I’m thankful for my incredible husband who seeks the Lord in what he does and continues to do so for our family.
*I’m thankful for my joyful and gifted son, who we are just starting to get to know the depths of him.
*I”m thankful for this lemon-sized baby currently growing in my belly. I’m thankful that we get to meet this little one and teach him or her about Jesus.
*I’m thankful for my parents. They have gone through so much and their love remains stronger than ever. Thank you for teaching me to never give up.
*I’m thankful for my sisters. They are my rocks, always.
*I’m thankful for my brother. He always lives his life with a passion for what he’s doing and an energy that’s contagious.
*I’m thankful for my 4 grandparents that I still have alive. That is truly a gift.
*I’m thankful for my in-laws. They are truly my second family and I couldn’t have been happier when I married into them. I love seeing traditions that we are starting as our own.
*I’m thankful for all of my nieces and nephews. I love seeing the world through a child’s eyes and I’ve had the opportunity to do that now for the past 3 years. I love this stage of life.
*I’m thankful for our incredible church body at Bethany.
*I’m thankful for our Pastor, who truly seeks the Lord in every topic he brings to our congregation. He listens, has discernment, gains wisdom, and uses his gift of teaching, no matter the difficulty of the message.
*I’m thankful for the friends we’ve met through Bethany. They are friendships we’ve never had before and can’t imagine our life without them.
*I’m thankful for some of my oldest friends I’ve had. I’m thankful for the experiences we’ve had together to make us who we are today. I’m thankful for the stages we’ve gone through together in life and that we’re still close and have a friendship that doesn’t need much explaining. It just is.
*I’m thankful for my gifts in creativity.
*I’m thankful for all of the gifted people out there who share their creativity through mentoring, blogs, word of mouth. I love when people recognize a gift they are given, use it and share it!
*I’m thankful for my own photography business and the success it has had.
*I’m thankful for the clients I’ve met through photography. It has been such a great ride going through the stages of life with you!
*I’m thankful for Target. My job, not the store. Well, the store too! It has been such an awesome place to work for the past 51/2 years and I’ve met some of my best friends there.
*I’m thankful to be a part of a company that does have values, that recognizes a personal life outside of work and allows you flexibility.
*I’m thankful for St. Olaf and my husband’s job, for his dream of coaching football to become true.
*I’m so thankful for my home and our community.
*I’m so thankful for my upbringing.
*I’m thankful for my extreme (sometimes crazy) love of water and lakes.
*I’m thankful for my appreciation of being in the woods and just listening. Of walking in the woods and thinking it is the most beautiful and peaceful place God has ever created.
*I’m thankful for my grandparents and their parents for making us a rustic cabin in the woods on Stewart Lake, which will always be one of my favorite places in the world.
*I’m thankful for…

The list could go on and on and on. My heart is full. My cup is overflowing. I am thankful.

I do have a prayer for you today. A sincere prayer of humbled joy for you. That you take a few minutes today to find a quiet place to sit and reflect on life. On the blessings you’ve been given. On the joy in your life. That you find thankfulness in them. Wherever you are at. And if you are in a stage of mourning or loss, I want you to know that He who loves you and sacrificied His life for you can take that burden away. Lay it down at His feet and He will bring you rest. If you want specific prayer, please email me at Jacquelyn.Senske@yahoo.com. I will pray for you.

A very happy Thanksgiving to you today!! I am off to make a pecan pie!

Eiley – 10 Months

The last time I saw this little cutie she was only two months old. Now look at her! 10 months and growing more and more everyday. Her famous trademark, her hair, was still as gorgeous as ever and her big blue eyes had me captivated during our session. She smiled the entire time – and I just loved watching her! This is one of the best parts about my job…watching as little ones grow into toddlers, photographing a little newborn whose parents had hired me to shoot their wedding a couple of years earlier. I love the stages of life! They are beautiful!

Eiley, you are such a sweetheart! Thank you for playing with me on that sunny afternoon and for showing me all of your great toys! Keep smiling and make sure Mommy & Daddy keep your hair growing -  You are beautiful!

