Early Gifts for Sick Children

On Christmas Eve morning, Santa made an early visit to the Jeff Gordon's Children's Hospital at CMC-Northeast. The toys were collected from players and spectators of the newly annual football game between the Concord Firefighters and Concord Police. Then they gathered at the hospital to give the toys to children who were hospitalized and weren't able to be home through Christmas.

Here's a few candids from Wednesday morning!





There were tons of toys collected... for all ages!

Each child recieved several gifts. This little one chose Care Bears and stuffed animals!

This little one was a high school musical fan!

Although the children's hospital was covered in decorations and stockings, nothing beats spending christmas at home with your family. So this was a great opportunity to spread some holiday cheer!

The Independent Tribune wrote an article about this event. Click here.

Merry Christmas from IP!

Merry Christmas from IP! We want to thank each and every one of you for making this year so great. Even with the economy the way it is, we're staying busy and we thank you. We have an awesome staff with a lot of creativity and next year will be even better! We've got some great ideas for 2009 and we can't wait to share them with you!

Have a happy new year and we'll see you January 12th, 2009!

Christmas RUSH!

WOW! What a rush we've had this Christmas season! We thought we would share this image of Renda buried in boxes in production! We did our best to check orders in as soon as we got them, so Renda had to take time away from sessions and help us open boxes. Last week, the room was so full of boxes, cardboard, bubble wrap, and packing paper that we figured we'd have a little fun with it!

FINALLY!!!

While Karen was attending Shop with a Cop, Jessica was walking across the big stage!! Saturday morning at 10am, she attended her graduation ceremony at UNC Charlotte.

We say FINALLY because it's been long awaited. When she started working at IP, she was a business accounting major. After working here for a while, she realized she had an interest in design, so she switched to an art major to study graphic design. So... 4 years later... she FINALLY found her passion, FINALLY graduated, and FINALLY will work as a full time designer at IP!





Saturday evening, we gathered at Costello's in Concord to celebrate over a delicious dinner! Here she is with her proud parents!



and her proud IP family!

Congratulations Jess!

Shop with a Cop

Last Saturday, Karen attended the Shop with a Cop in Concord! This is an event where law enforcement in the area, including the Sheriff's Department, City of Concord, and City of Kannapolis, volunteer their time to take children to K-Mart and help them pick out their Christmas wishes!

Everyone met at the Boys and Girls Club in Concord for breakfast and crafts.






Even Santa attended!









Each officer was matched with a child.






Sixty children participated in this event!




The child rode with their officer to K-Mart (with the siren on!) Have you ever hear 60 sirens at once??




Each child was given $250 to spend at K-Mart. Some children bought clothes. Some bought toys. Some even bought christmas gifts for their parents.

This is an annual event that gives children the chance to have gifts they might not have had otherwise.

The Concord Police raise money throughout the year to fund this event. If you're interested in donating to this cause, you can contact the Concord Police department and if you're interested in reading more about this event, The Independent Tribune did an article on the event. Click here.

Pless Twins

In January of 2006, we received a call from Sara Pless about photographing her business portraits. Soon after, we photographed her family portrait. Little did we know that we would soon watch her family go through one of the hardest struggles a family would go through.

In May of this year, Sara came in for a maternity portrait session. Even more exciting, her sister was pregnant at the same time, so we photographed their session together. What a bonding experience it must be to go through pregnancy with your sister!

Sara wasn't due until September 13th, but on June 17th, she delivered two baby girls - 13 weeks early. Madison and Elizabeth are identical twins. The twins suffered from a fetal distress syndrome called Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome or TTTS. This is a syndrome that effects identical twins. Sara explained this syndrome to me as "one baby uses most of the ambiotic fluid and the other twin is 'stuck' on the wall of the womb."

The twins were in the hospital for 75 days after their birth. Sara described this time as a rollercoaster ride - not knowing what the next day had in store for them. Elisabeth was the one that suffered the most. She was the twin that received less of the ambiotic fluid and it caused her to have a bleed in her brain. Sara described her as a "tough little cookie."

Here are a few images from the girls' six month session last week!

Here are the girls with their big brother - Kendall.

One of the nurses at the hospital told Sara about Caring Bridge - a free website that people can use. This is a way for people to keep track of the progress of the babies online. This helps moms like Sara who don't want to sit on the telephone all day explaining how everything's going and allow them to spend more time with the babies! People can post pictures and leave comments on their guest book to encourage the family to stay strong. Sara mentioned this is what kept her going through the hard days. You can view the girls' Caring bridge site at www.caringbridge.org/visit/plesstwins.

We asked Sara where people can find more information about TTTS. She recommended http://www.tttsfoundation.org/. You can find a lot of information and even support from other families who are hoping for their babies to pull through the same struggle. Sara mentioned that she has met many mothers who have been in her position and was amazed at how common this syndrome is.

After discussing the syndrome at the studio, Ashley (our production manager) mentioned that her neices suffered from the same syndrome through their birth. Since their birth, their mother, Talitha McGuiness, has organized Race for Fetal Hope 5K. Lonnie and Michelle Somers originally started Fetal Hope and TTTS Race for Hope in Denver, Colorado. Talitha organizes the race each year for North Carolina. If you're interested in participating in the race or donating to the cause, the 2009 race will be held on September 19th in Freedom Park. You can read more about Fetal Hope at http://www.fetalhope.org/.

Fetal distress and syndromes affect 800,000 pregnancies per year in the US alone. This is four times the amount of cases per year as breast cancer. We lose more than 200 babies a day to fetal distresses and syndromes.

We hope you will find this story as inspiring as we have!

Grand Opening of Chelish Moore Flowers

Congratulations to Chelish Moore on the grand opening of her new location at 35 Market Street in Concord! She hosted an evening of refreshments and mingling in her beautiful shop. Here's a few candids from that evening and also some of her beautiful work!

We have worked many weddings with Chelish and we'll be the first to admit she has found her calling! Her talent is not limited to flowers... as you can see by the images above!

You can check out Chelish's work at http://www.chelishmoore.com/ or stop by her shop at 35 Market Street in downtown Concord.