This beloved family of mine! Well, technically they aren’t my own family, but they are my clients and they have taught us how to make some of the best cocktails we know how to make, so they’re basically family. There was also a brief mention of them possibly inserting Geoff into the background of their Christmas card with the intention of telling people that they recently adopted a 36 year-old software engineer. Maybe next year. You guys remember these folks from our million past sessions with them (go look at that link if you want to reverse time and see Laurel and Sam when they were SO LITTLE – I can feel myself embarrassing them as we speak). We love them and adore them. They went through a lot of heartache last year after losing their beloved Frenchie named Frank, but after a while they decided it was time to add a new Frenchie to the mix, and they recently adopted Simon. Simon is a little ball of sturdy muscle and cuteness. He just turned one, so they threw him a little party. He was mildly impressed. We were much more thrilled than he was to see him wear a birthday hat.

This child! Oh man, this child. His name is Wyatt and he’s currently two years old. Last year, he hated hats. This year, he’s moved on from his disdain for hats and instead is now laser focused on his love for slides and Locopops. By and large, he prefers an extremely clean existence and isn’t very fond of grass or bugs. He possesses an undeniable skill for striking unprompted senior picture poses even though he’s not yet in preschool. He can name all the names of the animals on the carousel, and pretends to cry in a corner if you ask him to take pictures by some flowers. His incredible hair is easily afflicted with static cling. He runs very quickly when excited and wants to climb all the things he can’t reach. When he can’t climb them, he’ll ask you to climb them instead so he can watch. He likes to pretend that he’s very serious sometimes but he can’t keep up the charade for that long. He goes extremely slowly down slides and is thrilled nonetheless. He loves swings and is unsure about sand. He is one of my favorite clients.

I’ve known Lacie for years through my work with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, and she’s one of the happiest, bubbliest humans I’ve had the pleasure to know. I’m always excited to see her whenever I do work for the DRA or whenever I randomly run into her in downtown Raleigh. I had met her husband Adam during one of these random run-ins (I believe outside of The Pour House, which he owns), but I was excited to spend more time getting to know him during his and Lacie’s newborn shoot with their son Desmond. Turns out that Adam is equally as amazing as Lacie, and also has very incredible hair. Desmond has a little bit of hair, but I’m kind of surprised that he didn’t come out with some sort of flowing mane as a nod to both his parents. He does, however, have baby eyebrows! Adorable. He was very excited and interested in what we were doing, so he wasn’t a big fan of sleeping except for a.) when he was held or b.) whenever Adam would put on Surfer Rosa by The Pixies. I have 100% confidence that he’s going to be a super cool kid because his parents are, plus he’ll be attending a lot of shows at The Pour House sporting his adorable baby headphones. A huge congratulations to Lacie and Adam, and a big welcome to the world to little baby Desmond (also a big big pet and a “WHO’S A GOOD BOY” to doggo Mud).