Johanson Family Orchard Session {Brewster}

 I know it can be challenging when you have babies and toddlers to want to document family pictures every year because it can be a lot of work to coordinate outfits, plan a time, and hope for their happiest mood, but I have a trick for you!  This is something that I've learned specifically from this family but also from the families I've been able to document in the last several years.  

I think the first time I took pictures of Taylor, she was two, she was adorable of course, had super sweet outfits and was willing to hang out with me for the time we did pictures and we got some great pictures of her.  However, I don't think she thought it was the most fun she ever had.  But a few months later we did more pictures and when her sister was born we did more pictures and in between shoots her mom would talk about "doing pictures with Tiffany" and make it sound like it was the best thing ever (at least I'm pretty sure that's how it happened based on our conversations ;) ).  So now when we do pictures, Taylor is actually really excited for pictures, it's a special thing that she gets to do and I absolutely love hanging out with her!  We've developed a little bond so that hopefully when her sister gets bigger she'll just always know that pictures are a fun adventure that we get to do!  

So here's my trick, find someone that you feel like you can build a relationship with and that you love their work, then do pictures on a regular basis.  That doesn't have to mean every month or 6 months, but every year document your family as they grow and change and once it becomes something that everyone looks forward to it doesn't have to be challenging!

Now, back to the Johanson family!  These two girls are almost exactly the same age as my boys which makes it really fun to see the reverse of our family and I am right in the same stages so that makes my job easy.  I had the hardest time deciding on pictures to share as favorites because I just loved everything about this session!  And seriously, check out every expression of Taylor's because she just loved being in front of the camera and I think Dani is going to be right there with her in a year or so because she was giving me all kinds of smiles.  They are seriously the sweetest family and I loved every minute with them!

Quincy's Senior Session {Brewster}

Quincy joined the city of Brewster two years ago and I know from personal experience that joining a new school when you are a junior in high school can sometimes be difficult, especially when you’ve lived in a different area most of your life.  However, Quincy never once complained about the move or had anything negative to say for any of our session. His positive attitude and willingness to try out different locations and ideas, even if they may have seemed a little crazy, made this session so fun and relaxed.

One thing about pictures with me is that most likely you will be on more of an adventure than a formal photography session.  I would rather get to know you as a person than just do pictures because I think that is the easiest way for me to capture your personality, not just what you look like. 

For the last couple years, Quincy has worked for Gamble Sands, which is a premiere golf destination in our area and where some of the pictures took place.  It has spectacular views and it’s such a peaceful environment.  I can tell he is great at his job of hanging out with golfers all day and helping them with whatever they need, since he was so easygoing and positive just in the time I was with him.  Not only has he been taking college courses at the same time as finishing his high school classes but he also pitches for the Brewster high school baseball team, and will be able to continue to do what he loves on the baseball field next year at the collegiate level.  All of that to say he has so many accomplishments to be proud of, both on the field and in the classroom!

Adriana's Senior Session {Brewster}

You would never believe that during this session the most insane weather was going on!  I'm talking huge gale winds so strong that sticks and thorns from the hillside were hitting me in the face while I was trying to shoot!  Now I can pretty much shoot in any kind of situation but wind and I have just never been friends.  I grew up in an area where we would have windstorms all the time so it's not new to me, I just really dislike it.  But Adriana was amazing and never once complained about having her perfect long curls getting whipped about, or having dust hit her in the face.  In fact she just kept looking more amazing the more pictures we did!  Adriana is one of the seniors that once again had Kyle and I in our first years in the Brewster School District.  

This class will always be so special to me because I was able to work with them during middle school, which for a lot of people is a pretty interesting time to say the least!  I have always loved how straightforward Adriana is, even in middle school if I had a question about something I could count on her to tell me what was going on.  I have loved getting to see her grow and change and be so close to being done with school!  She is going to be studying to be dental hygiene in the fall and then going on to nursing after that.  I know her drive and willingness to pursue great things are going to carry her far and I can't wait to see what she does after that!

