Jessica Lemmons Photography Blog, Longview Washington (Wa.) photographer. » Personal photos and random thoughts

Vintage Spring | Children’s portrait photographer

jessical — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:00:48 +0000

I’m getting ready to do spring mini-sessions in my studio and wanted to share some photos of my set’s (1st is vintage spring and 2nd is Easter). My younger two cooperated long enough for me to get some sample photos.

Merry Christmas!

jessical — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 04:37:49 +0000

My Christmas this year was, by far, one of the best ever. For those of you that know me you know my faith in God is a huge part of who I am, in fact I would go so far as to say it is the very core of who I am. God gave me a lesson this year on faith. It wasn’t an easy one, or necessarily a fun one, but God walked me through it and held my hand the whole time. I’m not going to go into all the details, but I will summarize by saying – the week before Christmas we were hit with a few small tragedies and God totally came through for me and my kids in huge AMAZING ways. Someday I want to share the full story as it’s really an incredible testimony of God’s love and faithfulness, but in the meantime I will suffice to say that I think God loves drama. Yep. I’m pretty sure of it. I think that a lot of times God waits till we are at the end of our rope….or dangling from a cliff…..or even about to smash into the rocks at the bottom of the ravine we fell into….that moment when we cry out to Him in desperation….and that’s when He swoops in and rescues us. God is God of His Word. (I know I’m preaching at ya’ll….but it’s such a part of who I am that it just kinda oozes out! I can’t help it!)

ANYways. Two quick photos ( I could overwhelm you with hundreds of course, but I won’t!)

My little guy still wearing his Christmas pajamas (taken the same day as the shot’s of him below) and doing what he did best on Christmas…..eating the wrappings….in this case a bow.

And last – what my mom and I spent most of Christmas doing – keeping the baby away from from the fireplace. Yes, he’s all boy and the pyromaniac in him has already surfaced. You can see my mom’s scolding hand in the top right of the photo. Haha….amazingly he never actually managed to get close enough to touch it, though he tried so very hard. No burns! Yay!

Love Inc. | Love in the name of Christ

jessical — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:59:31 +0000

I was first introduced to Love Inc in 2010 through my home church (Father’s House in Longview). Love Inc’s mission statement is this: “Our mission is to mobilize the Church to transform lives and communities In the Name of Christ.” To describe in more detail – Love inc is a group of people that work together to organize the body of Christ (all Bible believing churchs across the denominational board) to care for the poor and needy in our communties and show the light of Christ to them through practical acts of caring. I’ve had the privilige of being asked to work with them on several occasions now – one being the Highlands clean up project, another being an after school program for kids, and this one that I’m going to blog about was the Broadway School painting project. The Broadway school is our local special education preschool center that desperately needed a new paint job. It was huge project that spanned several weeks and dozens of volunteers. When it was all finished the school went from being a bit of local eyesore to a beautiful new-looking building.

Love Inc volunteers completely amaze me with their giving hearts and willingness to go above and beyond to bless our community here. On a side note – they’ve actually blessed me on more than one occasion – being a single mom with 3 kids sometimes there are “things” that I’m not capable of doing myself. When I moved last year (twice) they helped me here and there one time even going so far as to drive to Castle rock to pick up a piano that I was given and deliver it themselves to my front door. Blessed my socks off – I never could have picked up that piano on my own, and I didn’t even ask, they heard about it through a friend and showed up at my door with a delivery truck. For those of you that know me – I’ve played the piano since I was 4 years old, but since I’ve been a “moved-out-of-my-parents-home-adult” I haven’t owned one. It’s a small thing to some, but HUGE to me to finally own a piano of my own AND not have to worry about getting it through my door. Love inc is AMAZING.

So – when Larry Russell called me and asked if I could volunteer some time to photograph the Broadway School project I was super-excited. Giving back is something I love. And sadly not something I get to do nearly enough of in my current life-season. THIS was something I could do and I jumped at the opportunity.

I started out photographing the prep – scraping off chipped paint, taping, priming, caulking (there were a lot of holes and gaps that needed fixing).

Then they moved on to the actual painting.

And the very last thing – painting the flagpole.

