On a whim, like most things I do, I decided it was the perfect day to do our family photos. I knew the location I wanted to do them at so I quickly got our outfits together and we all got ready to leave. I always do self portraits for our own family sessions and although it can be stressful, I like that I can just randomly decide when and where and make it happen. Then if it doesn’t happen we just try again another time. But it almost always works well.
This time we parked on the side of the road about 15 minutes from our home in north Louisiana and we hoped out of the car. I started but getting pictures of David and the girls and then moved to letting Elaine get some photos of me and David. David then got pictures of me and the girls. Then we moved to the tripod set up with the timer. This was fun being on the side of the road where people driving by could see us all randomly smiling at the camera on the side of the road. Haha!!! We laughed and laughed about that one. It was actually lots of fun!
These are definitely some of my favorites that I have taken of us and this location is high up on my list of favorites ever! The lighting is pretty tricky though and timing is everything! But I am so glad we got these done here and I have since done another session there that I love just as much.
Early June David and I took a trip to Pennsylvania to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. Technically, he had to be there for work and I tagged along but we went a few days early and stayed a few days later so that we could make a little vacation out of it. Our first stop was Lancaster, PA.
This part of our trip started off a bit rough with the airbnb booked being in a really rough part of town. What I did not realize is that Lancaster and Lancaster County are actually two totally different places. Lancaster is a big city and Lancaster county is smaller towns inside the county that make up Lancaster count and it is all Amish farmland. Or at least, mostly Amish farmland. There are shops and Sight and Sound Theaters and whatnot.
We quickly cancelled our airbnb. Tried to get a refund due to feeling very unsafe staying there, but the owner would not allow any amount of a refund. After going back and forth we decided to reach out to airbnb and they are giving us a partial refund. Hey, better than nothing!
Ok. So now we cancelled that airbnb, now what??
We planned this portion of the trip with some friends who were driving up from VA. They quickly booked an alternative airbnb IN LANCASTER COUNTY (haha!!) and we stayed there. It was soooo nice and peaceful.
For this portion of our trip we did Sight and Sound Theaters, Agape coffee shop and restaurant, we ate at a few Amish restaurants, went to Kitchen Kettle Village, a really good ice cream shop that I don’t even know the name of, and went to Main Street Skirt Exchange. We saw more horse and buggies than we have ever seen (which was previously zero because we DO NOT live near amish country) and more beautiful farm land than I could capture. Word of warning, don’t drive through farm land with your windows rolled down. Haha!!
Thursday afternoon we all split ways. David and I drove to northern PA and our friends went back home to VA. More to come soon!
Flying above the clouds always makes me happy The much better Airbnb*Singsong voice* agapeeeeeMy drink choices for the trip- iced dirty chia (amazing!!) and plain lattes (delish)About to watch Daniel at sight and sound- it was goooood
me
Such a beautiful drive across PA
Specifically for my horse loving Emma
Kitchen kettle village
This just takes me back to the 1800s.. not that I know anything about what that was like
My sweet girls in the spring Wisteria
I love the time of where when all the flowers are in bloom. It makes me happy.
We have a large patch of Wisteria on our land in North Louisiana that bursts to life every spring. I make it a point every year to get my girlies out in the flowers for photos. It’s something I just love to do! As they get older and older the images that I have taken every year get more and more precious. There is nothing NOTHING like having your family documented every year. I love looking back over years past and seeing my babies as babies. Boy were those times hard, but now that they are older those times are so very dear.
Here’s a look at our family photos for 2023. Last year we had the amazing opportunity to work with a local photographer and do a family photo swap. This year, I just let time get away from me and I never set anything up. That meant I was doing the photos myself. How does that work you ask? Stick around and I will explain.
I knew I wanted to do our family photos on our 10 acres of land just outside of Minden, Louisiana. I grew up in the country and we got married we moved to an even more secluded area than what I grew up in. However, it is not that far from the larger town (that is still small).
Behind our house is a patch of woods just beside our pond, that is currently very low due to the exceptionally dry year we have had. I noticed the beauty in this patch of woods a few years ago and did mysis-in-law’s and brother-in-law’s family photosthere. I just loved how they looked and it is still one of my favorite sessions. I knew I wanted to do ours there.
I didn’t know would be able to get our photos in with my schedule and my husband’s work schedule. Most of my weekends were all booked up with other family’s photos. Then I got sick. I had to reschedule sessions. Oh no! Turns out, I felt better the next day and I now had an opening for our family session! Funny how that works, right?
So, to bring this book to an end and tell you about the part you have been waiting for.. How did *I* take my own family’s photos? A fancy thing called a tripod and the feature on my camera that allows me to push the shutter and it wait 10 seconds to actually take the photo.
I posed my family in the way I wanted them, left a little spot for myself, framed the photo how I wanted it, pushed the shutter and ran. Literally. I ran. No joke. It was comical, I am sure. What makes it funnier is that the cute poses where we are looking at each other.. I literally ran a second ago and then we were all cute and cuddly. haha!! Oh man…
Now that I have written a book called “Our Family Photos” you can enjoy the beautiful photos that I look at 100 times a day and will be soon printing them to hang all over my house. Thank you and good day.
A while back I had mentioned how I wanted to share more of our personal life here on the blog and then I never shared more. HA! That’s about how it works, isn’t it? Well, here is a little recap of our June.
