Erin Tole Photography

*sigh*
Oh, it's that time of year again in the ol' Pac-N-Dub... No one feels guilty about hanging out indoors, and I have the compulsive need to drink massive quantities of apple cider. Also, I wear stupid socks and mismatched pajama outfits late into the day. So shoot me. I have to say it often strikes me as ironic that the time of year we're supposed to feel most thankful for the little things is frequently one of the toughest times for just about everyone.

In an effort to counteract bah-humbug-edness, I'm going to go off on a tangent here for a minute and say thank you to everyone who has let me have the joy of meeting their families and photographing their lives.
I am thankful for all my clients, of course...But I am especially warmed by families like this one. The network of people branching out from this one little family is part of what makes me love what I do. I don't just meet singular families, but interconnected groups of amazing people. After stumbling on my website a year ago to take their son's newborn photos, Kari and Ehren have been nothing short of fantastic. Through them, I have had the pleasure of taking everything from maternity and newborn photos for their friends, as well as family photos, senior photos, events, even a possible wedding next summer, all from people branching out from this one random seed.

For that, I am thankful :)

Ok...so this next group of images is a little atypical for me, BUT...Ladd wasn't very happy with spending an afternoon with me and my big black box jammed in his face outside in the semi-drizzle. When it was mentioned that the location we were at was very near the family home, we decided to head over to try to get some of the birthday boy in his natural habitat... Me, sans speedlight (DOH!) and rockin' high ISOs...BUT at least we got some real smiles here. The kids ran around crazy and I was reminded again to be thankful for this time with our young kids. There really is very little as amusing :)