Merry Christmas

I have so many more sessions from this fall that never made it to the blog. Our life has been consumed with preparing for traveling to Ethiopia and getting orders out before Christmas....Look for lots of fun on the blog in the coming weeks!

In the meantime...our Christmas Card this year....

Celebrate Adoption Session

These sessions are quickly becoming my favorite! It's so fun to see a family that is on a similar path that my own family is on and get to capture their new family images. Since we still have not gotten to travel to bring our son home, I get to live vicariously through these other families that are becoming great friends. We had heard so much about this family...and finally had a chance to meet. We have lots of things in common and it was great to see their family in action.

I recognize it's no small feat to get four boys and yourselves ready for pictures! Everyone has to have the right clothes, their hair done, be in good moods....and they were all still smiling! They rocked it! We finished everything we needed to photograph in less than an hour....and got some AMAZING images!

They brought their fourth baby home 6 months ago but you would think that he had been there forever! He fits right in and none of the kiddos are lacking in the personality department!

Check out this STUNNING family image!

One of just the boys....PRECIOUS!!!


The two that are responsible for this crew! Aren't they cute? I love the few minutes that we always take to grab couple images at family sessions...so important to remember how you fell in love and why you're still in love (not to mention the gorgeous color on the trees)!!!


Onto the kiddos.... He was so funny! Full of laughs....and he would blow me a kiss! Melt my heart!


Love those two front teeth! Couldn't resist this one....


And his brothers... Little guy on the left was 2 and couldn't get enough of the camera. He would tell me when I didn't have him do a pose that I asked of his brothers. The big man on the right is the oldest of the crew....he is super sweet and sooo helpful with his brothers!

Look at his BLUE eyes! I haven't touched his eyes in my editing....it's all natural! He's the second in line and he was so mature...but has that boyish curiosity!

So I can't end this without sharing this next one....I told you the little guy totally fits in...and ADORES his brothers. If they were going somewhere he was not going to be left out! He wanted to be right there with them!


Thanks again for allowing me to capture these moments in your life! Such a blessing to capture these images and meet new friends! I think our boy and yours will be great friends!


If you know a family that has adopted in the last year or is in the process of adopting, tell them to give me a call to set up a session with a complimentary session fee!

Kev

I don't even know where to start with this one....you see Kev has been a part of our life since we moved here 5 years ago but even more so in the last 3-4 years. His mom is one of my bestest friends and so Kev has been around A LOT through the years. He is the closest to a little brother that I might have. I am so impressed with the man that he is becoming...he will do anything without too much complaining (except take Senior Pictures). He has a servants heart and is compassionate towards others. It's hard for me to imagine him away at college...I know it is hard for my husband to imagine that as well! His mom works tirelessly for our church so Kev has always been around the office. He and Mike often take breaks to play ball in the hallway or just goof off together. It's not gonna be the same when he heads off to college....

Despite his protest he came over one day and we captured some great images of him to document his senior year.



This is just one of several pictures that I will make sure come back to haunt him. :)




This is one of my favorites....


LOVE the fall trees...I'm really missing them already!



I wouldn't do this to many others....I promise....but I couldn't resist a little video to show how many times he "tried" to be difficult. We love him anyways! :)

Mr. Handsome!!!!

If there were a contest for the most times photographed by me....this little man might win! It has been an INCREDIBLE honor to watch him grow up. He's the big 2 now and let me tell you he was AWESOME! Two is a challenging age....but he loves me (at least I like to think so). We had a blast playing with his football...playing catch (he's pretty good!)...and running...and riding his bike. We thought this session might never happen after several unavoidable reschedules but we squeezed it in just in time for the holidays.


LOVE his facial expressions!


This might be a favorite for me....


but it almost ties with the next two.....

Who can resist sweet little boy kisses for mommy...

Do you see now why it's so hard to pick favorites?

On a roll

I'm on a roll tonight and trying to catch the blog up a little bit....it's hard to do in the fall! It's such a great time for family sessions and this one is no exceptions. Here's just a peak of the fun we had with this big crew!

Beautiful Fall Evening

This session is almost a month old now....but it was a gorgeous fall evening. We were invited to photograph this sweet family on the family property and it was picturesque. Lots of winding trails, beautiful color, and a great pond. I couldn't ask for much more! We had lots of fun getting relaxed family images of their family having fun together! These days might be long with two little ones but the years will pass quickly.

I'm super excited to see this one on momma's mantle....it will look awesome in the 20x30 she ordered. You can't go too big....


This image was taken right after we arrived....she is a sweet little girl!


Look at those eyes!


We were in a small group with this family when they had this handsome little man....I LOVE his curls!


Another fun family image!


He has "guys" and I love that he has some of his "guys" in this picture. PRICELESS!!


Family sessions are fun and create great images! Thanks for looking!

A Brief Interruption to the Regularly Scheduled Program

I wanted to jump on here tonight to share with my awesome clients some EXCITING news in the Darling household!

Yesterday afternoon we received the call we have been waiting a year for....

Our adoption agency called to tell us about a little boy....and we are IN LOVE!! He is 3 months old and perfect. I have written a lot more about it on our personal adoption blog if you want to check it out www.darlingjourney.net.

I'll write more later ....

Another Curious Boy

Seems like we photograph in waves around here and for awhile it was several 2 year old boys, which makes for lots of fun and running around. This little guy came back to see us and kept us on our toes. I wish I could see what's going on in their little minds....it has to be so interesting!

Can you just imagine what he's thinking here?

Love that little smile...he just looks so handsome.


Nothing better than some tickling and capturing the squeals!


This age allows us to get creative with our family images. These two are my favorites! Who wouldn't love to capture the love and fun you have as a family when your kids are toddlers? These will be priceless images in just a few years!

BLOG OVERLOAD!

Okay, get ready because there is about to be a blog overload! The last few weeks we have been SLAMMED and we love it! This time of year we get to see lots of our repeat customers and that is the biggest compliment anyone could ever give me! I love getting to catch up with everyone and see how big all of these kiddos have gotten in the last year.

The first one to star on the blog was a FUN session! Seems like there are LOTS of 2 year old boys and you know what two year old boys do? They play and they play HARD! They keep me on my toes and it's fun!

This session really ended up being a relaxed session and we just caught them playing and having FUN!

Let's just start .... This is one of my favorites!



Who doesn't love a good thumb? I love that he is holding onto his blanket as well!


Love the owl on his shirt!

Holiday Cards!!!

It's that time again! I'm not sure where the year went. Our year has been filled with lots of transitions and preparations as we get ready to welcome a new little one into our family. We have spent lots of time completing paperwork and have been on a waiting list now for 7 months! We can't wait to see a picture of his sweet little face.

In the meantime...it's time to order your Holiday Card! If you have had a session with us this year we can work together to design a perfect Christmas card! If you would like to do a card but we haven't had our session yet, I would love to work with you to accomplish that!

If I have enough interest I will schedule a day of mini sessions! Just contact me and we'll discuss the details.

The first two sets our the new 2010 designs for Darling by Design...and the last two sets are previous years designs that are still available.

Pick out your favorite and give me a call or send me an email darlingbydesign(at)gmail.com.

Paducah Senior

Several weeks back we had the privilege of capturing senior pictures for one of our students at our church. We have watched this group of kiddos grow up since they were in eighth grade and it seems crazy to think that they will be graduating this year. It has been so fun to watch them mature and become adults that have big dreams and aspirations!

We are confident they will all succeed and feel honored to get to watch along the way!

We captured a variety of images and I couldn't be more pleased with the gallery. It was painstaking for me to try to narrow the gallery down that I presented to his mom and dad!