I cannot even begin to imagine what it has been like for moms to have been pregnant in a year like this. But I would like to thank all of the families who have allowed me the opportunity to share in their joy with their sweet new babies. Every session this year has been a blessing, but I have found newborn sessions to be incredibly therapeutic and wonderful reminders of what is truly important. I have had the honor of photographing each of these cuties as newborns, every session has been unique and fulfilling in their own ways…just like the unique individuals that they are destined to be.

On April 22, 2020, we were fortunate enough to celebrate TWENTY years of marriage! I had been planning our 20 year anniversary celebration for a long time with lots of events and sweet surprises. But of course, like pretty much everyone on the planet right now, life shut down all of those plans with one swift blow. I knew I was going to have to let go of everything I had originally had in mind and figured we’d just pick up some take out and maybe a bottle of champagne.

Yay.

I was admittedly disappointed, but I think we’ve all gotten used to that over the last few months. And truly, I am still grateful for the health and well-being of my family and I do not take our marriage for granted. A  romantic vacation or a big bash isn’t required to appreciate our relationship or the family we’ve created together.

But then, about 7 days out from our anniversary, I had the idea to move forward with a different, more intimate, and ultimately more meaningful ceremony in our own house…just the five of us (well, seven, including the dog and the cat). With just a week of planning and creating, I think we managed to pull off quite a magical little DIY 20 year celebration and it turned out to be *just* as special to me and all of us as our initial wedding day!

We had pretty much everything needed for a 20 year wedding celebration/vow renewal, including a happy couple, twinkling lights, rose petals from the yard, and even “professional” photography!

My bouquet, courtesy of Whole Foods.

Baby girl did my makeup 🙂

I had originally thought I would wear my wedding dress, but the Quarantine 15 (or more) had other ideas (ooof). Snagged this gorgeous number on sale from Joyfolie instead. It. Has. Pockets.

The morning of the “party,” I got up extra early to transform our dining room into a reception hall:

We may or may not have spray painted some plasticware to look extra fancy. Also, check out the hand- monogramed “fine linens” by my daughter!

A word on our dining room window: this was left from a project by my nieces a while back. We loved it so much, we decided to keep it up.  Honestly, I may never wash it off! (Check out how it looks at night outside at the bottom of this post).

The train from my original wedding dress was used as a table cloth.

The day before the celebration, the five of us made our own miniature wedding cakes. That was quite the task, let me tell you, as we let everyone decide on their own flavors and decorations for each individual cake. It will be a long time before I bake another cake again, but this was one of my most favorite parts of the whole event…I LOVE how they all turned out! After dinner that night, we each got to have a tiny taste of every little cake :-).

Since I never had professional pics from my own wedding, I thought I’d squeeze in a ring shot. Oh, and check out our super handsome ring bearer:

The kids each played integral roles in the ceremony. Our daughter was my Maid of Honor…

The eldest was our “Officiant.” He did a fantastic job! I dug up the original copy of our wedding vows and he read part of that for us at the ceremony.  Then Virgil and I wrote new vows to one another.

Our middle son was the Best Man AND videographer at the same time. His Best Man toast made me giggle and cry. Sigh…my handsome boys…

Oh yes! During quarantine, our daughter decided to learn how to play piano. She worked SO hard to learn the Wedding March and she absolutely nailed it as I walked down the aisle!

My hubby was in charge of “catering” and he did not disappoint. The take out from Gusto Italian Kitchen was absolutely incredible and we are very much looking forward to going back to dine in there very soon!

A little behind-the-scenes from cake making the night before.

That night, we showed the kids our wedding slideshow…on a VCR! The kids had never seen it before and the most common comments were, “You guys look like babies!” and “I can’t believe how much life you lived together before us!” The kids also made up their own version of The Newlywed Game and we laughed until we cried while playing.

I honestly could not stop smiling the whole evening, I swear you could probably see little hearts beaming out of my eyes. I told my husband in our vows that I am not only in love with him, but I am in love with our family. Quarantine has been trying for sure, but also a precious bonus gift of time together under one roof.  It made me appreciate not only the fact that we were even able to have a wedding all those years ago, but that we *still* have each other. We aren’t perfect people and we don’t have the perfect life or the perfect marriage, but we do have and we do love and we do keep choosing to move forward together and we will keep moving forward together as long as the universe allows.

Something about this cold, windy, overcast, and potentially snowy (???) Austin, TX weather made me want to go back and revisit this family photo session from a while back. I have known these girls since they were in their mommy’s tummy and watching them grow into such bright, beautiful, funny, and confident young ladies has brought me a great deal of joy through the years. They have shown off every bit of their charming personalities into every photo session we’ve ever done!

On this cold, rainy day in January, I am inspired to tell the story of another rainy day that nearly ruined an incredible trip to Colorado one summer. My whole family had driven up to Denver and then to Crested Butte to visit with loooooooooongtime friends (and clients). To give you a clear picture, there were SIXTEEN of us total…staying in the same house. 7 adults and EIGHT children and one ADORABLE baby. Oh, wait: this doesn’t include the two doggos :-). The adults were definitely outnumbered, but somehow, we managed to spend the first several days enjoying the cooler temps, hiking through the mountains (ALL 16 of us!!!), swimming in mountaintop lakes, exploring the charming town that is Crested Butte, and feasting…there was a LOT of feasting…and a lot of great laughs. I cannot even begin to describe how many memories were made on that trip. My eldest son christened the two other dads in the house with us were the “cool dads,” while his own father was just “dad.” It truly was something spectacular that we all managed to share that space together and have such a lovely time, working together as a team to manage meals and clean up (sister wives aren’t such a bad idea).

