The Zenios Family.
They really are that adorable. Loving and caring. Sometimes it’s like pulling teeth to get brothers to even sit next to each other. Not these two. You can tell they will grow up to be best buds.
My session favorite, right here. Matina, you need this BIG in your beautiful house!
People often ask me how I get such fun and natural reactions in front of my camera. Usually corny jokes or games that we play. But this one here… no, this was all the boys. I’m standing over them nine months pregnant and Michael asks if I have a name picked out for the baby. I grin and say no. He says, “NAME THE BABY BOB!” We all just couldn’t stop laughing.
SO HANDSOME! (And I kept calling them cute and they kept asking me to call them HANDSOME. “We aren’t cute!” Geez, I should know these things!)
Christos loves soccer. I just love this!
This left photo is why I love my “job” so much. Seriously, amazing. SO MUCH LOVE HERE. Zenios and his team, 3 Pillar Homes, are currently building our home. I’ve had the honor of working with him for over a year now as we go through this crazy building process. A few days ago, I was able to hang out with his beautiful family and see what an awesome father he is to these two boys. It just touches my heart and makes me proud that we’ve chosen someone who cares and loves people so much. Zenios, I hope you can cherish these photographs and remember how special these two little souls are to you. Your eyes really shine when you are around them and I can see how proud you are. Much love, friend.
Jackson and Layla.
Their poses. Make me smile.
I don’t think you’ll find a more dapper little fella.
I mean SERIOUSLY! (My session fave.)
I can’t decide which photo shows their sibling love more. Is it this one?
Or this one… 🙂
But Momma love, that right there is a given! Layla carries this stuffed Kitty and blanket around with her EVERYWHERE. We couldn’t pry them away. I find it so sweet and it won’t last forever so this is just the perfect time to capture her little innocence. And her lovies.
Alex. Newborn.
It’s a baby booming week. I’ve photographed three newborns and this was the only boy, handsome as can be.
Such a sweet little burrito! Don’t you just want to eat him up?
Oh the fun these two will have. Just wait!
And he is adored by his family.
Alex, you are surrounded by love and I can’t wait to watch you grow. Xo!
Armita. Newborn.
Love those pursed lips. Mmmmmwwahh, baby girl!
She’s a pretty princess.
Or a queen sitting in her throne.
Beautiful. Just simply beautiful.
And her Momma made her princess canopy crib. So special.
A few fun facts from the Momma…
What was your baby’s birth weight and length? 7 pounds 8 ounces, 19.5″
Is there a story behind your baby’s name?
We wanted to give her a Persian name and I wanted her to have a part of my name too since she is getting daddy’s last name! So, we came up with Armita Neda. (Armita means Pure love)
Give us the scoop. What has surprised you the most about parenthood?
Are there any funny stories or firsts that you’d like to share? I had always heard that raising a baby is a 24/7 job but never believed it until I had my baby! I have so much more respect for my parents now!
What did you like best about your experience with Crystal Jo?
She’s always fun to work with. She has lots of positive energy. And her pictures are so beautiful that every time I literally cannot wait until I get the pictures!
Tara and Scott. Engaged.
We found some really cool spots downtown.
My session fave… right hurr…
They really are such an adorable couple. Navy is the dominant wedding color and how perfect is Scott’s complimentary sweater matching Tara’s navy dress.
Tara, you are stunning. Inside and out! Kelley, my dear friend and hair stylist, has been best friends with Tara for many years. So I get to hear all of the fabulous stories about Tara and her life.
Save the date. May 17th, 2014. The day two hearts become one.
Behind the scenes… I spy a BIG baby bump. 🙂
When and where is your wedding?
Tara & Scott: May 17th 2014 @ The Columbus Museum of Art
How did you meet?
Tara: We met through mutual friends – I think we both were hesitant about being set-up, but so thankful for it now!
Scott: My best friend Tommy, who is now married to Tara’s high school friend Emily (Barrett) Young, introduced us back in April 2009.
Tell us about your proposal!
Tara: Oh the proposal – such an amazing day! It was a really warm day in January – January 12th to be exact. It was a normal Saturday, or so I thought! I apparently did everything differently on this Saturday than any other – I didn’t go to the gym, I didn’t run errands – basically I wanted it to be a lazy Saturday. Well Scott really wanted me out of the house so he could set-up to “pop the question”, but I wasn’t having any of it. Since I spoiled his first plan, he decided to go upstairs, where I heard him pacing from the office to the bedroom and back. At the time I thought it was weird, but thought, maybe he was putting the dry cleaning away – little did I know! He then started playing Dave Matthews and specifically “Space Between” – which we have declared “our song”. This instantly peaked my interest! I went upstairs where Scott was holding a silver ornament that opens like a ring box. The outside is engraved with “Wishes” and inside is “Do Come True”. Inside was the ring and as soon as I opened it, I started crying – a happy cry of course! Scott asked me to marry him, at which time I tackled him with a huge hug and saying over and over… “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” He stopped me and said, “Wait, you said yes, right?” I guess the tackle of excitement wasn’t the official yes he was looking for! I absolutely said yes and can’t wait to marry the man that (as my granny says) blew my socks off!
