Day in the life of newborn twins and a toddler
There are no words for this one… Just cuteness overload.
Denver Family/Newborn session
My “people” are the ones who are comfortable with who they are as a family. They don’t feel the need to present a pristine home or dress their kids in matching clothes. Sometimes juice is running down their kids faces or they have marker all over their hands. Sometimes there is spit-up. Dirty diapers. Fighting siblings. Overturned furniture. These families are honest–I know this because I have two kids myself, and keeping things in perfect order is impossible–in fact to try to capture perfection in my own home would be a lie. It’s this authenticity that makes me feel safe and allows me to document the good stuff. The stuff memories are made of. The stuff called “life”. These are my people. This is what I love. Thank you, Chavez Family–I’ll miss you.
San Diego
We are finally at a place where we can travel together as a family and actually call it a vacation. The kids are fine on a plane with a bag of candy and a couple of devices. We can get a home on VRBO and Ramona and Sylvie can share a room, while Jesse and I can have our own. (Netflix, baby!) Meals are easier when we go out. Bedtime is flexible. The kids can swim. It’s pretty dreamy, actually.
Travel is my jam. I don’t care what kind of car I drive or how big my house is. I don’t care if my dinner plates match or even if I get my roots done every 6 weeks. But travel is an actual necessity. I can’t live without it. I really can’t. For awhile it was tough, I won’t lie. We had to find someone to stay with the girls while we went away. I couldn’t actually be present wherever I was, because my heart was at home with my kids. If we did bring our kids, we had to bring a nanny so that we could actually enjoy our vacation and that was breaking the bank. But we’ve arrived. Traveling together works now. We have fun, and we are making memories.
When I was growing up, my parents used to load all of us four kids into a big Econo-van every Thanksgiving and drive to Arkansas. WE WOULD DRIVE. This wasn’t just when I was little, either. This went on through my college years. But in all seriousness, these are some of my best memories as a kid. Stopping at gas stations every 4 hours and loading up on junk food, sleeping in the car, fighting over the game boy–these were the times when I would actually be forced to be with my family for hours at a time. And that was just the drive. When we would actually get to Arkansas we would be bored out of our minds, so we would have to find things to do. Me and my brothers would go on long walks together or my sister and I would go to Walmart (which was always a highlight of our trip, might I add). It wasn’t fancy hotels or trips to amusement parks that I loved. It was the time together–the memories made. Collective mindfulness, if you will. It was rich.
I want my kids to have this. I want their memories of our time together to go beyond our backyard. I want them to appreciate our vacations even if it’s just ordering pizza and sitting in a hot tub or sharing a can of coke in a HOJO. I don’t have forever with these girls. In 15 years, there won’t be family vacations like these. Ramona and Sylvie will be taking their own spring breaks or God forbid, trips with their boyfriends. Their priorities will be different and Jesse and I will yearn for the days when we could just hole up in some house in some random state and simply be together–just a good vacation from the hamster wheel.
Baby Linden Brown
Meet baby Linden. I got the pleasure of meeting and photographing this little nugget last week. She is the first daughter and second child to a very special couple whose wedding and engagement session I photographed way back in 2011. I have kept in touch with Cambria and Anson only through facebook and was overjoyed to get to work with them again to document this sweet time in their lives and to meet their gorgeous children, Woodley and baby Linden. It’s incredibly rewarding to get to work with old clients again–especially when they become parents and we get to connect on this whole new level.
Well Hello, Little Lachlan–it’s so nice to meet you!
This. This is why I do what I do. This is why I am a photographer–to make relationships like these. Dylan and Megan have become like family to me. I met them back in 2011 when they came into my studio to see if we might be a good match for their wedding. I’m pretty sure I knew it was made in heaven at the get-go, but what I didn’t know is that I would get to continue to photograph these two into their journey of parenthood. First Owen, now Lachlan–these boys though! My heart wants to explode! I don’t know much about baby Lachlan yet as he is only 8 weeks old. But I know he is handsome as hell, and if he follows in the footsteps of his older brother, and his Mama and Papa, he’s going to be an incredible human with a heart of pure gold.
p.s. When your clients trust your artistic vision and allow you to shoot loosely with film, it’s the icing on the cake.
I love you Megan and Dylan–and I treasure getting to be a part of your beautiful story.
Win is 1
I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours with little Win and his mama on his birthday–I am in love with this little boy.
The Caseys
I literally have about 200 blog posts in queue. And while I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, I will say that I have a goal of cranking out 2 or 3 posts a week once things slow down a bit, which should be around the first of the year–so I guess I’m resolved. Today, however I’m skipping ahead 199 posts to get this one out because the subject matter moves me. On top of photographing the words cutest twins, Rory and Redding (I mean, seriously), the shoot itself felt authentic as a capture of a day in the life of a little Denver family around the holidays. Christmas cookies, the tree, cold weather, woodland creature sweatpants– I wish I would have had these fleeting Christmas seasons captured more in my own life, and plan to do so in the future. I’m a sentimental, Christmas sap and there’s something so magical about the month of December. Alas, it’s gone until the following Christmas when the kids are an entire year older–and what a difference a year can make… Do yourself a favor and skip the samey-samey “fall colors” family portrait next year and instead, capture some real-life magic.
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