When I say she rocked this session, I don’t mean just a little bit. I mean, she all out, 200 hundred percent, if-I’m-lying-somebody-smack-me-please … rocked it.

We had so much fun Saturday that this seriously felt very little like work. (Thanks to both of you for a wonderful afternoon.) Her mom actually attended my small town Kansas High School! Believe me, no one ever knows what I’m talking about when I say where I went to high school, but through conversation during our session nonetheless, we found out that she attended my high school for a few years before her family moved to Kansas City. Small world!

These are just a handful of my favorite images from our session. I normally don’t post this many in a sneak peek, but I am in love with so many of them. And I can’t let this post go by without a big shout of thanks to Kevin Smith, owner of the stunning vintage car. As luck would have it, he was just driving by when we hollered out the window and asked if we could borrow his wheels for a few shots. We couldn’t have planned it any better. Thank you, Kevin!

So, without further ado, meet Amber, class of 2008. High school senior. Horse lover. Equestrian show jumper. Future photographer. And, in front of the lens, a bona fide rock star. Absolutely beautiful.

We’ve had the most amazing weekend celebrating Bella’s second birthday! It’s late, but I couldn’t let the weekend slip by without posting some of the fun (what kind of mom would I be?!?) … We know Grandma Gail will be logging in tomorrow morning to see the new posts, so this one’s dedicated to you. Lately, Bella will be playing merrily away or running around doing “baby laps” around the kitchen island and she’ll just stop, look up at my husband or me and say, “So happy.” We’ll say, “Is Bella so happy?” and she says, “Yes” with a big grin. She’s an incredible girl … very funny, very active and very, very sweet. We haven’t lost that newborn awe where you just sit and watch and stare in amazement. Maybe it’s because she’s still our only child, so we’re not multitasking siblings. Or maybe it’s just because she’s such an awesome kid. Probably a little of both.

Grandma Gail and Uncle Kory came for the weekend and she was ear-to-ear smiles nearly the entire visit. When we say she loves Grandma Gail, we really mean it. This kid wakes up in the morning asking for Grandma and often goes to bed the same way. Her birthday festivities began on Thursday when I took her out to capture her two-year professional pics. She was good to me — look at those grins and bright eyes! Below are some of my favorites … I’m just now getting through them to post-process and select our final reprints, so I’ll probably post a few more as the week goes on. Grandma and Kory arrived on Friday and we had a blast. Saturday, Bella made her first trip to the Zoo and, subsequently, her very first carousel ride (thanks, Daddy, for taking such a great shot of me and the birthday girl!). She opened a ton of great gifts, including her very favorite red wagon and a new pair of bright green Crocs with Mickey and Minnie decorations. And we can’t forget the beautiful butterfly cake made especially for Bella by Grandma. Thank you, both, for spending the weekend with us and making her second birthday so special. In Bella words, we were and are “so happy.”

Happy Birthday, Bella Bug!

Before I shoot a session, I like to get to know a little bit about my subjects. With kids, it usually starts with something like, “Tell me what (child’s name) is into these days …” It helps me as I create a session and images that are unique … that showcase personality. Sometimes, it’s effortless … other times, it’s more of a challenge. Let’s just say that mom’s descriptions of each of her children prior to this session were 100 percent accurate (and why wouldn’t they be? ). When I asked what her youngest was into these days, she said, “What you have to understand about Emery is that she is ‘all princess all the time.’” It seems the littlest member of this household runs the show on many occasions … and her personality came through loud and clear to me behind the lens. This session was commemorating her fifth birthday and also an opportunity to get all three siblings together for some great shots. Mom was right. Big brother and sister were way laid back and easygoing. And then there was Emery who, in so many of our shots, personified the throwback glamor of princesses everywhere from the 1940s and 50s. Union Station provided just the right nostalgia. And I couldn’t resist playing with the last diner image … it was begging for that old-time vintage feel.

Take a look at some of the expressions here and I’m pretty sure you don’t need mom to tell you Emery is “all princess all the time,” either. Right down to the glass slippers.

Enjoy some of my favorites from this session!

During my own crazed wedding planning, I asked if she’d accompany me to try on racks of flowing, white confections in search of the perfect dress. She said I would love to! Then I asked if she’d be my right-arm (free) planner, accompanying me to numerous fittings and enduring my mind-numbing penchant for long, overly detailed to-do lists that only other obsessed brides understand. She said I’ll be there. The night before my wedding, as the stresses of the week reared their ugly head and I found myself morphing into Bridezilla over the process of wrapping 200 individual squares of Caribbean black cake in tiny boxes with ribbons, I tensely — and, in hindsight, precariously — asked if everyone could pay closer attention to positioning the monogrammed stickers “just so” on the little boxes (it was 11 p.m. and we were less than halfway through the whole ordeal). She cheerfully said no problem.

Years later, when I called her from my car in a hormone-induced panic over morning sickness and the fact that I was at that stage of pregnancy where you just look lumpy and fat … nothing fits … and you feel awful, she said I promise everything will be just fine, this is completely normal. During the next seven months, she took every opportunity to say you look beautiful.

These are just some of the things she said. Being that kind of friend just comes natural to her.
So it’s with the most genuine kind of joy that I write this.

For, after countless hours over the course of too-many-years-to-count helping friends — and friends of friends — find that perfect dress …. After offering her amazing design wisdom to fashion the perfect invitation, host the perfect shower, paint the perfect nursery … After lending more than her share of calming shoulders to cry on when the guy turned out to be a jerk again … After offering to dog-sit, house-sit, babysit for the thousandth time … After sitting vigil and providing comfort as yet another friend suffered the loss of a parent …

After all that, it’s her much-deserved turn in the spotlight.

He asked. And she said yes.