Thank you Love Inc volunteers for all that you do in our community. You are an incredible group of people and know that the love of Christ shows through all you do!

If your interested in volunteering with Love Inc of Cowlitz County, check out their facebook page here – Cowlitz County Love Inc

Cannon Beach

jessical — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:56:11 +0000

My friend and I decided to take a trip down to Cannon Beach with all of our kids (well most of them that is). We figured we’d make an appearance on the beach and let the kids fly kites or something like that until they were frozen and then pack up and hit some candy shops. We dressed warm (it was November after all) grabbed our kites, kids, blankets, sweatshirts, coats and wagon and headed out on the beach. Once we got on the beach we realized that A. There was no wind so kites were out. B. It was REALLY warm so sweatshirts were unnecessary. And C. The water looked really inviting to those kids. So we all un-bundled ourselves and started playing. I’ve never been to the Oregon Coast and had it 1. Not be windy, or 2.Be warm. It was both. At first it started out with “let’s just let the kids get their feet wet” and next thing we knew all of the older ones were soaking wet, laughing and having a great time. Now I thought that once they were wet they would get cold, but no…it was really that warm. They got out of the water, played in the sand for a good long time, got BACK in the water, played in the sand some more and then repeated it until the sand in their pants started to rub their legs raw at which point we finally decided it was time to pack on up and get those kiddos some dry (and un-sandy) clothes. I think we were on the beach a good 3 or 4 hours which is also probably the longest amount of time I’ve ever spent on the Oregon coast as it’s always windy and cold out there…..this day was the first exception I’d ever seen and I loved it.

Olivia giving me her “Can I please get in the water????” look.

Tristen (being a typical 7-month old) had to taste the sand.

From that point forward it was a losing battle between me and sand.

Such a cute little sand monster! (and I think I went through a case of wipes on him)

The older boys all covered in sand from hours of road and sand castle building.

The 5-year-olds : No we didn’t let them get that far out without one of us close by – my friend is just out of the shot. ;-)

All-in-all the beach was a huge success. Dirty exhausted kids. Worn out parents. And some super fun memories with photos to boot!

5! | Kelso Children’s Photographer

jessical — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 22:15:05 +0000

She turned 5 last month. They say time flies once you have babies. I think that’s the understatement of the year. She is the bravest, strongest, toughest little 5-year-old I know. Honest and wise beyond her years. Funny and adorable as can be. She has been through a lot for a kid her age, and she has come out on the other side smiling and laughing and praising Jesus. (Yes….she loves Jesus with all her little heart!) She give’s me courage to keep on plugging away. I know someday that God has very special plan for her precious life. She wants to be a missionary when she grows up (or fashion model depending on the day!) and she loves to play orphanage and care for all the “babies” (her doll, chicky, teddy bear and our poor dog who get’s roped into all her make-believe -Huck). I love her to death, am so proud of her, and can’t believe that my middle-child is 5.

Casey’s Birthday….

jessical — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:52:53 +0000

I’m late in posting this but had to share some pictures from my son’s 7th birthday. We did an “angry birds” theme for it….SO fun! I learned that “cake decorating” is not a skill God blessed me with, but I did manage to somewhat pull of the cake-pop thing and I will say they tasted pretty good! Just an FYI – Making those cake pops took me upwards of 12 hours…..my original guessimation of how long it would take was maybe 2 or 3, which ultimately led to me nearly falling asleep in bowls of candy melts at 3 am the day before his party. Haha…I’m praying my daughter asks for cupcakes and not cake-pops for her birthday! We had so much fun and he was blessed to have a small army of friends show up to celebrate him. Love ya buddy! Love mom.

7 years | Children’s photography

jessical — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 23:12:10 +0000

7 years…as I type that I realize that nearly 8 years ago (in a few more months) I took that little test that forever changed my life. Two little pink lines popped up and suddenly I went from life revolving around me (which of course I thought it did at that time in my life) to life revolving around him.

I pulled out some of my old videos the other day and watched his birth happen. That moment when arrived was the most beautiful moment in my life. Seriously. Not that my other kids birth’s were any less beautiful, but with anyone’s first-born that moment where you go from just being “you” to being “mom” is life-changing. (Major understatement right?) I could watch it over and over again. His little smashed blue head, him crying, me crying, my mom crying, me kissing his sweet little face for the first time and snuggling him close. So perfect.

