Category Archives: Children
[untitled] | personal
{ Judah & Jordyn | one radon day in april | Tucson, AZ | April 2012}
I found a grip of family pictures in my abyss of ‘personal pictures to edit later’ stash. Lawson snagged these few while on a daddy-date with the kids a few months ago. The picture above of my daughter, Jordyn, makes me smile. This chick is SO girl–neither Lawson or I can get over it. (note–she went through three outfits before being content with the below. destination? a walk around the block with dad. (roll of the eyes). Judah is equally all boy. And while sometimes the differences between both of my children can spark explosive results, they are in a pretty rad ‘he’s my favorite playmate’ stage. Judah protects her. Jordyn streches him to be more daring. They squabble. They wrestle. They giggle their brains out. For all you moms of ONE out there–having TWO is SO much easier. So much more fun. :D I know. Weird. You can choke on your drink if you’d like thinking i’m crazy. But i’m not joking….It just MAKES sense to see them grow together. Learn together. Resolve fights together. Now THREE…(gulp) that might be another story. and in three+ months. my tune might just change a little…for now, i’m embracing all there is in a growing quiver. :) | lkm
DILKS Pt. 1 | Proudly Patriotic | Tucson Family Photographer
{Dilks Family Portrait Session | June 2012 | Davis-Monthan Air Force Base | Tucson, AZ}
Mariby found me online as she ‘searched the snot’ (slight paraphrase of how she described her photographer hunt) for a family portrait photographer. I had yet to shoot on base and was THRILLED to hear of her different ideas with red, white and blue and her desire to capture her little girl’s 1st year. Both Mariby & Ken beam with pride to be an air force family! | lkm
Best Mother’s Day Ever | personal
{Saguaro/Colossal Cave National Park | Mothers Day 2012}
God is so good. It’s taken a pretty incredible 4 years to get to this point of celebrating Mommy Day 2012. I won’t hash out the heart struggles today. I just wanted to share something personal today–my joy in my family. These are my 2 children. I’m pregnant with #3. (sadly we failed to get any baby bump pictures…you can whine at me later – i just look mostly fluffy anyways.)
Lawson suggested we find a place to go hike with the kids. So weird how he reads my mind sometimes. Ive been wanting to check out Saguaro National Park the past few weeks (confession: yes there was an alternative motive that was work-oriented. I’ve been craving to find some crazy awesome Tucson backdrops for portraits…and yes also, I confess I tend to pronounce it SAG WAR OH. laugh and call me gringo. do it. I dare you)
Lawson snagged some great accent shots of desert stuff. 
the kids haven’t been hiking since last summer. I’ve said it before and i’ll say it a thousand times henceforth–the older they get the more fun it is to do stuff like this! Jordyn was so thrilled with the freedom of treking on her own two feet. :D Judah was a little obsessed with stepping on snakes. Dad, in all his mighty warning wisdom, told the kids to be ‘careful of snakes’…Judah freaked a little and we had to coax him a little to be brave and trudge forward…carefully.
they pretended to hunt for tigers in these tall sticks…
as you can clearly see, Judah was a very committed tiger hunter.
by the end of our trek in the desert, you could tell we had run our little munchkins ragged
while resting back in the picnic area Lawson went to go destroy a dead tree with Judah. While ripping off the bark Jordyn was about to thrust herself upon the trunk and try to scale the darn thing. I heard this very fatherly yell, whipped around to find Lawson swopping the kids up and backing up about 10 feet from the tree. Apparently he found a spider cluster. I think he attempted to protect his manhood by insisting it might have been a brown recluse nest. What a hero.
we also had a grand time catching this lil lizard and helping the kids get friendly with it. Judah was pretty sure he was going to lose a limb but still giggled hysterically when he got to feel the poor thing’s racing heartbeat. 
all in all, it was my most favorite mother’s day thus far. definitely beat’s last year’s lonely experience and watching these spawn of mine grow and change rocked my face off. So to sign off…this is them, my offspring, yelling ‘happy mommy day’ at the top of their lungs. :D Peace. | lkm
Child’s Play in Tucson | personal
{Judah + Jordyn | Play Time | January 2012}
I found a few pictures snagged while kids were playing outside a bit ago. Lately i’ve been enjoying these play times more. They’re hilarious…
they really like to play ‘dead’…is that morbid? It’s pretty entertaining regardless. they’ll just fall down and then whisper vigorously–”pssst. moooom. i’m D E A D” – with great gutteral grunts and moans. :)…(do note that even buzz lightyear died)
this whole conversation he had on the phone was hilarious. he was pissed. like royally. and he kept saying things in a nice even tone that got more and more stressed until he was yelling. he must have been dealing with credit card collectors or something. 
