Sarah Mahen Photographers

Last week I was super duper blessed to be witness to the birth of Keegan Andrew. Sure it was the middle of the night, but holy moly it was worth it. Whitney and I had been texting all day as she’d been induced that morning. After all day of laboring and progressing, I finally got the “Get on over here” text. Dustin had my bag all packed and ready to go, and with a kiss and a reminder that we can’t have a baby for a while, I was off to Kaiser Morse. I arrived a little after midnight, and all I can say about that is I got some great parking. As I was was pulling into my princess parking spot I got a text saying things were getting ready to start! I was so happy! Maybe I’d be to bed by 2am! Yeah, and then I remembered that this is Whitney and Phil’s first baby, and first baby’s are kind of known to be a pain to get out… literally.

Whitney was nothing short of amazing! She had some serious back labor early in the day, and had opted for an epidural. (Let’s me be honest when I tell you, I would have had an epidural in the parking lot when Lauren was born… I am a fan.) By the time it was really time to get the birthday party started it was after midnight, and poor Whit was tired, and not feeling very good but she was lucky to have her cute hubby Phil and her delightful sister, Wendy there to champion her on. She pushed for a long time… 3 hours and 45 minutes long. This was a new experience for me, as the other births I’ve photographed have been pretty quick, this was not. THIS was LABOR. But in the end, it was very, very worth it.

Whitney and Phil thank you again for inviting me to be a part of such a monumentous occasion. Keegan is BEAUTIFUL, and I can’t wait to photograph him even more. I am so very happy for you, and your lovely family. Check out the slideshow HERE or below for images from Keegan’s birth day.

Sweet baby Hunter! What a cutie this little guy is. You may remember his mom and dad from their maternity session. I had the joy of photographing Hunter within the first few days of his life last month. He is seriously such a sweetheart. He did amazingly well with being photographed, and only cried a little when he REALLY needed his mom. Kelly and Mark are so blessed to have this cute little man join their family. He is a doll! We spent an afternoon just letting Hunter be Hunter. He was relaxed, and observant. It was so wonderful to be able to capture this new little family all together.

Can you believe Hunter was over 10 pounds at birth? I myself had a 10 pound baby surgically removed from my belly, and so I’m always amazed when woman who are much smaller than me do so the way God intended. I was super impressed with Kelly! She seemed to bounce right back and look amazing! Thank you to the beautiful Gurnee family for inviting me over for our photoshoot! I can’t wait to get your brag book to you! Check out their slideshow HERE or below for more pictures of handsome Hunter!

We had such a wonderful Christmas yesterday! It’s so fun now that Lauren knows that opening gifts is fun. Santa was very good to her, and brought her a Barbie Quad and a Little People Princess Castle. It was hard to get her excited about unwrapping gifts with such cool things just right there ready to play with. But luckily she overcame and was able to open all of her gifts. I wish there was a picture of the three of us, but let me be honest with you when I say that I’m still sick, and I look kind of like death microwaved for 40 seconds too long. The fact that there are not any pictures to stand as evidence of this is probably for the best. But of course, there are plenty of pictures of my cute girl.

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and that Santa was as good to you as he was to Lauren. Now I need to attempt to clean up my house. We hosted our family dinner last night and as always there was too much food and too much fun. Sadly, that too much food part leads to way too many dishes. I am on my way to a serious case of dish pan hands. Wish me luck.