I photographed the Hoeper family years ago, when I first really figuring out what my style of photography was, and I’ll never forget the one image of the kids that I took that day. They were holding hands and walking away from me so it was a shot from behind them. The lighting was perfect and their sweet little walking was so cute and I remember shooting that whole session and thinking, “This is how I want my photos to feel. Real. And beautiful. And full of love.”

And now, 7 years later, I got to photograph them again and, good grief, look at how much the kids have grown!! Flipping between this post and their previous family photo post gives me all the feelings because I know this will happen with my own kids too. This feeling of “where did the years go??”

Stephanie recently wrote a post called “Finding Significance in the Insignificant” and as a mama “in the trenches” so to speak with young children, it resonated so much with me. She talks about being a stay-at-home mom for 15 years and now being “in the process of pulling my resume together to return to the realm of full-time employment, I’ve struggled to assign significance to this period of my life. Having spent the 30 years before it earning a master’s degree and working at a variety of jobs, often more than one at once, this new period felt decidedly unremarkable. While it’s not quantifiable on a resume, I learned many lessons at home that make me a much better teacher, coach, and leader outside of it.” So just jump right on over there and read it because it’s really so good!