We interrupt your daily coronavirus stream with an adorable newborn baby girl – yes, you’re welcome. Getting to take newborn photos at their home in St. Paul Park and see this little lady before everything changed as we know it was such a timely and HUGE blessing. I love getting to see the specialness of the family in newborn photos and in-home lifestyle shoots are all the more precious to me!

Maybe it’s just me, but after all the excitement of the holiday season, I can feel rather down in the dumps. We spend November working on being thankful, we go right into December counting down each moment and jam-packing a ton of activities in as we celebrate baby Jesus’ birth at Christmas, and then within a week we are sent into a new year. Wow, just thinking about it leaves my head spinning. And yet, we do this every year… and I’m starting to notice a pattern for myself of where I feel a bit overwhelmed with the daunting tasks and unknown future of the new year as I step into early January.

We all love the classic photos where everyone is looking at the camera and smiling – the ones that get used for family Christmas cards, the ones that get hung on grandpa and grandma’s wall, and the ones that are our profile or cover photo on facebook. These are the photos that we look back to on years to come to see the different ages of growth and development within a family that freeze a stage of a family’s life; but there are also the different kind of photos – the candid ones. The ones where a family is able to laugh and play, making real giggling memories, showing real relationships and moments within that stage of life. I just printed our own updated family photos for our photo wall in our home. It’s been almost two years (yes, even photographers struggle with it! #reallife). I printed off a large 20x30 of our three kids looking at me behind the camera, a new 8x10 of me and my hubby smilling at the camera, and the rest of the photos? Candids. A 20x30 of us chatting with each other on the beach this summer – bringing us back to a precious vacation time. A handful of ones of the boys playing together and Chloe looking over my shoulder – all showing the special relationships, snuggles, and fun. Both types of photos are important and precious!

I love the chance to step into the everyday life of our amazing couples and families when we step into their homes for a family lifestyle session. We know that it may mean that they do some quick cleanup – or sometimes not so quick – but getting to see a family in their everyday moments, especially in the holly jolly of Christmas time, just adds such a special element to a family photo session.

When Cayla first reached out and shared that she and Nick wanted to have an adventure for their engagement photos, I was immediately excited. When she shared that they were wanting to explore Afton State Park and possibly even go fishing (one of their favorite past times), I was beyond excited. We always encourage the couples we work with to do something that’s true to them! We are all for dressing up all nice but we also LOVE it when couples show their real side too! This is exactly what these two did – splitting their session time in half as we explored Afton in dressy clothes and then hit the beach to relax and fish! (If we could’ve only caught a fish it would’ve been that much cooler!)