The S Family | Omaha Family Photographer

Can I take a second to tell you how much I LOVE this family? I shot Megan and Josh's wedding a couple of years ago. They live in Colorado but visit Omaha occasionally to see family. I was so happy to see them again - this time with the addition of little Pearl.

The T Family | Omaha Family Photographer

Welp, it's mid March and there's snow on the ground. I'm starting to wrap up the majority of in-studio family bookings. Four months is a long time to be shooting inside! These guys made it fun though...

You're beautiful. Make sure you're in those photos too.

You're beautiful. Yes, you. You reading this. You're beautiful. You should make sure your picture is taken more often.

I take a couple photos of my son every month to put in a book for him. It started out just photos of him (alone) as a newborn because I looked fat with all that baby weight. But then I lost some weight and needed to get my hair done. But then I was always wearing my pajamas and glasses after work and just didn't look cute… And after roughly three months of life with my baby, I didn't have a single photo of us together. I had hundreds of him with his dad, his grandparents, his cousins. I realized that if I wait for the perfect time to start jumping into photos with my son, he'll never have any photos of me.

So, I started getting into the photos. If Lennon was doing something cute/funny/Lennony, I would run and grab my camera. Snap a couple of him, snap a couple of him with his dad, and then hand the camera over to Matt and jump on in there, sweatpants and all. Over the 21 months that followed my revelation, I have collected countless photos of myself with Lennon, appearing in various states of sloppiness and disarray. But you know what? I have photos of us together and that's what's important. He's not going to look at those photos in 20 years and say, "Wow. My mom was such a slob." Ok, he probably will. But then the second thing he says will be, "Look how much she loved me. Look how happy I was with her. Look how young and pretty she once was." ("I was a great beauty. I was very charming." - that's a sidetracked Annie Hall quote right there.)

I'm 29 years old and I still get excited anytime I can snap a photo of me with my parents. And my dad, whose age shall remain confidential, also FREAKS OUT over any photo I take of his parents with their kids/grandkids/great-grandkids. Your loved ones want photos with you in them. Trust me. Do you have any idea how many photo-montage videos I've seen at weddings? People cherish photos of their family like gold. People cherish them so dearly that they collect them and show them to rooms of 100s of people on their wedding days.

All these little minutes that we're living - guess what? They add up to our lives. Our lives are happening all the time and we don't think it's important enough to pull out a camera and take a picture. But our kids will think it's important. And their kids will think it's important. And long after you and I are gone, these photos will still be here, showing your ancestors who you were and how much you were loved.

Once or twice (or you know, thrice) a year you should make an appointment with me - or your other favorite photographer and you should get professional family photos. Take the time to feel beautiful, buy that new outfit that makes you feel like a million bucks, attempt to give your squirmy toddlers haircuts. Those photos are equally important. Those are the photos that decorate our homes, get printed onto expensive canvases, go out as greeting cards to friends and family. But don't forget that there are 364 other days in the year and those days should be valued too. Don't think that because those days don't look beautiful now, they won't look beautiful to you a year from now.

You're beautiful. Make sure you're in those photos too.

Just so you know I'm telling the truth, he's one of my personal photos wherein I look erm... not so glamorous. But looking at it nearly two years after it was taken, I'm so in love with it.

The E Family - Omaha Family Photographer

Melissa and Bryant were one of my first wedding couples back in the Spring of 2010. I was pregnant, inexperienced, and spent the majority of the day trying not to barf (from both the pregnancy and terror of shooting a wedding). It means so much to me that they came back when Owen was added to their family earlier this year, and then again for his six month photos. It feels so personal when they come around. I'm honored that they continue to choose me to document these pieces of their lives.

What we did on a gloomy morning - Omaha Family Photographer

From May through October, my life is all about work. Shoot, edit, shoot, edit, shoot, edit. At times, I feel the guilt that every working parent feels. Am I spending enough time with my son? Do I give him enough attention? Does he know that I'm doing the best that I can? Working from home doesn't make work any easier. The difference between work Christine and home Christine is hard to explain to a two year old. He doesn't understand that mom is at home, but she's unavailable.

This week I've kind of put some of that aside. I think I hit a wall in the routine and needed to just spend some time doing something for myself. This morning, after breakfast and a cup of coffee, we put on a movie and went back to bed. There's no better way to spend a chilly, cloudy morning than in my pajamas with this guy.

Caleb's First Birthday - Omaha Family Photographer

What better way to celebrate your birthday than by shoving a bunch of delicious cake in your mouth?