A confession...

This is Brantley and THIS is Brantley's three year portrait. Brantley was a little late for her session because of "hair difficulties"- I quote from her mom, "These curls are going to be the death of me!" So, I have a confession to make... it is time to just get this out in the open and off my chest... I sin...yes, I sin in many ways, but one way I sin often is through envy. Oh, I'll just say it! I am jealous of curly haired children! I LOVE curly haired children and after having three kids of own, my porcelain 'First Curl" keepsake given to me before the birth of my daughter stills sits empty. I held onto that thing for six years thinking eventually one of my children would have a curl, just one little curl, it didn't even have to be a real curl, a FLIP would do, but no, empty it sits and now I just dream of the grandchildren I'll have with ringlets because I do plan on steering my children toward spouses with curly hair! Think I'm kidding? Watch me! I'll look for colleges with exceptionally high curly haired applicants! So, when Brantley arrived, honestly I could barely keep my camera from photographing the BACK of her head, because I just wanted to capture those ringlets! Soo cute! And what a well behaved little girl she was...put my kids to shame with how well she held it together with really minimal bribing! Curls and obedience... some moms have it all! You know I love my straight haired, disobedient little angels, but for this hour I got to enjoy the curls of another mom's little girl. And boy did I love it! Hmm, do they still sell those little pink, smooshy curlers... maybe I'll go buy me some today! :-)

A Session of Hope

I always feel butterflies in my stomach prior to any session. I often wonder if I'll ever get past that, but some sessions make me more nervous than others. This session in particular made me really nervous. I always want to give my customers portaits that they will love for a lifetime--portraits that will grab their heart. But this session in particular meant even more to me. See this customer came up from Mobile. They came up for the weekend just to get their daughter's portraits taken. That in itself made me nervous. I mean, to be honest, I'm thinking they are expecting a lot from this session if they are driving all the way up here with a two year old just to have her portraits taken. I feel certain there are plenty of capable photographers in their area, and yet they have made the effort to come up here. But there is more to the story...a lot more. I had met this family a couple of times through the years but have kept up with their life mainly through my sister-in-law and brother who are their very good friends. They have relayed this family's stories of excitement followed by dispair not once but twice with two precious babies. Reagan and Harrison are both now sitting at the feet of Jesus in Heaven but certainly not forgotten here on earth. At last Anna Katherine was born and the mother describes her as "the baby the Lord knew we needed to keep." Anna Katherine is two and on the go...literally! Energetic, friendly, and absolutely beautiful. Her blue eyes locked me in just before she threw her arms around me to hug me just minutes after she arrived at my house. God filled this little one with the life and love of her siblings that she'll never know here on earth. So, this session was more than just capturing Anna Katherine at age two. To me, it was capturing the love in this child's eyes because she holds the love of three children for her mom and dad. I wanted to portray portraits of hope, of love, of joy, joy, joy! Anna Katherine made it easy because hope, love and joy is who she is. What a session it was, and what a testimony this family is. Thank you for sharing your little bit of Heaven with me!

Sisters Twirling!

Okay, at Christmas time I really struggle with what portraits to sneak peak on my blog because if anyone else is like me, they like their Christmas card photos to be a surprise (hmm, maybe I am just weird like that!) Either way, I don't want to upload portraits that I think may be used on someone's Christmas card...this creates quite the challenge! Needed: Cute, fun portrait for blog BUT can't be the CUTEST one because the mom may want to use it for the Christmas card...quite the precarious situation it puts me in! So if my blog is lacking over the next several months, just know I am holding out on ya for the best of the best... Tis the season! Ha, ha, ha...or rather, ho, ho, ho. And everybody gives Mark the credit for being the 'funny one!'