Happy birthday little buddy! I love you! - Mom

Monday Randomness | New neighborhood.

jessical — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 05:28:49 +0000

Ok….so if you follow me on facebook at all you’ve heard my stories about my neighborhood. It’s not the best of neighborhoods, but I like most of my neighbors, other than the girl that woke me and my kids up late one night to borrow an envelope (true story). But this made me laugh. I swear I answer my door 3 or 4 times a day. It’s like a drive-through here…..

Source: etsy.com via Jessica on Pinterest

And that’s all I have for Monday Randomness today. :-)

Monday Randomness | Angry Birds

jessical — Tue, 31 May 2011 02:09:08 +0000

A recent facebook status of mine: ”First it was chopping fruit with my ninja skills, then i was feeding a monster candy from a rope, next thing I knew I was launching birds into a bunch of pigs and now I’m shooting peas and corn at a bunch of zombies. I’m gonna have to start an iPhone game recovery group. This is ridiculous.” Launching birds into pigs. It sounds silly, but Angry Birds is seriously one of the most addicting i-phone games I have ever played. (I also recommend plants vs. zombies, cut the rope, and fruit ninja). My kids are also completely addicted to angry birds. I have to pry my phone out of their little fingers on a daily basis. With Casey’s 7th birthday coming up I started brainstorming trying to think of a theme, and that’s when I found these:

Source: the-girl-who-ate-everything.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Instant Birthday party theme! I’m still figuring out the rest of my ideas….perhaps a pig shaped pinata? Balloons with the angry birds faces on them? A golden egg hunt? Hmmmm……I’ll be sure and share what I come up with after the party.

Monday Randomness | Photography Cheat Sheet

jessical — Mon, 23 May 2011 19:59:25 +0000

During the month’s of June and July I’m going to be teaching a beginning photography class. I did this last summer and LOVED it. But before starting this class I wanted to improve a little bit on what I taught last year. One thing I notice that my students seemed to struggle with understanding (and this was my fault for the way I was teaching it….not theirs!) was grasping the photographic triangle concept. I needed an easy way to explain it – it’s one of those things that makes perfect sense in my head but when I verbalize it it comes out in total geek. People that don’t speak geek don’t get it (which is most of the world I’ve learned). So I searched online. Found nothing, and was thinking I was just going to go back to writing a triangle on a piece of paper and relate it in algebraic terms (which again doesn’t work well as most people forget about formulas the second they graduate high-school!). But then pinterest saved my day when I found this:

Source: None via Jessica on Pinterest

A simple little diagram explaining it all. Easy-peasy. And it even looks all cool and vintage.

Monday Randomness | My travel bucket list

jessical — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:02:07 +0000

I shared about Pinterest a few weeks ago, and last week I shared about a few items on my bucket list. Well…..here’s my pinterest travel bucket list. I’m still adding to it all the time!

Seychelles, definitely one of the top places I want to go. Completely random and un-heard of I know, but for some reason a tiny little island off the coast of Africa sounds AMAZING!

What’s on your bucket list?

Monday randomness | Second Edition

jessical — Tue, 10 May 2011 06:12:57 +0000

Round two: Bucket lists? You got one? Mine is a work in progress. I’m always adding things to it and I’ve already checked off a lot. And yes, I’ll admit it, I cheat sometimes. I’m one of those chronic list maker types…..and when I’m in the process of completing a checklist and I do something that wasn’t on the checklist, I quickly run over and add it to my checklist just so I can put a giant check mark next to it. Yeah….one of those and I do that to my bucket list often.

Last year I got to do several things on my bucket list (things that were originally there….I didn’t just add em cuz I did em!) And I thought I would share. For starters…..See Lake Victoria. (Victoria Falls is also on my checklist, as are the other 6 natural wonders of the world, but I got a geography lesson and learned that Victoria Falls isn’t anywhere near lake Victoria.)

Source of the Nile? Check.

Now….stand in the middle of the Nile River was not on my list, but of course I added it. ;-)

Stand on both sides of the world? Check.

More Bucket list Stuff to come…..

