Shine.

What's that? Three blog posts in one week? What is happening? :)

I just wanted to take a second to say for all the interwebs to see... I love my family. I am so beyond blessed to have a partner who works hard and does so much for our children. Kids who are funny and smart and loving. A home that, while we've outgrown it, meets the necessities- keeps us warm, safe, and protected. My hubs, Ivan, is on a new project at work and travels at least one full week out of the month. It's difficult to be without him for that amount of time, but it's worth it financially and in knowing that his career is secure and stable. Our kids are young, and I don't have any help. It's just me and three kids, including two little rambunctious boys who think the word 'No' is a direct challenge. This business of mine has taken off in ways that I can't even believe. It's provided so much for my family- even beyond what we need. I know how lucky I am that there are so many people who want to trust me to do this for them. I don't take it for granted. Every session I do feels like an honor. That's the truth. But with Ivan being gone so much, my business thriving as it is, and my kids refusing to stop growing and eating (ha!), I've been struggling to get it all done.

I am so grateful to those of you who understand that this business of mine is personal to me. It's not Walmart. You don't get to just pick something off a shelf and take it home. It's long hours of me sitting in front of a computer, trying to edit just a few more photos while my kids are waiting for lunch. It's storing the beautiful new packaging under the dining room table because I don't have my own studio yet. It's receiving dozens of emails a day that need and deserve replies, and me doing my best to reply to six or seven of them in between washing dishes and picking up my 7 year old from school. I work on every single image that you receive. It's a labor of love, not commerce. The photo of your little girl tilting her head to the side? I spent real time making sure the color was corrected, resizing, sharpening, smoothing skin, making sure you got not just the visual but the emotion from the shine in her eyes. 

I know it's the holidays. I know you want to share these images that we've created together. But when you're growing impatient, please take a second and remember that I'm doing the same things you are- consoling sick toddlers, waking up at 3am to give them medicine and trying to get them back to sleep, making three meals a day for them, cleaning up after those meals, doing laundry, changing diapers, trying to pottytrain a stubborn three year old, trying to get grocery and Christmas shopping done, helping a gifted seven year old with math that already eludes me, missing my partner and feeling alone. There's a reason why you chose me. Why my style of photography is what it is. I'm a mom. I see the world through the eyes of my children. 

Thanks for listening, and don't forget to look for the shine in your own kids' eyes.


Here's a little peek at my little family.