Being Married.

Melissa and Devin have been married for over a year and decided that they wanted to have a session.  I was so excited that they did.  I got to see where they live...which is so cool.   I felt like I was transported back home, back east, to a little coastal village that my family used to go to in the summers.  It is a gorgeous little place that is in Herriman.  We also had some super beautiful skies as you can see.  And if my kids see their stinkin' cute little puppy we may end up with one.  It was such a fun night to hang out with them and see how much they enjoy each other.

one. LIFE.

Father's Day.

Melissa wrote an awesome essay about her dad for the Father's Day contest.  Everyone voted and Melissa's essay received the most votes.  You can check it out here. 

After having our schedules finally work out to have our shoot we decided to have some fun.  Melissa's Dad is a car collector and when Melissa was growing up he was her tennis coach.  Melissa and her Dad have such a great relationship and have so much fun together.  It was so fun to get to see them after reading about them and being in touch over the last couple of months.  Melissa's mom and Devin, her husband, came along, too.  We had such a great time!

We also decided to do a session with just Melissa and Devin. Watch for that in the next post!

sweet. LIFE.

This year.

This year is the year that I've been wanting to avoid for quite a while now.  When I first hold my sweet babies after they are born it's days like these that I think of...the days I will have to let them go.  This year is the year that I send two girls off to school-all day--and I've not ever been ready for it.  I'm still not ready for it.  I love summer with my kids.  I love having them home with me.  No matter what I do.  No matter how much I try to slow down the time or make more time...it's just never enough.  There's just never enough time to hug, hold close, smell their sweet skin, look into the eyes full of wonder, hold their hand before it's not cool anymore, take pictures of them when they go to school...  I want them to stay little so badly and at the same time I know that it can't be. 

I figure I'll go through this every year but this year it's been different.  It's more of a milestone for me even than kindergarten was last year.  I can't believe my sweet little missies that I brought into the world weighing so little are now so big and gone all day long.  It's all so bittersweet for me. 

To my three sweet kids going off to school this year I say, I believe in you.  There are so many wonderful things that make you each so unique.  I'm so glad that you are in my life, you've made my life sweeter and more worth every minute.  There's no one in the world like you and I'm so blessed to get to love you.

I always need to keep myself busy after I take the kids to school on the first day.  After I took Emmett to his new program at a different school this year (because he's so stinkin' smart!) and didn't get to go INTO the classroom to take pictures of him; Gracie and I had some fun.  We went to breakfast with Dad and did some painting. I'm so lucky to get to hang out with Gracie...she knows how to make a cloudy day very sunny.

blessed. LIFE.

Amusement Rides and Books.

Melissa and Matt were so fun to finally get to meet.  We've been planning to get together for this shoot for months now.  It was worth the wait.  They had their first kiss in high school and them were separated for years and finally got back together again.  They are true and real friends and they love each other very much.   Melissa and Matt love to go to amusement parks and read together. 

real. LOVE.

The Joy of Free Slushies!

So every year 7-Eleven has a  free slushie day.  We went last year and by the time we got there at one in the afternoon they were completely out of free slushies so we just ended up buying them.  This year we got to 7-Eleven at 10pm (yes we're doing a really great job on the bedtime this summer...) so we thought sure we'd be purchasing our free slushies again this year.  Much to our surprise they still had some free ones and all kinds of people coming in to claim theirs.  As you can see our kids were in their pjs with boots (quite the fashion statement)...we had good intentions of getting them in bed but the promise of free slushies could not be denied.  I mean really! it only comes once a year.  After we had gotten our slushies no one wanted to hop right back in the van (yes, I do own a mini van. lol)  so we hung out eating at 7-Eleven.  (I love the way Gracie is trying to do exactly what Mike is doing in the seventh picture.  Cracks me up!)  The whole evening was quite the treat.

Thanks 7-Eleven!!!

tasty. LIFE.