 

Kaczrowski Klan + Some

You might remember when I captured little Maxwell a few weeks ago. Well, I had the pleasure of seeing little Max again with his 3 other cousins – all boys! and their entire family. It was a beautiful afternoon with a truly great family. I have heard a lot about them, so to put a face with the name was fun for me. I love what I do, and I love blessing people with memories caught in a photograph. We had a lot of those memories made during this session. One of my favorite moments was when Grandma couldn’t even look at her husband because she was so overwhelmed with love, happiness, and pure joy at the family surrounding her. You could see the joy pouring out of her while she stared at him. There were a lot of little moments with the boys, complete with bribing using candy corn, and making crazy noises to try to get them to look at the camera. Those boys all love their Uncle Joe, and we attempted to put all of them on a swing so we could capture a photo. We got a few before literally all of them started bawling. Those are the moments I remember from sessions, and those are the moments I love to capture on my camera.

Kaczrowski family, thank you for allowing me into your home to capture this special time in your life! What a beautiful, fun-loving, and sweet family you have! I’m so glad all of you are together! Happy Thanksgiving!

Old Wives’ Tales

I was thinking today about our new little one growing in my belly. I was thinking about who he or she would look like, would this one be similar to Logan? Would this one be more like Brian, or more like me? What color hair would he or she have? Would this one have bright blue eyes like little Logan or dark brown eyes like his or her Daddy? It is SO exciting to think about a new life that we’re going to meet – and before we know it May will be here. Some people thought we were NUTS for not finding out the gender of our firstborn. Well guess what?! We’re not finding out with this one either! There was no question in either of our minds about it. We knew the instant we started talking about this baby that we’d keep the gender a surprise. We loved that last time! I don’t want to use the cliche ‘there aren’t too many surprises left in life’ so I’ll just say that it is incredibly awesome to not know! Unless you are super Type A (which I tend to be at points in my life – uh hum…) and you NEED to paint your nursery blue or pink, try not finding out. I dare you! You will love it! I have heard of really cute ideas like having the nurse write down your baby’s sex on a piece of paper and then the 2 of you going out to eat and opening it together…so there are ways to make the surprise still a fun surprise for the two of you at ultrasound time. And to each his own with this decision – I just want to share ours because we are big advocates of waiting until that little one arrives if you can! When Logan was born the DR said “well Daddy, what do we have?” and Brian responded with, “Is that a boy?!” He was so surprised, I’ll never forget the questioning tone in his voice. It was adorable. I, however, just stayed right where I was smiling b/c I had a very strong feeling we were carrying a boy with Logan.

With this one, zero idea right now. I’m 13.5 weeks and think there is plenty of time to see if I have an ‘inkling’ but so far, none. One of my sisters is convinced this one is also a boy because she sees our life as crazy and chaotic, which would naturally happen with 2 boys less than 2 years apart. Gotta love the honesty of sisters! One of my best friends has a very strong sense we’re having a girl. So far, the pregnancies have been very similar. I had a few differences with this one but not many. I went through a kick where all I wanted was Sour Patch Kids, which, according to old wives’ tales, means girl. Now all I want is burgers – I don’t care what kind, just make it big & beefy. This, according to old wives’ tales, means boy. And the guessing game begins Logan did come out with zero hair, and I had zero heartburn in my last pregnancy. I also looked like a bullet right before he was born and apparently ‘carrying low’ and he was a boy. Like I said earlier, the guessing game begins!

I’ll keep you posted if I notice anything different this time around. Besides not being able to fit into any of my pants already – uh humm, seriously – so far, so good. Logan’s new thing is to ‘kiss’ the baby right on my belly button. We love it and he does it a handful of times through the day. He is also very worried about missing prayer time before we eat our food. The other night I gave him his plate and he started eating. I said, “oh buddy, we forgot to pray” so he put his little head down, folded his hands, and started saying, “ah da, ba da, a ba ba ba” whispering it with his little baby babble. It was the sweetest thing. Then followed it up with a huge “men!” before he started chowing down. I just love the innocence of him. He is a crazy dancer and you can usually find him dancing to anything with a tune. I love dancing around with him, so we have fun together. I can’t get him to put his books down, which is not a problem in this house at all. I love that he reads as much as he does! If he needs to calm down a bit, hand him a book and he’s content. We read over and over and over again through the day. He is continuing to bring us more joy than we ever thought possible. We love our Nanny Annie and are so excited for the holidays right around the corner!

