at 18

when i first met jon, he was small. he was maybe 9? years old and as small as a june bug. i remember him with braces and glasses though he may have been older than that when those occurred. either way, in my mind's eye i still picture him that way. not like the strapping young man you see before you. suddenly he is taller than me, more handsome than me and can text my fingers into oblivion.

 how did this happen? i don't remember getting older, when did they? (enter fiddler on the roof serenade). plus his sunglasses are way cooler than mine. basically, he has me beat on all fronts. fetch. 

jon is lynnie's son and if you know lynnie, you have somewhere along the lines had your ear talked off and played several games. you have probably also told her your life story, been severely entertained and walked away with a great friend. she's a riot. she's the life of the party and is not afraid to speak her mind. so when she emailed me and asked if she should come to the photo shoot with her little boy, i politely told her that maybe she should send one of his friends:). i can say this to her because she's lynnie and she's my husband's aunt, and she's hilarious and she knows that she would go through his bag before he left and try to chose his clothes and tell him to fix his hair the whole shoot. she knows this. which is one of the things i love about her.

what she didn't know however, was how much she would love the pictures (her words not mine). how much she would love the clothes he chose. the style, the feel, the sunglasses. and that by allowing him to decide without her, she would always be able to look back and see jonny how he really was.

at 18. 

before he left for college. before he started dressing in suits. 

before he fully became a man. 

so to lynnie. thank you for letting jon come without you-though i know you were dying to be there. thank you for raising such a nice young gentleman. 

and thank you for letting me capture your little boy. 

p.s. frank, you're all right too :). thanks for taking this ding-a-ling to buy a new battery mid shoot. whoops!

p.s.s. ladies if you want his digits, let me know.....

my love

nate the great. today is his birthday. while I love to tease him mercilessly that he is old as dirt, the fact that i'm only 3 years younger than him may mean that I am as old as dirt too. this week was also our 8 year anniversary. Cra-zy! this is a good year.

i consider myself to be one of the lucky ones. to have a husband that is fiercely loyal, who loves me unflinchingly, who cleans and cooks and loves to be with our son. he is kind and patient with me. he is honest and intelligent (though his spelling has room for improvment-who leaves out the letter "e" in "the" so consistently? :) and he absolutely, whole heartedly, believes in me. So to Nate, my best friend, my business coach, my nightly 10:15pm  pep-talker, my photography test subject (you love me right?) my solid ground, and my luvvvv. I am forever, and ever yours. my heart is and will always be entirely in your hands.

happy birthday

p.s. I'm spending the day with my man, so I'll be out of the office until first thing tomorrow morning. thanks for understanding.

it's annoying

it really is annoying that my Shoot Coordinator (and very best friend since 3rd grade-holla!) looks like this. i mean really. how can I compare to this when half way through a shoot I look like a messy racoon on hot asphalt. get serious. the only thing that eases my pain is the box full of unsightly and incriminating photos of her i have gathered over the last two decades (hello, youth conference!). this, however, is not one of those. this one is KILLER. 

lookin good CatWalk. 

* this is just one of the shots from the photoshoot we did for Beautiful You-make up artists extrodinaire. I will do a full post on this cause it's too good to miss.

the after

can I just say, I have the best job. check these little dudes out. i am so far behind on blogging, but these caught my eye as i was passing through and i had to share. these little twinners are from this maternity shoot i did. you know I'm far behind my blogging if you are seeing these in succession. crazy. i'll be giving my reasons why next week and news about some changes. i really will.  but until then, a sample of some delicious little beans and their family. they are both in the 5 pound range and that makes for some scrumptious wrinkles and snuggles. it was such a fun newborn session, sweaty photographer and all. seriously sweaty (sorry!).  what can i say, it's like doing Pilate's in front of an oven. any way enough of my gross appearence.

the a family.......

{ beware, serious baby cravings may ensue. hope you enjoy.}  

the before

so since I'm behind, here is one of the cutest maternity sessions ever. and in about 10 minutes from now, i'll post about their newborn session. yeah, i'm that on top of the blog. shooting and editing and mommy-ing seem to take up all my spare time.

ok, this was so much fun, and mom was so daring. she bared her stomach for all to see on a busy street corner. let's just say drivers getting on the freeway got a little bit of a shock, as did one homeless passerby. so funny. and soo cute. can you believe she was just under 4 weeks from delivering TWINS in these pictures? nuts. when i was that far along, miles was swinging between my knees and i certainly wasn't up for any deep knee bends like this gorgeous mom. i also thought it was so cool that she didn't want me to take out her stretch marks. i like that. besides i feel that stretch marks are like a badge of honor. we are lucky enough to be able to have children and we shouldn't feel ashamed that our bodies change in th process. i know that there are so many women who would give anything to have that blessing, but that is a subject for another day. for today, let's give a hip hip hooray for a mom who loves her beautiful pregnant belly. 

A story of insanity.

This was the day my sister and I attempted the unthinkable. 

We tried to do a photo shoot of a 6 month old, outside, without a fence, with a 3 year old, a 2 year old and no fairy godmother (aka our mom- the great Yoj). 

There were pizza covered hands and fabrics exploding out of bags. There was also Miles sweetly relieving himself in the bushes behind my back and Hazel stripping down to do the same. I think the workers had quite the show.

I'm not sure if we were delusional or just gluttons for punishment. Either way, we attempted, and time-outed, wiped the sweat from our brow, and smiled because at the end of all of the insanity was this:

in the middle of things there was also this:

which led to this:

and because these two love and fight like siblings, it quickly returned to this:

At the end o

f the day it was about

 good friends taking turns stealing each other's bedding, 

wiping each others boogers,

and taking naps in the sun. 

And maybe 

it was a little about some  mothers who were ready for naps of their own. 

budding love...a sneak peek