Can you believe Thanksgiving is around the corner?  As we near the end of the year and start thinking about the holidays, I’m struck again with how fast life is moving.  So many changes occur when your kids are so little.  Plus, of course, the days are a blur because you are so busy with all the many little things – putting socks on feet, tackling piles of laundry, diapers and more diapers, meal after meal in the kitchen…. There is always something to do.

I try to make it a real priority to get some quality family photos done every year or so.  It takes time and money, but it seems to be one of the very few material things that will actually be around and still cherished decades later.   My walls are covered with photographs of family and travels and special moments.  It’s a necessity for me.

The last photo session we had was last June with Norah was just a couple weeks old.  Jude was wearing pull-ups and looking [and acting] very toddler-ish.  Fast forward 15 months later to a toddler and a relatively grown-up preschooler, and our family looks and feels so different.  It’s crazy the change that occurs in just a few months with kids this age.  It’s bittersweet.

We worked with Andrew Thomas Lee again.  (I’ve said it before, but he is amazing and so easy to work with.  I don’t trust our photos with anyone else!)  Meeting at Sawnee Mountain on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago, the kids were so outrageously uncooperative.  I can’t even explain how feisty they were being about not wanting to be photographed.  I left knowing if Andrew could manage to capture anything at all, he was incredible.  Of course, that’s exactly what happened, and I love the results.

It’s easy to not see the magic when you are in the day-to-day madness of little ones. But looking at photos forces you to step out of that craziness for a minute. I love that.

It’s been a good year, and I’m excited for the weeks we have left of it.