It’s only been a few months since I photographed these dear friends of ours, but a lot has happened since November! Jen, Jon, Declan and family doggo extraordinaire SamSam welcomed baby Rhett into the family in April! He is adorable and a very good baby indeed. He stayed awake most of the time I was there; Jen and I presumed it was because he recognized my voice from all of our themed horror movie nights that involve good snacks, and figured good snacks would be involved. SamSam, doggo extraordinaire, knew good snacks would be involved (at least for her), and she was right. Declan wasn’t sure if there would be snacks or not, but he took great delight in alternatively watching big trucks on their road doing construction and running up and down the hallway calling Jon by his first name after he heard me say it. When he wasn’t doing those two things, he was being a phenomenal older brother to Rhett, whom he loves dearly. Declan is genuinely excited to have Rhett around and his spirits aren’t dampened one bit (I’m assuming because Rhett doesn’t know how to operate Declan’s mini Target shopping cart yet). I’m so happy for this new family of 5 and can’t wait to get to know Rhett!
Ohhh, I had SO much fun with this family! This is one of those cases where my client warns me repeatedly about how awkward and terrible they’ll be in front of the camera, but they end up being total naturals and the easiest people to work with. They were fantastic. Deidre, Eric and I clicked immediately – they have great senses of humor and appreciate the same great things in life like video games and Starbursts. Braelyn, however, took some convincing. Lucky for me, she adores her parents and they have zero qualms about turning her upside down, so we did get her to smile at them (before she remembered I was there). And she has THE cutest smile. Plus she’s like a baby savant. I knew she was only 1, so the chances of her walking were not great yet, but Eric set her down and she ran across the room like a little crazy person. Then she was shooting hoops with ease! And taking apart and putting back together my lens caps with incredible fine motor skills! She’s a smaaaart little baby. And so, so, so cute, just like her adorable parents. So happy to have done the first family photos for this great crew!
When I spoke with Katy over the phone before their portrait session, we got along quite well and talked for a long time about things totally unrelated to portrait planning. And Katy and Jereme are super funny people who have the same sense of humor as myself, so I was quite excited to meet them. And Katy was really talking Lucy up, the way you might talk about someone you’re trying to set your friend up with. “She’s really funny, you’re going to love her.” And she’s her mom and stuff, so naturally you’re going to think your kid is funny and that everyone will like your child (I think this about my cats), and I like children and I was sure I would at the very least like Lucy, BUT SHE WAS RIGHT, I DO TOTALLY LOVE HER. I think my jaw literally dropped open when I saw her. First of all, Lucy has the habit of staring very stoically at people in a quite serious way (which I was warned about ahead of time) but it is SO funny because she has the most INCREDIBLE EYELASHES that I have literally ever seen on ANYONE and this just makes her look so adorably cute that it is instant love. Like, I’ve never seen eyelashes like this. Ever. Well, maybe not in person because she is 100% like that guy that plays Richard on Lost that everyone thinks wears mascara on both his upper and lower lashes but actually just looks like that. It’s incredible and she will never need mascara or eyeliner ever in her life.
In addition to having beautiful eyes, she alternates between extremely serious expressions and THE CUTEST SMILE AND LAUGH that reveals exactly two bottom teeth and is seriously heart-melting. Someone get this girl an ad campaign stat. She loves both her mom and her dad, but I’m not sure I’ve seen any baby look at anyone the way this girl looks at her dad, which is also heart-warming and adorable. Her hobbies include chewing on plastic ducks, hanging out with her very good dog Sammy, waving like the queen as she walks her cart around the house, hugging her narwhal stuffed animal, mailing envelopes to her birthday party (THE CUTENESS), and being generally insanely cute. Her parents are in the medical field, and Lucy is named after a 98 year-old patient that Katy took care of. Grab the tissues and observe the cute.