I digress, so these little girls are some of my favorites to photograph because of their kind spirit and gorgeous hair! The portrait here does not show just how beautiful their hair is, but it is the most gorgeous red hair you can imagine! So picking a portrait to post here is really difficult because I really wanted to make sure I wasn't picking one the mother may choose for her card. I'd pick one, then think, "No, they look too cute in that one, she may choose that one for her card." Then I'd think, "Oh THAT is the one", then, "No, they look so pretty there, I can't do that one!" So, Iast I settled on this one because it shows the relationship between these sisters that I see everyday... I honestly don't know that I have ever seen them argue! The mom may disagree but after having to physically separate my boys so they don't literally kill each other, some sibling love is something I dream of. The heirloom dresses sewn by their grandmother and the twirling just screamed sepia to me. So, to really enjoy these girls' beautiful hair you'll have to stay tuned to their Christmas card! Tootles!

Second Time's the Charm

You may recognize these two boys- this is Jack & Whit and this is the second attempt at their session. Poor Whit wasn't feeling well at the first session, but at this session Whit was back! As I went back and looked at the portraits we got from the first session I was a little surprised because there were some really cute ones, but none with Whit really happy (afterall he wasn't feeling well). I like for parents to have TOO many portraits to choose from so I insisted on doing another session...boy am I glad we did! We got family portraits, mom with Jack, mom with Whit, dad with Jack, dad with Whit, Whit and Jack together...we covered all bases this time around! I know it takes a lot of effort for the parents to get their kids ready for a session, so thank you Mom & Dad for being willing to come back... when you see the rest of the portraits I think you will be glad you did too!

The 13th Minute

I have had several people through the years refer to me as a 'runner.' I always quickly correct people explaining that indeed I run for exercise but I am NOT a runner. To me a runner is someone who actually enjoys it! I simply run so I can eat! I've been approached by friends through the years to train for a marathon with them and it is amazingly one of the few things I can easily say NO to...no thank you! Run for hours on end...no way Jose! A question I get a lot is how far do you run...my answer is 30 minutes. Whatever distance that is, if I've run 30 minutes I can mark it off my list for the day. I feel like to be a true runner you must actually somewhat enjoy the activity...not count down the minutes until your run is over. Enter Jana...my dear, dear friend from college. Jana actually asked me years ago if I wanted to train for a marathon with her...I politely said no! But that doesn't really have anything to do with this session... Jana has three kids very close in age like my own. Similar to my last post but instead two steps behind me in age. She has three girls ages 5, almost 4 and close to two. Precious little girls! But let's face it, wrangling three children that close in age for a photo session in a wide open church is just challenging. Not necessarily for me but for the mom! I watched Jana throughout the session as her frustration level rose...I clearly recognized it as that is how I feel as I am photographing my own children. Ugh, if it weren't for the priceless portraits that I got out of the session, I as a mother would NOT go through the stress! So, after the session I was on one of my obligatory runs. I was thinking about Jana and the stage of life she was in. I was remembering that when my kids were that age I actually told Mark that I thought I'd bit off more than I could chew. Someone was ALWAYS crying, I was perpetually tired, and Mark and I just co-habitated handing off children from dinner to bath to bed. It was a tough season in life. But now my youngest is almost three and a half, all out of diapers, all out of cribs, all somewhat manageable (I say that loosely!) It isn't easy but it IS easier. Back to the run, when I am exercising I sort of play mindgames with myself to pass the time. I cover up the time on the tredmill and try to wait as long as I can before I check it to see how close I am till the end. My goal is to not look at the time until after the 17th minute mark...and usually I can do that. But sometimes on those particularly hard days, I fold and look earlier. The worst number I can see ticking by on that timer is 13! UGH, that 13th minute just stinks! When I look down and see 13 minutes that says, "You are hurting girl and you aren't even half way there...you aren't even close to half way!" Of course the runs that hurt the most are usually the most needed and the ones that result in the best sense of accomplishment at the end. As I go through motherhood I am reminded of this...there are times in parenthood that are just hard. There are days that are worse than others. There are seasons that just seem to drag on. But the time is ticking by and before you know it your time with little ones is up. You'll look back and realize it WAS worth it...it hurt at times going through it, but the lifelong benefits of sticking it out is priceless. Jana, you're in your 13th minute of motherhood... it IS hard, but you're doing a great job, and before long you'll see that magical halfway mark and an end will be distantly in sight. Then the endorphins will kick in and you'll be running through life at a record pace. Knowing all that doesn't make the 13th minute perfectly enjoyable but it does sort of help to ease the pain a bit. We all have those 13th minutes throughout life but hopefully seeing it in this light will help. Hang in there- soon you'll be saying adios to the diaper aisle and believe it or not, there will be a small part of you that misses it!