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving with the Senske side and Christmas with my side. It is going to be a great month of festivities and I can’t wait to have Logan experience all of it with us – because this year he’ll participate much more and I can’t wait to see him make cookies with us, hand out presents, just love the lights and everything about Christmas! Should be fun! Happy almost Turkey Day!

News!

Over Halloween weekend Logan and I headed to the cabin with my parents, and Jen & Noah, for a weekend away in the woods. It was such a relaxing and great weekend. It snowed on the way in which made for a fun wheeler ride down the road. The next morning the snow made for a beautiful white-washed forest with snow covering the trees and causing them to droop with its weight. It was perfect! We walked around in the woods, spent time with Mom & Dad, played cards, relaxed, and Logan got to hang out with some of his favorite people. It was such a great time – I just wish Brian could have been there.

I have 2 exciting things to report on. First, Brian is done with football this Saturday! As much as I’ve loved having him be a part of something he loves to do, and I enjoy watching him marvel at the boys and what he gets to talk to them about and be a part of, I’m ready to have my husband back. And I can’t wait!

Secondly, and definitely the most exciting, is that we’re going to welcome our second baby into the world at the end of May. We are actually due on my Dad’s birthday, which is so special to me. So May 24th will be an even greater day if our baby gets to celebrate his or her birthday with Grandpa! Logan is obsessed with belly buttons right now so it was the perfect time to explain to him that a baby was growing in mommy’s belly button. Now he wants to see everyone’s belly button and says “ba button” or “baby” as he’s pulling up shirts. Hmmm, we should have thought about that one ahead of time. We are just thrilled and so excited. Going through this all again is definitely different this time around…but I’m feeling great. I wasn’t sick a day, which I’m thankful for once again, but just feel much bigger and apparently my stomach is growing at a much faster rate this time around…which is obvious to me. I thought I was going to get away with wearing the same ’season’ of maternity clothes. Sorry honey, I’ll have to shop pretty soon for some other shirts that cover a bit better.

Last Sunday we took some family pictures with my friend, Emily. I’ll post a link to her blog as soon as she has a few up. But I had made a sign that I wanted to bring with us for one of the shots and completely forgot it. So we made do with our point & shoot when we got home and captured this:

and this is my tummy at just about 12 weeks…what am I going to look like at 40? I have zero idea. But like I always say…”this is the one time in your life to not worry about it. Bellies are beautiful” and I believe it.

At last week’s Olaf game…Logan and I had a beautiful day together to watch the Oles beat Gustavus! I love that Mommy/Son time!

Jamila & Matt: St. Paul Wedding

Jamila and Matt have such a beautiful story. They looked for one another for quite a while. You can tell that they were well worth the wait to each other. Jamila has a smile that just lights up a room and one of my favorite moments of the day was when they were about to meet for the first time. She was crying so hard she couldn’t even start walking towards Matt. It was a beautiful moment to witness and one that I won’t forget! They have been through a lot together in the time they’ve been engaged so it was even more special for me to capture this day for them. Their family & friends were incredible, with such a fun wedding party. We had a beautiful day for their October wedding and the University Club was a great place to shoot! If you want old/traditional in downtown St. Paul, this is a great venue. We had such a variety of photo opportunities. I loved it!

Jamila & Matt, thank you for allowing me the privilege of freezing your wedding day in time for you, giving you countless images to treasure in your many happy years together. I know you will have a lifetime of them! Enjoy your marriage and thanks again!

Kiddo Update

I used to be really good at keeping this blog updated with a healthy mix of personal and work-related entries. Lately, in the midst of wedding season, my sister’s wedding, Logan growing up, Brian coaching football…I’ve lost track of the ability to just sit and stare at my empty computer screen ready to fill it up with words. I miss that time and am anxious to get back into it again. Brian has a little less than 3 weeks left of football. I’m still not to the point where I’m counting the days. No, that would seem endless. I simply say “a little less than 3 weeks” and will say that until there are 3 days left and reality hits me that my husband will be home in time for dinner. Logan won’t know what to do with himself he’ll be so excited to eat with someone besides just me!

