I love, love the tenderness that this husband & wife duo share. But I can’t get enough of the energy & happiness they radiate. Yet I know they know the reality of life firsthand. And it isn’t always perfect. We shot these pictures for their adoption profile and I hope sincerely they’ll help these two stand out among the other adoption profiles because a baby would be SO blessed to come into this home for eternity!

Lately I’ve had fun working with Morgan who’s been assisting me. So I arranged for she and I to shoot the Willardson’s together, giving her a chance to step behind the camera (not just my reflector) as well so I could continue helping her improve her skills by watching her shoot. I do appreciate those who assist me, and hope that they learn while assisting as well! For this session, every 15 minutes or so we’d switch off on who was shooting. If you want to check out her view of things, click HERE!

This is our future son. Okay. Not so much. But I ADORE this little man’s name and very well may borrow it one day. But today, let me introduce you to Jordan James Wilkinson. You may remember his parents from this recent maternity session. Well Jess is in full mama mode and loving it! I was able to capture this little family on day four of Jordan’s life. I’ve already posted their images for Jess & friends on facebook, and so for the sake of time today (my family thinks it’s dinner time AND saturday, so I really shouldn’t be working…but I’m prepping for Monday since I won’t be in the office) I’m taking the easy route and directing you HERE to see more of this little man. Plus, then you can leave some facebook love for Jess and comment on your favorites. And if you haven’t already, make sure to Like my photography page so you can see all the sneak peeks that don’t make the blog!

I’m trying to keep my blog in order according to when I shoot sessions, weddings, etc. But it’s tricky when shooting so often and everyone having different deadlines. But I suppose it doesn’t really matter too much. So back in April I was able to shoot a family session with the Fuchs. It was the day before Mother’s Day to be exact. I went from full out wedding season, naturally posing brides in pretty dresses with their handsome grooms, to wondering what in the heck am I going to do with three teenage boys & their parents? I appreciated everyone’s patience while I worked it out this session. My favorite shot of the day is the last one of this post. I had the boys jumping by themselves. Meanwhile the parents where over watching/cuddling on the side. And I thought to myself, why not combine them? Boys…wanna jump over your parents? Um YES! Loved it.

These two traveled all the way from New Zealand to get their pictures taken. I feel awesome! Okay…so maybe they’re from Utah and back in town to have a baby. BUT Gary is like a superstar basketball player over there. So that’s fun right. I love that he makes Jess look short, which she’s not for all intents and purposes. It’s just that he’s in the 6’9 range. But when you strap on some heals and add a ladder, they make a perfect couple. And I adore their baby carriage. It was Jessica’s mothers when she was a baby. How cute is that? I can’t wait to meet their little guy in the next few weeks. He’s in for a treat with these two as parents. Seriously lucky.

Anyway, we had a great time shooting, especially amongst the blooming trees. They smelled divine!

Hazel is now three months old and I can’t even believe how fast the time has gone by. I was really dilligent at taking Ella’s pictures every month her first year, but I decided we’d shoot for 3, 6, 9 & 12 months with Hazey. So this started as her 3-month shoot and turned into a full family album. It seems now that I have two kids I want both of their pictures taken whenever I bust out the camera. And I probably wouldn’t have pushed making an album, but I’ve had this idea to take the words from a children’s book and make them into my own book, and these images just seemed to fit so perfectly. They’re not exactly works of art, and I’m still working on the whole lighting set up thing, but I do love their simplicity. And I of course love this little book from which I took the text for these pages.

I meant to post these spreads a long time ago, but better late than never. This is the second half of this book. I took all of these pictures shortly after Hazel was born. I wanted her shoot to tie in with our family pictures, so I tried to match similar colors. I wish I could’ve shot her in those yellow poplar trees, but come December 2, I was fresh out of 90 degree groves, which is of course how hot you need it to be to shoot a naked newborn. Unfortunately, I was also fresh out of 90 degrees, or even 70 for that matter. I’m lucky if my home stays at 65. So Hazel never really did the cute naked curled up newborn look, but I love her anyway. I did think it clever that I wrapped her in my purple dress for some of the shots. And I so appreciated Jenny with Whimiscal Headbands who made a matching purple headband for just such an occasion! Anyway, here’s the spreads and a peak at the real mccoy book that now adorns my shelf. I moved my albums to my living room so they’d actually be on display. I plan to do another post showing you how I’ve incorporated photos into the different rooms of my house. Hopefully this will give you some new display ideas for all the millions of pictures you probably have.