Where time goes, I have no idea.  One minute I'm planning your newborn session with you, and the next I'm delivering your gallery from your smash and splash one year session.  How it goes so fast, I'll never understand.

When we planned her newborn session, we incorporated tons of color- it was gorgeous!  This go around, I asked her mom what colors she'd like to see, and she mentioned that Amelia looks really good in blue.  If you've been around for a minute, you know that when you tell me I can put a baby girl in blue- I'm running with this.

As a baby she photographed beautifully on my minty green backdrop so I also found an outfit to coordinate with one of my backdrops and the pops of color were perfect with the more neutral backdrop.  (Perks of hiring the same photographer for newborn and one year- we have all the same props, AND remember little details like best colors to photograph your family on).

This is *my* experience. If this wasn't or isn't yours- I'm genuinely thrilled for you. After talking to a few moms, I felt compelled to put some thoughts out there.

You couldn't wait to introduce your baby to your fur babies. You've seen plenty of reels and tictoks of  adorable first introductions. Maybe you envisioned raising babies and pets together and having an automatic best friend and protector for your baby.

But. It doesn't take long before exhaustion and overwhelm sets in.

Things that your dog used to do that were entertaining are now grating your nerves.

Tip tap toes, hogging the bed, water sloshes, shedding, and barking are now the bane of your existence.

There are only so many hours in the day to exercise and run your dogs energy out.

The cat's nightly escapades threaten baby's nighttime sleep and set your heart racing at the thought of them waking everyone up when "going back to sleep" doesn't happen easily anymore.

A little over two months ago one of my friends tagged me in a post for a house for sale.  We went to see it that night and the following Saturday and I literally had tingles.  While at the top end of the budget (plus a bit lol), it checked all of the boxes plus some.  I'd seen something on IG between those few days that said "what if everything works out".  I repeated that phrase to myself probably a hundred times in the few days between seeing the house and being able to put the offer in.  We hadn't even thought of listing our home, much less pre-approved for a loan, the chances of everything working out felt soooo slim.  We were woefully unprepared to make an offer on a property that was everything we wanted and more.  Yet, here we are, making moves!

Since that time, we got pre-approved, extended an offer that was accepted, (waited forever for an appraisal), closed on the new property, moved the home we've lived in for the past 10 years, worked umpteen hours to turn the old house to ready for market, sent the girls went back to school, listed the old home, accepted an offer the next day and closed eight days later on the home we purchased 10 years ago, AND...

I've been fortunate enough to know Tara for many years.  She was a resident of mine back from my property management days (which was almost a full 10 YEARS ago- where does time go)?  When she got engaged, I was already actively shooting weddings; she didn't even shop around- she booked me.  We did her engagement session at Rock Springs when I was 23 months pregnant (ok, not really but it felt like it), her studio maternity lifestyle session, and now her lifestyle session.  When she said her house was designed for a lifestyle session, she wasn't kidding!

(Peep the wedding picture above them)

As you know- I’m terrible at blogging, so much so that the previous blog post I was working on before getting distracted was their maternity session haha!  So.  Maternity lifestyle session to come soon!

Haylee and Christopher had two baby boys in the span of the pandemic.  As with most pandemic babies, William took some time to warm up to me.  Turns out, I didn’t need to work nearly as hard as I ultimately did- he simply just needed time to hang out.  Haylee was really looking forward to this newborn session with big brother Ben, and I'm thrilled with their final gallery!

At every session, I always welcome pictures of big siblings.  Ok, let me say, I WANT you to have pictures of your babies together- it's personally some of my favorite pictures of my kids.  I also want you to have family pictures too- but that's for another whole blog post!

Anyways, I typically will try to time your session so older siblings (regardless of age) aren’t hanging around the studio for hours, because who wants to keep a toddler content for hours in a really warm, white noise filled space.