Patty & Kids

To blog or not to blog..that is the question. So many shoots to blog, so little time. I have been sharing pictures with clients on facebook and have not been so great about sharing them here. I have to get better about that. I need to share them here, so the small group of people who are not on facebook can see them and also so I can tell the story. To start with, I want to share the photos and story of Patty.

Patty and I go way back to high school. We have been able to reconnect thanks to facebook, and I was lucky enough to get to spend some time with her a few weeks back when she was in the Bay Area to do Relay For Life. Before we got together with some other old high school pals and laughed more than I laughed in a long time, I got to meet Patty’s beautiful children and do a quick shoot.

Like I said, Patty and her family were in town to walk in Relay for Life in honor of her son Super Jake. Jake passed away almost 4 years ago from cancer. This was after bring born with a heart condition and having a heart transplant at 8 months old. Jake was one of the children I ran in honor of when I did a half marathon with team in training last year. After I did that race, and wrote about my experience Patty wrote the following  “Where is the goofy girl I met in high school? Who knew she would turn into such an inspirational woman and mom?”. I have to say that those words meant a lot to me.  But, spending time with Patty, recalling old times, I have to say that she is the inspirational woman and mom.

Like most little boys, Jake loved all things Thomas, and they carry a little Thomas with them everywhere they go.

Little Seth..what a cutie. I can see how this little one warms Patty’s heart, the way that Ari warms mine. In the chaos and sadness of life, I have no doubt that this little guy makes smiles and laughter so much easier for Patty. I was trying to get him to look right into the camera, so told him to look closely into my lens to see his eyes and this is what he did..love it!

I am all for bribery to get the kids to do what we want and 2 lollipops are always better than 1.

All worth it for this, don’t you think?

And then there is Claire..sweet and sassy Claire, reminds me a little of my Zoe.

They are from Texas, so have to have a photo of the cowboy boots.

And Luke..sweet Luke.  He reminds me nothing of oldest. I f I recall correctly, Patty said he was her easy one.

And all 3 of the kiddos. Not an easy task and may not be technically perfect as we dealt with 6 kids running around crazy, but I hope for you Patty, that they are emotionally perfect.