Have you ever had your husband suprise you for your birthday or anniversary? A few weeks ago, a friend of ours received a big surprise when her husband plotted a birthday party complete with a suprise photo session and portrait book of her kids taken a few weeks before. He even secretly enlisted her help with getting outfits for the kids and coming up with locations!

He had the family session scheduled for the night of the surprise birthday party to totally throw her off the trail and the kids clothes were all wrapped back up and waiting in the bags for the big event! I think she was totally surprised! I also think she’s going to get him back good when he least expects it! Can’t wait to see what’s in the cards.

Here are a few of my favorites from the studio session! A lot of action and movement and twirls and tickling were going on that day. If you have never tried to focus on a three year, you should give it a try sometime! And then, you should throw a five year old in the mix and just watch the kinetic energy in action!

Happy Birthday, Kristi!

Suprise!

Who is very alert, has big beautiful eyes and pretended to smile at least at least three times for the camera?  It is this little fellow named Lance who graced my studio with his presence last week and he was barely even eight days old!

Félicitations mom & dad!

I went away for a few weeks and came home to these photographs of a beautiful expectant mother. They were just as I remembered them!

I can’t even imagine the anticipation that she and her husband must be feeling right about now. They only have about two more weeks to wait!

Did anyone else loose their minds after that second snow storm in April? After spending a whole year in Alabama, I was not prepared for the long Alaska winters as I had been in previous years. I caved in around mid-April and we high tailed it out of here for some place warmer!

I told my dad not to whack down the yellow flowers (photo opportunity) in the pasture because we were on our way! Remarkably enough, they had not yet bloomed but were in full force two weeks later when we arrived. Once again, the boys had to suffer though several rounds of “photos in the weeds” before we were allowed to return home to AK. We enjoyed 80 degree weather, playing at the fountian in the zoo, finding four orange kittens in the barn, coming across a full deer skeleton, and many, many visits with their best friend from Alabama. They also learned the joy of four-wheeling their gator through the giant mud puddles after a storm!

Now that we are relaxed, refreshed and thawed out, we are ready to kick off summer in Anchorage.

Jamie and Nathaniel were recently engaged and I had the good fortune of taking their photos.  They picked the location — the library — based on Jamie’s love for reading.  What a great backdrop that turned out to be!  We were only “shushed” once and that was during our very first photo.  We quickly learned how to speak via hand signals after that!

Congratulations on your engagement!

Naked babies! I just love them. It seems like somewhere from about seven to twelve months are my favorites for the naked toddler cherubic look. This round fellow had an older sister who was also very sassy and cute! Fun pics from right before the holidays.