Sneak Peek: Kaden-Newborn

There is nothing like holding a freshly born baby.  It is like a balm to the soul.  I am convinced that anyone having a terrible day should be given a sleepy newborn baby to cuddle with.  It could possibly be the solution to world peace.

I got to take pictures of this sweet girl for her first birthday pictures a few months ago... and now she is a big sister!  I had the opportunity to snuggle her baby brother last Thursday when he was just 6 days old.  Bridget, you make beautiful children!  Kaden was a real trooper and let us take a lot of pictures of him.

I am so happy that this little guy is signed up for my first "Baby's First Year" program.  I will get to see him 3 more times in the next year and document how much he will grow in his first year.  It is my favorite!

He kept sticking his foot out like this.  My guess is he did this in utero as well!

Love the squishy rolls!

Don't usually like the pacifier in the pictures, but this one was too sweet to leave out.  Mr. Sandman.

This one is for his nautical themed nursery.  Love it!

Don't you love that his feet are making a heart shape?

 Thank you God that I get to spend so much time cuddly and documenting babies and families.  I count it as a huge privilege.

For more pictures, visit my website or my Facebook page.  Have a great weekend everyone!

The Road Less Traveled

Do you ever feel on the edge of a cliff?  Just peering over the edge.  Trying to decide if you are going to jump, fall or turn around and head back down the mountain.  Sometimes I feel like I have been in that place far too often.  Your whole being is in turmoil and you aren't sure what decision to make.  The what ifs, why nots and the what-will-be plague every waking moment- it consumes you.  What will happen if I make the wrong choice?  Where will it lead me in the next year?  Which decision should I make?

I have always wanted to be a mom.  That was one of the only sure things I have known since I was a little girl.  As I grew, I knew that I wanted to be able to stay home with my kids, if possible.  For the last 10 years, we have made a LOT of sacrifices to make that happen.  I wouldn't change it for the world.  We have debt.  We drive crappy, high mileage cars.  Our house is small and so is our budget.  But I get to pick my kids up from school every day.  I get to go on all of their field trips.  I get to volunteer in their classes, be their room-mom and make special homemade treats for them to take to their parties.  I got to head up the Consignment sale at the preschool that helped raise 21,000 for my kids' education.

Last week I got a text from a team mate at my old school.  My old job was going to be open in the fall.  It seems like perfect timing.  My youngest will be in full-day Kindergarten in the fall.  We would finally be able to pay off some debt, do some things around the house, drive nicer cars, go out to dinner.  I could have my career again.  It is a perfect job for a mom.  I would still have summers off and be home at a decent time.  Yet I was in turmoil.

Can I do all that I do now and have a full time job?  No.  Not only that, what would happen to the photography business that I have worked so hard to build?  It would go by the wayside.   Who would do the laundry, cooking, cleaning and school stuff with the kids?  With me working 2 jobs and Chris doing his full time job and leading worship at church, could we hold it all together?  At what cost?  Our marriage?  Our children?

As I talked it through with most people, they encouraged me to take the job.  I was getting excited.  A new job, an identity beyond just "mom",  less financial strain.  And then Chris and I sat down and looked at the big picture.  Is the price of more money worth what it could do to our stress level and our family?  We have made huge sacrifices over the last 10 years so that I can pour into the lives of our children.  Does that stop once they are all in school?  If I go back to work I can't go on the field trips, volunteer in the classes, make goodies for class parties and be the room mom.  And that made me sad.

God has been extremely faithful to us and one of the things He has taught us the most over the last 4 years is...Trust.  Are we going to trust Him and what does that look like?

In the end, we decided to take the tough road.  To trust God that He will meet our needs and to continue on the path we are on and not go back to work full time.  It really is the road less traveled.  The road that is narrow and littered with high-mileage cars, a smaller house (filled with a lot of love) and a fair amount of generic cereal and mac and cheese.  However, that road brings joy, dependence on God and strong family ties.  It is littered with home-made cookies, field trips and hand-made gifts (because they cost less) and a happy mom who has more time to pour into her kids.

I understand that not all moms are as lucky as me.  Some have to (or want to) work and I don't want to make it sound like they are less of a mom.  I am just speaking of myself and how I am wired and the decisions that we have made for our family.

Once the decision was made, I felt a peace that passes all understanding.  I will continue with my business, subbing and take on part time work if needed, but teaching full time is not in my near future.

So often it is hard to discern what God wants us to do.  You have to follow the signs that God gives you, give it your best shot and trust Him to guide you.  Once you have made the decision, be confident in it and read through Philippians 4 and remember that whatever you do, do it with all of your heart.

Sneek Peek: The Holt Family

I love getting to see families grow and change before my eyes.  It has been fun now that I have been in business for a few years to see the little ones I started with becoming big brothers and sisters.  It makes me so excited for the future and the new babies coming this summer.