Roman's Birth Story {Wenatchee & Brewster}

I’m really in denial about this, but when I publish this my baby will officially be one year old and I am so much more aware of how fast time goes with his birthday than with Kamden.  Because it’s been one whole year I thought it would be a good idea to write down this story before I forget any of the details.  I know I love birth stories but I’ve never written my own before and this blog is one way I can document my own family history as well as getting to share stories for others.  And since pictures are life in my house I’ll be sharing some of those first moments as well as his precious newborn pictures.  

Originally I was due on April 13th, however, when April 13th came and went I had to set a date for induction which I was praying would not happen.  I had been having contractions since the end of February so I fully intended to have that baby early but that didn’t happen either.  Now interestingly enough I found out that after your specified due date people feel fully justified in making all kinds of encouraging comments, such as, “Well I guess you’ll probably have a 10 pound baby now.” For some reason third trimester has always been the best for me and I have never had a desire to actually go through labor so I could have waited til June and been perfectly happy!

After about a week of having contractions starting at 2:30 am, the morning of April 19 seemed like the same drill.  I got up anyways to make sure that the state of my house was in order, just in case this was the day.  About an hour later Kyle got up to make sure everything was okay, and asked if he should get a sub. (For anyone who doesn’t know, Kyle is a 7th grade English teacher).I was having contractions about every 15-20 minutes at that point but still thought it might be fake labor.  At 6:00 am he decided to go to school but have his sub come in just in case.  We also notified Grammy, who was on standby and since it takes her 3 hours to get here we figured it was worth it even if it meant she just had a long weekend with us.

Shortly after Kyle left for school Kamden woke up so I found myself having contractions with a 2 year old climbing all over me and asking repeatedly for a show or a snack or whatever else he was in need of.  Around 8 I hadn’t had a contraction for a good 30 minutes so I figured I may as well get that 2 year old out of the house and possibly distracted.  Our favorite walk is to the neighbors’ house which is about half a mile away.  They have chickens, which are Kamden’s favorite and lots of other fun ways to entertain toddlers.  As soon as we started the walk, my contractions decided to ramp up to about 8-10 minutes apart.   They weren’t awful and I have a pretty high pain tolerance so we just decided to keep going.  I figured they would probably stop after we got to the house.  

By the time we reached the house they were getting slightly closer together.  Both times I’ve gone into labor I’ve been kind of in denial so I just kept telling myself, this was probably just practice, but I did text Kyle and let him know he should probably try to make it home by lunch, which was a couple hours away.  I had a 24 hour long labor with Kamden and figured I probably wouldn’t go from that to 3 hours so I had a good amount of time.  Kyle responded by asking, “Do you think you can make it to the end of the school day?”  Now one of the great parts about my husband is that he is really good at getting me to try new things and pushing my limits but unfortunately

labor is not one of those things I can control very well so I told him I would do my best but wasn’t making any promises.

Right around that time my neighbor Rick, noticed we were visiting the chickens and came to see if we needed anything.  I told him we were good but mentioned that I was having contractions.  Now originally I figured we would just go down for an hour and walk back home, but now that the contractions were getting closer together there was one part of that walk home that I was dreading.  Between our houses, right before you get to mine, I have to walk up a hill, it’s a short hill but has a decently steep incline and I couldn’t quite figure out how I was going to walk up that hill with the wagon and the toddler while having contractions so I asked Rick if he would be willing to drive us back up to the house.  At this point I think he was worried that he was going to be the person delivering the baby but I assured him I would be fine.

We got home right before Grammy arrived and I called my midwife to see if she thought I should come in.  When I called her she told me to wait and come in when I couldn’t talk through a contraction.  By this point my contractions were about 5-7 minutes apart and we live an hour and 20 minutes away from the hospital.  It was about 10:30 at that time so I texted Kyle and told him he should definitely come home at lunch.  I just felt like we should go in even if she wasn’t so sure.  Kyle told me he would come back once his sub had a chance to eat lunch and got to the house about 11:30.  I still think he thought I might be in fake labor! 

