Oh and another little someone that I think is pretty cute…taken with my Instax.  He officially started Kindergarten yesterday and looked so adorable walking into school with his huge Star Wars back pack. When we asked how school went he said he played with Andrew at lunch and Payton got a mohawk.  What more do you need to know?

This is Jacqui.  She looks adorably adorable in my vintage skates.  I cannoooot shake my love for pink, lace, and pom-poms…nor do I want to!  So, I decided to incorporate them into one of my senior sessions.  Jacqui was so laid back and up for anything.  Seriously, what is it with these senior girls?  I was so awkward (and still am) in front of the camera.  Maybe one day when I’m brave, I’ll post some of my own senior pictures.  For those of you who have seen them, you know what I’m talking about.   But not Jacqui.  She just stood in front of me, looking beautiful, and knowing exactly what to do.   We shot on a side street right at dinner time.  There was a restaurant right behind us and we had people coming out to see what the commotion was all about.   The head chef was also amused for awhile.  I suppose it’s not every day you see a girl wheeling around in vintage roller skates with pink balloons in hand.  But oh you wait Milwaukee….those babies are getting new pink wheels and then it’s on!  Yup, that’s just how I roll…

…yes we do. My boys and I.  Michael cannot say “together” quite yet so he says it adorably so as “togedder” and it makes Brady and I smile every time.

This weekend was a much needed one.  Tis the busy season for me and I am not complaining. I love my “job” with all of my being, but I love my boys more.  It kills me when I’m putting in late hours in front of my computer screen and they’re cuddled up on the couch watching movies or playing with one of Michael’s 2,000 Star Wars figurines. SO, this weekend I turned the computer off and just enjoyed our family time together.  We hiked, hung out at the beach, met special friends for lunch and dinner, bought new books, had ice cream, played basketball, caught frogs, and just relished in being together as a family.   Mikey starts Kindergarten this week (gulp) so we spoiled him before he heads to school…

…and me. Well, I’m trying to finish a lot of clients sessions and find a bit of balance. I feel like my head space is filled to max capacity so hopefully one day I’ll get back to what I originally intended this blog to be – a journal of our every day life and my work….changes to come in 2011 people.  Changes.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Above: Mikey at the beach…we found a secluded area of Lake Michigan right off of a hiking trail – complete with a tree teepee fort and all.

Much Love,

Krysta

Remember this?

Well, we gave it another go around and this time Mother Nature was nice to us.  I must say that Sierra totally rocked.this.shoot and I am in LOVE with Confetti System. 

This shoot speaks to me. It’s what I love doing most…creating, styling, making something come to life.   Thank you to Sierra, Ali, and Stacey for dancing in this vision…

Much Love,

Krysta

Happy weekend!

Much Love,

Krysta

I say “dancing” in the streets of Chicago because I think little Miss Ellie really did dance her way through Chicago.  She never stopped moving and a shaking (as you’ll see below)…and I loved it.  Amy is a photographer herself and as it goes in the life of a photographer, she doesn’t have many pictures of herself with her children.   Living in Oklahoma, they were going to be coming to Chicago to vacation with good friends and explore Chicago.  She e-mailed me asking if there was any way she could schedule a shoot.   It just so happens her trip fell right in line with my Chicago sessions.   We decided to meet at Millenium Park and then we just walked and explored and danced and ate cookies and found little alley ways and met people walking their puppies and just enjoooyyyyed. I really wanted to capture them just enjoying their time together.   A mother and her children just happy to be in one another’s company.  Another reason I wanted to just explore is because Amy’s children, just like my Mr. Michael, have photographer child syndrome as I like to call it.  They see the camera and they instantly smile.  But I wanted candid and real.  I wanted to catch them when they least expected it.   My favorite image above is of Amy giving Walker a piggy back ride.  He was tired and waiting to go to the Lego store.   Amy picked him up and carried him for awhile…and as I looked over he had his eyes closed and looked so peaceful  – watery eyes for me…

…and you know what? Amy’s husband couldn’t be on this trip with them so Amy thought about not doing the shoot.  She decided to go through with it so that one day when her children were older, she could look back and remember these days with them.  She also did it so they would have these images.  There have been so many posts lately about “the right time” to do your session.  As Amy said, “I could be gone tomorrow and they wouldn’t have any pictures so I decided to do it!”  There is never the “right” time or the “perfect” time.  The here and now is what should be captured.  I’m so so so happy she did.

Amy – Thank you, beautiful girl, for such an incredible time with you and your babes in Chicago.  I called Brady after parting with you and he asked how the shoot went and I said, “I wish it would’ve lasted longer.” :(

Much Love,

Krysta

Michael will start Kindergarten in a few short weeks.  He is missing his two bottom teeth and is exceptionally tall for his age.  He still says your name and Mom’s name together every night in his prayers – one continuous word never to be broken.  For this very reason, it is my most favorite time of the day.  He still asks when you will get to come back. I speak to him of Heaven and Angels and of you watching over us. But sometimes it’s not good enough and he asks for a specific date – “When I’m six? After Christmas wilI he be here? What about when I’m big like Daddy?” I dance around that question because still, after two years, I don’t have the strength to tell him never…

Luka is three. He still has the mops of curls you loved so much on top of his head although they are thicker and longer now. He is obsessed with music and loves classic rock – G.B. Leighton being his favorite. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear you sing to that sweet boy in his dreams.  After you left, he would walk around looking for you wanting you to pick him up.  I remember how he would beg for you, and only you, to hold him.  You would pick him up for a short while and put him back down, but he would come right back over and hold his arms up for you.  Soon, you relented and began to master doing everything one handed – Luka occupying the other…

Ayla is teeny tiny…everything about her except her big blue eyes.  She came into this world two months after you left.  The first time I held her that is all I could think about…if only you had two more months on this earth to see her, hold her, breathe her in. I often imagined how tiny she would’ve looked in your arms.  Nathan asked all of us to write something about you in her baby book. I didn’t do a very good job. I need an entire book to write of you.  To sum you up? I couldn’t do it.  …Ayla was running around the house the other day and kept going into your office.  We would call her and she would come running back in laughing.  The last time I went in to get her and take her outside she was squatting down on her little legs running her fingers over the pictures of you on your memory boards. She would  point and gently whisper, “Boppa.”  It was the sweetest sound in the world. 

