Ah man, I could photograph her allll day long she’s so stinkin’ cute.  She held out on throwing the big smiles my way during their bluebonnet session a few weeks ago but we met up this morning for her 6 7 month session and it was a different story….

Happy, sweet girl, you and your family always make me smile!  Also, her Daddy is in the military and I’d like to just take a moment on this Memorial Day weekend and say THANK YOU for your service Jim, we appreciate you!

I grew up with a deep respect for veterans.  My grandfather was a military police officer, my brother was deployed with the Navy when I was a teenager and my mother worked at the VA hospital from the time I was a child.  I used to volunteer during the summers at the VA hospital in New Orleans as a teenager and while I was bored out of my mind working in radiology filing charts, I got to see first hand the issues that many of our service men and women come home with.  In my adult life, before photography, I worked at a University as a VA Certifying Official and helped veterans use their GI Bill to pay for their college education.  Many of my students were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and studying online during downtime.  I left the University at the end of my pregnancy with Taryn but I still think of many of my students often, wonder how they are, hope they graduated and more than anything, came home to their families safe and sound.  The sacrifices these families make are many, I’ll never forget that.  Happy Memorial Day!