Ice cream for the win

Oldest to youngest, (parents and kids) we come here to feel our feelings.

And when you tumble off the boat into the water head first hitting your head on the dock on your way in, your parents thank their lucky stars you have a hard head.

And when you explain the only thing that will make it better is cotton candy ice cream and ordering first before ALL of your sisters, we know you will be OK. 

And when the sky turns pink and the moon is orange on the ride back to the house after ice cream everything feels at peace.

Time to hire a professional

Sometimes I think I need a picture of all four of my ladies sitting and smiling at the camera. Sometimes I think I need to be in the pictures more too.

Sometimes I think too much.

Sometimes, just sometimes I look at these goobers and realize that this right here is exactly what I will forget and will want to remember 5, 10, 15 years down the road...

...that when I asked and begged them to let me get one picture of them with everyone looking at me these were the closest thing I got. Because this is my story. These are my people.

 

A love letter from a better day...

We had a rough morning over here.  A crying in the preschool parking lot kind of morning (me, not my 3 year old).  I needed a good pause.  To rewind to no schedules, more smiles, and sunshine.  Parenting is hard.  But then I remember being a kid is hard too.  

 

But this day was easy and summer is coming.  We are ready over here. 

Lady in Red

Attempted freelensing this afternoon edited to Lady in Red...in my head at least;)

The B Fam

This family was one of my first families (besides my own) that I ever photographed professionally. They reached out to me for another session this fall and I was so excited! There is something about them that just radiates beauty and genuine love.  They are also some of the most down to earth people.  Looking through these images, you would never know how cold it was that afternoon, that someone kicked us off of a "hot" disc golf course mid-picture, or that raindrops ended the session....thanks guys for being you!

The P Fam

I always get a bit nervous when people call for a family session.  I want to give every family exactly what they are looking for in a session and I always want people to know what they are getting themselves into with me:)   

I follow you around and take pictures of you doing YOU! I don't direct much. I am there to see you in your element doing what you would naturally do and in the end you will have documentation of it.  This family totally rocked it!  I smiled ear to ear editing these images. Thank you P family for our time together!   

The magical rainbow tree

The girls found a "magical rainbow tree" this afternoon that produced a fairy portal of dirt pixie dust that brings you back from the dead.  It protected the magic fairy who lived there. There was also a knight and slow man (who I ran over this morning with my car because one of the "magical fairies" placed it in front of the vehicle without my knowledge and then said "my bad" when I got back into the car 10 minutes later extremely dirty and embarrassed for holding up traffic for 5-10 minutes) who kept all cars away from the collecting of this precious fairy dust...

All I can say is thank you to the numerous neighbors who came out to help extract the slow man from under my car this morning as well as putting up with the daily shenanigans that I allow my children to get into. The slow man is alive and well. And I am also sorry for all of the yelling:)

 

 

Halloween

Halloween has been going on for 5 days here, the kids are pictured out.

Picture of the day

Sometimes the "picture of the day" isn't pretty. Sometimes it's me screaming in the middle of a store (with a large audience) "I don't care what KIND of candy it is, if you found it on the BATHROOM FLOOR, you need to go back into the bathroom and spit. it. out." 

And then 2 hours later when everyone is asleep because there was no pool playdate due to the fact that SOMEONE (no names, it's all anonymous) threw a doll at my head while driving home from said store (I'm assuming because of distress over the poor candy hygiene decision) and I had to stop the car and GET OUT to count to 10 for MYSELF and the dentist calls to make sure I had all the necessary paper work for the cavity fill tomorrow....and our pediatrician couldn't fit us in at 5pm (because I obviously did NOT have any of the necessary paper work) so I spend $100 at Kidmed for basically a height and weight check, I sit down to my computer only to realize there is no picture I would like to share of the day. I didn't have my camera today. But I did have it all weekend, so I went through some of those pictures and had to giggle to myself at the irony of this. I will put up a beautiful picture when it was a not so beautiful day.  A photographer I love has often said photography is her therapist and I love that.  All of my pictures have a story that I am instantly reminded of when I look at them.  

I found this picture and it instantly put me back on the boat Friday night.  And slowly as I looked through and edited pictures of the weekend I felt better. Or at least I felt less likely to box up everyones toys so I couldn't get hit in the head with a doll while driving. 

My shadow

"hey mom look, do you see my shadow?! you should TOTALLY get your camera"