Twinkle, twinkle little star...

We have updated our large display window with photographs of baby Henry, our newest little star! Here are a few of the images you will see when you stop by. Thank you, everyone, for the well-wishes. We appreciate it!

We Welcome with Love

We are happy to announce the arrival of our son, Henry William. He joined us on November 12th, weighing 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and was 21.5 inches long. We have included a few photographs taken at the hospital. Henry will have his first studio session very soon and will be featured in one of our display windows. We will let you know when we update them!

Quick Update

We are just posting quick to let everyone know that our new baby has arrived and everyone is healthy and doing good. We welcomed a boy on Monday. We'll update soon with information and photos!

Limited Hours and Planning Ahead

We are expecting our new little baby any day now! Therefore, we are very limited in our availability for appointments for the next few weeks. If you need to get in touch with us, e-mail is best. We will also return voicemails, but probably not as quickly.

Also, now is a great time for you to plan ahead for portrait sessions and save! All sessions booked between now and December 7th will be at current prices for sessions, portraits, albums and wall groupings. This includes sessions that will be taking place over the next couple of months, not just through December. Sessions booked after December 7th will be at our new 2008 rates. Let us know if you have any questions and when you would like to schedule your session!

Happy Halloween!

Madalyn took forever to decide what she wanted to be for Halloween this year. So many options, only one day! Finally, she decided she wanted to be a University of Wisconsin cheerleader. And only a Badgers uniform would do! So, while it would have been cute to dress Lydia up like a cat (as in "copycat") or a monkey (as in "monkey see, monkey do"), Lydia is a Baby Badger cheerleader.

Final Countdown!

With only a few weeks left until the baby comes, we have finally decided we need to start thinking of baby names. There is a lot of pressure to find the "perfect" name, especially when you need to take into account sibling names, last names, and preconceived impressions about names.

A fun name website is http://www.babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html. Type in your name and see when its popularity was at its peak. The NameVoyager tracks names of babies born in the United States, as reported by the Social Security Administration, with data compiled from 1880 to 2005.

If you know of any other fun name websites, let us know!

Holiday Reminder

If you need portraits for the holidays, now is the time to get them done! We have a few more session times available that will still ensure that you have enough time to have finished portraits for holiday gift-giving. If you have already had your session, order your Holiday cards now! We have single-sided traditional cards, postcards, and folded greeting cards. Let us help you send personalized cards this year that your friends and family will cherish!

Goodbye Mary Beth!

Tonight, we had to say goodbye to our nanny, Mary Beth. It was very hard and there were a few tears shed. This summer, Mary Beth had discovered that Madalyn loves ABBA. She quickly learned all the lyrics and requested to hear ABBA every time they got into Mary Bath's car. She has already started listening to the CD Mary Beth gave her as a "going away" present. We wish Mary Beth the best as she goes forward, with Master's degree in hand. Also, we would like to welcome our new nanny, Maria. We are excited to get to know her.

Vow Renewal

We just returned from a great family trip. Becky's parents have been married 35 years and they renewed their wedding vows this summer, with the whole family in attendance. It was wonderful to have all of us together for such a happy event (there are 17 of us now)!

Start Planning Ahead (Christmas!)

We are scheduling portrait sessions now and into the fall, with only limited dates available at the end of the year. Please call today to get your session time reserved! (Yes, we are scheduling December sessions already!) Please be aware that we will not be able to take appointments during the month of November (see previous post, Awaiting Baby), which includes sessions, viewing appointments and orders.

If you would like photographs for the holidays (think Christmas gifts!), we need to plan your sessions now! Ideally, you should schedule family portrait sessions for August, September or early October. This would allow you time to get your photographs, frames and Christmas cards back in time for the holiday season. No orders placed in December can be guaranteed for holiday delivery.
We are also full for 2007 weddings and booking 2008 weddings!

New Wedding Albums

Since our photography style encourages variety, we decided our albums should, too! We have expanded our current album options for clients. We had been offering three different styles, in various sizes. We have broadened that to include three all new album lines. We want each and every album to showcase the personality of the people that are in it, and there is no better way than to give people the choice in how the photographs are shown! We'll show you all the options the next time you come in!

Awaiting Baby!

We are excited to share our news- we are expecting a baby in November! The ultrasound revealed a healthy baby, who is currently 1 pound, 5 ounces and very active. Madalyn is excited to be a big sister again, and thinks the 3-D ultrasound picture (the orange one) looks like a boy. (Nope, we are NOT finding out the gender this time!)

Studio Windows

Have you seen our studio windows lately? Take a drive or a walk by our studio soon and take a look!

Women at Work- Brava Magazine

Becky is part of the Women at Work feature in the July issue of local Madison-based Brava magazine. This is the second time she has been in the feature, first in June of 2005 for 'women in the wedding business', and now for 'women in photography'. Check out the feature on page 72!

Summer Bridal Show

We will be at the Wedding Planner and Guide summer bridal show this week. The summer show is on Thursday, June 7th, at the Marriott Madison West. The show runs from 4:00pm to 9:00pm. Ticket information and details can be found on the WP&G website, wedplan.com. Come see us at our booths #202, by the front entrance, or at #417, near the fashion show. We would love to meet you and chat about your upcoming wedding! We will have albums to show the style of work that we do and will be offering an incentive to those that book their wedding date on Thursday. If you have already chosen Appleby Photography to capture your day, feel free to stop by and say hi!

