THE JOURNAL

I told my husband this year it’s a good thing he married me quick, or the next generation would have beat him to this next stage!  Stephanie is my husband’s oldest (and first!) niece, and I met Stephanie through church (as her youth group leader) before I ever knew Daniel existed.  She suggested I date […]

Thank you for 2016. This was the year I took the leap from working for someone to working for myself. The year photography took the spotlight instead of “side job” title. The year I first shot film – and bought a film camera! The year I got to have my first mentoring session – and with […]

Last week we had a big shop party for Daniel’s 30th birthday.  I like to be totally prepared, so after three days of cleaning, baking, decorating and general prep-ment, I was running between the shop and the house (picture the headless chicken), praying I’d actually have time to do my hair before everyone showed up.  (Can […]

It’s 12:30am and I’m up and working on photos – which is normal.  I think any photographer will tell you that.  But tonight’s different because 1) Daniel is up with me and 2) WE CAN’T STOP WATCHING THE BLACKLIST (I mean Netflix keeps autoplaying the next episode.  What are we supposed to do?).  This show […]

Putting together a good outfit is getting harder with age. At least that’s what’s happening to me.  I was fairly confident in my sense of style in high school – because clearly, choosing weather to wear a white or blue monogrammed polo with my grey or plaid pleated skirt was more of a science than art. […]

When I was in high school, I was quite sure I wasn’t going to get married or have kids.  Getting married was something people did because they felt like they should as a natural “next step” in life – plus I was fairly convinced they were just bored being single.  And kids?  Again – the […]

After a pretty solid 10 days of fog and moisture and cold toes, I feel that 1, I need a trip to the beach and the sun and 2, this is perfect weather to post this wintery session. So 1, we booked a trip to Thailand for March (SUN BEACH SUN!) and 2, meet Angela […]

I hate taking down the tree. Don’t get me wrong – about this time of January, I start feeling like the tree is making my house Not Clean or something but taking it down seems to signify the end of something great, and the start of the dreary wait until summer.  I really shouldn’t complain because I […]

Fun fact: This family’s Christmas cards were one of my top 5 favorite this year.  For sure. I may be part of a big family since our March wedding, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t view crowd management and coordination for big family Christmas photos as a feat to be respected.  Blonde hair, klompen…and […]

After a few days of family, family, family (to be clear – Daniel’s family, which includes 7 siblings and their spouses and their 35 total kids [I got married and became a tante {aunt} more times over than I ever expected!]), I’ve realized Scarlett barely even looks like this anymore, so I better hurry up […]