This beautiful family has been behind my lens twice before and here they are again.  They are going to have a new baby (surprise gender- I love that) in July.  Little Harlow is just about the cutest thing around, so I can't wait to meet her new sister or brother!

We got together on a beautiful Saturday morning and had fun running around enjoying spring in the Rockies.  Miss Harlow was all smiles and was so easy to work with, which is amazing for a little two year old.

Courtney you are absolutely beautiful and make such a wonderful mother already.  Baby #2 is so lucky to have you guys!

For more pictures, visit my website or my Facebook page.

Mother's Day

A few (9 or so) years ago, my sister and I got the brilliant idea of making a collage of pictures for my mom for Mother's day.  Most moms are hard to buy for, so we thought this would be great.  It was a big hit.  We did that for 2 years and then we decided it would be a better idea to get professional pictures done of all of the kids together (since it hard to get candid pictures of the kids together).   Our first set of professional pictures only had 3or 4 grandkids in them.  Mom loved getting pictures of the kids.

From there, every year in May (the craziest month of the year) we would go to a walk-in place and have the pictures done.  It wasn't too expensive (as we always got the smallest package we could- but would still cost probably $30-40 each) but it was limiting as far as posing, backgrounds and the photographer (some of them were pretty new to the photography thing) and we only got prints (no digital files which I hate).

Three years ago, I was just starting my own photography business and I decided to take the pictures myself.  It was HARD!  The kids don't like to cooperate when Auntie/Mom is behind the camera.  The first few tries were tough and last year I had to do 2 separate sessions and I wasn't really happy with either of them.  Ugh.  However, I persevered and this year.....nailed it.  Finally the kids took me seriously (despite the fact that we did it on Easter Sunday after they were all sugared up) and I was very happy with the outcome.

We decided to go with a baseball theme since most of the kids play (or have in the past) baseball.  I loved the bright colors of the shirts I found.  I am finding more and more that bright colors are the key to a beautiful photo shoot.  If in doubt of what to wear....go bright! (mom note: my kids wore these shirts ONE time for about 3 hours.  They all got huge stains on them which I am still working on getting out.  Seriously.  Hopefully the bleach pen will come to my rescue).

Happy Mother's Day Mom!  You are a wonderful and amazing mother who has taught me so much.  You taught me to be confident, loving, crafty, creative and you have been a great role model for me while I am raising my kids.  I love you mom.  YOU ROCK!  I hope you love these pictures as much as we do.

So if you are wanting some pictures of your kids (or perhaps your kids with their cousins), give me a shout.  Maybe I will even do a cousin special.  Let me know if you would be interested in some special cousin pricing!   Your mom/grandma would LOVE it.

Sneak Peek: The Miller Family

I have known this family for a long time.  I love to be able to take pictures of people that I have known forever.  It feels more personal and I feel like I am able to capture the "real side" of their family.  Lindsey and my husband grew up together and have remained friends for all of these years.  They also live less than 2 miles from us.  Unfortunately, we are both pretty busy and we don't get to see each other as often as we would like.

The other thing I love about this family is that they are a mirror image of us.  They also have three boys.  It is so fun to get together with families that are in our same situation.  We can feel each others joys and pains.  I am sure they also get the sympathy looks and comments when people see that they have three boys.  Why do people always do that?  I personally LOVE having three boys.  Yes, there is a lot of noise, activity and a fair amount wrestling.  However....we have VERY little drama.  Hallelujah!

Anyway, back to the Millers.  They are such a wonderful and loving family with great hearts.  Lindsey is a Littleton Firefighter and Kim is a teacher- talk about serving the community.  We are blessed to know them and hope that our kids are able to make memories together.   

Editing this session was more fun than usual.  I smiled my way through it the entire time I was working.  I love these tow-headed boys!

Lane

Miles

Noah

 

Identical twins are so fun to photograph

One of my favs.  Can you believe that these guys haven't had a professional picture taken since their wedding?

It was fun to run around Historical Golden chasing these active boys.  These sessions are challenging and I love it.  I even got them to all put on mustaches for a fun shot at the end.

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

Thanks for sharing your family with me, Millers.  Let's get our boys together soon.

For more pictures visit my website or my Facebook page.

Perspective

I am going to try to get through this post with crying my little eyes out.  Luckily, I am subbing today. So sitting on display in front of twenty-three 7th graders will help keep me from bawling.

On Tuesday afternoon I ran over to my parent's house.  Mom was going to watch my kids while I had a photo shoot (and Chris was out of town).  I got there a little early so I could help get dinner ready and mom and I took a few minutes and were doing a puzzle with my youngest.  My mom's phone rang.  It was one of her longest and best friends.  I could hear part of the conversation and it was one of those conversations that caused me to pause and think deeply.