Madison Half Marathon

Chris and our friend Tim have been wanting to do the Madison Half Marathon since "the wives" did it in 2004. This was their year to do the 13.1 mile trek around town while we cheered them on. The weather was great for their first race, mild and sunny. Both say they are willing to do another in the future. And, that was even after they counted the number of blisters they had on their feet! Here they are, showing off their shirts before the race. They read "Will run for beer, cheese and brats..."

Espresso Royale

We are excited to share our photographs at the upper State Street Espresso Royale during the month of May. Our collection just went up last night, so stop in at 208 State Street to take a look. Espresso Royale is across the street from The Overture Center for the Arts and is open 7am - midnight, Monday through Friday, and 8am - midnight, Saturday and Sunday. Have a great cup of coffee and enjoy the view!

Apple Pie

My grandmother is an amazing baker. There have been plenty of blue ribbons at the local fair. She often doesn't even use a recipe, just going by "feel." Her apple pie is no different.

Chris has declared her pie as the best he's ever had. And since there is no one else that knows how to make it, it was decided that I needed to learn how to carry on her tradition.

This weekend, I learned how to make Grandma Appleby's homemade apple pie. (Of course, the true test will be making it at home, alone!) Grandma has been making, and perfecting, her pie and pie crust for 60 years. There is no recipe and Grandma does not use measuring cups or spoons. When Grandma says, "a smidge," she means a "coffee cup full." It is all done by feel and by memory. I tried to write down the "recipe" as we prepped and baked, but there will probably need to be adjustments.

We will be having a lot of dessert as practice!

Ballroom Showing

We will be displaying our wedding photography this Friday, April 20th, at Quality Inn & Suites in Madison for their ballroom showing. From 6:00pm-7:30pm, brides and grooms that are interested in having their wedding receptions at Quality Inn & Suites may come and see the ballroom, as well as meet with select wedding professionals.

Baby Reagan

Amy brought her new baby in for Reagan's first session. She was just one week old! We captured lots of cute little "bits & pieces", and we made some really cute birth announcements.

Jocelyn's session

Jocelyn was a fun almost-three year old. She had so much personality that showed through in her session. Here are a few of our favorites.

Lydia's One Year session

For Lydia's One Year session, we had to start with "the blue dress", as we call it in our family. Becky's mother, all of her sister's and our oldest daughter have all worn this dress for their One Year sessions, so it's been a tradition for a while. We also chose a fun dress, as a change from the tradtional look of the blue velvet.

Meeting Ida

Today, Appleby Photography had the honor of photographing Ida Wyman. Ida is a photographer, herself, having started in the craft when she was a teenager back in the 1940's. I think she could be described as a photojournalist, as many of her images captured Americana. Ida shared some of her fantastic black & white photographs with me today, including many that dated to the beginning of her career in the 40's and 50's. At our session today, we captured Ida with her daughter, Nancy, and her granddaughter, Heather. I'm sure Ida has many wonderful stories that I hope to hear someday!

Lydia is Walking!

Finally! Lydia started pulling up and cruising on furniture when she was 6 1/2 months old. We thought for sure that she would be an early walker. This just goes to prove that children do not care about impressing their parents or about bragging rights. Now that she turned a year old yesterday, Lydia took 11 steps. I wish I could share the video clip for proof! Our peanut weighed in at 17 pounds and 7 ounces (4thth percentile) at her one year well-check today, but she is 29.25 inches tall (50th percentile), so she is "long and lean". We will be doing her birthday portrait session soon, but we wanted to share a couple of images from her February session. Look how big she is getting!

Continued Learning

We like to continue our education when the opportunities are available. Becky was able to attend the Wisconsin Professional Photographer's Association's annual convention, which was February 22-27th in Madison. It was a great chance to see and hear new ideas, as well as get "refreshed" for the year ahead. Watch for new portrait and wedding offerings, including a new line of albums, coming to Appleby Photography this spring!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

The past month has had a lot going on, both professionally and personally. We had a great weekend at the Bridal Show. We met a lot of great people, who were there planning weddings. We even had three couples book their wedding date with us at the show. Since then, we have added some more 2007 wedding dates to our calendar and have couples starting to meet with us about 2008 wedding dates. We are almost filled for 2007 Saturday weddings, with only a few random weekends open yet. Over the past month, we have also met a few new babies, which is always fun! On a personal note, we have been saddened by the passing of Becky's grandfather. It is always hard to say good bye to a loved one. We really appreciate all those that have expressed concern. Thank you!

Wedding Planner & Guide bridal show

The annual bridal show, put on by the Wedding Planner & Guide, is this weekend, January 13 and 14th, at the Alliant Energy Center. We have been displaying at the bridal show since 2002 and love to meet with brides and grooms about their Big Day! Our booth is #1606, near the fashion show. Please stop by our booth to say hello and introduce yourself.
The new 2007 Wedding Planner and Guide book is now available. Our ad is on page 230.