Laurie Sachs Photography

Recently my hus­band and I vis­ited Hawaii, with­out our kids! This was a first for us, in the 15 years we’ve been par­ents we’ve only ever left them overnight. While we were in Hawaii I was lucky enough to have a friend, Jenna at Cre­atrix Pho­tog­ra­phy, pho­to­graph us. I am in love with these pic­tures! They cap­tured us just the way I’d hoped, fun, play­ful, relaxed… just us as we are together every­day. After 24 years together it’s awe­some to have pic­tures of us as a cou­ple that aren’t from our wed­ding and we aren’t hold­ing any kids. Thank you so much Jenna, these are price­less to me!

Here and there on my blog I suc­cumb to shame­less mommy brag­ging, who wouldn’t right??? Today’s brag­ging is of the wifely vari­ety :) It’s my husband’s 41st birth­day and two weeks ago I had the plea­sure of going to watch his first triathlon! I have been madly in love with this boy since we were 17 and I am indeed his biggest fan as he is always mine. I was so darn proud watch­ing him tackle this new chal­lenge. Happy Birth­day babe, I love you more than the stars and the moon and the sun in the sky.… and holy hot­ness on the outfit :)

Now that all the cards have been sent and received I can share my fam­ily Christ­mas card! Since Jason and I started our fam­ily I’ve given a lot of thought to the Christ­mas cards we send out, try­ing to cap­ture the essence of where we are as a fam­ily that year. I usu­ally remote it and take our Christ­mas pho­tos myself, a fact that amazes our friends and has pro­duced some com­i­cal results over the years. This year I felt our fam­ily was at a cross­roads. Our first born is in high school, 14 years old… he’s grown two or three inches since these pho­tos were taken in late Sep­tem­ber. He’s 5’11″, taller than his mom and quickly catch­ing up to his dad. Our daugh­ter is 12 and in jr high, also has grown two or three inches since these pho­tos were taken, near­ing 5’6″ now. Our lit­tle ones are 7 and 4, attend­ing preschool and ele­men­tary, not babies any­more. I really felt the need to freeze time, catch us right now with all my chicks in my nest. I NEEDED to hire a pho­tog­ra­pher. My old­est son didn’t under­stand, why would you hire some­one when you take such amaz­ing pic­tures of us? Because I can’t give myself what I give to oth­ers, I can’t cap­ture that con­nec­tion, that essence of “us” with a remote. I turned to Mindy Har­ris of Pas­tel Pho­tog­ra­phy in Char­lotte North Car­olina, who gra­ciously flies around the coun­try pho­tograph­ing other pho­tog­ra­phers fam­i­lies. These pic­tures are every­thing I hoped they would be, us frozen in time, crazy, funny, chaotic, perfect.

Peo­ple always com­ment about what amaz­ing pic­tures I have of my kids and I joke that pho­tograph­ing my own chil­dren could drive me to drink… not so much jok­ing. My 3 year old son is truly, truly, ter­ri­ble to pho­to­graph… yet still, occa­sion­ally I try. Here he is in all his dis­agree­able glory. He does keep us laugh­ing and always on our toes! Good thing he’s cute, I think I’ll keep him :)