Scott: A few Christmas’ ago, my mother had bought my two sisters and I a sterling silver Christmas ornament and each year my parents put special gifts inside the ornament, such as Bucks tickets, cash, etc… Back in January, that ornament played a key role in my proposal to Tara. As I was upstairs pacing trying to make sure everything was in place, I played our song, “Space Between”, by the Dave Matthews Band. While Tara was downstairs in our living room, she immediately knew something was going on, whether I was cleaning, working, or whatever. As she came up the steps to our bedroom, I was sitting beside the silver ornament in the middle of our bed. She sat down next to me, looked at the ornament (which I forgot to mention has “WISHES” on the outside and “DO COME TRUE” on the inside) and I told her, “I have a surprise for you!?”. She then opened the ornament and there was the ring.
What’s your favorite thing about your significant other?
Tara: One of my favorite things about Scott is how caring he is. He is always willing to go out of his way for his friends, family, myself – you name it, he’s there! I also love his ability to make any situation fun. We are always laughing together and with just a look – know what the other one is thinking. He’s just all around my Prince Charming.
Scott: Tara is my best friend. She and I do everything together. We share so many common interests, such as Buckeye games, movies, concerts, traveling and so much more. I absolutely enjoy spending my time with her whether we’re traveling or just hanging around home on the weekend
What makes you guys unique?
Tara: I think what makes us unique, is our friendship. We truly are each other’s best friend. We tell each other everything and love hanging out together, whether it’s watching one of “our” shows or our Sunday movie dates. We also have our personal time too, which makes the time we’re together, that much better!
Scott: We’ve shared similar beliefs on what our relationship means from day one. While we both enjoy different attributes about one another we’re still interested in discovering more about each other.
How did you find Crystal Jo?
Tara: Crystal and I went to High School together! I have been following Crystal’s photography from the beginning and always said – “as soon as I get engaged, Crystal’s shooting my wedding!” She is creative, fun and I can’t wait for her to be a part of our special day!
Scott: Tara and Crystal went to high school together.
Aubrey Nicole. Newborn.
Born September 13th at 8:03 AM. She was just a little bug weighing 5 pounds, 15 ounces and 19.5 inches long.
So I have to tell you the story behind this photo here. Ashley and Dan just built their amazing dream house and are slowly furnishing the huge rooms with beautiful pieces. This couch included. As soon as I saw it, I wanted to use it for a pretty prop. I mentioned a few times that this may not be the BEST idea with a newborn without a diaper but we thought she was asleep enough for a two second snap of the camera. WE WERE TOTALLY WRONG. Sorry, Kennedy’s. But… isn’t this photo so worth the clean up?! And I think you’ll forever remember the blow out when sitting on this beauty. 🙂
This was Momma’s bassinet when she was a newbie.
Behind the scenes with Crystal Jo Foto. It isn’t always clean but we always make the magic with some pretty window light, a boppy pillow and a space heater.
How long have you been married and how did you meet? We have been married for little over 2 years. Dan and I met at work. We were both at that time working at the same hospital and we just so happened to hit it off and click, the rest was history!
Did you find out the gender? How did you come up with her name? No we wanted it to be a surprised and felt either way it was going to be a blessing and it didn’t matter to us what the gender was! I heard the name Aubrey before ever becoming pregnant and loved it and felt it was such a pretty name and liked it ever since! Daddy loved the idea of incorporating my middle name for our daughter, which is Nicole.
Is there a nursery or shower theme you’d like to share? As for nursery we are just getting around to decorating now since we now know we were blessed with a little girl. We are doing soft pinks and grays as the coloring and everything is now in the works!
A baby is here! What are you looking forward to the most? We are looking forward to watching her grow and teaching her everything we know and just loving her up! We are so excited to now be starting our family and can’t wait for it to grow!:)
You are a new parent. Give us the scoop. What has surprised you the most about parenthood? Any funny stories or first times, share with us. Considering Miss Aubrey is only 10 days old so far so good but I’m sure as time goes on there will be plenty of unexpected surprises and funny stories along the way! We are all adjusting well so far, just tired which I’m sure all new first time parents could relate!:)
Javier. Six Months Big.
