This is a special post for us here at Shawn Grimes Photography. We don’t often post personal things here on the site, but this is very much a situation that warrants being presented here.

Each year for Christmas presents for his family, Shawn creates a full 12-month calendar of images taken of all of the “kids” in his family. This is the third year we have done this for his grandmother, mom, and aunts, and each year goes over better than the last. We take a full day sometime in November, usually, and make sure that all of the cousins are here in the studio or on location wherever we choose. Then we take a few hours and photograph every frame we need for the calendar. We like to do individual images of each person, family groups, and birthday combinations for each month. We also do a few whole group photos, which are always fun. The women in his family prefer for every one to be matching, so they usually buy the outfits for everyone and it works out perfectly.

We really wanted to share this here on the site to show you all a little more into our personal life and to give you some ideas for something you may want to come in with your family for.

Please enjoy these images of Shawn’s gorgeous family and you can probably look forward to seeing more next Christmas.

We had the immense pleasure of photographing these two adorable twins, Joey and Natalie, along with their Mom and Dad.

This beautiful brother and sister duo were right around 2 years old when they came in for their session and, once they warmed up to us, could not have been more fun. It was so great to see the two of them interact with one another and with Mom and Dad.

Seriously…how cute are they?!?!?

This family is so good looking and we had such a wonderful time working with them.

This is the lovely Miss Gabrielle…

This little lady was so well behaved when she came in for her photo session. At only a few days old and only a few pounds, she was absolutely adorable. So teeny tiny! Gabrielle came into the studio with her Mom, Grandmom, and older brother, Jordan. We were able to get quite a few good photos of the two siblings together. What a handsome pair!

Here are Gabrielle’s photo collages. She is such a cute baby, and if her brother is any indication, she is going to grow to be a gorgeous young lady! What a lucky family!

This is our newest friend Tristan.

We were very happy to get the chance to meet this little guy. We met Tristan’s Mom, Dad, and big brother not too long ago when they came in for Mom’s maternity session. You can see more from that session here.

Tristan was a joy to have in the studio, he was so calm and quiet. We were able to get a lot of great photos of this sweet little man.

I think my favorites are the pictures of Tristan with each of his family members, what a special treat.

Tristan was really well-behaved and cooperative for his whole photo session. He is also a part of our Small Wonder Program so we will get to see him grow and change throughout his whole first year, which is such a treat. I can’t wait till next time he comes to visit.

Brothers, David and Hayden came into the Aberdeen studio for portraits together. We had a lot of fun playing games and taking photos.

We actually won’t be able to call Mr. Liam a “baby” for very much longer. So sad! Liam came into the studio with Mom and Dad for his 9 month portraits this time. As you may already know, Liam is a repeat client here at the studio, he was our first Small Wonder program client. Our other sessions with Liam can be found here: Newborn 3 months 6 months

We couldn’t believe this time when Liam came to visit that he was doing a little standing on his own and “scooting”. Liam doesn’t quite crawl, it’s definitely more of a scoot! Either way, it was as cute as cute could be!

He is definitely becoming a little mover and a shaker, as you can see from the photos in this art piece, he is kinda all over the place!

I have said it before, and I have to say it again…Liam is one of the most relaxed and calm babies we have ever met! He is always so pleasant when he comes to visit us. He is cooperative and easy-going and it really does make our job almost effortless! The most important thing for us is to just be ready when he flashes one of his adorable little smiles!

This is an important time of year for little Liam. It was his first Halloween and will be his first Christmas. To celebrate these holidays we were able to capture quite a few great photos of Liam for each occasion. For Halloween, Liam was a sock monkey, which worked out perfectly because we are big sock monkey fans around here! We have quite a collection of our own sock monkeys from all over the place, and we were super thrilled to be able to use them with Liam. For this photo we took inspiration from my all time favorite movie, E.T., the scene where E.T. is hiding among the stuffed animals in the closet.

And for Christmas, Liam’s Mom, Ashley, brought along a super cute vest and tie that she had for him. We added the Santa hat and, voila!

Again, it is hard to believe that the next time Liam comes to visit us in the studio will be for his 1 year photos! We have lots of fun things in store for that session!

This precious little girl is Miss Juliet…

She came into the studio for three month photos with her Mom, Dad, and two older brothers. We will be seeing a lot more of Juliet this year as she will be a part of our Small Wonder program. Juliet was such a treat to have in the studio. Everything about her is so darling.

Clearly, her big brothers things she is pretty spectacular too!

This little cutie came with many options for outfits, which we love here at the studio. Way to go Mom! I couldn’t get over how cute one outfit was before I saw the next one that was even cuter!

