Just A Normal Saturday | Nashville Family Lifestyle Photography

Oh yes. You read that correctly. Ashton and Elijah.

The Ashton and Elijah everyone oohed and aahed over not even two months ago or so when they were first born. Oh, how tiny they were.

And still are, really.

Small enough to leave echoes of pitter-patters in my heart, that's for sure. Sigh.





After about a month and a half of foiled plans, due to sicknesses and snowstorms, I finally got to spend some time catching up with Amy and Josh and their boys this past weekend.

By this point, both Amy and I were close to dying to get some updated shots of the little ones and their big brother Avery. And boy, if I don't fall in love with this session over and over again everytime I look at it...











And if there's a picture out of all of them that gets my heart stuck in my throat upon each glance, it's this one:



When I look at Avery, I feel the way I do when I was sitting across from Amy at a restaurant and she shared the news that after so long, there would be a little one on the way. Oh how my heart literally leapt out of my chest to match the tears pouring from my eyes. I see joy and hope and purpose beyond all measure when I look at that face. The face of the first world-changer in a line of three...

And I definitely see the last (almost) two years having gone by way, way too fast.







I love when a family opens their hearts and home up to me. When they trust me with their story. And when the stories are sometimes as simple and still incredibly beautiful as a Saturday afternoon watching "Little Einsteins", feeding your seven week (and a day) old newborn babies, eating popsicles, and being a family.

Because in the normalcy of life, there are always those moments as big as the ones seen on stage or in movies. And I get to see and capture them, often when no one is looking.

I love that my job is to help people remember what they don't always see.











Amy and Josh, thank you for sharing your Saturday with me. For having been such a constant in my life for the last umpteen years. For being friends and role models, confidants and supporters. For making such beautiful and wonderfully perfect children.

I am truly honored to be a part of your story.

Meet Ashton & Elijah - Nashville Newborn Photography

Every baby is a miracle, I know this much. All of the moments that happen and in one instant, a perfect and beautiful little life is created. New life, for me, is so refreshing to behold - realizing how tiny and small and yet profoundly significant our lives are.



Amy and Josh are no stranger to miracle babies. Their firstborn, Avery (quite possibly one of the most handsome red-headed toddlers you might ever meet) was the victory after several years of a hard-fought battle to have a child. After so long, a proverbial white flag went up and the next thing you know, two lines show up on a stick. On February 21, 2008, they welcomed their son into the world.

Fast-forward nearly two years later to just last Friday and the two of them found themselves welcoming not just one, but two, new miracle babies into their arms. Twins. And boy twins at that. Ashton Michael and Elijah Nathan. All jokes aside (Amy can attest to the months of harassment she's gotten about the gaggle of boys she'll have at home), I know not too many women strong enough to take on everything that will come in this new season in the life of their family. Or men, like Josh, who will be an incredible model for his sons or such strength and support to his wife.











Amy has been to me a constant support and encouragement over the years and I'm thankful for the friendship we have in her and Josh. I am thankful, too, for the opportunity to capture some of the small, sometimes forgotten moments in the first couple of a days of these new miracles' lives.

More of The Mundkowsky Family

I just can't get over this session. And not because I think my photography is anything special, but because this family truly is. I love how they have these routines that are so a part of the season in their life right now that it was important to Jeff and Becky for those to be captured in photos.

And captured they were.

Having recently moved to the area from San Antonio, it seems they're settling in just fine. From snack time to brushing your teeth to playing outside, the thing about family is the location may change but the heart doesn't have to. It's all in what you make it!

See more from Mundkowsky Family Lifestyle Portrait session.

Preview: Mundkowsky Family

Does this picture not kill you?



Meet Miles. An adorable two year old with quite the personality, one that certainly kept me on my toes. This is just a snippet of the morning I spent capturing the Mundkowsky Family in what one might call "a morning in the life of" these recent Tennessee transplants.

Can't wait to show you more!

Preview: Beckham

Here's one of my favorites from yesterday's session at Dragon Park with a darling (almost) two-year old named Beckham and his lovely parents. I couldn't get enough of this kid!