…and Mama, Nathan, and I.  Well, our family feels incomplete.  No matter the noise and the chaos or the amount of people gathering in our home, there is always a void…sometimes it is discussed and sometimes it is left to our own silence…and  when the day clicks over from July to August, the world feels different.  The weather…the light dropping earlier…the coming of fall…all subtle reminders of how our world changed two years ago.  Still, to this day,  I think there might be a time when I walk through those doors and you will be there, smiling..waiting…living and breathing in our same existence… Brady and I took Michael to the zoo and when Michael got hungry, Brady took him to get something to eat while I waited.  There in front of me was a family – an entire, complete family. A dad and a mom, two grown daughters with their husbands and fresh babies. I watched the dad cradle one small baby in his arms while he bounced the other on his knee.  The daughter said, “Dad you don’t have to hold both of them…let me take her from you.” and he said, “No no no…this…this is perfect.”  And it was.  It’s all I could think too.  Before I knew it the tears were sliding down past the shades of my sunglasses. They didn’t stop  until we got out of the city. Those are the things I ache for so badly…the things I am left to envision for myself.  I have to imagine what they might’ve been like in my head knowing they will never come to fruition.  As I continue on in this world, there will always be a part of me that does not feel whole – the part where you should be. 

Amidst the beauty you have left for us, it is days like today, the day you left us, that I can do nothing but wish and yearn and ache for my  old life back.  I want you back. 

You are two years Home today Papa….and we are two years without our Magic.

Missing.

Your Cowcie

For you… 

Sweet Dream

by Greg Laswell.

We’ve planned it for months.  The hair. The make-up. The dress. The tights. The shoes. The pink cupcakes with the “not too light and not too dark” pink frosting complete with cherries on top.  We ran around today grabbing last minute things…found the perfect location with the most beautiful girl waiting to get in front of my lens.  The shoot was scheduled for 6:00. We would shoot until 8:00.  …and at 6:03 the rain came in.  It sprinkled and misted and teased us like it would only be passing through.  With only 12 frames and tears in my eyes, I decided to call it quits.  :(

And at 8:00 as the sky was going dark, the rain stopped. 

Perhaps we shall try again on Sunday…

…she had juuuust enough time to put on her ruffle socks and Mary Janes and get her hair into those adorable piggies.   We had a girls day in Minneapolis and thought we’d end the afternoon by taking some new photos of the RyleyRoo.   My aunt had gotten a new quilt that I wanted to use so we meticulously picked out some cute outfits to match.   Ten minutes later as we were walking out the door, we turned right back around and came back in.  We found ourselves in a downpour.  I watched the rain blow sideways out the window with my lower lip showing.   The  chocolate macaroons and truffles we bought earlier that day came in as close seconds, but I really wanted to capture Ryley.   However, we got lucky.  We literally got about seven minutes to shoot….the only problem being that Miss Ryley is fast. Like, realllly fast. Like, so fast I could not catch her. She gave me a run for my money.   So, as you do, we threw her in the quilt and she thought it was the greatest thing in the world.  I love these images because they are just SO her.  Ryley Roo, I love you I do…

Isabel: Soft and gentle and delicate.  She hugged me as soon as I stepped out of my car and asked me if we’d ever see each other again as we parted.  She’s got a soul far far older than her age…

Olivia:  Sweet and spirited.  Full of energy. Giggles with her whole body. She had me belly laughing when she said, “My mommy told me your hair is blonde, but it looks brown to me?”  ( Smart girl – it had been EIGHT weeks since my last dye touch-up!)

Jack: All boy. An explorer.  Never stops smiling.  I love the first two images as he really did think I couldn’t see him. I told him it was his turn for pictures and he stood behind the tree hoping he’d camouflaged himself.  :)

Sarah e-mailed me awhile back asking if I had any dates open.  I was passing through her hometown on my way home from Minnesota and told her I would be happy to stop and capture her family for her.  However, the day arrived and the forecast did not look good. It had been raining on and off all day and dark clouds were looming above.  …and suddenly we arrived at Mayowood Stone Barn (THEE most beautiful location), the clouds parted, and the sun came out.   I could not believe it.  Sarah is a photographer herself so I was so happy she got to be in front of the lens with her family instead of behind the lens.   They were so sweet and so kind and there was so much love.  The girls ran and laughed and twirled while Jack roamed and chased balloons and practiced his golf swing. :) When Isabel asked me if we’d ever see each other again, all I could think was, “I sure hope so honey.”

Love this last shot of Olivia.  It just reminds me of my own summer nights when I was little..

Sarah, Dave, Isabel, Olivia, and Mr. Jack – thank you thank you thank you for letting me bask in your love for a bit.  I am so happy that the stars aligned and we were able to meet.  Until we meet again…

Much Love,

Krysta

Love