I just love them.  I love being one.  I love my mother, my husband’s mother, my grandmothers, his grandmothers, my friends who are just wonderful mothers, my clients becoming new mothers.  I am so blessed every day by the mothers in my own life and by the privilege of being a mother to my own children.  In all my life, I don’t think I’ll ever do anything more challenging, frustrating, tedious, or overwhelming.  And in all my life, I don’t think I’ll ever do anything more important, rewarding, or educational, or anything with more lasting consequences than being a mother.

So, thank you to my own mother who taught me how to be a mother.  Thank you to the other mothers who have lifted, cared for, and inspired me.  Thank you to my children who have taught me to feel more love than the human heart should have the capacity to contain.  And finally, thank you to my Father in Heaven for trusting me with four of his own very precious children.

Mom J and Mom W?  Um, watch your doorstep for a little surprise looking an awful lot like the above.  Motherhood also affects punctuality;).  Love you guys!

Just a few from a couple of weeks ago that make me happy.  So happy to be their mom.  So happy to be able to do what I do.  So happy that spring is here.  So happy to live in such a beautiful part of this world.

Just so happy.

Thank you my lovelies–you make my heart sing:).

They are going to be fabulous adults.  They really are.  At least that’s what I tell myself over and over when I am in the throws of yet another battle over something seemingly insignificant for which they are fighting tooth and nail. My husband and I are blessed with three strong, smart, feisty, and fiercely independent girls.  Unfortunately, those qualities married with a completely unique and creative sense of style pose a constant challenge for our family’s portraiture, as clothing and hair play huge roles for good or bad in any portrait.  I’ve come to decide that being the mom of four kids is all about choices.  I can fight the clothing battle for an hour every day and have children who don’t look like homeless ragamuffins or I can have four children.  We all know which choice I’ve made.  The clothes they wear are always clean when they put them on, and that is a quite a feat in and of itself.  Sadly, there’s rarely a random moment when I can just grab my camera and snag a portrait.  A fun family snapshot, yes.  A nice portrait (even a casual lifestyle one), no.

So when all three girls got haircuts on Friday, I told them in the car on the way home that the second we arrived, they were to put their shoes away, run upstairs and hop on Julia’s bed, and not touch their hair.  At all.  I wanted to snag a couple of shots before everything came undone.  I was given 4 minutes, 5 tops.  They make me smile:).

Oh, she cracks me up:

Such the little poser:

This one is always a challenge–always on the go:

And just a couple quick ones from the day her teeth fell out–she wasn’t excited or anything;).

Being the mom of four also means I haven’t the time, energy, or patience for a personal blog as well as a business one.  Thanks for indulging me as I try to keep our families (most of whom live thousands of miles away) abreast of our family adventures:).

I should have a maternity session and a newborn session up later this week and maybe Jack’s 7 month portraits, so check back!

So, if you ask a photographer specializing in babies what her favorite stage to photograph is, she will most likely say newborns.  There’s just something about being able to capture that sweet, fleeting, straight-from-creation newness that makes us get all giddy inside.  If you ask us our next favorite stage, 9 times out of 10 it’s going to be the sitting-but-not-yet-crawling phase.  Babies between 6 and 7 months love to smile, they adore their parents, they are awake and cheerful for longer periods of the day, they make all kinds of fun sounds and faces, and they can’t run away from you!

Again, my sweet darling boy is here to remind me to just enjoy being his mom rather than his photographer, as he started crawling 4 weeks ago and is just now, just barely beginning to sit unassisted.  What does this mean?  It means that I get about 4 seconds after sitting him down before he takes off crawling after a sister, a toy, my lights or me.  How long does it take me to sit him down, move back, lie down on the ground, pick up my camera and focus?  Around 4.5 seconds.  It’s as if he is non-verbally saying to me, “Mom, repeat after me, ‘Jack is a person, not a prop.  He is not here to fulfill your photographic flights of imagination.  He is here to cuddle and snuggle and tickle and love.”  And he is.  And I do.

So here he is in all his 6-month, crawling-but-not-yet-sitting glory.  My darling boy:

Gosh, I love that grin:).

Yeah, he pretty much wants to stand up right now.

This was taken 0.01 seconds before he launched forward and crawled off:).

See my muscles? I am more than just a pretty face:).

This was the view I saw most often: “See ya later, Mom!”

And finally, a sitting shot.  Looking a little bit like a frog, but still oh, so very cute!

Oh, baby boy!  Love you so much, it hurts sometimes!

February has been a crazy month for me.  Rescheduling and some late-arriving babies has led to a fuller than usual month of sessions.  On top of that, my entire family decided to take turns becoming ill over this past week off of school (yeah, we know how to party in this house).  Jack got the brunt of it though and was diagnosed this weekend with bronchiolitis and an ear infection.  It’s not serious, but he does need to be on a nebulizer every four hours.  At the risk of getting too personal, his breathing issues (and lack of sleep on my part) have created some eating issues and nursing has not been going well the past few days.

In light of everything that’s going on with him, I would just ask for some patience as I work on getting everything back on track.  If you are waiting for a gallery, a sneak peek, or to receive an email response, please know I will get to everything just as soon as I can.  In the meantime, I appreciate your patience as I focus on my family’s health for a few days.

Speaking of patience, no post is complete without a picture.  So here’s a recent snappy of my impatient boy, who at 5 months decided sitting up and crawling were on the agenda.  He can now crawl the length of the house.  Someone please stop my baby boy from growing up too fast!