Worth the Trip!

I use to travel to B'ham a good bit to take portraits of customers up there. As my personal life has become more complicated with children's scheduling, I have all but totally cut out travelling to sessions. I hate to turn away customers in other cities but the logistics of getting those sessions arranged are just not manageable at this time in my life. I have one exception- my Shoefly kids! Twice a year I take a trip up to B'ham to photograph five adorable children whose mothers own a fantastic shoe boutique. I call it my fall and spring Shoe Safari, and I love those hunting seasons! The shoe store is named Shoefly and Meg & Jana are the owners. I have loved watching their families grow through the years and loved photographing their little ones. This is Dorsey & Robert- aren't they so cute...and happy! Dorsey has a precious smile and a sweet tooth and therefore a very willing portrait subject...thank you Smarties! And with Robert it takes nothing more than a little jumping around to make him giggle. As always, this little family made me smile to see them interact. Thank you for another great session!

On a different note, I found one of the best inventions every mother should know about on my last shoe safari. I tried to figure out how to work this little nugget into the session blog but couldn't for the life of me come up with a way to do it! So I am going to use this blogging platform to share a random find of mine. It is called the Yummy Tummy and Meg & Jana introduced me to this little jewel. With all these low rise jeans, I think every mother out there can relate to the dreaded 'Muffin Top' that rears his ugly head when these all too cute designer jeans are coupled with the form fitting tops. Unless you are an avid pilates attender I'd venture to say the trimmest of moms knows what I am talking about! Why didn't I think of this?! So, take it or leave it but I felt like it was my civic duty to share this wonderful invention with all my mom friends!

Surprise!

Look at these beautiful little girls! This is Jessi & Lydia and they are indeed as sweet as they look. I must admit that the Lydia I know is not as stationary as the one in her first portrait appears, so I just had to include the second one of her because the Lydia in motion is the one I know! This family use to live across the street from us and I just adore them...simply wonderful people. And I must admit a bit of an inspiration for me. See, Lydia & Jessi actually have an older brother. When my third child was born, Lydia was almost two, Jessi was almost four and Andrew was right about six... just like my family but about two years ahead of us. Throughout the years, I have watched these children grow, and sort of anticipate what my life will kind of look like in two years. When I was nursing a newborn, I watched this family scramble to get all the kids in the car for church. When I had three toddling around, I watched this family at least attempt to eat at a real, live restaurant, and now this year I watched as this family had all three kids in school...wow, I was going to make it too! At this session, I even thought to myself, "They have made it! They are making it through an entire studio session without even one MINOR meltdown! Dreams DO come true!" :-) Then at the end of the session Jessi proudly announced their news- her mommy was having another baby! I could have dropped my camera! Indeed my jaw DID drop and I looked up at Kelly (the mom) as she giggled at the very apparent shock on my face. Looking back I laugh at what I must have looked like, as if I had found out I was pregnant again! Yes, it was a surprise to them as well, Kelly explained but with that new mother twinkle in her eye. But the more I thought about this family and how I'd watched them through the years, I remembered there was one thing very different about our situation. See, Mark and I debated between two and three children. When Elliott came along as our surprise number three, there was no question that the next move was to the urologist. However Kelly and her husband debated between three and four children. As time moved on, they decided that three was the number they were going to decide on. But oh how God must laugh at all our "plans" knowing what He has in store for us. About 10 minutes after I told Mark we were pregnant with #3 he said, "It probably is better this way because I don't think we ever would have had the nerve to actually choose to have the third." So true, and yet what would our life be without precious Elliott?! Yes, God knew He'd have to take things into His own hands, and He did, and I am happy He did. So, I truly believe this Baby #4 for this family was God saying it was just in His plan. I am thrilled for this family and will love, love, love on this little one when he/she arrives, thanking God each time that Mark I debated between two and three and not three and four! I am so happy for this family's little surprise...surprises are the best!