Little Miss Reese is obviously going to be a fun little girl to have around! She was born last week…FOUR weeks early and took all of us by surprise! God is good, though, and she came out a little fighter and didn’t have any problems after the birth at all. When I photographed her at 11 days she was only around 5 lbs 5 oz…teeny, teeny, tiny and ohhh so adorable. We had such a great time with her and Reese’s sweet mom so enjoyed bringing out the little gifts that she had purchased for her photo session. The little tutu, hat, and bloomers all were huge on her tiny frame but a little nip and tuck and we made it work like a charm! I have photographed Reese’s big sister for several years and it is so fun to now include Reese as a part of this precious family. Congratulations to all of you on your new baby sister and daughter…she is simply a precious little doll!

You all know by now that I really love both color and black & white images and usually find some of each that I love from every session. However, Reese’s session was just sooo pink! Everything was rosy and sweet and I just had to use the color on all them. Enjoy!

I have known Nathan’s mommy pretty much my entire life! She is the daughter of my mother’s dear friend as well as one of my little sister’s best friends growing up! I had not yet had the privilege of meeting little Nathan in person as they live all the way in Texas! I was so excited to get to photograph this sweet family last week while they were in town for the week on vacation. Terra and David, your little family is just precious. I am so thrilled that God has blessed you with such an amazing little man through the gift of Nathan. He is gorgeous and it thrills my heart to see you all so happy! Enjoy! 🙂

First, I have to say that I adore these kids names. Aren’t they just awesome names? How can you have such fun and unique names and not be fun and unique kids, right? I met up with these three siblings and their parents one night last week. I was sooo beyond thrilled that the heat wave had finally let up a bit so that we weren’t all melting into the grass! My take on this family is that they really love being together. Such sweetness to each other. I really loved how much they all loved on little Knox and just had so much patience and joy with this little guy. Families are such a wonderful gift from God and this family is just another picture of one of God’s great masterpieces!

Fran, the gorgeous mommy pictured below, told me that her kids looked great in black and white photographs. As much as I LOVED their clothing and color choices, I have to say that I agree with you, Fran. Your family looks amazing in b/w!

I love, love this holiday! I love the fun colors. I love that it is in the midst of summer. The 4th just feels like summer, doesn’t it? More than anything else, I absolutely LOVE the fireworks!! I am so grateful to have the privilege of living in this wonderful land of ours that God has truly blessed. I am so thankful to those that have served and are serving now to give me the freedoms that I so enjoy. We sang “My Country Tis of Thee” this morning in church and the words have been ringing in my head all day…”long may our land be bright, with freedom’s holy light, protect us by your might, great God our King.”

The other night my family got together to celebrate our littlest cousin’s third birthday! Happy birthday little Kallen! We ended the evening with my favorite…FIREWORKS! But, before the darkness set in and the fireworks began, I snagged all the cousions for a quick picture of them in their cuteness of red and blue. See, even the photographer can’t get a perfect shot…but I still *heart* them…a big, fat, puffy red heart!!

In birth order, from oldest to youngest…

In these next two I love the snaggletooth, the tounge hanging out, the snickers, the gum showing thru the forced smile! LOVE these kiddos! Maybe not perfect, but perfect enough to all of us. Happy 4th, sweet children! Now…let’s go see those fireworks!

As a photographer, there are days when everything just “clicks”…no pun intended. 😉 Monday night I was doing a little happy dance the entire evening. I had the joy of photographing the two beautiful daughters of our good friends.  The girls and I had such a good time just laughing and posing and enjoying the evening. The weather actually started to cool down a bit, the skies were slightly overcast which made for beautiful light, bright and colorful wardrobe and my little subjects…Seriously, how gorgeous are they? We started our evening in a field of wildflowers and then moved onto the Arlington Town Square. Lauren and McKenna, I loved our night together and hope that you had as much fun as I did. Love you girlies!!

A little vintage coloring for these…

I absolutely LOVE how they are laughing together in this one!

On these next two, I spent about 10 minutes deciding if I should post color or bw…finally, the bw won; but, only by a tiny margin!

And, this last one I just HAD to include. It makes me smile. Love the joy and pure childhood fun it displays! See…told you we had a great night! 🙂

Saturday was without a doubt a HOT summer day in Memphis! We’ve been in the midst of a heat wave that usually doesn’t happen until sometime in July or August and I have to admit it has been pretty miserable. I had two sessions scheduled Saturday morning at the Botanic Gardens and we even moved the times to as early as possible so that it wouldn’t be so awful. However, this heat almost had us all drained! But…we persevered and ended up with some beautiful images for these two sweet families.