Now the difference between the drive with Kamden is that it was midnight when we went to the hospital, not noon, and I quickly realized, busy highways, honking cars and construction is much more intense to labor in than pitch black night.  The hospital had decided to do some construction and since we had only been there when Kamden was born, neither of us could remember how to get in with detours.  I basically told Kyle I didn’t care how he got me to the emergency entrance but that it needed to happen now.  I wasn’t panicked but labor was pretty intense by then.  When we went to check in the lady asked me all kinds of questions that I felt were rather unnecessary, such as “Why are you here today?” and “Are you actually having contractions?”  It’s the closest I’ve ever been to screaming at a person in my life.  Behind me a man was telling a riveting story of how his finger was just about severed and they had just stitched it back together.  All the while I was having contractions and trying to be polite to the person asking them.  I had realized that my very detailed birth plan had been left in the car so Kyle was frantically looking for that while I tried to convince them to let me in.

Finally, they wheeled me up and I was greeted not only by my midwife, but by 5 other people.  No one else was in labor that day so everyone was just waiting for me, kind of felt like being in a fish bowl.  It turns out that students were being trained everywhere in the hospital, and none of them had seen a birth so I was their lucky ticket to that experience.  Pretty much as soon as I walked in the room I got sick so my midwife said she needed to check me right away.  When she did, she discovered that I was at a 10 and could start pushing whenever I wanted to.  Another perk to this discovery was that I didn’t have to have an IV port.  I was really excited about that fact since needles are the worst in my view (hence why I don’t do epidurals).

Since I had just come from a rather crazy morning and felt no desire to push I told them all that they could just wait for bit because I needed some time before I started pushing.  With both babies my labor slowed down at the end and I never felt the need to push.  This was such a huge blessing for this second one because it allowed me to catch my breath and get in the right mindset before going through the final phase.  During that time I remember seeing people mowing their lawns and some guys working on the hospital roof and just thinking, “Don’t they know what’s about to happen?!”  It’s so funny now but then I really just wanted the whole world to sit and be still for a second.  

After a couple hours of just going with the contractions I decided I would try to push and my water hadn’t broken at that point so they thought the pushing would get that to happen.  I started pushing and when my water broke it was amazingly like the movies!  I pushed for about 30-40 minutes and finally Roman Jude entered the world at 3:55pm.  We didn’t know the gender of our baby going into the delivery and I was fully convinced I was pregnant with a girl so it was a surprise, but the best kind because I really love having boys!  I had been so exhausted with Kamden I didn’t really remember all the beginning things but with Roman it wasn’t as bad so I watched my midwife hold him for the first time, heard his first cry and saw Kyle cut the cord.  It was amazing to be so much more aware in the moment.  Having two precious babies has made me reflect a lot on the incredible process of life and how beautiful it truly is.  No matter how excruciating the process was, it is an accomplishment that I hold in high value and getting the end result of my boys has made every moment worth it.  

If you just made it through this entire story and are not related to me that’s quite impressive!  Here are some of the first moments with Kamden meeting Roman for the first time and of course his newborn pictures!  We love you Roman Jude! 

 Hospital Pictures by me and Newborn/Family Pictures by Captured First Photography

Betty Martinez {Brewster}

I've had the privilege of knowing Betty since she was in 7th grade!  It's amazing how fast time goes and how much changes.  When Kyle and I first moved to Brewster almost 6 years ago, Betty was part of his first class of 7th graders and one of our goals was to see this amazing group of kids graduate.  Betty has always been one of the sweetest people and I have rarely seen her without a smile.  She is a leader in the school and her class and I was really excited when she told me that she is planning to attend Eastern in the fall.  I mean Kyle and I are not exactly shy about how much we enjoyed EWU ;) so it's always fun to hear of one of our students getting to experience it for themselves.  I have no doubt she's going to pursue greatness there and I can't wait to see her in this next phase of life!