Monday randomness | First edition

jessical — Tue, 03 May 2011 05:04:38 +0000

Just for fun I thought I would start a series titled Monday Randomness here on the ol’ blog. I’ll do my best to be consistent about posting these in a timely manner every Monday. I’ve got lots of fun ideas and things I would love to share….just need a good excuse to do it!

So, for starters, in the interest of all things random I’m going to introduce ya’ll to pinterest.com. It’s another social networking site (I know, I know….seeing ya’ll roll your eyes as I type this) but this one is really cool! No really…it is! I was one of those teenagers that had to have a pair of scissors with me everytime I read a magazine. I would find something cool, cut it out and paste it onto whatever collage I was working on at the moment. I ended up with a bunch of giant collages containing every thing from a Nissan 350Z to Paul Walker (I liked cars!). Pinterst is your virtual collage maker. The way it works is this: Say your browsing the internet looking for some fun ideas to decorate your kids room and you find something you like. You take your little pin (it’s a bookmarklet you install) and pin the photo to your “kids decor” board. And then keep on looking. Eventually you end up a collage of “kids decor” in what looks like a virtual scrapbook. The best thing is pinterest saves the original link with the photo (I love this as I am a HUGE advocate to copyright protection!) so you get the photo to remind you of what you like, and then you can click on it and it takes you back to the original post or site containing the photo. So if you are redecorating your kids rooms and need instructions on how to make DIY light fixtures it’s right there at your fingertips. No more digging through messy bookmark folders trying to remember where those instructions were for that DIY project.

For example, being that I recently moved into a new home…..nothing bores me more than bare white walls with no paint and no photos so I decided to create a “home decor” board and I’m slowly but surely using it to inspire my homes new look. Check out my board here - http://pinterest.com/jlemmons/for-the-home/. It’s still in the beginning stages, but as you can see I have a bunch of ideas for photo collages (naturally) a cute idea for my boys room, stairs with drawers (just cuz they are cool…..I don’t even have stairs in my house) and yes I’m dying to paint my daughters room with pink stripes. See? Easy-peasy, and completely addicting. (and here’s a screen shot of it, but the link is better!)

Tristen – Newborn photographer Longview WA

jessical — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:53:58 +0000

On the day I’m posting this he is four weeks old. I’ve taken the last few weeks to spend every spare second I have snuggling him because I know this doesn’t last forever. I know I have to work. I know he’s going to grow. To fast. To short. Not enough time. When I took these he was just a week old. In just the three weeks that have passed his cheeks have filled out. He’s gained 2 and half pounds. He’s grown 2 inches. He went from newborn sized diapers to 1′s. Next thing I know he’ll be waving good-bye to me as he hops on the bus to kindergarten. I’m not ok with it. But I don’t have a choice. I’m so grateful in this moment for my profession. I want to be able to look back at this and remember every sweet little bit of him. He’s perfect. Innocent. Sweet. Angelic. I don’t want to forget it…….

I had a baby!

jessical — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:25:58 +0000

(disclaimer: While I’ve kept this post “PG”, if your not comfortable with the topic of birth this post isn’t for you! Also, most of these photos were taken by my wonderful friend Sharnessa….THANK YOU SHARN!!! I love them!)

Monday, March 28th, my due-date.

It was 3 am. I woke up to the crazy pain in my stomach and all I think was “what the heck did I eat last night?” It stopped. I fell back to sleep.

3:20 am. OUCH! I wake up again. The thought of “maybe THIS is what a natural contraction feels like” went through my head. I fell back to sleep.

3:45 am. BIG OUCH! I had to breathe through the pain and I realized “I’m having REAL contractions!!!!” Then I fell back to sleep.

4:05 am. ”Oh crap, I’m in labor, and it’s just me and the two kids at the house” and then I went back to sleep. (see a pattern here?!)

4:45 am. I wake up again, and it’s really, REALLY hurting. I decide to call my mom, and then don’t. It’s only 4:45 and my contractions aren’t consistent…..so I try to sleep. Besides, who actually has their baby on their due date?