Choe Family | Riverside, CA Family Portraits | teaser
{Choe Family Portraits | Riverside, CA | Mach 2012}
Check out this little face :D just wrapped up the edits for the Choe Family sesh and excited about releasing them to the family shortly! :D
Rapunzel/Darth Vadar Kisses Spider Man | Huge Identity Crisis | personal
{Judah & Jordyn | Tucson, AZ | March 2012}
I’m not sure if i need to explain much. Kids found cool Darth Vadar mask that was the result of a recent successful garage sale outing, Jordyn insisted on putting on her Rapunzel outfit from another garage sale find a year ago, Judah put on his 2 year old spiderman hand-me-down costume and then they insisted on giving each other a kiss. Of course I might have made the initial suggestion, but regardless…. mothering is pretty darn hard, but little snippets like these make life make more sense. :D | lkm
Raising Kids | personal
{Judah & Daddy | The plethora of faces we have trained our kids to crank out on the spot | Downtown Tucson, AZ | November 2011}
We’ve had an interesting schedule the past couple months. While Lawson waits to have more hours added to his plate at Starbucks, he’s provided me with a generous amount of ‘work days’ to continue working on photography and developing relationships with fellow photographers and vendors in Arizona. While I love being able to get my productive ‘working girl’ fix throughout the week, I count the enormous blessing of having this man be my kid’s father. He is goofy. He is bizarre. He is passionately in love with his family and dedicated to spending time and providing as darn best he can….And he’s raising his kids to love each other. It really is a pretty beautiful thing. | lkm
my gosh. these kids are awesome :)
Playin’ Dirty | Tucson Mom | personal
{My kids | Tucson, AZ | January 2012}
Activities are a hard thing for me. Creating new things for the kids can sometimes give me stomach aches. I’m not sure why. I’m not sure what the big deal is inside of me head. Am I really so competitive or obsessive that I feel the pressure of making sure each day is impressively packed with the most amazing mommy activities so i get to brag about them to my husband at the end of the day? Seriously. I sometimes think that. ‘Oh fantastic mother you–how wonderful you were to endure an hour of play-doh. your husband with smother you with lavish gifts and acolades for being such a giver.’ How lame Laura. Really. What if i could just GET the fact that Judah and Jordyn just wanna let loose a little and have fun? Doesn’t need a name, a structure, rules or even pictures to prove we did it. What if a mere mound of dirt would be the highlight of their day? I don’t know why this toddler stage stresses me out so much. Its a conundrum. But this particular day i stifled the anxiety about an extra load of laundry, shoes full of sand and an uncomfortable dirt-filled bathtub later and tried to get down n’ dirty WITH them. (after i put the camera away). ta da. | lkm
McPhilipps Family & Co. | Romeo, Florida | Family Portrait Photographer
{McPhilipps Family & Co | Romeo, Florida | October 2011}
Everybody has personality. Some have personalities that bursts, pop, flare, sass, hit you smack in the face, chase you off, draw you near and dear and even makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. I’m sure that is an official title of some cool pyscho-assessing book somewhere in the world. If i were to write a personality book, I’d use these images and the offspring from this little pod to provide case in points. No kidding. When you get a bushel-full of whiz, bang, pow, beat em’ up kinda boys and a heaping cup o’ girly squeals–you’d have to! But don’t take my word for it…
(above) check out that smokin’ gun and that snarl. can’t beat that face. :)
cousin lovin’
(below) this would be, hands down, my first choice for the cover of my book
such sweet little faces
the marshland was eating him…and he had just broken his cool stick
big bro and his sneaky little spit fire of a wingman :)
a mini mommy&me moment
more cousin lovin’
i want this whole cousin series framed :)
Rikki, you scored such a cool backdrop with those huge oak trees and praise JESUS he sent those golden sun beams just for you and aaron at that last minute. :)
McPhilipps & Richardsons… I am so glad I got to snag such a fun collection of memories for your 2011! Thank you so much for getting all dressed up and cozy with family, for trusting me, and definitely for letting the kids whip out all their tricks for the most fun batch of faces, energy and personality i ‘er did see! Happy 2012. I can’t wait for next years!! ;-)
