Ahhh the Memories

I just ordered our Family yearbook last night before the 50% off and free shipping ended...

I used to be a huge Scrapbooker, back in the day...and I still am, but it's switched to Digital...and to be honest, I am learning to allow my pictures to tell their own story without having to be caught up in embellishments and perfect alignments...

The perfectionist in me sometimes wreaks havoc on my creative tendencies...

but, I made it...it's ordered and will be delivered very soon...

While I was perusing through all of the 2016 files, the girls happened upon an old camcorder in my treasure trove of a basement...this was before the use of iphone and video footage at your fingertips...We had to consciously think of videotaping and I'm so, so glad we did...

I had forgotten the chubby hands and tiny voices...We have only made it through the most recent video tapes, which are of our youngest the summer she turned 2 years old...We don't have much after that, but, I'm excited to work our way backwards to see our middle and eldest daughter too.

I thought you'd enjoy this "wee wittle voice"...

Once my yearbook comes in, I'll be sure to post images...along with StoryWalls, I also like the StoryBooks to have around our home to reminisce about days of old :) 

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InHome Lifestyle: Wyatt

"Sometimes the littlest feet leave the biggest footprints on our hearts..."

I finally sat down last evening after cleaning up the kitchen, whilst my older two were finishing up laundry and my youngest was getting out of her shower...

Someone had left out our family scrapbook. 

It's a "yearbook" of sorts that I do for our family...

it's filled with all the happenings from each year...the sports, the plays, vacations, camp, holidays and our own family session...

Each "event" takes up at least a 2 page spread and everyone in my family loves to look through it...

And while I love the up close pictures of my girls, posed with their hands on their hips or chin in their hand looking adorable...those perfectly posed moments aren't the ones that my eyes linger on the most...

Oh, I love them because I see the beauty of my daughters and of our family in this season of life...

but, the ones that cause me to transport back in time are the ones where I can "hear" a laugh, or "smell" the scent...ones where there is inevitably a connection between 2 people...people that I love most in the world...

And so, while I love tiny details and swaddled babies and their endearing cuteness...

I'm nearly moved to tears when big brothers and big sisters cuddle and kiss and coo after their tiny new sibling....

I was commenting to this group's momma saying that you never know when it's going to be the "last" time that you pick your child up...it sort of just happens...

my oldest is nearly 4 inches taller than me and I'll never be carrying her on my hip again...and I wonder, "when was the LAST time I did that?"...I don't remember the day...all I know is that time keeps moving on...and though I love the journey, the moments that are connected through touch and conversation are my most precious memories...

There is just a tiny span of time where their head fits in the palm of our hands...where we can snuggle their whole body into our neck and breath in that newborn smell...

We spent a bit of time showcasing this little man and then it was as if his siblings couldn't wait to get their hands on him...to snuggle and kiss and love on him...

and before I close out their sneak peek, I had to include the "snow man" outfit just for his momma (scroll to the end to see) 

















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BEST of 2016


This post is a long time coming...

Due to my tendency towards indecision and my lean towards procrastination, coupled with my intense desire to talk with friends, read books and do crafts...well, I am prone to enact my "avoidance" skills when it comes to "goal setting" and "planning" and just all around "getting things done"...

However, those same "tendencies" motivate me to try new things, to get "bored" with same-ole/same-ole and to strive to SEE the uniqueness in each family, child and senior I happen to meet...

I finally sat down to sift through my over 20,000 image files...
If I RE-posted all the sneak peeks and favorites from 2016, you'd be sitting here for quite awhile scrolling through pictures loading and I'm guessing I'd have to purchase more space for storage...I have so many favorite moments from each of my sessions...

I went through and found the images that particularly made me love this "job" all over again...

occasionally it's a memory that is associated with that particular session, sometimes it was the use of light or a camera technique that (unbeknownst to my clients) I was practicing and honing in on perfecting a specific moment...there were times that I was proud of myself because either I wasn't feeling top of the world or I could tell the kiddos weren't, but we gave it all we had and we still nailed it...sometimes it has to do with composition and other times it has to do with a difficult location due to a sudden change in weather...

whatever the case, I did my best to narrow it down to these...I think I love most of all that each image is unique...it doesn't belong with the one posted before or after, but at the same time, they all pull at my heart and evoke similar emotion...My clients look like magazine models and I love when they trust me to capture their family in all their unique personality & beauty! 


























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What do you do with your PHOTOS?

We live in this incredible technology "era" where nearly everything is in digital format.  Cameras have been replaced with iphones and most things are shared within social media platforms.

This is fabulous in one sense, because it connects people from all over the country and even world.  Friends and family that otherwise would need to wait for letters to arrive via snail mail can now Facetime or Email and get an immediate response.

It's fun to share albums and profile pictures, instagram happenings via filters and captions...It's a wonderful way to network and develop new acquaintances & interactions...

I'm not knocking technology...

At the same time, there is definitely something to be said for a hard copy...

I cherish the hand written letters of my husband over the course of the 3 years that we dated across the miles & miles.  I waited for snail mail to arrive and then I ripped open the letters and breathed in whatever scent may have been left over from traveling cross country and I soaked in every word, over and over again.

I still have those letters up in a hatbox in my bedroom.  (actually a couple of hatboxes to be more accurate)


I'm in the process of learning more about the heritage of my family. My aunt has supplied me with many pictures of my family that came from Scotland and my dad sent me the wedding photos of my grandmother from in the 40s.  My husband's parents showed me pictures of his Nona and Nono in a bakery after coming from Italy...

Holding those pictures in my hands is almost sacred...

I'm not sure if it's the touching of the paper or just having it so close that I can almost hear & smell the scene...it makes me think of Mary Poppins where they are able to jump INto the chalk drawing and they become a part of the story that's going on "inside"...

That's just what pictures do to me...I pretend that I'm on the other side of the camera and I imagine what it was like to BE that person...I move a critical eye over the clothing and the people in the photo and I wonder what was spoken seconds after the "snap" of the camera.  

So often, however, pictures DON'T get printed...they are left to be stored on a harddrive or in cyber space and can only dream of being "clicked" upon when the owner is reminded or has a spare moment to sift through the hundreds of files...

I often wonder what happens to my client's pictures...do the PRINTS ever find themselves displayed in a way that tells the story of that moment in time, or season of life? 

I truly hope so, because their stories are inspiring...

I find myself, during my "down time" in the winter, just going back and looking through folders of their images and imagining how I would arrange them on a wall...to showcase them...to make some images enlarged, as a focal point, and others smaller so that you have to scoot over and get closer to view them..

and I imagine the smiles that will come to their faces when they "go back in time" and remember that event...

the spontaneous piggy back rides, the leaf fight, the walking hand in hand...

I like to call them "Story Walls"



If you'd like more ideas you can FOLLOW my Pinterest Board entitled STORY WALL Gallery Ideas! 

I'm also one of those "freak moms" that loves to format Scrapbooks...perhaps it comes from my years with Creative Memories...

but (and I'll leave you with this...I promise even the men will get a kick out of this commercial) I'm anxious to try Chat books after viewing this: 


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Blog Archive

How can I reach you?

The best way to contact me is either through Facebook Messaging or emailing me at ctphotomemories@gmail.com

I can't wait to hear from you!
"Teach us to number our days, (savor the moments) so that we may gain a heart of wisdom" ~Psalm 90:12

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