We spent lots of time outside in the early parts of June, finishing up the harvesting of our plums and blackberries. Now that I think about it, it could have been more like the end of May, but close enough.
It gets hot fast here in North Louisiana so, for the most part, June days are spent indoors in the A/C. We had a few days that weren’t awful, however and so I grabbed my camera for a few images of the girls.
We have enjoy countless hours in the pool to escape the heat and try to spend some time outdoors.
Outdoor sessions have slowed down some due to it being so hot. Once Fall arrives, things are going to pick right back up! We have a number of in-home newborn sessions coming up and even an in-home maternity session. I’m excited for that!
My girls are soon to begin VBS at our church and I’m thrilled they will get to have that experience. VBS was a highlight of my summer as a kid.
I looked forward to sharing more of what is going on in our personal life and actually keeping up with that better this time.
For now, I’ll leave you with some fun pictures of our orchard and our kiddos.
This was such a fun day! All the kiddos look forward to this day all year long. Evening Light Tabernacle’s Fall Festival. This a day full of lots and lots of fun!
This year was exceptionally cold but that didn’t stop us. From bounce houses to three legged races, we did it all! It was such a blast!
Each year we work together as a church body to make this day happen. Game booths, food booths, relay races, cake contests. You name it. I know it’s a lot of work to pull it all off but I have to say it is worth every effort. My girls adore fall festival day!
It was so fun bringing my camera along this year to capture the day. So much action and fun caught on camera. Hopefully as you scroll through this blog post you will get a glimpse at just how much of a fun day this is.
My sweet Emma turned 4 at the beginning of October. A few weeks before her birthday we took some time to document her being 4. Birthday portraits is something that I always make sure I take the time to get. Seeing my girls grow and change each year is sad, but I’m always so glad I took the photos. I love seeing how their personality blossoms and changes from year to year.
Emma is such a goofy girl at home and around people she is very comfortable with. In public she is very shy. One day she will break out of her shell in public and we will wish she was shy again. Haha!! She is so much fun and keeps us laughing. Sometimes she will say or do something and we will think “where on earth did you get that from?!” Her favorite store is Walmart and has been since she could talk. No idea why. But she loves it. HA!! McDonald’s is her favorite place to eat. Typical kid, right?
Emma loves our dogs Luna and Sandy. She gives them hugs all the time and sometimes she will just go outside by herself and play with them. They love her too. I’m sure it helps that she sneaks them treats. Stinker head.
Let’s a start a new series, Monthly personal blog posts just of our day to day life. Documenting my sweet kids and sharing that with y’all. I know I don’t take photos of my kids enough. Do any of us? Even as a family photographer here in Ruston Louisiana, it’s hard! Life is so busy. This is why mamas hire photographers. hehe
Here is little random tidbits from July 2022. I hope you enjoy!
If you have followed us along on social media then you know we ran in the Minden St Jude 5k this past weekend. This was my first ever race and it was an absolute blast!! No doubt, I will be doing it again next year.
We went to bed nice and early the night before and work up before the sun. I woke up at 4:50 and tried to go back to sleep, but i couldn’t. I eventually got out of bed at 5:20.
I started to coffee pot, made a bagel and sat down to eat. By that time, Elaine comes shuffling out of bed. Followed soon by Emma. All of us awake before the sun. This is a rare occasion for sure.
We finished getting ready and headed out the door by 6:40. We arrived just in time to use the bathrooms and get some color bags to toss in the air. Right after the 1/2 marathoners left out we headed for the color toss. Meeting our nephews William and Drew with their Dad.
3, 2, 1 – throw your color!!! We were covered in a rainbow of color powder. It was so fun, and messy. But fun!
Not long after the color toss the kids lined up for their fun run. Off they went as fast as they could!! Running one mile before darting through the finish line to receive their medal. Oh what fun they had!
These two finished neck in neck
Once all the kids returned the 10k group lined up and off they went. Another color toss for the 5k group commenced.
Now comes the 5k runners turn. We began to line up and wait for our call to go out. Oh the nerves. 3, 2, 1- off we go! It was chaos getting out of the start line but once I got around everyone I was off! I started out faster than I planned but the adrenaline kicked in. Passing folks right and left. Dodging dogs and strollers. That felt crazy. Haha!
I realized I started off too fast so I began to try and pace myself so that I would have the energy to finish strong.
During the race I came up on a few racers in their 80s. Running non stop. They may not have been fast, but the kept going. It was such an inspiration to not give up! I couldn’t help but feel so proud of them, even though I did not know them. There they were, maybe not the fastest runners on the course but that didn’t stop them.
At the half way point we stopped for a quick sip of water. I waved at different ones I knew waiting there to cheer us on. This was so fun!
Just tossed my water cup
We started to make our way back towards the finish line. Tired, but not stopping. Little did I know, when I crossed the finish line I was 7 seconds away from coming in third place for my age group. What?!?
This was my very first race and I came SO close to getting a medal. Let me tell you, this out a fire in me to make AT LEAST third next time. Ha!
So close!
We had the absolute best time and I can’t wait for another run!! I’m hooked y’all. Hooked line and sinker!
So proud of these girls They got their medals! Our group, minus a few Eeek!
Thank you to everyone who made this day possible!! The race alone raised $98,000 for st Jude! Amazing!! I’m so proud of everyone that came and raced. It was the best time!
North Louisiana Lifestyle Family and Newborn Photographer 