Becky Higgins Big Photography Giveaway...

So a couple of months ago I discovered Becky Higgins.  She is a little bit of everything...think, home decor, yummy recipies, photography tips and tricks, organization...simply put...everything I'm interested in. ;p  She wanted to see if there were any photographers out there who would give back to their local community.  The community had to then enter in under their city's photographer and enter a reason why they should be chosen.  Kari's jumped right out at me.  I'm such a sucker for Daddy stories...and this one...WOW a year he will be away and serving our country.  Inspiring to me...mainly because this family all works together to protect us...I know that sounds dramatic but its something I feel that is often overlooked.  Another reason this jumped out at me...My husband used to have to be away A LOT and it was hard as a mommy with two kids...and pictures, well, they helped.  I would look at him...remember that moment and it didn't feel so hard in that little small space of time.  So I wanted to give that to Kari's family and hope that it would help in some small way. 
http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/2010/05/colorado-photographer-colorado-springs/ 

And this is why I chose her...
"We are in the springs and would love to have our pictures taken. We are a family of 4, and hubby is getting ready to deploy to Afganistan. This will be his 4th time to go overseas. Our girls are 7 and 2. I would love to have some pics to capture our family before he goes. They are going to change so much while he is gone, I want to capture how close they are to him right now. I know this one is going to be hard on the little one as she is a daddy’s girl and isn’t going to understand daddy’s gone for a long time. Please pick us your work is beautiful and I’d love to have it in our home."

So enjoy some of the pictures from this sweet and beautiful family's photo session

Orange

So remember how I said photography...how I need it to be for me.  Well, this time I was thinking about my front room and how it needs something...I'm thinking orange.  :)  A color I don't often think of but for some reason makes me happy when I do.  In my backyard I have a wild flower garden that has a few bright orange poppies.  Love them.  Did I mention before that flowers make me happy...yes, yes, I have. Especially the flowers in my backyard.  Happy memories of planting various flowers with my mom.  So, today, I'm just enjoying the various colors in the world but in particular orange.  ;p 

A Genuine Love...

Have I mentioned that I love my job.  Yes, I believe I might have once or twice.  :) Why do I love it...because I get to capture moments, I get to observe a different way to love, I watch and often think to myself how cool is this family, couple or person...depends on whom I'm taking pics of I suppose. ;p    And the cool part is you let me.  You let me walk into your family moment and you trust me to capture those moments.  To show you how I see your family and for that, yes, for that, I know I'm blessed.  So, back to the point here...I got to spend an evening with this wonderful family.  I think you will be able to see in these pictures the amount of love that this family has for eachother.  Its in the little details that I see, the hands on eachother, the looks that the Mom and Dad give eachother...the way Dion is captivated by Megan...(he might have kissed her a few times without me prompting him to...just sayin, Dion loves Megan :),the way the older sister is so protective of her little sister.  The older sister, Kaylin, all though she was very shy, her face and her eyes capture another little girl completely.  A girl who has the best little smile and her eyes just show how genuine she is.  Seriously, what a sweetheart.  Little Isabella...I can see she has this family wrapped around her little tiny finger.  All though she is too little to talk much I can tell she is going to have some fun stories someday.  There is something about this familie's eyes that captivated me.  Each and everyone of them was genuine with me.  I loved that about them.  So enjoy one of my highlights for this week.  Such a lovely family. 

Perspective....

So, hmm, how to begin.  Yesterday, was a tough day.  Some moments in your life you just don't see coming.  Life moves on and you realize everything happens for a reason.  Or atleast, I usually get to that point.  What I realized yesterday is...photography, when its just for me...for me to see and just be quite...well, I'm at peace.  I haven't just gone out with my camera, for me, in a while.  And for that, I realized, I can't do that.  I need this.  I need moments to myself.  So that I can get my thoughts and emotions clear. And yesterday was great also in some ways because my husband looked at me and told me he was proud of me, proud of where I'm going and the things I see and can capture.  Ah, moments like that just melt my heart...and so the perspective comes in and I see that hey, life moves on and yeah, I'll be fine.  So, enjoy my quite moment yesterday...it was really for me but I do like to share. ;p 

Happiness

Memories...so many with this family!  Friday night pizza night, Saturday morning sante fe runs (all though usually not after a Friday night get together) birthdays, trips to AZ, projects on the house, babysitting, lunch breaks with the office, Christmas parties...memories...so many with this family.  I share a lot of who I am with them...I've cried and laughed a lot, shared losses and celebrated good times.  So how do I describe this family to you...to describe what they mean to me...I'm at a loss for words but what I can do is tell you that I love them...I love how they relate to eachother.  I love that they found eachother in highschool.  I love that they are CRAZY about Hayley...crazy about my kids.  I love that they are a part of me.  They are a part of my happiness in life.  They just make me happy.  So, this is the Helwege family, a part of my family. 

Nate, Tara, Jack and a beautiful black poodle named Echo

First impression with this family...Fun! I met them in the parking lot and they had this big beautiful dog Echo...Nate was holding Jackson, who at 1 has some cool style going on.  Tara and Ashley...they were laughing at something and def had the beautiful girl next door vibe going for them.  I knew instantly that it would be a fun and relaxed session.  What I loved about photographing them is that they totally made it theirs.  Nate had some really unique ideas that might have made Tara and I a bit nervous with Jackson...only a Dad would come up with a rockclimbing idea.  Seriously cool people.  Had it just been the two of them I would have had them try the cliff jumping idea...just kidding Nate...sort of.   But next time for sure we can try that.  ;)  They also brought a long their really close friend Ashley who is a wedding planner (to all the brides out there I have her name and number should you need a great planner) to help out with Jackson.  I think I might have bossed her around a bit...(or maybe the correct term would be "artistic direction" ha...sounds better that way) but hey she was game and she also had some great ideas for the fam.  So by the end of the session I really just felt a connection with them.  They reminded me of my family...and again, as a photographer its such a blessing for me to be a part of these moments.  So thank you so much!