A love note of thank-you's

Thank you for loving me just as I am, and helping me to see that I can do the same.

Thank you for repeating yourself when I’m having a senior moment (which seems to happen quite frequently lately).

Thank you for accepting that I can eat the same 4 meals week in and week out, and for cooking me dinner most of the time because I hate to cook. And let’s face it you’re better at it than I am.

Thank you for accepting the fact that I will never be good at math. Okay, not even sort of good at math.

Thank you also for putting up with and tutoring me during those two semesters I took college algebra and statistics. I know it wasn’t pretty.

Thank you for accepting me, and my crazy/wonderful family for all that they are, the good, the bad, and the very loud.

Thank you for listening when I need to be a girl and vent. Thank you also for trying to hold yourself back when you want to tell me how I can fix it.

Thank you for working so hard, day in and day out, so that you can provide for us and give us such a wonderful life. It doesn’t go unnoticed, I promise.

Thank you for putting up with my morning issues. Enough said.

Thank you for giving me the time I needed to get my heart and head to the same place.

Thank you for your patience, kindness, support, love, and generous nature on a daily basis.

Thank you for putting up with my cold feet under the covers.

Thank you for encouraging me to finish school, and believing in me when I had lost faith along the way. You are my biggest supporter.

Thank you for encouraging me to pursue my passions, and helping me to realize I can accomplish anything if I have enough heart and determination within me.

Thank you for helping me to see the silver lining, on the days when all I can see is grey.

Thank you for doing your own laundry. You have no idea how jealous this makes other married women.

Thank you for being self-sufficient. I love your independent nature.

Thank you for noticing when I get a pedicure or change my hair. Girls like that.

Thank you for loading the dishwasher on a daily basis. This also makes me very happy.

Thank you for talking on the phone with me for long periods of time while you are away for work, even though you are not a phone person. I appreciate it.

Thank you for putting up with me while I figure things out. Even when it takes longer than you might like.

Thanks for realizing that although we came from different places, we can always move towards our shared goals together.

Thanks for always being so honest with me and being a team player.

Thank you for taking my brutal honesty with a grain of salt when I’m having a crap day.

Thank you for showing up and being there for me when I insisted I didn’t need you to be, and helping me to realize it’s okay to be vulnerable and accept help when it is offered.

Thank you for telling me you love me each and every day.

Thank you for being such a wonderful husband. I love you.

And thank you God for your continued blessings, and for giving me the opportunity to spend my life with such an amazing man, friends, and family. You are the center of it all.

Three years later

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything."
~Katherine Hepburn

I love you so much, and I am so happy and grateful that you are my husband. Everyday I am glad that you are the guy I come home too, and share my life with.

Happy Anniversary love.

Starbuck, Morris, Child, Family Photographer: A sunny day on the lake

“I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore. . . .

I hear it in the deep heart's core.”

~ William Butler Yeats

Last week I got to spend some time in the afternoon with Lindsey and her little girl Emma on Lake Minnewaska. It was a gorgeous day on the lake, and Emma and her Mom had such a good time playing and exploring. It was Emma's first time to the lake and the beach, and judging by the smiles and laughs she had a blast. We were taking the session for a surprise Father's Day gift for Emma's Dad.

Thank you Lindsey and little miss Emma! I had so much fun capturing your afternoon. I hope your hubby loved the pictures.

Summer Light

"Oh, the summer night
Has a smile of light
And she sits on a sapphire throne."

~Barry Cornwall

There is nothing like summer light, especially in those golden hours near sunset.

Some more recent favorites..

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million".
~ Walt Streightiff

A summer night on the farm

Michelle is a good friend I met at work shortly after moving to Starbuck. When it was hard to adjust, I always looked forward to seeing her at work and talking about everything and anything. Over the last couple years we have become even better friends, and I had promised her a photo session with her hubby before I move back to Michigan next month.

It was a wonderful evening with magical summer light spent with two of the nicest people I know. I think the love is evident in the pictures. These two were meant for each other.










Oh, and Lucy too :)

Do what you love; and do it often.

I recently watched a small video from a workshop on CreativeLive(awesome site), run by a renown food photography, Penny De Los Santos. The question she was asking her students as she finished the last day of her workshop was,


"If you're not doing what you love, why not?"





Sometimes the only things standing between our goals and aspirations are ourselves. Instead of looking at something and asking "why", I now try to ask "why not". Fear of failure was something that held me back from putting my photography out there to be seen by the masses. What if it wasn't good enough? What if everyone hated it? But not once did I ask myself, so what if they hate it? Or better yet, what if I actually succeed and my clients love the results?

Moving forward with my photography business has been a huge leap of faith for me, forcing me to push past my comfort zone, believe in my creative eye, and trusting that I can capture moments that my clients will absolutely love. It has been so much more exciting and rewarding than I ever imagined, and I am loving the process, mistakes and all. Each new session I feel stronger in my skills, my confidence grows, and I feel content that I am doing what I love, and not for anyone but myself.

Loving the entire process, good and bad is what it is all about.

Shannon Tucker and Family, Morris Minnesota Family Photography, Morris Minnesota Child Photography

I got to spend yesterday evening with Shannon and her little family. We had fun playing at the UMM Gardens and I think we tired them out by the end of the shoot. Thank you Shannon!