Inspired by deb schwedhelm’s project she and 11 other photographers began last summer “what___ looks like” – i have tried to photograph my family more these past few months. i have always looked at it as a chore…just one more thing i need to shoot and edit, i know that’s pathetic so i’ve tried to make a commitment to myself and my family to shoot more, much more this year.

On Thursdays mason, my oldest has karate (Tim Clark Karate)and my younger three have to wait patiently (or not) til he is finished.

noah doing a word search

ava and the word search

then ava gets bored and writes on herself

happy people fingers

mason getting ready to spar

ahh, temple run!

i think he was probably glad he had a cup on this one

bella taking a rest…

noah playing with my scarf

bella playing with a friend

and it’s all over til next week!

A couple of years ago i volunteered as a photographer for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep . NILMDTS is a non-profit organization that offers parents who are suffering the loss of a baby, remembrance photography. The goal is to help in the healing process by honoring the child’s legacy. i’ve had a few calls but have not had any sessions come from them. this past saturday evening i received an email from A Special Wish Foundation, a non-profit wish granting organization dedicated to granting the wishes of children who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening or terminal disorder. Lisa, the program director wrote to say that they had been working with a 2 year old girl, Ingrid, who had a very aggressive cancer. they had planned to send the family to Disney World on Feb. 21. But the day after she started planning the trip, Ingrid’s health took a turn and they had to cancel their travel plans. So Lisa asked the family for another wish. They wanted a family portrait so Lisa found me through the NILMDTS website and contacted me.

I arrived at their home at 4pm this past sunday and ingrid was sitting on her daddy’s lap. she had just gotten up from a nap.

hospice was there speaking with her mom, elizabeth about funeral arrangements so i sat on the couch and spoke with her dad, mike about what their last few months had been like. he seemed exhausted as you might imagine. lots of surgeries, trips to columbus, radiation, meds…i just listened. and asked if i could take some pictures.

she was marked from her radiation treatments and you can see the scar from one of her surgeries across her belly.

after they gave her a bit of medicine and changed her into her pretty pink dress, i saw the first hint of beautiful smile…

this one absolutely melts my heart.

and then everyone was ready for a family portrait!

some friends had just come to the door that ingrid recognized and was happy to see!

but she really wanted to go outside. i got to thinking she had probably spent very little time outside during her life.

but mommy always makes things better…

and the visiting friends brought a puppy! ingrid was very curious.

Elizabeth said she had painted ingrid’s nails earlier that day…especially for her photo shoot!

ingrid “doing” her mommy’s nails

it was 5pm now…i had been there about an hour and i could tell ingrid was starting to get tired again.

so she grabbed a seat on her mommy’s lap and played on an ipad…ipads always make you feel better!

everyone tried to make ingrid laugh!

i packed my things and said my goodbyes to the family.

i went home that evening and loved my children and my husband even more. i watched their expressions more closely, i listened to them more intently, i hugged them tighter and kissed them longer.

i feel blessed that i was able to take these pictures for mike and elizabeth. as i was editing this post i received an email from lisa that ingrid passed away sometime early this morning. thank you mike and elizabeth for allowing me into your home for a special few hours. may you find peace and see ingrid again one day.

goodbye sweet girl.

Yes, it does look like a Ford commercial! The truck was her dads and having her picture taken with it was one of things Mallory wanted to do! So we went to her friend’s grandparent’s farm and had some fun. Love, love the cowboy boots and prom dress!!

This look….nailed it!

This is one of my faves. Love the jump and the birds flying in the background. Thanks mallory for letting me take your senior pics!

The shot below was taken on Spencer’s bed. I asked him if he could bounce on it…he was not shy about doing that for me!

Mr. Brody was napping when I arrived….here he is getting ready for his closeup!

There it is….the orange Trash Truck ! Oh and Blue (the dog) of course.

After we did some outside shots we went back to Matt and Jamie’s house to do a few of Carter playing. They told me he spends a lot of time on this couch looking out the window!

How cute is this…hugging the sock monkey that popped up!

And lastly we went to the park to play on the merry go round. You can see Carter loved this thing!

His shirt says it all. soooo cute i want to eat him up!

Love you guys, thanks for letting me photograph your family!

Isabelle turned 7 the day before our shoot. She was very excited about it!

She stays with her grandmother every summer so we get to see her a lot at the pool during the summers. Her grandmother told me that I look similar to her daughter, Isabelle’s mom, and thought that Isabelle would relate well to me during a shoot. We had a really great time together in her grandmother’s backyard! We looked at potato bugs, talked about birds, made different funny faces and enjoyed the morning.

She got this unicorn as one of her presents. It’s name of course was Corny. We had both recently seen Despicable Me so we bonded over the fluffy unicorn scene in the movie!

Doesn’t this make you want to be 7 again?

What a sweet sweet girl. Until next summer, Isabelle…