First to have the fun was Riley and John Winn. I hadn’t seen these two since last summer and could hardly believe how big they’ve gotten. Miss Riley is almost 4 and such a beauty. I adore her big brown eyes! They just make me smile. And, Mr.John Winn…he had us all running in that heat! He is every bit of the typical 18 month old little boy. Interested in everything, curious about it all, busy as can be….and not a BIT interested in me or my camera. We managed to capture some though, in spite of his best efforts to get away from me. Love this sweet family!

After my time with Riley and John Winn, I had the fun opportunity to photograph a childhood friend and her gorgeous family! Ashley and I grew up next door to each other for many, many years and her older sister was my very best friend. I have so many wonderful memories with Ashley and her sister, Amye, and it is such a joy to capture some memories of her three gorgeous children: Madison, Lindsey, and Ingram. Ingram is about the same age as John Winn and he had just about as much interest in taking photographs. 😉 He was a busy little guy who was SO excited about exploring the Botanic Gardens. I was definitely NOT a part of his agenda that day. HA! What I loved, though, was watching his adorable sisters and the patience and love that they had with this little guy. They just loved on him and laughed at him and patiently waited on him to be ready. Girls, you were amazing. Ashley, so happy for you that you have such a precious family! Thanks for asking me to photograph them for you again. Hope you love what you see here…

Another beautiful baby girl has joined the world! And what a sweet family she is so blessed to have. There are some families that just kinda “oooze” love! This is one of those. You spend just a few minutes with this group and you can feel the love that these parents have for each other and their children. We spent some time in their home the other day and captured some sweet memories for them of Zoe’s first days. I really enjoyed my time with Zoe’s family and loved photographing her. Here’s today’s look at joy….

This is a chair that belongs to Zoe’s Daddy that he was rocked in as a baby! Love that they incorporated this into the shoot!

Woo-hoo! A sweet newborn smile…you know I LOVE these!

Love how Zoe is holding her Daddy’s hand in this one! 

I have photographed sweet and spunky Lainey since she was only a few days old. I can hardly believe its been almost three years since I went to her home and took her portrait when she was this delicate and helpless little person. And, now…wow!! Miss Lainey is such a fun little thing and has this little personality that just glows. Her family and I just laughed and laughed together the other night as she entertained us with her smiles. I love this kid! Enjoy just a little taste of Lainey and her amazing parents!

Aren’t they fun? Love this shot!!

I really, really love these last two! Personality just shines thru…

Isn’t it fun when life comes back around? Years ago, I used to be Hailey’s mommy’s boss! Got that? Hailey’s mom, Heather, and I worked together for many years at a fabulous school in Memphis, St.Mary’s. When Heather contacted me this spring to do some photographs of Miss Hailey and the extended family, I was so excited to reconnect with her again. Heather, your daughter is so sweet and beautiful and it was such a joy having the opportunity to capture some memories for you!

Isn’t she just stunning? 😉

I had the joy and privilege of photographing two newborns last week on the same day. Both these precious little ones were born on the same day and God blessed them both by giving them wonderful families with whom they get to spend their lives!

I started my day with little Coco! Remember this family? Coco is so beautiful and we struggled a bit at the beginning of the session getting her to be calm and sleepy for us. However, we quickly figured out the trick with this one…take her outside! Once we all went outside and starting shooting out there, it was so much easier! She was happy as she could be! We took many pictures to coordinate with big brother Sam’s newborn session that I did for him almost 2 years ago. Garrett, Courtney and Sam…your family is so special and I am thrilled to be back with you again for another year of cuteness! Congratulations on your precious Coco!

Next up is another new member of the Little Gifts Newborn Club, Mr.Hutton! I adore working with first time parents and this new family was no exception. Mr. Hutton had quite the audience watching his first portrait session. I think there was at least 5 or 6 family members there watching us create some beautiful photographs. It was such fun having so many people around that were getting such joy from watching this little guy. And, I have to say, that Hutton was likely the most sleepy newborn I have had to date. He was SO GOOD! We did many photographs inside and then ventured out into a breathtaking backyard garden to utilize some of God’s creation to showcase one of His newest gifts! And, before anyone gets worried, on the last photograph there’s a couple of things I need to point out: a.) We were not on the street but up inside a circular driveway and b.) There were adults all around Hutton as we very quickly shot this pic! Sarah and Craig, congratulations on a beautiful little baby. I am so looking forward to working with you this year and capturing some fun memories!

Special Delivery!!