We had plans for all of us to drive up to this one particular spot way up in the mountains to do family photos. While it was indeed a bit of a drive from our home base, I had heard so many wonderful things about that place, I couldn’t wait to see it with my own eyes. Spoiler alert…the images above are NOT from this specific place. “Why?” you ask? Well, we had ALL piled into three cars (my mini van, included) and began our trip up the winding roads. It was cloudy, but not terrible as we started out. Rain was predicted to start later that evening, but we thought we could squeeze in the sessions before it got bad.  Everyone was already dressed and made up (a Herculean effort in itself!)…there was no turning back now.

I honestly don’t know how long the trip took us, but it felt like forever, especially when we got to the part where we tried to get my van up through the mud-covered roads. The van briefly got stuck in the mud and at that point, we decided it wouldn’t make it any further. My family would make the rest of the trip on foot while I hitched a ride to the top with the others. I should mention that by then, I was very, very car sick and growing very concerned about the storm clouds that were rolling in. “This better be worth it,” I thought.

We *finally* made it to this mystical meadow between the mountains and my word, yes, it was every bit as breathtaking as they told me it would be. I could see the storm clouds building up and I knew we wouldn’t have much time, but I thought if we hurried, maybe we could make something happen. I think I was able to get like 5 photos taken and then it started raining. And raining. And raining. And it just wouldn’t let up. I kept refreshing the radar and it kept telling us that it was going to clear, so TWELVE humans and the TWO doggos all piled into ONE vehicle to wait out the storm (I’m SO glad we attempted THIS us-ie).

We waited. And we waited. And the rain just wouldn’t stop. And now, there was virtually no daylight left and everyone was tired, and cranky, and hangry and defeated. I don’t know about you other photographers out there, but I have this recurring nightmare where I’m in a BEAUTIFUL place with BEAUTIFUL subjects and I’m so overwhelmed, I am physically not able to take any photos. I’m frozen in my dream as I watch the sunlight disappear and I’ve missed out on the perfect opportunity. *This* was my nightmare actually coming true :-(. Through tears, we called it a night and decided to go on with our dinner plans and figure out another day/place for family photos.

At dinner (and I was *still* crying), we worked out a new game plan which would involve us getting up *very* early to catch sunrise the next morning. This was not an easy sell as we were all exhausted from our travels and the rain that evening, but it was our only shot. We were “do or die.”

After a few hours of sleep that night, these guys somehow rallied and managed to look just as beautiful and put together as the day before! We stumbled upon this gorgeous little flowered meadow practically in our backyard and we. made. magic. HAPPEN! I was so thankful for the sunshine that peeked out through the mountains! I was so AMAZED that the kiddos were able to give us their all in spite of the rough evening and very little sleep! I’m so grateful that we were able to let go of our previous vision for the session and embrace this new one. I’m so glad we persevered in spite of it all!

Most of all, I absolutely treasure the memories we made through our struggles the night before. The photos we took had so much more meaning because of that experience. And oh, how we laugh and laugh re-telling the story! Very, very grateful for all of it…the good and even the not-so-fun parts.

Sorry, I can’t help it! Especially when I had the chance to experience this family’s breathtaking holiday decorations last year! They are just too magnificent not to share. More HERE.

Obviously, I’ve been struggling to keep up with my blog for the last several years, lol. I always feel like I have to have something worthwhile to say when I post…something poetic and meaningful, but with with school and busy season upon me, well…”words are hard” (quote from a past workshop attendee that I use regularly!). So, I think I’ll just take the pressure off myself to select just the right session and say just the right words and just share what I feel like sharing when I feel like sharing. I chose this session from last fall because I happened to LOVE our evening together…I remember the weather and light were incredible. I adored the colors and textures of their outfits. And frankly, the kids had a wonderfully contagious positive energy among them. When I look at these pictures again, I immediately get that back.

There. Blogged. 🙂

We had a lovely spring evening celebrating a very important milestone for this beautiful young lady. Ten years of age is such a big deal and I’m so glad we were able to mark this special time for her (and her mommy). Also, is it just me or are we getting some young Christy Turlington vibes here? Maybe it’s her eyes?

The release of Taylor Swift’s new video reminded me about a project I had worked on a while back and I was so inspired to revisit it. I’m loving the prismatic aesthetic of the new album artwork and I realize that I’ve been obsessed with that for quite sometime, actually. I’ve photographed this talented young lady and her family for years now, but it was magic to get to work with her *in* her element and in such a creative and colorful way. I love the fantastical and dreamlike nature of this photo session! I love that we were able to simply play and embrace the child-like nature of this adorable Austin landmark. My love for Lisa Frank also resurfaced when creating these images…if only we could have incorporated dolphins and kittens :-). Thank you SO much to C and her mommy for playing along with this vision!!!

And now, a different take on Rosemary Beach! Seriously, can’t you see why I can’t wait to go back?

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have other things I should be doing besides dreaming of Rosemary Beach, but I’d also be lying if I said this magical place wasn’t on my mind constantly these days. About a year ago, some dear friends/clients introduced me to 30A and pretty much as soon as I got back home to Texas, I booked a trip for my family to go out there. Let me tell you, our vacation cannot come soon enough!!!

So while I’m taking a break from studying and counting down the days until we go back, I’m going to be posting pics from the family photo sessions that we got to do during that stunning Florida beach trip last year.

These sweet sisters. I’ve been photographing them since they were born! And they have each grown into these bundles of love and energy and beauty and life and we had so much fun getting to play together and twirl in lovely dresses on white sand beaches with the ocean sparkling like a jewel behind us! The town of Rosemary Beach itself is like no other place I’ve ever seen before, too. Breathtaking. I did not want to stop taking pictures…I truly did not. (Remember this?)