Sarah Beth Photography

To my sweet little monster, I hope you never lose your passion.  Some days with your tantrums and outbursts are a challenge. I often have to remind myself that you are only acting like a 2 year old and thats just how it is. You don't understand what feelings are. You don't know you are mad or sad or even what those words mean.  But when you are so happy with excitement or screaming with rage, I hope you know its ok to feel. The people nowadays, myself included, can be ashamed or afraid to show they care. You are reminding me everyday that I should care. Its ok to be heartbroken because something you care about isn't going as you had hoped. Its ok to try, and sometimes fail.  Every time I encourage you to get back up and try again, I am also reminding myself. And for that, I thank you, little one. Sincerely, Your sometimes too strict mother

Who says we have to ONLY document the good times? I never thought I would miss a screaming baby until I was getting induced in the hospital and could hear others' babies crying. I was ready for it again. One day, not too long from now, I will miss these toothless shouts. When his biggest problem is needing a bottle or a new diaper. There are no real problems for him, yet. This is the time we all need to enjoy!

Today was the first day back to work since having my second child, Jack. It was bittersweet, as these things are. I couldn’t help but feel like a failure. I didn’t get all the things done that I had intended. There were closets still full of clutter, unorganized kitchen cabinets, and of course I didn’t schedule nearly as many sessions as I had hoped. But what I did accomplish were countless morning cuddles with my sunshine boy. Building towers as tall as I could reach with my big girl. Watching time fly by, wishing I could reach my arm out and press pause just to catch my breath. Sometimes I look at everything other people have and cant figure out how they got it all. Then I realize there are things I have, that those other people do not. And neither of us wishing we had the others’ life are getting anywhere daydreaming.  Success is for the doers. Carpe Diem, my friends.

Sometimes things just work out. Like having great weather and a fun, photogenic family to work with! Thanks again, Beth and Mike, for letting me photograph you and your adorable boys! 

My husband is always wondering why I take pictures like this and love them so much. I'm not quite sure really, I think I just want to remember every little detail. And besides, who doesn't love baby toes?

Our newest bundle of joy arrived June 1st and weighed 10lbs 2oz. No wonder I waddled so much at the end. Jack, or Baby Jack Jack as Caroline calls him, is 6 weeks old now and growing at an almost alarming rate. Caroline is still as ornery as ever and not too thrilled about being a big sister. I think she was waaaay too acclimated to being an only child, haha. But, she is getting better every day! The next 2 weeks before going back to work are going to be bittersweet. I'm ready to be back to a normal schedule but I will miss getting all the baby snuggles in and being able to take things at our own pace. If only we could have it all!

Being on maternity leave with my oldest, Caroline, made me realize I could never be a stay at home mom due to running out of projects to work on. This time around, being on leave with Jack AND Caroline made me realize I could never do it because theres no time to work on any projects! Trying to get back into the swing of things has given me a whole new appreciation of nap time. Sweet Dreams, little ones 💛

Happy Wednesday! This past weekend we had a little cookout and my husband smoked some ribs and a chicken, yum! But as the sun was slowly going down, something about the lighting had me wanting to get some specific shots to play around with in photoshop. The past couple weeks of maternity leave have left me with so much free time I scour the web for any tips and tricks of the trade I could learn. I ended up finding some different techniques for adding in a dramatic sky overlay. The first image did not go over so well.. Second try was better but still not as good as I wanted.  Third times a charm! Also, none of these kids are mine. The first one is Alan, our friends' son, and the second two are our nephews Corey and Kallen. My wonderful daughter decided to run away screaming "nooooo!" every time I pointed the camera at her. Kids are the best.