Portland Portrait Photograher } fall in love…

I got a little note from one of my brides that was so sweet I wanted share it here. She recently received her wedding album and she writes:

It is W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L!
I couldn’t be more in love with it, the layouts, the pics and the book are all just so beautiful.
The paper lining is dreamy.

You have a great talent, thank you so much for being a part of the day and creating my dream wedding album!

I love experiencing those tender emotions with the bride on her day and again when telling her story in the album. It’s just such fun when brides love their albums as much as I love creating them for generations to cherish!

Little Boys

Author Unknown

God made the world out of His dreams

Of magic mountains, oceans and streams,

Prairies and plans and wooded land,

Then paused and thought “I need someone to stand

On top of mountains, to conquer the seas,

Explore the plains and climb the trees.

Someone to start out small and to grow,

Sturdy, strong as a tree…” And so,

He created boys, full of spirit and fun,

To explore and conquer, to romp and run.

With dirty faces and banged up chins,

With courageous hearts and boyish grins.

When He had completed the task He’d begun

He surely said “A job well done.”

I love fall, and there is nothing better than a good book, a cup of homemade soup, and cuddling up in a wool sweater on a crisp autumn day.  Maybe it’s because I am a fall baby; comfort foods, hayrides, and apples are just my thing!  Happy Autumn.

When I was little, I loved visiting my grandparents.  In my memories I can still see Grandma making breakfast in the kitchen. I watched her closely from behind a set of wooden blocks and a pile of my uncles old hotwheel cars on the floor.  Every fall I smell new shoes and crisp jeans and think of our back to school shopping trips.  As I have grown, my relationship with my grandmother has matured and changed.  I no longer rely on those fall shopping trips, but I have come to rely on her acceptance of me, her cander and the wisdom of her experience.

I was fortunate to grow up drinking out of a hose in the summer, watering the plants was my preferred household chore.  Barefoot and fancy free I recall searching for four leaf clovers and collecting rolly-polly’s.  No childhood summer is complete without the simple pleasures of three digit weather, sprinklers and a banana Popsicle!

Hide and seek, one of childhood’s most quintessential games is welcome in our home.  Wrapped up in a package of make believe and tied in ribbons of suspense.  Hide and seek is a game in which the child is king, and no hiding place lacks concealment.  Just the voices of parents wondering where their children could have possibly gone, the rhythm of  footsteps in search of loftier places and contented giggles from behind a curtain.

If you noticed similarities between the stunning models in my last two posts, GOLD STAR,  you are a genius!  Turns out this darling duo before you are twins.  Like everything in life, they do it together!  And senior portraits were no exception.  It was fun for me to see that though the same, they are extremely different.  Both girls had very specific, and contrasting visions about this whole process and I was tickled to fulfill them both.  I’ve always been in awe at twins, the relationship is so unique and unlike any most of us experience in life.  There is a familiar bond in sisterhood, I only expect it is even more powerful with a twin.  The Lord has truly blessed these two with the gift of one another, which I know they will continue to enjoy for the rest of their bright futures.

Make Up by Doll Cosmetics

My friend threw a surprise sweet 16 for her youngest daughter recently and invited me over to take a few detail shots of her party planning genius!  It really was a “sweet 16,” with cupcakes, a candy bar, and a tender daddy daughter moment.  Dad was in-charge of picking up the 16 balloons from the grocery store and when he couldn’t fit them all in the car, he walked all the way home to ensure their safe arrival.  In my opinion nothing could be sweeter.

Since we moved to Oregon one of my most cherished summer activities is berry picking.  There is nothing sweeter.  And while jam and tarts and a homemade berry pie a la mode are some of berry pickings greatest rewards, my favorite thing about it is the time spent picking them.  In a word, rejuvenation.  The peacefulness of the experience alone calms my spirit and fills me with joy for the Lord’s goodness to me.

The Fourth of July is one of my top two holidays.  I love everything about it, the parades, the fireworks, dressing up in red, white and blue.  Everything about the Fourth of July is wrapped up in the tradition and symbolism that has made our nation great.  Every Fourth of July, when the first fireworks light up the darkening summer sky I take a moment to turn around and see them illuminate the faces in the crowd.  There is a stillness in that moment when I feel a kinship with all Americans.  It recalls to mind the words, “the bombs bursting in air gave proof to the night that our flag was still there.”   As a parent it is days like this that make me sit back and take inventory, I ask myself the question, “where did my patriotism come from, and how do I offer that to my children?”  I think it is different for everyone, but I do know this, there is power in tradition, word, and song.  I hope your Fourth was filled with all of them.