It’s so hard to believe that our biggest girl turns six today. I think I may always find it hard to believe, every birthday. It just seems like she is growing up so fast. Sometimes it feels too fast, like I catch my breath and think “Oh goodness! I must enjoy these days, the moments! Before long she will be doing her own thing….” And then she throws a fit about something and I no longer remember that she is growing up fast. Ha.

One of my favorite recent pictures of her. With her cousin and buddy, Jax.

And the same little survey I did last year… Here are her answer’s this year…

Favorite color: purple

Favorite food: a salad

Favorite drink: coke and sprite

Favorite dessert: cookies and milk

Best friend(s): Tori, Kourtnie and Kate

Favorite thing to do: ride my scooter

Favorite place: Discovery Place

Favorite movie: I’ve never watched Sleeping Beauty, but I think Sleeping Beauty

Favorite toy: my doll

Favorite book: my princess one

When I grow up I want to be: a hair dresser

I think I am good at: doing gymnastics

Pumkins, changing leaves, cooler temps, soups and chili, our anniversary and Kennedy’s Birthday, holiday’s coming, and so much more… fall is here! And it’s my favorite season. But it’s busy!! Finding the balance seems to be a little harder this time of year. Which is one reason I haven’t blogged much lately. I feel like blogging is not so popular anymore, but I am hanging in there, not wanting to give it up just yet. So, here I am with a quick little post on a few things we are loving these days…

Cheeseburger Soup. This is a huge favorite with every single person in our family. I actually blogged about it earlier this year, but it deserves another shout-out, because anything that my whole family loves is a good thing! Click HERE for the recipe!

Artforkidshub.com This site is awesome! It has step-by-step video tutorials on how to draw different things. The kids love it and so do I! The guy who does the video’s always has a kid with him, and he is funny and keeps my kids laughing and engaged. Love it.

And lastly, a trip to the Pumpkin Barn did not disappoint….

I hope your fall is off to a fabulous start! Thanks for looking

Alicia chose our focus this time, and she explained that her idea was for us to take photo’s of things people would not find beautiful. Maybe something that would go un-noticed even, yet the photo itself grab the viewer. For us to really see the beauty in the everyday.  Well I loved this focus. I often use a hashtag on instagram ‘seeing the beauty’. So I was excited to shoot that way for Click of the Wild. Because it’s a busy time of year, I honestly didn’t put time and effort into it like I wanted too. I got my shot while driving to a shoot with a friend, and the funny thing is, as we drove up on this scene she said “that looks awful!” at the same time I was thinking “cool”! haha! I told her and we laughed at how we saw two entirely different things!

These pine tree’s had been stripped of all their branches…

Now, click over and see what the other girls saw and captured on Click of the Wild. Thanks for looking!

Molly chose our focus word this time around (for Click of the Wild — Click here to see more about this little project) and the first thing I thought of was my flower beds. I mean really, they scream ‘abandonment’! But, then I moved on to a structural approach. A little more pleasing to the eye, and photographic

I have always thought this chimney standing alone at an old homeplace was beautiful. So it seemed fitting that I capture it. Then, as I took the photo, a lady came up and asked what I was doing, as it turns out this place belongs to her Uncle. We chatted for a while and she suggested that I also take a photo of a house just down the street, it was her Dads home. And she felt like it would fit the focus word well. She was right… I love both!

Now, click over to Click of the Wild and see the other girls images!

A summer evening, a cool old truck, a good looking family and watermelon.
Simple, perfect, family session.
I enjoyed this one so much!
When Katie asked me to do their family session, and told me that she really wanted to do a session of them just hanging out and eating watermelon, well I was already hooked. Because I’ve always thought a summer watermelon session would be so fun. But then, she added that she wanted to use the truck they drove off from their wedding in, and I really got excited! It just added an extra dose of cool-ness and meaning to this session.
There are a lot of photo’s here… I decided to just let it be a huge post! Enjoy

Kemp and Katie, Thank you… xoxo

My little ballerina’s…
These photo’s are from a few months ago when Kennedy and Bristol took classes together, Tenley took one class
And can I just add that I learned a lot about making a bun (speaking of hair here…) in that time?! Two important things I learned:
1) the sock bun ‘bun shaper’ is a must! (I tried using a sock, didn’t work as good for me)
2) hairspray. And lots of it.

Before we left for class one day I snapped these. And I think they will stand out as favorite’s of mine always…

Thanks for looking… Happy Monday!

Clint and Stephanie recently opened Rolling Hill Farms for business, a wedding and event venue. As soon as they finished it, we did a quick little family session there.

Clint and Stephanie have four boys, Silas, Canyon, Branson and Blythe… so there is never a dull moment during their sessions!

Thanks for looking And Steph, thanks for asking me to do these for you… xoxo

Linden chose ”Home” for our focus these past two weeks. And I have to be honest, I did not make time to get the shot - or shots - that I wanted. I loved the focus word, and I had so many idea’s, but I didn’t make the time to capture them.
I did grab this shot of Tenley dancing, and while it may not shout ‘home!’ to most, it really does to me.
As the saying goes, Home is where the heart is. And I fully believe that. Home is also where the dress-up dresses and spinning, dancing girls are in my life. My home.
We dance and play and live and love. And so much more. But these days - months - of life seem to be filled with dancing and dress-up dresses. And, right now, it’s one of the many ways I see and think of ‘home’.

I happened to see these two photo’s last week, and I thought of how they are both a good example of how I see ‘home’ too. These were taken last December…

Thanks for looking! Click on over to Click of the Wild to see the official “home” post!

These twin girls, Addie and Jenna, are totally different and absolutely precious! This session was mainly focused on them, but we did get a few shots of their big sister Leah, and big brother Joey…










when we did this session they were both working hard on learning to crawl. They did not want to sit still, they wanted to be on all fours rocking and moving! I love that we captured this phase, because it passes all too quickly….

To the Costa Family, Thank you. Thank you for letting me capture your children as they grow, thank you for trusting me! XoXo