This weekend we are heading to the cabin (Logan and myself) with Jen, Noah, and my parents. I absolutely can’t wait to get there as it is one of my favorite places in the entire world (and I mean entire world, at least the parts I’ve seen) to go to. It is completely rustic, in the middle of nowhere, no electricity, no running water…just bunk beds, an outhouse, the lake, the 3-wheelers, cards, yummy food, kerosene lamps and the woods. Ahhhh. Perfect. This will be Logan’s first visit there and I can’t to see him running around outside and soaking it all in. One of my biggest wishes for my children is that they grow up appreciating the outdoors, the stillness of it, the perfectness of God’s creation, and just marvel at being surrounded by it. The yearly cabin trip is a must for my children and family. It is worth every second.

Logan, our little man, is growing up so fast. He’s almost 16-months-old and he makes us laugh harder every day. His new and favorite words lately are “alright” “ohh wow!” “bell buttn” (belly button) and “hi” and “bye” whenever he leaves or enters a room. He also really knows how to cut a rug and will even dance when mommy just starts singing. It is precious and we love him so much. So far, there isn’t much he won’t eat. He doesn’t do well with green beans by themselves but will eat any casserole or mixed dinner with them. He loves food and is very into feeding himself right now. He makes quite a mess while doing it but he’s learning, so he kind of has to and I love watching him. He loves playing outside and loves his Nanny Annie, who is here 3 days a week with him. She has been quite a blessing in our lives and we’re loving having her around.

I won’t leave without posting a few new pics. There will be so many more after our trip to the cabin. Oh, and I should note, my hubby finally caved and let me get just a regular old point-and-shoot camera. I wanted something I could slip into my purse, something that shot video, something that anyone could pick up and take a picture with…and he let me get one….ahhh….so now most of my pics will be with that. Hang in there with me and just treat me like a mom posting pics of her kid, not a photographer

I hope all of you are well!

Our “Nanny Annie!”

Gabriela Lorraine

Two-week-old Gabriela was just precious during our session together. She didn’t want to sleep – she wanted to, instead, stare in awe at her Daddy & Mommy and listen to their voices. It was so much fun to watch her beautiful eyes just drawn to them. Jen & I work together at Target and everyone was so excited to hear about little Gabriela’s birth. This is another joy I get to experience as a photographer…seeing friends and co-workers as parents, or as brides, or embarking on a new adventure. It is such a pleasure to witness!

Orlando & Jen, congratulations on your little angel. Thank you for letting me capture this precious time in her life. Enjoy your time together as a new family!

Sadie couldn’t wait to get in on the picture taking!

Brooke & Jeff: Hastings, MN

We had an absolutely beautiful day in October when Brooke & Jeff tied the knot in Hastings! When we started photos that morning there was still snow on the ground and on the trees…but by early afternoon, the sun was shining and it was starting to warm up.  Spring Lake Park Reserve was such a great place to shoot because it has just a little bit of everything. The Mississippi River is directly behind the main visitors center and it is a spectacular view! Trees surround everything with beautiful colors, a great tall-grass field, complete with a farm silo and windmill in the distance. I am a firm believer that you don’t need a ton of space to make a photo great – but I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to shoot there if requested. It was beautiful!

Brooke & Jeff are a couple that know how to have fun together – and love taking photos! Which makes my job so much fun! My favorite part of the day was getting to know their families (and, of course, Brooke’s boots!). When I met them, Brooke & Jeff seemed complete. They have wonderful, supportive siblings, encouraging parents, and friends that knew how to join in the fun. Their ceremony took place under a tent with their reception at the Hastings Country Club.  Everything around them was beautiful! I loved being behind the camera that day!

Brooke & Jeff, congratulations! I hope you enjoy your sneek peek and I can’t wait to hear how married life is going! Enjoy it and keep having fun together! Thanks for allowing me to capture your special day for you!

Kaczrowski Family Session: Minneapolis, MN

You might remember me taking pictures of little Maxwell when he was just five days old? Now look at him! He is about 7 months and just a little sweetheart.

I love what I do – but it is always a little extra special when I have a session for someone important in my life. Ang is one of those people. She is a dear friend of mine, someone I can’t imagine my life without, and I’m so glad Target hired us at the same time We had a great afternoon at Minnehaha Falls (although it was pretty cold and little Max now has a cough!) and their dog, Gunner, even joined us. It was such an honor for me!

Ang & Jeff, congratulations again on your adorable family! Thank you for allowing me to capture another milestone in Max’s life and I hope you get some good use of these photos! I loved our session, it was so much fun to see the way your family has changed! Love you guys!