The conversation was basically one friend calling another to tell her she was thinking about her, that she remembered and to share life with her. (uh-oh....eyes watering.  Hopefully no one is noticing the crazy substitute starting to cry in front of her laptop).

You see....30 years ago something significant happened in our family.

My oldest sister died.

Gosh that is a tough sentence to write and re-read.

My big sister was born with a degenerative muscle disease which took her life at age 13.  I can't remember the name of the disease (as it is ridiculously long), but I do remember that there were only 2 reported cases of this rare disease at the time my sister had it.  Strangely enough (or as I like to look at it a "God thing"), the doctor who specialized in this rare disease was based here in Colorado.

I am extremely grateful that even though I was only 6 years old when she died, I have a lot of memories of her (another God thing).  I remember that day very vividly.  They knew she was going to die very soon and Julie and I were given the choice if we wanted to go to school or not.  She went.  I stayed home.  One of my friends was with me.  Apparently her mom let her stay home too.  I remember playing in the "computer" room that over looked the front yard and seeing a big black car in the driveway.

The next few days were a blur with family coming and going and Good Friday and Easter.  You see, she died on the Wednesday before Easter.  I remember sitting the balcony of our church on Easter Sunday with my dad crying as he was holding the hymnal.  I remember asking him why he was crying.  Apparently as a six year old I didn't quite comprehend what was going on.  I don't really remember his answer, but looking back on it now I can imagine how hard that question must have been for him to answer.

To this day Julie hates the smell of Easter Lilies, it reminds her of what happened that Easter.  Which is funny because I happen to love the smell.  It brings back memories of family and love.  At our old church, every Easter they would have a lily garden and people could donate in memory of a loved one.  Every year, Carol was on that list and every year after church on Easter Sunday, we got to bring home a lily.  I loved that.  I miss that.  Maybe I need to go out and get a lily this year. 

Back to the phone call on Tuesday.  My mom made it a pretty quick conversation (because we were there) and when she hung up we had a great conversation.  It went something like this.

(Update: new class of twenty 7th graders thinking their sub is a cry baby)

Me:  That was nice.
Mom: Yep.  She is one of the only ones who remembers and calls me around this time of year.
Me: I am not sure I even know.  What was the actual date that she died?
Mom: April 18th.  It was the Wednesday before Easter.
Me: (quiet for a minute)  That must have been hard.
Mom: Actually it made it easier.
Me: What do you mean?
Mom:  I figured that now I had something in common with God.  And that's what got me through.
Me: (stunned silence)  How so?
Mom:  It helped me to remember that we both had a child die.
Me: (silence.....trying not to sob like a baby).

Perspective.

This year the 30th anniversary of my sister's death happens to land right on Good Friday.  And I am thankful for a phone call from a friend that sparked a great conversation and a phenomenal life lesson from an amazingly strong woman.

My mom could have wallowed.  Why me?  But instead she had PERSPECTIVE.  As we celebrate the death of Jesus on this Good Friday, remember to have a little perspective.  You might be going through some terrible, awful stuff today but so did God.

And remember the best part........SUNDAY IS COMING!

Sawyer: 4 months

I love my "Baby's First Year" babies.  It is so fun to see them every few months and watch them grow and change.  I also love getting to know the moms of these sweet babies.  It is nice to meet other moms who are in the parenting trenches with me.  Somehow talking about poop and breastfeeding is a normal and bonding experience.

When Ashley contacted me about Sawyer's 4 month pictures, she warned me that "he was a chunk".  I could hardly wait to see him.  You know how I feel about chunky babies:  LOVE THEM.  Perhaps that is because, I myself, was a chunky baby.

After a few delays (including her older child's bout with Scarlet Fever, yikes!) we finally met up to do Sawyer's pictures.  Ashley wasn't kidding.  Sawyer is a chunk, but such a cute and happy baby.  She even thought he might have an ear infection, but I would have never known.

I also love doing pictures outdoors.  It can sometimes be tricky in the cold, winter months but Colorado is such a beautiful state that if you wait a few days, the sun will come out and warm it up!  I love that it ensures that every session that I do looks different, even if we shoot in the same general location.

Sawyer was a trooper and endured the spring weather and we got some great shots.  Grandma was also along for the ride and it was fun to get to know her better as well.  She is a sweet (and sassy) southern lady and I loved chatting with her!  She is going to be in town for a few months taking care of Sawyer until he is big enough for day care.  Let's hear it for Grandmas!!!  They are the best.

Drooly babies are also a weakness of mine.  So combine chunky and drooly.....match made in heaven!

Hello cute leg rolls!  The only time these are cute.

Toward the end, Sawyer was getting sleepy and the only thing he wanted was his thumb.  Tough to get pictures, but so cute at the same time. 

Sawyer, keep growing and I can't wait to see you when you are 8 months old!  For more pictures visit my website or my Facebook page.