Joy in the Journey

i will admit it…I am in LOVE with newborns…and with photographing them.  the days that i photograph newborns just go better…my day runs smoother after…i feel like i have done something important….very important…I have stopped time for this little person and recorded some of their first breaths in this every changing world.

i was born at home…in texas…in the middle of nowhere….and i have about 2 very blurry pictures of myself right after I was born. My parents were poor and pictures were not a high priority…heck…my mom was lucky to put two nickels together to be able to buy diapers and clothing.

So when I photograph newborns and babies….it fills me with an indescribable joy…and makes me so happy to know that this little person will know what they looked like as a wee one. It is so very special to me. And sometimes I just want to keep the babies at my house and shoo the parents out on a date so i can soak up all the newborn goodness.

Meet the beautiful miss “a”. Poor little thing had to wait a couple weeks for me to photograph her because my 4 kiddos kept getting sick. Here she is at 3 weeks….

More to come of this little sweetie and her parents! She was SO smiley…can’t wait to show you some smiley shots!

So here are more of this little carrot top! I can’t wait to see her as she gets older! I think she takes after daddy so much! What do you think?

and mom is such a beautiful person inside and out….she was so relaxed during our session which helped SO much! Miss E put her sweet little hand on momma’s neck and held it there….it was the first time she had done that ever and we caught it on camera!

And then we took this little sweetums into my home studio and got her warmed up a wee bit!

and this last one is one of my favorites….it totally captures her cute personality!

Thanks for stopping in…I can’t wait to get this blog back rolling and show all the AMAZING clients that I have had!

I am SO very blessed to meet so many FUN, EXCITING, NICE, and just generally CHEERFUL people in my line of work! I LOVE getting to know people. The other day a client sent me to a fun little store to check out some amazing cards that she was going to use for her Christmas cards…the store was darling and I am SO in love with paper. Many of you may not have known that about 5 years ago I started a scrapbooking company called Scrapworks. I sold my portion of it later…but I have always been a LOVER of all things paper. I have taught scrapbook classes all over the US and have always loved to scrapbook.  As a child I used to decorate all of my letters to cousins and always got 100% for my beautiful coloring in school. I think my craft has just switched to taking photographs now…

So when I peeked into this fun new little store I was pleasantly surrounded by the SMELL of paper (my fav), and the SIGHT of paper, and even the texture of the paper as I got to touch all the samples.

LYDIA  BEAULIEU is the delightful owner of PAPER JOY

It is a darling little store and when I walked in they were in the midst of hand making holiday cards! I LOVED watching them and seriously would have stayed longer and helped if I didn’t have to get back to all the beautiful images I have taken lately!

The store is located on Campbell and 40th street and is right next to a fun little bakery so it smells great all the time!  SO if you are needing holiday cards done….you can check out PAPER JOY and get started!

Another fun person I have gotten reacquanted with recently  is Jared Bartlett. We went to high school together  and became friends again through facebook…don’t you LOVE facebook!   He is the owner of Resonate (RZN8) media

He is AMAZING at what he does. He specializes in branding, logo, website work and more….he has totally helped me with my newsletters and I have LOVED the response I have gotten from them! SO if you are in need of his services check him out. He and his family came to my afternoon mini session last week and got super muddy with me! Here are his two boys…they are SUPER silly!

After the Bartlett family I got to photograph the “R” family….I photographed them couple of years ago and it was so fun to see how big the kids had gotten. I LOVE to watch kids get older and see how much they have changed…

After the “R”’s  I got to hang with my good buddy Stephanie…you may recognize her from this show….SONORAN LIVING

We have gotten to be fast friends over the last couple of years and so she brought her sweet family for me to  photograph….aren’t they cute…

and for this last shot….I told her son to kick my camera….and this is one of my favorite images! (the camera was not hurt too bad in the making of this picture)

Next up I got to hang out with the “K” girls….they are four sisters that are SUPER giggly and unfortunately got very muddy….(sorry amy)….but we got some GORGEOUS shots of these funny little girlies and it was so fun to see them again. I photographed these girls when I was just starting out a couple of years ago and they are SO incredibly photogenic…

And the last family that had to deal with the mud and rain was the “V” family…I had photographed them a couple years back as well and it truly is a treat for me to see how BEAUTIFUL some of my first clients have become!  It just warms my heart to have repeat customers that trust me with something so important as a great family picture! Here is mom and dad…

and brother and sister….

and then just sister….

In the next couple of days I will have more sneak peeks up from this past weeks session and sweet little “L” who just turned 3 months as well as a baby shoot of some of my fav clients.

Stay tuned….and check below for HOLIDAY MINI-SESSION DETAILS….there are only 4 spots left. And…don’t forget to check out the details of the photography classes below as well!

I saw this yesterday and it reminded me in all this photography craziness of all that I am thankful and grateful for! I especially love the dude that said he was grateful for mac and cheese….ha!

And the guy that was so grateful that he was going to send a whole email of all that he was grateful for-enjoy!!

Gratitude

This time of year is CRAZY…I literally am up to my eyeballs in AMAZING images and each shoot just gets better and better! I LOVE it!

So I wanted to show you a couple of the new friends I have met…it’s been so fun to meet so many new people and get a chance to photograph them!

These next two little cuties are SO much fun to play with! I had the chance to photograph them in the summer when the sunflowers were blooming and then again just recently. The family is knee deep in the process of decorating/designing their home (they are using www.ibdstudio.net) and hired me to come in and meet with their designer to create something STUNNING for their walls!   I have really enjoyed the challenge and it is always SO AMAZING to see the finished product on someones walls!

So I have OODLES of pics of these girlies but these are some of my favs and show their personalities so well!

I can’t wait to show them the rest…it has been SO very hard to decide what images to keep!

And…as you know….we have had lots of mini-sessions….which i LOVE….they are so fun.   They are SO short and fast  so once the kids get tired of me….we are done!

We started off the morning with this little guy and his parents!

He is the little dude at the top of this blog…it was so fun to see how much he had grown just in the last couple of months since I had seen him last!

Then we had this little dude and his parents….

We met because both of our boys were in the same classroom last year!

And the next couple have 4 children and I got WAY too many great family shots but I wanted to showcase the shot that I got of the two of them…it just exudes love! (Rich….you will have to put this on your desk at work!)  I am also purposefully trying to not show family images so that I do not spoil Christmas cards for all the families!

This little girl is super shy and super sweet and mid way through  the session she totally started “working it” for the camera…mom and dad were standing back giggling!

Brother was so sweet with her…it was so tender….and because I know how fleeting this stage is….I just SOAKED it up and got quite a few “lOVEY” shots!

And lastly that morning I had the pleasure of photographing a member of my family! This is my step-sister…her dad married my mom and she is super sweet and very in LOVE!  Check out her hunky new friend…

So stay tuned for the afternoon mini-sessions….the location we were at was COMPLETELY FLOODED and it stopped raining just as I pulled out my camera!  All of the flooding made for INCREDIBLY beautiful images and I am throughly so grateful for all the muddy boots that I am sure were washed on my behalf!