Month: August 2014

Now that school has started, I’m feeling so productive with my work!  Three cheers for productivity!  I have exactly 14 minutes until I need to walk down and pick up Logan and Camryn from the bus stop, so this is definitely the final crunch.

I met with this family several weeks ago, and honestly, until yesterday I hadn’t really even looked at their photos.  The last 3 weeks of summer put me into full on survival mode.  Our days were crammed full of fun (or fighting–usually both), and by the time I got everyone tucked in at night, I found myself completely spent and unwinding with episodes of Gilmore Girls.  Work 100% went on the backburner, and thankfully, I have the most understanding clients in the world!

So once I looked at their photos, and tried my hardest to narrow them down, I quickly became borderline obsessed with them.  They are so full of fun and personality!

All three kids are just beautiful.  Or handsome.  You know what I mean.

  One of the main reasons this family scheduled a session in the blazing heat of August is because their oldest is headed off to college.  She’ll be about 9 hours away, which I’m sure is going to be a huge adjustment for all of them!  Her brother and sister wouldn’t admit it, but I’m sure they are going to miss her like crazy.

And luckily, their mom and dad will have this sweet photo to remind them of the years they had all together at home. 

Seems fitting that I should blog about Camryn’s kindergarten graduation since school starts in just over a week (glory, hallelujah!)  She was so excited about her graduation ceremony.  Since we started at a new school last year, it was all new and different for us.  At our old school, they did a cute little program and ceremony during the afternoon, but the new school did a big evening shindig.  Camryn wanted to get all fancy for the occasion.  She is such a girl!  As luck would have it, her graduation ceremony was exactly 6 weeks after she got her ears pierced, so she got to change her earrings for the very first time.  She looked so grown up (and so beautiful, if I do say so myself.)

The program was so cute!  They sang several songs, and she to walk across the stage to get her diploma.  This photo is SO grainy (hello, iso 25,600…that’s a new one for me!) because the gym was so dark, plus we were standing at the very back (little did we know this was a standing room only event.)  I’ll have to compare this photo with her 2026 graduation photo!

After the program, we went back to her classroom to collect some papers.  I had to get a picture of Camryn and her bff, you know, not only for now, but also for when we take their picture together after their high school graduation.  They are so stinkin’ sweet together, and I won’t lie, I hope that this is a friendship that lasts and lasts.  My biggest worry (and the thing I prayed about most) when she started school was that she would make a good friend.  Our prayers were answered with Julia, and I am so thankful.

And speaking of thankful, Mrs. K is just the bees knees.  Camryn had such an amazing kindergarten year, all thanks to her.  She was amazing.  Kind, loving, patient, fun, sweet…everything you would want you baby girl to have for her first time at big kid school.

And with that, we have a first grader.  My baby girl is growing up.

This family booked a session with me after I took their oldest son’s photos at his preschool.  (And, by the way, this session took place back in March, when it was still surprisingly cool outside!  Oh, the blessed cool days…I remember them so fondly and they seem so long ago…)

Anyway, I was super excited about that, because look at this little cutie!

His little brother is pretty darn cute, too!

Which really is no surprise…such a super sweet family.  Loved getting to know them!  If I remember correctly, they were pretty happy when the little guy got is Texas Tech guns up!  Gotta love Texas colleges and their loyalties.  Good thing he didn’t throw a Longhorn or a Gig ‘Em…

Although I’m sure the mama love runs deeper than college loyalty.

In March of 2005, I was just about to have my second baby.  I was 25 years old, living 1000 miles away from all of our family, and Derek was working long hours to finish up his phd.  It was actually Derek’s idea for me to start a blog.  I don’t think I even understood what it was exactly, but soon enough, I took his advice and started writing and sharing.  For years and years, I wrote.  I wrote funny things, embarrassing things, and probably every once in awhile, some serious things.  It became a normal part of my week and my life.  Fast forward 9 years, and our life looks very different.  We’ve moved and added to our family again and again.  I started a small business.  Our kids grew, and while I thought that life with a toddler and a newborn was busy, I really just had no idea.  I look back and think that I must have had so much free time!  I scrapbooked all the time, wrote blog posts all the time, and taught myself how to take photos.  I’m so glad that I have stories and memories from those years written down.

I’ve realized something over the past month or so.  I really miss blogging.  Even after I stopped writing on my personal blog, I still shared sessions on my photography blog.  But the blog I kept up since 2005 fell to the wayside.  I realized this summer that it’s almost been 1 year since my last post, which basically means that I am not a blogger anymore.  When I think about all the fun/silly/cool/amazing things that have happened that I never recorded, it makes me sad!  I have gotten to a point where I don’t even blog sneak peeks for sessions anymore.  I made a list the other day of photo sessions to blog, and there are 17 families on that list.  Then I started thinking about other things I want to blog about that aren’t necessarily photography related.  Which posts do I start with?  What I want to write is more fun, personal, family kind of stuff.  But what I feel like I should write is more business-y kind of stuff.

Then it hit me.  Why in the world do I have two separate blogs?  My photography business is such a reflection of me, and my brand is me, so why in the world did I feel like I needed to keep it all separated?  That just makes it harder to keep up, makes me have to choose where and what to write instead of just writing and sharing.

Problem solved.  I have imported my entire 9.5 years of blogging archives into my business blog.  This is where I will write and share family stuff and professional stuff.  I’m super excited to revive the blogging!  I’ve missed it so.

And it feels good to be back.