5:15 am. YEAH RIGHT. These babies are hurting like heck. So I decide to get up and try and walk around to see what happens. I make it till 6:30

6:30 am. contractions every 20 minutes and I finally cave and call my mom. Then I took a bath. Put my makeup on. Did my hair. Packed my bag. (Don’t most mom’s do all the bag-packing weeks before? Yeah…not me!) Took a couple i-phone pictures in the mirror just in case this was the “real-deal” and I didn’t get a chance to grab another photo of the growth.

7:15 am. My mom and sister arrive at my house and off Mom and I go to the hospital.

7:30 am. Emergency Room. For the third time in a week. ”Yes, it’s real this time I swear!”

8:00 am. I’m hooked up to monitors and made to lay down on a bed. And all the contractions stop. Not one. The whole time the nurse is asking me questions, hooking me up to the monitors….NOTHING. ”I swear I was having them and they hurt!” Nurse “Uh-huh….” Then she checked, “Well your at a 4, so we’ll see if the Dr. H wants you to stay or go home and labor at home.” (Me in my head: “UM I’M AT A FOUR AND THIS IS MY THIRD CHILD YOUR NOT SENDING ME HOME!!!!!”) Me out loud: “Ok” Then Dr. H shows up and saves the day. ”Your at a 4 and this is your third child, we’d be stupid to send you home.” (Me in my head. “Yep…you would!”) ”So let’s just break your water and get this thing started!” (Me in my head “Crap….that means the crochet hook thingy”).

9:00 am. I text my friends – “I’m getting my water broke, come on over!” I get up and of course the second I move from laying horizontal, BAM!!! Contraction. And then BAM!!! Another one right after the first. The staff chose this moment to let me know that “Oh, hospital policy is that you can only have two support people in room during the birth” Me: “Um, I have 5….and I need them all” Staff “Well you’ll have to pick two.” (Me in my head again: “I had 4 with my first and 3 with my second, why can’t I have 5 now?”) Me out loud: “Ok.”

9:30 am My water gets broke. (darn crochet hook thingy!) “Your at a 5!” The room get’s prepped and my friends start to show up. I’m happy.

9:45 am. OUCH contraction. IV’s. Monitors. Breathe.

10:15 am. Ouch. Dr. H. comes in to check me (“your at a 6!”) and offer me an epidural again (I’ve been declining up to this point). I think about it long enough for another contraction to start and then “YES!”

10:50 am. The anesthesiologist arrives and I’m glad to see her! My friends get booted to the waiting room while I get a needle in the ol’ spine. I’m at a 7.

12:00 pm. I’m still at a 7. The contractions aren’t really hurting but I’m feeling TONS of pressure on my spine.

12:47 pm. I’m still at a 7, and holy cow, the pressure on my spine is killing me. I tell Dr. H. that the epidural must not be working right, and he says it is, I’m supposed to feel pressure and that’s good. (Me in my head: How on earth can this much pain POSSIBLY be good for a person????!!!!) Me out loud: “Ok.” He then explains to me that I’m having non-productive contractions – my babies head is basically pushing down hard on a cervix that still isn’t dilated all the way….hence the pain and pressure. So he decides to help me along and has the nurse grab some pitocin for my IV.

1:07 pm. Still at a 7. And it hurts. My Dad left work so he could be at the hospital when baby arrives and he came into visit.

2:00 pm. I’m at an 8. Pressure is insane. And then I start to cry….I don’t remember doing that at my last birth’s….but the tears started coming and so I just shut my eyes.

2:10 pm. Dr. H. checks me. 8. Pressure is INSANE. I want to push. Then he does some crazy thing that I won’t talk about that somehow dilated me to a 10 in 2 more contractions. Ouch.

2:15 pm. Dr. H. clears the room. Now it’s just me, my mom, and Sharn running both my 5d and my mom’s video camera. I don’t know how she did it.

2:20 pm. ”You can push now!”

OW. (I opened my eyes)

2:30 pm. DONE!

Tristen David Lemmons. You are perfect.

Mohawk. If only the nurse that did this knew how fitting that was.

2:50 pm. Everyone came back in to meet Tristen

Grandpa, Grandma, Auntie.

My auntie and a few of my friends.

Yawn…..

And then my other kids joined us. They’ve been SO excited to meet him.

Family. :-)