only a dream :)

I'm trying to post as I do shoots rather than go back and continue editting and trying to catch up...anyways...

this is my sister. my beautiful, beautiful sister that I love dearly. she is one of the most hard working, loving, tenacious, crazy, transparent, funloving people that I am lucky to know! I wanted to try a new "pin-up" finish that I've been playing with and she was the perfect "practice"! she is they type of girl that hardly ever wears make up and is most comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt. so she "tolerated" me dolling up her make up and hair...she is the girl-next-door meets sassy beauty queen and I love her!

and yes, I am related to this...by blood. you can imagine why I thought I was adopted growing up :)

ahhhhh, love :)

there is nothing cooler that getting to capture moments of peoples milestones in life. I got to spend the morning (gotta try and escape this az heat!) with a family/friend and his b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l. fiance this last weekend. it makes me smile to see eric all grown up and in total and absolute love with a woman who is simply his perfect "fit"! and please, could she be anymore beautiful with her red hair and blue eyes?!

thank you for letting me get to take these and spend some time with you both! can't wait for january!

stop + dream

you know you're busy when you haven't finished editting pictures from the beginning of the summer...I'm not complaining, just busy.
I came across these pictures tonight and stopped. do you ever just stop? stop and remember moments. I did. tonight. my son is eight. my baby is six. eight years of life. eight years of dreams and hopes. whose life was that that I lived so long ago? a life full of sleepless nights...of baby bottles and sweet smelling johnson's baby heads? a life full of songs of "...you'll be in my heart..." and "...luh, luh, loo's..."?
my son is eight. my little girl is six. tonight I stopped and enjoyed them. sounds of football filled the air tonight. cry's of "...mom! did you see me catch that?!..." were heard in my ears, but what I saw in my heart was that little baby boy, the boy who brings me joy - his eyes so small and only seeing me and his chubby little fists full of my hair and a smile that was only for me...that moment came back to me tonight. even though I heard the sing song voice of my baby girl singing "...luh, luh, loo..." my heart saw the soft eyelashes that only a sweet baby girl has snuggled deep into her "special" blanket with the moonlight streaming in from the nursury window...so pink, so soft, so small. my peanut.
but I have this picture. and the pictures of eight beautiful years. moments. my moments. my moments with my boy, who brings me so much joy. my moments with my sweet night star darling.
I think that is why I love photography so much. it is a moment that is forever frozen in time. a moment that you can capture again and again and revisit again and again when you care to stop. when you care to stop and dream.
they are my joy. they are my heart.