When family comes together.

When a family gets together it is a time to celebrate. Sunday afternoon I got to be part of such a celebration. The Jean family celebrated all of their family being together for a few days.

Their family reminded me in so many ways of my own family. A large southern family with lots of love for each other and lots of fun to be around.

Grandma Ruth has 5 children, 12 grandchildren, and 19 great-grandchildren. This is Grandma Ruth with her five children.

Kevin  has been in Iraq for the past several months was home for a few days and they thought this would be a great time to come together as a family for family portraits.

Kevin and his beautiful wife, Julie.  I admire Kevin, but I also have an incredible admiration for Julie. She also makes great sacrifices being separated from her husband for months at a time and also taking care of their home and two sons.

We gathered together at Michele and BJ's home. 

You might just have thought that I put them in the middle of the road because that's what I like to do sometimes. I do love to use country roads, but this spot has special meaning to this family.  See that tree in the background? That is the home place of where Grandma Ruth lived with her parents when she married Mr. Lawrence. He passed away a few years ago, but this family is a result of Mrs. Ruth and Mr. Lawrence falling in love so many years ago.

  

They are blessed with so many little ones. 

I could just keep posting and posting.  It was a beautiful afternoon.  Thankfully, the rain stopped the day before and it warmed up for us a little bit.  I was so glad to spend the afternoon with old friends and making some new ones. Thanks to Michele and Brittany for organizing everything! I need to hire the two of you as assistants! ;-)

Christmas Card Mini-Sessions.

If you think this looks fun...

Then you need to schedule your Christmas card mini session today!

When: Saturday, November 7, 2009.

Location: TBD - But will be a rural setting

Price: $125 (plus tax)

What's included:

• 15-20 minute session (the guys will love how quick it's over!)
• An online gallery of 10-20 images to share with family and friends
• A set of 4x6 proofs of the images from your gallery
• An 8x10 print of your choice
• Your choice of one of the following:

Option 1:35 5x7 Custom designed photo greeting cards. These cards are professionally printed on photo paper and come with white envelopes.

Option 2:25 5x7 Custom designed double sided greeting cards. These cards are printed on heavy cardstock and are double sided (printed on both sides). They come with white envelopes.

As an added bonus I will be offering a CD of all the edited images (digital negatives) from your mini-session with a printing release for only $50.  That is half off the regular mini-session CD price. If you purchase the CD, I will also include a DVD slideshow similar to the one shown here!

I will only have one Saturday of mini-session this year, so contact me ASAP to book your appointment!

9:30 - Heidi

10:00 - Jayna

10:30 - Jessica

11:00 - Shannon

11:30 - Amanda

12:30 - Dawn

1:00 - Becca

1:30 - Christy

2:00 - Cary

2:30 - Crystal

To protect and to serve.

This past week I had a session with a friend from way back.  Well, maybe I shouldn't say that. I may be dating Shelley and myself a bit. OK, I will admit to being a little older than Shelley.  She and I went to school together pretty much the entire time.

Shelley is a dispatcher for the police department in a nearby city, and that is where she met her husband, Rodney. Rodney is a police officer in another city in the same county. They have a beautiful 2-year-old daughter, Maggie.

I knew this was going to be a good session when I gave Shelley and Rodney both a barstool and told them to go sit in the middle of the street, and they didn't look at me like I was crazy.  They may have thought I was crazy, but they went right along with me.

Shelley was in the class behind me, and what I remember most about her is that she always had the most beautiful head of hair. Fastforward a few years and somethings haven't changed.

After we dodged cars for a while, we headed to a more quiet spot. I had never used this spot for a family, but I think I may again.

Miss Maggie was being very serious, so we decided to have a little fun. This managed to get a smile out of her. :-)

And that smile even lasted for a while! She's a bit of a Daddy's Girl as you can tell!

This is one of my favorites. I have many.

 And a sweet family shot. Another favorite.

Sometimes 2-year-olds think it is more fun to run circles around their mom and dad than to stand still to have their photo taken.  So I let 2-year-olds do what 2-year-olds do. It still makes for a pretty cute photo.

 It took Maggie a little while to warm up to me, but before we were finished we were pals. You can see here how adorable she is but what you can't see is the big hug she gave me when she ran to me right after I snapped this one. :-)

Shelley, it was great seeing you again and getting to catch up! You and Rodney have a wonderful little blessing! I have been missing those sweet Maggie hugs!

Watt a fun family!

Fun! That is the one word that comes to mind when I think of this family!

When Karen and I discussed location she said she wanted something in the country.  I was so excited to find this new spot for her. It is part of a farm I have used several times, but I had never used this exact spot. It is my new favorite! 

Karen and Brian have two girls and one boy just like we do. I could relate to the fun chaos of their family. :-) It was fun to see the different personalities in their kids very much like our three kiddos.

Cora is the oldest and the most reserved of the three.  Such a sweet little lady.

Mae seems to be more of a free spirit.  She can also run very fast and demonstrated her speed for me several times during the hour we were together. And would you just look at those eyes?! Beautiful!

Bert is all boy, and is constantly on the go.  He is very into Cars right now and is apparently obsessed with tractors. That was all he talked about.  Actually all he talked about was the tractors falling down (being tipped) in Cars. He was so fun!

We did slow him down for a minute for a family shot. Well, his dad did have to lift him up on his shoulders! I do think this is my favorite family shot. I love the way Mae is holding her dress. :-)

Here is another favorite of Mae.

And one of the sweet sisters together.  They really are the sweetest girls.

Fun, fun, fun! That is what we had. Despite the heat we laughed and laughed. Brian and Karen you are so blessed! Your children are precious and they are blessed to have the two of you as parents. Thank you so much for letting me capture these moments!