I’ve been looking forward to this shoot for a long time. I met Meagan when she called me for a job shadow – to give her a feel for me and my work I did a fun shoot for her and showed her how it all goes down. We had a great time, she loved her shoot and she assured me she would be back for senior photos. We had a great time exploring and chatting about volleyball, college, relationships, and photography.

Athletic. Funny. Beautiful. Interesting. Unique. Friendly. Adorable. Beautiful images, beautiful gal! Enjoy.

The images from these two sweet August boys just melt my heart! Both were amazing little angels for their first photoshoot. Enjoy.

Meet Leiton Dale, my newest nephew…so peaceful on his grandpa’s handmade bench

Meet Dawson James…so tiny he fit perfectly on his bookshelf

Effortless. Natural. Quiet. Confident. Strong. Talented. Sweet. Stylish. Beautiful. Melissa. Enjoy!

I wish they would sing and dance with reckless abandon forever! Carefree. Confident. Rockstars!

Yes! We rocked it didn’t we?!

Elia – 10 Months

See those fingers?  She can SNAP like a grownup!!

She gives the BEST stinkeye on the planet!  We get it all the time.

Lael – 4 and 3/4 as she likes to say

Michael + Cristina, my cousin and his dear soon to be bride…what a delight to photograph, thank you for trusting me! May these photos always make you smile and may they always remind you to laugh together all the days of your life – a motto my hubby and I live by. We wish we could be with you to celebrate your big day. We can’t wait to have you home with us. LOVE YOU GUYS!  Enjoy.

A little insert from their invites…

This winter beauty contacted me for a job shadow opportunity for her high school senior project and I felt like the best way for me to share my craft was to show by example so i offered Julie a fun March shoot. We encountered wind, deep snow and a bright overcast day, but the elements didn’t get us down in fact, they lead to lots of laughs along the way. Julie’s boho style coupled with her natural beauty was a joy to photograph. I had a great time sharing my experience, style and methods with her and hope that her glimpse of my world is inspiring. Enjoy!

To book your shoot with me click here .

2010 was a BUSY year for me and blogging took a back burner to all the exciting shoots, family fun and the biggest news of the year – our ‘new’ baby girl – Elia Chelle!  Why it’s taken me 4+ months to introduce her can only be summed up by saying I’ve been soaking up all the delicious moments with my girls and my computer has been collecting dust most days. I knew going into baby number two that the time would fly by and I was determined to slow down to enjoy it all. Once again we have been blessed with a laid back, sweet, sweet baby and I couldn’t be more grateful. I am LOVING my time home with my girls and am looking forward to getting my photog wheels turning for the spring and summer season (available sessions are limited for this year so I can continue to enjoy these two beauties so if you are hoping to book with me catch me early to be sure you get in). I have some fun shoots on the horizon and a ton in the archives from last year and have my fingers crossed and big intentions of getting some blogging time fit in…

In the meantime below are a couple snapshots of the accordion style announcement we sent out and a couple recent candids of the girls from last week.

The November rain was a Godsend for me – all the warmth allowed me to shoot outside in the snow and Lael just had to have a shot of her new sis in her snow cave…

Enjoy my little lovies…

(far right of the second spread is the front panel of the card, the spread below is the inside and the rest of the bottom spread is the back – accordions are confusing).

Her baby blues are so sparkly…

Lael LOVES her little sis and we couldn’t have had an easier transition!  Elia gets no fewer than 50 kisses a day, they are so stinkin’ cute together!  Elia crosses her feet like this all the time.

What an absolute honor to see my images in Fresh Home Magazine! Ana White of ana-white.com was contacted by the magazine to do a feature interview and to showcase one of her beautiful furniture pieces. When she asked if I was interested in photographing her and the furniture for the spread I was elated! Ana directed the magazine to check out my portraits of her and they liked what they saw and called to work out the logistics. Ana and I had a great time styling the shoot complete with a whirlwind shopping trip and two cars full of prop pieces to make our set complete. I packed up Lael and we headed to Delta for the shoot. After a full day of shooting I raced back to town, edited the images and turned them over for review to the magazine the very next day. They were trilled with the results and picked up three images for the layout. To see the interview and photo spread in full you’ll have to pick up a copy of the magazine or visit the fresh home blog to request your free copy. Fresh Home Magazine is a quarterly publication so it will be on newstands until January.

When Ana initially built the locker piece it ended up being to short for the magazine and when I saw it I thought we should put it to good use by doing a mini shoot of our girls to make the most of the piece. Scroll down to see some of the fun images of her other beautiful locker!

Enjoy!

And a few outtakes…

The mini locker shoot…

Look at that smile and those gorgeous baby blues! What a treat it was to photograph Lexi and her beau, DJ. The fun clothes, the texture, the colorful junk…my photo heaven! We were in a race against the rain and made it through the last shot with just a few sprinkles falling on us. Lexi was down for getting dirty and up for anything I threw her way. I’m not sure her clothes survived, but I hope the images were worth every junk stain.

DJ headed south to play hockey so Lexi’s heart is a little heavy and I’m hoping these images make her smile. Soon she’ll be tearing it up on the volleyball court and working hard to finish her senior year which will make the time apart and her senior year fly by before she knows it.

With her beautiful smile, those bright blue eyes and her funky hair (care of her fun employer Charlotte Rouge Hair Spa) you can’t miss this cutie in a crowd.

Thanks for trusting my vision. Keep your chin up and keep smiling!

Enjoy!

It is with great honor and excitement that I announce my collaboration with Ana White of Knock-offwood.com and soon to be ana-white.com. Ana is an Alaskan stay-at-home mom just like me with a talent she wanted to share with those who would read her blog. She has a degree in computer science and is a self-taught carpenter. She began building by using scrap pieces of wood from around the house to tinker around to try her hand at making furniture. In no time she was building beautiful pieces you could find in any major furniture store. Her work was selling faster than she could keep up so she put her computer science degree to work and figured out how to make the building plans digitally and decided to start blogging to share her free plans with the world. Ana’s blog launched at the end of October 2009 and it took off like wildfire. By January she had over a million hits to her site and today her site has well over 5 million page views. Ana’s work has been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle and The Oregonian and she will be featured in the September issue of Women’s Day magazine. Ana has a book and TV series in the works both tentatively titled “The Handbuilt Home” as well as a freelance contract with HGTV. She will likely be speaking at a major blogging conference and has countless other opportunities and offers flooding her inbox each week.

When my husband and I came across a feature about Ana in the local Newsminer I knew I had to at least do a photo shoot with her to help her with updated fresh images for her blog. We chatted on the phone and Ana shyly admitted that her photos were taken by her three year old, Grace. In addition to both having little girls we discovered we have a ton of things in common so we agreed to meet for coffee. In the meantime my new site launched and Ana fell in love with my images and style. We met for a playdate for the girls and to talk about working together. Her vision for the book and my vision for the images were a perfect match. Ana has asked me to be her photographer for her book, personal blogs and for her features on HGTV and words cannot describe how grateful I am to be working with someone so beautiful and talented and for the incredible opportunity. I can’t wait to share this journey and to see where it takes us!

Enjoy!