behind the scenes credit ::

The family...you risky buncha loves. I love you!

Wendy Wilson of The Polished Olive  for getting soaked to help this daddy keep his baby boy safe! I appreciate you!

From Princess to Jedi, this precious baby girl is growing up! 

You can see the contrast one year makes if you check out her birthday party from last year.

Not Princess or Jedi, but if you're a sap like me and just love to see children grow, you can see another super fun birthday of hers here.

AND just because I was searching through their old sessions, I found this jewel..one of the very first Life, Actually videos we ever made. "Rub-a-dub-dub Rex!" 

To celebrate her 5th birthday...she planned her party (yes, she did) around Star Wars.

There was an obstacle course that everyone had to go through. If you completed the course,  the force was with you...or you battled the dark side, or was it joined the dark side? Truly, I know nothing about Star Wars..I'm sure it was something to the effect of one of the aforementioned processes, though. More importantly, look how determined and serious she took it.

And then the rain came. Lots of it. These images crack me up. It's as if there has been mass destruction...SAVE YOURSELVES!

The party moved inside...just in time to open gifts! 

Playtime was nothing short of hilarious with all the lightsabers, blasters and p-e-r-s-o-n-a-l-i-t-y. 

These kids looked like they had the time of their lives at this party. Watching them made made me smile so much my cheeks were aching.

Happy 5th Birthday, little Addy. May all your wishes come true! 

This couple is incredible. They are so laid back and collected...sophisticated, yet very casual...fun and very real...and um, really easy on the eyes. 

He travels extensively for long periods of time, so while I'm certain they connect through technology while he's away, they also connect through daily letters (important information to have if you are scrolling through the post wondering what that stack of letters is sitting on the rock). Can I tell you how much I love that??? Handwritten letters expressing all of the reasons why they are in love with each other, that will be passed down to their children one day...it doesn't really get mushier than that for me. I love things for posterity sake....clearly. :) 

Congratulations on your engagement!!!

Don't you think? 

What a gorgeous family! The mom, the dad, that little punkin head of theirs....they're all just beauties! I arrived for this session and the mom was all like, "Well, we put a bed in the barn..we thought we'd kinda like to do a few shots there". Really? I've only wanted to do that for a few years now. It wasn't exactly what my original vision was, but it was super fun nonetheless. 

I wish you could have seen this sweet baby's face when we went in there...she was SO SO SO happy to be laying on that bed outside. Lots of giggles. Lots of beautiful images! 

I photographed these kiddos last year and did a Life, Actually for them...you have to check it out if you haven't, "What's gonna work? time, time, time"..... click here

They've grown so much and still love each other as much as they did a year ago. That's always good news. I love when brothers and sisters get along ( what I mean by "get along" is that they can wrestle around with one another and finish giggling, which is not AT ALL where we are at my house at this stage in life, but that's another story and has no business finding it's way in to this post or these poor-taken-advantage-of parenthesis).