life in arcadia

someone special

chloehweeks — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:22:28 +0000

this video has made me so ever-loving happy today! and not just because being in a flash mob is on my bucket list!

bj and ricky’s engagement session (sneak peek)

chloehweeks — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:01:04 +0000

such a sweet couple….so fun to photograph!!!

baby roxie (sneak peek)

chloehweeks — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:27:44 +0000

isn’t she just the definition of cuteness?

panda bears!!!!!!!!!

chloehweeks — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:39:19 +0000

happy halloween!!

arden is dressing as a panda bear this year, because she LOVES pandas, and they are always the first animal we visit whenever we go to the zoo. can’t you just see the excitement written all over her face?!

mazel tov!

chloehweeks — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:53:56 +0000

what do a bunch of (wild) 13-year-old boys at a (wild) bat mitzvah look like when the DJ plays a much-loved (wild) dance song?

THIS!

(child) labor day

chloehweeks — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:17:49 +0000

(this post was intended to honor labor day, but we were relaxing at the cabin all weekend….oops!)

arden LOVES helping me with chores: wiping off surfaces, cleaning windows, folding laundry, etc. it’s just some of the evidence of her nurturing, thoughtful personality. i’m trying to really soak up these sweet memories before the days arrive when she whines about chores, and i have to beg (or pay) her to help! one chore that she’s helped with since she started walking at 14 months is unloading the silverware from the dishwasher. on this particular morning, as i went about my unloading routine, she said, “no, mommy. i do it by myself.” she gently pushed me out of the room, so i grabbed the camera and snickered as she toiled away.

the sweetest part was that after the spoon fell on her toe (and we all know how surprisingly painful that can be!) she insisted on finishing the job. that’s my litte over-achiever!

thanks, arden, for….umm….helping?

emily and adam’s engagement session

chloehweeks — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:09:09 +0000

i posted emily and adam’s wedding photos and then realized, i never posted any of their engagement pics! here are some sweet ones from our fun november afternoon touring around the small town of dupo, illinois:

the sun was shining and a nice, crisp coolness had begun to sift through the air. we happened upon an adorable installation of scarecrows, apparently made by schoolchildren and hung along the railroad fence. it doesn’t get more small-town-in-autumn than that!

emily was worried there weren’t going to be any special or sentimental spots for us to shoot, since she didn’t grow up in dupo and she and adam didn’t court there. i told her not to worry because i can find backdrops anywhere, no matter how small, old or industrial. when we saw this crumbly, vacant building, i said, ‘look at that beautiful wood grain!’ emily realized i wasn’t kidding.

at the end of our shoot, emily and adam agreed to get a little itchy when we discovered these glorious yellow leaves. i mean, when both of you have perfectly golden blonde hair, how can you just walk by a blanket of leaves this brilliant?

congrats again, you two!

grace ernestine murfy is 5

chloehweeks — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:52:52 +0000

wow, it’s been over a month since my last post! i would say i’m surprised, but heck, i’m not, and i bet neither are you! i am now officially BE-HIND on my blogging. behind by….a yyyy….okay, i’ll say it, a YEAR. over a year actually! and even though i swore i wasn’t going to apologize ever again for being behind in a project which i voluntarily took on and which has no deadline, i just can’t help it today. to my small but dear, dedicated audience: i am truly sorry and i promise i will (try to) do better. things have been a little hectic around here the last few months….more on that later.

now that my pitiful apology is out of the way, i must acknowledge that our 2nd-born (canine) baby, gracie, turned 5 this summer! time….SIGH….it really does fly. it seems like just yesterday that jason opened up a crate in the back seat of our car and i spied two little black eyes and a cocked, puggy head peeking at me, and i literally started to SOB. (and yes, gracie had her infamous ‘confused’ look on her face even as a teeny little puglet!) i had always told jason i wanted to be surprised with a puppy as a gift one day. so he snuck from nashville (where we were visiting our equally-pug-obsessed friends) to murfreesboro and back in an afternoon to give me the best 1-year wedding anniversary present i could have imagined. thanks, honey, for helping me cross that dream off my bucket list. XOXO

and a very, very happy (belated) birthday to our snuggly little fly-catcher!

rock star on the rise

chloehweeks — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:20:33 +0000

emily and adam’s wedding

chloehweeks — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:28:30 +0000

last year, i was asked to be the photographer at jason’s cousin emily’s winter wedding in illinois. i surprised even myself when i didn’t hesitate to accept with confidence! i started my photography business saying i’d shoot every type of event except weddings….not because i don’t love a good wedding (i do, i do!) but because i wasn’t sure i needed to feel that kind of pressure. i mean, what if i drop the camera in the toilet mid-way through the day? or slip and fall, only to sacrifice my own physical safety to save the camera from breaking? (by the way, i probably would do that…after all, what’s a broken bone compared to a couple’s wedding memories?!) looking back, i couldn’t be happier that i accepted the challenge. the entire day was a blast from beginning to end, and now i am overflowing with about a million more ideas for future weddings!

my excitement reached a whole new level when jason, arden and i were actually able to drive to illinois, after a few pesky december snowstorms threatened for several days to hinder our trip. (i never did tell emily and adam about my late-night, panic-stricken search online for a plane ticket just a few days before the wedding!) but all was well, albeit really, really COLD once we arrived, and the wedding and reception went off without a hitch….well, except for maybe a few snow-soaked high heels.

thank you, emily and adam, for allowing me to be such a big part of your wedding day. i know you are enjoying newlywed life, and i wish you two a long life full of happiness and laughter. and WARMTH!