Handsome and happy Javier, you are such a JOY! (Tasha, Javier and and I both thank you for letting us use this cute banner backdrop. XO!)
Super sweet sibs 🙂 I love this photo on the left and can only hope to capture something just as precious when I have two littles.
Big sister is silly and fun.
To the lovely Serna Family. Thank you for being so loyal to Crystal Jo Foto and driving in from Indiana with two littles. It really is always such a pleasure. I enjoyed reading to Adriana and hearing her talk in full sentences with such enthusiasm! She sure is full of energy and little brother is likely to follow suit! XO! Crystal Jo
Claire. 3 Years Big.
Look at her ballet arms and pointed toes. LOVE! (Jaime took this photo through the trampoline net and it turned out! Nice job, J!)
Doesn’t Claire have the prettiest eyes?
Balloons, rides on Daddy’s shoulders and her pretty Momma in a matching dress. It couldn’t be a cuter family!
Check out Claire’s very own cabin with mailbox and all…
My session fave. And the Magalski’s too. They ordered this as a large canvas to go over their fireplace. LOVE!
And sweet cuddles to top it off.
Ashley. Maternity.
We started our photo session standing under the tree in the pouring rain trying to decide if outdoor photos were going to happen with the crazy weather. I said, “Let’s give it a shot. Umbrella photos can be cute and we’ll just toss the umbrella to the side whenever we can.”
Then, just like that, the weather gods listened to Baby Kennedy’s little kicks and stopped the rain. Thank you, Baby Kennedy! We were able to capture some awesome maternity photos for Mommy and Daddy.
Cutest little pregnancy bump. She’s 36 weeks here, friends! I think every pregnant woman wants to look like this at 36 weeks!
Ashley found this belt before she was pregnant. Just as a fun belt. I think it makes a great little bump accessory! (PS – Dan, your arms look GREAT! :))
They don’t know the gender yet so we couldn’t spell a name on her bump. There’s a B-A-B-Y on the way! 
Congrats, you too. I’m so looking forward to sweet baby snuggles in a few short weeks. XO!
Let’s hear some fun facts from the parents-to-be….
Tell us something fun or unique about your relationship.
We have had a busy yet exciting couple of years. Shortly after getting married in June of 2011, we moved to Columbus and started new jobs. We initially lived in an apartment while looking for a house. After looking at resales for the first year, we found that wasn’t for us, and we decided to build our first home. We found out the first of the year that we were expecting, and on Valentine’s Day of this year we got the keys to our house. With the little one on the way, we now had everything we needed to start our family.
Tell us how you found out you were expecting.
Even though we had been trying, when we found out we were pregnant it was still such a shock and couldn’t believe it at first. We were so excited and couldn’t wait to be parents. It couldn’t have been a more perfect time.
What’s your favorite thing about being pregnant? Least favorite?
Honestly this has been one of the most amazing experiences for us. We have been so blessed to have such a healthy pregnancy. We still get excited when we feel the baby move especially when the baby has hiccups. It is truly a miracle, and as each day passes the anticipation builds as we are that much closer to holding our little one.
If you know the gender/name and story behind the name and would like to share it, tell us.
We decided not to find out the gender of our baby. Therefore we have boy and girl names chosen.
Is there a nursery or shower theme you’d like to share?
Since we are not finding out the gender of our baby, we are holding off on a lot of our nursery decorations but definitely have ideas on what we would like to do for both. For our baby shower, we had a bee theme as in “what will I bee,” and it turned out really cute.
A baby is coming! What are you looking forward to the most?
We are most looking forward to finally meeting our precious little child and growing and learning together. We are so excited to find out if we will be blessed with a little boy or girl. We can’t wait to become parents and start our family.
How did you find Crystal Jo?
We found out about Crystal Jo through word of mouth and people in the area. We also checked out her blog and loved her work. She has been a pleasure to work with capturing such a special time in our lives. We can’t wait for her to capture the early life of our child growing up.
The Harville Family.
Dr. Harville is my chiropractor and LIFE SAVER! My back has been killing me this pregnancy. There were many days I could barely walk and this great man right here worked his magic and I feel SO MUCH BETTER. Thanks, Dr. Harville!
So I’ve decided I want this little man to be Pixie’s husband. Isn’t he seriously like the cutest?!
Session fave #1.
Session fave #2. LOVE!
I just adore the way little Maddox is looking at Blake. “Okay, bub. Can I laugh at this crazy lady? Yeah, you are a laughing.” And I love the way Blake’s glasses slide down his nose. So HIM.
