Beautiful Mama

A new mother with her child is an amazingly beautiful thing to behold. I was so honored to photograph Christy and her precious baby, Martha. It brought back all my feelings of new motherhood. This crazy  intense love for a little person, you hardly know, but love with all your heart. It's scary, and exhausting, and emotional, and wonderful. I remember seeing Lucy for the first time, and thinking, "that was you, all this time. And I didn't know how amazing and beautiful and wonderful you were. I loved you, but I didn't know I would love you this much." Those first few weeks go so quickly, and you barely remember it, because you are hardly sleeping, and trying to figure out feeding, and your body feels like a wreck, and you feel like a wreck, and you forget what a long shower feels like, but it's also some of the most beautiful moments of my life. I think all moms should be photographed with theirs kids as much as possible. Dad's too, but let's face it, mom's tend to get the shaft as far as being in photos with their kids. And it is too precious to not record. Because as sad and wonderful as it is, before you know it, your little munchkin is running around, dressing herself, doing somersaults, telling you, "no!" and basically growing up way faster than you are prepared for.

So thank you Christy for letting me document the beginning of your journey with Martha.
She is beautiful and so are you.

Baby Tate

One of my dearest friends/cousins in the world just had baby #4, and I got to come and hang out with her and her chicks. Tate was the sweetest and just chilled through multiple sibling handlings.

Here are a few of my favorites. This was another all film session, my 2nd, and it was so exciting to get the film back. It's like Christmas every time!

Let the Kids

I'm so excited and honored to be featured on my favorite new blog, Let the Kids Dress Themselves.

Jude and Jet are featured here,

Let Boys Be Boys

My sweet friends, Wendy and Tory(awesome moms and photographers) run Let the Kids, and I'm so inspired by their quest to showcase, "creative + honest portraits."

Thanks so much Wendy and Tory for featuring me, and Cammie, Jude and Jet for being such great subjects.

Yay for moms, kids, and running in the grass and rolling down hills!

Lucy

Ah, Lucy, lover of dogs, barefeet, fruit snacks, Tangled, peek-a-boo, walking in the grocery store and pulling things off the shelf, skipping, running, kisses, dancing, exploring, shoes, swimming and climbing. Fights diaper changes, clothes changes, meal time and bed time. Loves to snuggle and march her own little way. Says, "I love you much." and "no, no, no, MINE! Stop it."

This little being is full of mischief and sparkle and spice. At one moment I can be totally frustrated, and the next completely smitten. Parenthood is the craziest, funniest, most stressful and wonderful thing I have ever done.

Oh Lucy, you steal my heart every day.

Jude and Jet

I photograph kids! I know it probably doesn't seem like it with proportion of weddings I post, but I love photographing kids and Jet and Jude have to be the two cutest boys ever. Jude's long, skinny legs and Jet's sneaky smile, had me laughing the whole time. This shoot was an experiment of sorts for me. It was my first time shooting all film for a sitting. I have to admit, I was a little nervous shooting two high energy boys without my trusty, speedy digital camera, but I left it at home and loaded up on film. Also, it was my first mini-session. Which means, we just played and ran around for half an hour. Mini sessions and film are both something I have wanted to try for awhile. I really love the idea of a non-traditional shoot, one where we just run, wrestle, play super heroes and laugh. I like the idea of capturing relationships and emotions, scraped up knees and and grass stains. I think these photos accomplished that. I hope so!

Thanks Cammie for bringing your cuties down. I should mention that Cammie is one of my oldest/dearest friends who I met working at the same call center where I met my Scott. I haven't seen her for over a year and I loved getting together. Afterwards, Lucy and Scott joined up for a picnic. And then it rained. So our picnic ended up inside, which sounds about right (it always rains when I'm with friends, or planning parties!)