More to come...

Love to Span the Time

Classic. Timeless. True.

These adjectives come to mind when I think of Molly and Jonathan. This is a couple that has loved each other from a time when one could hardly know what love actually means. And now they do.

They have grown. They have fought. They have laughed. They have become. All within the boundaries of a commitment to each other and to a life together filled with all of the good and bad stuff in life.

We spent a late evening together a couple of weeks ago celebrating this commitment in image form. Molly's late great aunt owned a beautiful property called Hardwick Farms in Cleveland, TN, whose rolling green hills, giant koi pond and waterfall, veranda-like home, and picturesque red wooden bridge served as the perfect backdrop for their session.

See more from Molly & Jonathan's session here.

Newborn: Wyatt

I'm a sucker for babies.

If you know me at all, then you most certainly know it's true. I can be practically anywhere with anyone and when a baby, infant, or toddler enters the room or comes into my line of sight, you might as well forget me paying attention to anything but that tiny, ever-adorable creature.

I love making googly eyes, silly sounds, and capturing a baby's attention. Sometimes it's a hard-fought battle, but there's hardly a greater feeling than that, for me, and I'm not ashamed to say it. I'm also pretty darn good at it, too. That is, making a fool of myself for the delight of a tiny human.

But the tiniest ones are the most interesting to me. Because I can do little in the way of making them as equally enamored with me as I am with them. But there's still such joy in being with a life that is hardly a day or even a few weeks old, as I was recently.

You may remember this incredible couple from their maternity session two months ago.

Well, this is the precious life they played a part in creating.

Every second I spent with this sleeping angel was like heaven. It's amazing that little to no attention was paid to me by him and yet I still felt so full. So entirely satisfied to inspect and capture his gentle and sweet frame with my camera. He will never be this small again, and I hope I have helped preserve for his parents the beauty and wonder that is a newborn life - their newborn son, Wyatt James.

Click here to see more from Wyatt's newborn session.

A First For All

It's a story of boy meets girl - girl meets boy in the most unlikely of places. And I just so happened to be there for the start of it all. It goes without saying that, for Katherine and Jeremy to invite me to capture such a beautiful and important piece of yet another chapter in their life together, I am quite honored.

Jeremy and Katherine's story is a beautiful one. One that began one week in March on the Appalachian Trail and continues to this day, more than four years later. Married just over one year after meeting and now expecting their first child three years after that, Jeremy and Katherine are such a wonderful example of what it means to love and to build a family out of that foundation of sacrifice - of patience - of adoration and respect.

They are such a fun, energetic, and easy-going couple. That being said, an abandoned barn out on a distant country road in Middle Tennessee was the absolute perfect setting for their maternity session, today. Braving the tallest grasses known to man, an unexpected trip to the local convenience store for double-A's, and the requisite unknowns that exist for a setting like this, Katherine and Jeremy were a stellar pair.

Here's just a peek at just one great shot from our late afternoon together:

Fun With Families

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of spending time with this wonderful family out at Cheekwood for the sunny afternoon hours of a warm day in Nashville.



Ezra, the cute-as-a-button boy in the orange shirt, just turned three a week or so ago, and turns out it's a perfect age to have pictures taken! So much personality, answering to no one, and so inquisitive about the world around them. Made for a lot of fun for me and a tuckered out three year-old after our hours together.

Oh, and do you recognize this little guy?



It's my brave little former guitar-laying model Lincoln! I was shocked to see how much he'd grown and changed since we last spent time together. He was so much more alert and aware of the camera. Made for some great time with him as well.



Melissa and Mark are such a fun couple, so creative and laid back. It's no wonder I adore spending time with their kids - their great to be around, too. I can't help but look at these pictures and long for the day when we have our own.

In the meantime, I'll just keep having picture fun with families!

Childish Wonder

I just love the expression on Allison's face, here.



There's nothing so fun as spending a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the park with a one-year old. I could snap a handful's worth of CF cards as I watch their epressions change so very much from one moment to the next.

I love what I do!