It’s hard to select photos to post because I love them all this time around. Little Noah and Mary utterly charmed me during our family portrait session last month. I had a strong feeling before I met with them that I’d want to soak up all their energy while they played, and that’s exactly how our time went together. They are super cute children and it felt like a complete privilege to capture these memories for their parents.

Thanks for letting me play with your family, Meagan & Ryan! You’ve got a special bunch of people to call your own.

The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum hosts this fundraising event every year, and this year Renae Morehead and I had the privilege of photographing it. Plants, photography and Renae on a Friday night? I daresay it doesn’t get better than that. Extra kudos go out to Christina Hoyt who spearheaded the event! Well done, friend! Thanks for inviting us to take part in it.

I’m finally getting around to blogging awesome photo shoots from last fall. Hooray! Nothing like a delayed posting to get through the final days of winter. So here’s a little happy for everyone!

The Wittmanns are some of my favorite clients because their kids are hilarious and love to pose for my camera. We have our own rhythm, one that leaves me breathless because, as you can see, they keep adding kids to their posse. Precious baby Betty—included here in utero—came along in November, so you’ll have to wait until Fall 2015 to see her sweet mug here.

I took Shiloh, our 6 year old Coton de Tulear, to visit his veterinarian the other day. Since we’ve been fostering, I haven’t been on top of many smallish matters of life, so Shiloh was a bit late on his vaccinations. On the phone the receptionist told me to bring in a stool sample. O-kay. All day long I stayed glued to the bathroom activities of the dog—super fun, let me tell you—and finally at dusk his little dog body hunched in that familiar pose. I ran for a plastic baggy and when I came back? He was eagerly waiting at the door to be let in.

Have you ever seen a person act oddly in their yard or out on the street? You wonder what in the world they could be doing? Well, that was me that evening. Not only was the sun well on its way past the horizon but the yard was covered in small patches of snow, thus turning this experience into a real life Where’s Waldo with dog poop. I like to imagine the neighbors saying, “Honey, come see this! What in the world do you think she’s doing??” Because there I was, iPhone held high like a torch shining down on the ground with its capable flashlight app, making circles in the yard. I couldn’t have had more intensity in my pursuit if I had dropped my engagement ring. And you know what? I was successful. I WON! I won the, um, stool sample award? Yeah. Who’s keeping tabs on my awesomeness?

So yesterday was another moment like this one, except more gratifying because there was an end product and less humiliating because it didn’t involve poop. As many of you know I frequently collaborate with Maralee Bradley on columns both for her blog and for Her View from Home. Sometimes Maralee will come to me with a specific need, but more often it involves general ideas and I get to figure out what it is we’re looking for in terms of art. (My favorite example of this was when Maralee and I both received new foster children in a matter of days. She literally ran into my house and mumbled something like, “Now Hulk likes them, now Hulk doesn’t” and that was it. Somehow we made it work and it was one of my favorite shoots because I got to play with toys like a kid.)

I knew Maralee was looking for images of plants pushing their way through snow as they come up in the spring. After searching my archives and coming up with nothing, I went exploring. In the snow. And the wind. In the snowy wind. Snow rarely ever delicately floats to the ground in Nebraska; it usually comes down in a sideways driving-rain kind of maneuver, only it was driving frozen bits flying into my eyeballs. So again, were the neighbors wondering what in the world was going on with Mrs. Tredway yesterday? Kneeling on a plastic Trader Joe’s tote bag, I dug through the dirt and dried hosta leaves and found green gold. There it was: Spring making its way through Winter. Spring! It’s coming. Doesn’t matter that we were having a mini-blizzard on the last day of February or that snow is frozen in large patches on the sunken part of our front yard. Doesn’t matter that we’re still donning hats and mittens to run errands or that my snow boots are encrusted in salt from so many days of winter wear. Spring is coming.

I should’ve gotten on my hands and knees earlier. No matter what the neighbors might say.

I love my state. I love the cornfields and the long stretches of prairie. I love the Midwestern spirit.

I do not particularly like the landscape nor the temperatures come winter. However, today the weather was glorious and it reminded me of how much I adore spring. Until then, I will dream of warm beaches, peruse seed catalogs and perhaps start pricing sun lamps.

I had grand plans last year of placing all 2013 photoshoot images into a new portfolio to show the public. Yeah, that didn’t happen. A little thing called foster care took over our world last fall and I found myself wrangling very cute, very active little boys instead. I wouldn’t erase our time with them for anything, and certainly not for a new online portfolio. So here you go, friends. Pictures, a year later. Call it a Throwback Thursday if that makes you feel any better. And yes, I know it’s Wednesday.

Without further ado, my longtime friends, the Moreheads. To me they are pretty much family, and it was a great honor to finally photograph them. (Keep viewing through the end for a special bonus treat.)

This last image. Hmmm… what do I say about this last pic? Sometimes when you shoot in more urban settings you might encounter, say, a strange man doing strange things. You will harness all your photographer/self-defense for women/mom/neighborhood watch skills and you might continue to shoot while also organizing an escape plan if things go haywire. Note, in the background of this last image, a man heaving a trash can into the dugout area of the baseball diamond. His crazy raging was followed by an attempted bike ride before he threw himself and the bike to the ground and, evidently, napped. Just another day in family photography, right?

One of the many things I value about my fair city of Lincoln, Nebraska, is the constant movement and collaboration going on in the arts. It was my privilege to photograph Tamara Kaye of Art Planet and her advanced art students from Lancaster Learning Link as they worked with students and families from Elliot Elementary School to create their own Doorway to Hope. Enjoy these images and click on the links above to learn more about these artists!