We tried something a little different with our “baby parts” photos that we usually do for our newborns and infants. This time we tried a few comparison photos to show how teeny tiny those little baby parts actually are. I think we will be doing more of these in the future, as it is such a great way to remember how small they were when they were babies.

As we wrapped up the session, we were able to get a few great pictures of Mom and Dad with baby Juliet. These are so telling of their special bond with their new baby girl.

What a wonderful family! We so look forward to seeing Juliet grow over the course of the year and getting to spend more time with her and her family!

It’s about time! We finally got the chance to meet little miss Adelyn. You may remember hearing about Adelyn, even before she arrived, when we had Mom and Dad’s maternity session this summer. You can revisit that session here.

This gorgeous little girl is the first baby girl we have had in the studio for a newborn session. She was so sweet, and so hungry! Man, those newborns can really eat! Anyway, Adelyn was absolutely adorable throughout our whole session.

We use this pose with each of our newborns and I think, perhaps, this could be one of my favorites. I love the way Adelyn is snuggled in the sling and she just looks so cozy!

I also think that these photos of this young, new family are so heart-warming and they bring a smile to my face every time I see them. You can just feel the love and excitement Alicia and Mike have for their new little bundle of joy.

And, oh my goodness…I cannot get over these adorable teeny tiny toes!

This is the Motherhood to Maternity art piece that we created for Alicia. Completely gorgeous!

These are the other art pieces that were created for Alicia, Mike, and Adelyn.

We are going to be trying something new with our newborn sessions in 2010 and Alicia and Mike were our first guinea pigs. Please watch the very special video below, it is unlike anything we have done in the past:

We had the pleasure of taking maternity photographs for this lovely little family before they become a family of four.

Dawn and her husband, Brian, and their son came into the Aberdeen studio for maternity photos after meeting us at the Wee Cycle event. We are honored they they chose our studio to capture such an exciting time in their lives.

We are so happy that we were able to squeeze Dawn and her family in for a session, as she was due about two weeks after she visited the studio. (Hopefully, we will be able to meet new little Baby once he or she arrives!) This sweet little trio couldn’t be more excited about a new addition to their family. It was all smiles here in the studio during their session.

I mentioned that we would be so honored to meet new little Baby once He or She arrives…interestingly, Brian knows whether they are having a boy or a girl, Dawn does not! We thought that was really neat and also that Brian must be an excellent secret keeper! So for now, this family of three anxiously awaits becoming a family of four…

****Quick Note from Shawn: I’m a little late in getting this post out. Dawn had her wonderful baby and they have already been to the studio for newborn portraits. Stay tuned for that post****

Enjoy the video of their portraits…

We would like you to meet another little newborn that we were so happy to finally meet and be able to photograph. This is Jonathan…

While this was our first time meeting little Jonathan, his family has visited the studio before. A few months ago we had the pleasure of photographing Jonathan’s Mom, Dad, and big Sister for Mom’s maternity session. You can read more about that session and see photos from the maternity portrait session here.

Jonathan was very agreeable and quite content having his photos taken. His big Sister, Andrea, did a wonderful job of looking after him and making sure that we were taking good care of him. He is a very handsome young boy, and is the perfect addition to his beautiful family.

Jonathan was another newborn who got to test out our new colorful fringie during his session. The babies are really loving all of those bright colors, lots of eye candy!

This next photo is wonderful. Jonathan’s Dad, Dan, could not be any more proud to have a son. Sure, he loves Andrea very much, and they have a wonderful relationship, but every Dad wants a son! (Right?!?) This photo is very expressive of the pride and happiness Dan feels toward his new son. Such a wonderful moment to capture.

And of course, we haven’t forgotten about Mom. Jonathan’s Mom, Jess, was also beaming with pride and happiness when they came to visit the studio. Here she is in the “before” and “after” stages of new motherhood. In this Maternity to Motherhood art piece, we get to see a glimpse of Mom still pregnant with her little guy and then we get to see them together after he arrived.

And, finally, nothing is sweeter than all those adorable, teeny, tiny baby parts! We love to showcase all those little bits and pieces that you quickly forget how small they actually are in a nice art piece for the families of our newborns. Just remember, Jess and Dan, he will never be this tiny again! Soak it up and enjoy it while it lasts!

It was such a pleasure to have Jess and Dan and their wonderful little family in the studio again. And we are so honored to be able to meet Jonathan and so happy for their family. We hope to have them back in the studio again in the future, maybe for some photos of Andrea and her baby brother Jonathan together!