Anyone remember this family?? Or this Mini Session??
This was my very first mini session EVER. It might have been my first paid session ever?? I’m not 100% positive on that, but I’m thinking it might have been!!
Back in 2017, Nicholas was just a few months old, and this family was one of the 2 (count them… One, Two.) strangers who booked me. (TWO!)
I felt all kinds of feels. Defeated. (Why doesn’t anyone want me to take pictures of them for almost FREE?!) Excited (STRANGERS are paying me MONEY to take their PICTURES?!!?!) Nervous (omg STRANGERS are paying me MONEY to take their pictures…)
But this baby. Like so many, of course, he was precious. Nicholas was special, though. He and I hit it off; he was smiling instantly, and was SO sweet.
And guess who emailed me when he turned ONE?!?!!? His mommy!!
We shot his Cake Smash session at Vines Botanical Gardens in April, 2018. I’d just gotten a brand new Canon 7D Mark II and also a shiny new 70-200 2.8 lens to go with it. My mentor, Glen with Pixel This Photography, told me to bring that big ol’ puppy to Nicholas’ Cake Smash for some awesome pictures. Boy was he right. Although it’s not *technically* great, the one of him standing in between Paige and Nick is still one of my favorite photos ever. He’s just precious. (And his hair is so much lighter than I remember it!)
Well, he’s grown.
And he’s gotten himself a little sister. 🙂
Baby's First Cake Smash | Vines Botanical Gardens in Loganville, Georgia
Paige’s parents came out to celebrate (and help us!) capture his little sister’s Cake Smash. What an honor it is to be apart of this family’s precious memories.
Meet Lilah.
This precious little girl is about to turn one, and her big brother Nicholas is (and I’m NOT even kidding) absoultely in love with her. Most almost-three year olds would be jealous, and running around in front of the camera for my attention.
Not Nicholas.
He’s simply in awe of her.
Motherhood
I’m not sure how many people who are reading this are mothers, but motherhood is something unique.
I don’t like to leave out populations of people; it’s not my style.
But, really. There’s something about motherhood… Having a baby. Raising a baby. Watching a toddler. Seeing a preschooler… that is unlike ANYthing else in this world.
Paige: My life has changed incredibly since becoming a mom. It’s a lot different than I ever could’ve imagined it would be. I never loved someone or something as much as I love my children. But most days it can be the good, bad, and ugly all mixed in together.
I couldn’t agree more.
I remember when Kellen (my 12-year old) was born.
I saw the world in an entirely different light. I (slowly, and painfully, yet instantly) grew into a different person.
Literally every single thing in my life was assigned new meaning. Everything had a purpose bigger than me.
I became a person who had a whole other human… now outside of my body… to care for. Nourish. Raise. Teach.
It was terrifying. I almost didn’t recognize myself at times, and I didn’t always know what to do. And it terrified me.
Motherhood is one of those things that can be beautiful and hideous all at once. Where ugly crying and insane laughing sometimes happen at the same time… And though that makes no sense at all, it happens. Really, it happens.
And it’s special.
Paige: A typical day for us consists of me chasing Lilah around and trying to keep up with her. She gets into everything these days! She’s so mischievous… Every time I catch her doing something she’s not supposed to do, she gives me this slight grin and does it some more.
Nicholas tries to help me out with Lilah when I’m doing things around the house. He’s such a protective big brother but also a huge tattletale. So, naturally, Lilah doesn’t get away with much.
Now that Lilah is getting olde, she and Nicholas spend most the day playing together. It’s the sweetest thing ever to see them when they are playing nice together, and I can’t help but wonder how close their relationship will be as they grow up.
Mixed in with all the cuteness, it can be physically and emotionally exhausting trying to keep up with two children two years old and under. I have never drank so much coffee in my life until I had kids. Most days I drink an entire pot of coffee by myself.
Uh... Can I interject here?!
AMEN, SISTER!!!! Although In don’t (God knows me) have two under two, I am raisin BOTH my hands in the air in agreement!!
Coffee. It’s hot. It’s got caffeine. Its aroma is to die for.
The kids are cute, and the grocery store has, like, chocolate and stuff, but Thank. God. For. Coffee.
Paige: I’m constantly doing something for someone or trying to keep up with the house.
Last interjection, I promise.
This is so true. Doing something for someone else. All. Day. Long. And even the things I do for “myself”, like laundry, just undo themselves. Because clean clothes are fun to unfold and throw off the table. Right? (ugh.)
But these are the moments that will be gone… We’ll miss them. I know we will.
Paige: Then when the kids aren’t being nice to each other my day consists of a lot of screaming and crying. The second I turn my back, one of them did something to upset the other and the screaming tells me it’s absolutely the end of the world.
But in the day in and day out I try to take time to slow down and just enjoy my children being little. Which, these days, is actually harder than it should be… The days literally fly by and before you know it they aren’t babies anymore. I used to have all the time in the world to be able to soak up Nicholas when he was a baby. With Lilah I really haven’t been able to do that. I don’t know where the time went with her and how in the world she’s one year old!
The days are long, but the years are short. -Gretchen Ruben
A huge thank you to Paige for letting us in on her life, and so openly (and generously) taking the time to write for us.
What a treat.
Love,
Rocheal
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