i love this family. brian and gina are great friends of mine and my husbands and faith, eli and bella are all great friends with our kids…works out nicely.

you never know what you’re gonna get with kids. i love it.

i say it all the time, faith is one of the most stunning children i’ve ever seen. i don’t know what i’d do with myself if i got to walk around with all that beauty every day.

what was i just saying about kids and never knowing what you’re gonna get? i love this shot. i love that gina and faith’s gorgeous faces are the focus and of course that bella is strangling her brother (out of love, clearly) and that brian just seems to take it all in stride. it’s funny how our parenting styles change as we have more kids and more “life-stuff” happens. getting each kid to look into the camera and smile a big angelic smile doesn’t really matter, this is way better anyway.

this is one precious boy. i love that he and my gabe are such good buddies.

this makes my heart jump out of my chest and do a “happy dance”.

because it’s the “bella show” in the kruckenberg house…at least most of the time i suspect.

this post is filled with some of my very favorite people in the entire world. being able to photograph them has been an absolute gift.

this is a perfect representation of this mother/daughter pair!

because it’s the darian show.

only someone who’s been playing soccer as long as darian could fall asleep on the ball.

who are we kidding? we all know it’s always the adrianne show!

i wish i had adrianne’s tiny feet so i could borrow these hot shoes.

wow! john and adrianne make a pretty smokin’ couple.

but so do chris and mary! (notice all the green, mary!)

because i adore him.

funny thing, seth thought he was foiling my plan to get a cute picture of him.

he has my heart.

mary and her super fantastic mom, jann.

as well as her super amazing dad, GAC.

and jann with her husband vern, who also happens to be a great musician and a kid magnet.

talk about smokin’ hot.

this is aubra to me. that’s her face…always smiling and laughing.

and duff.

who’s very loved and spoiled.

the “lemon” golf cart. quick side-note about the golf cart. my two oldest children decided to hop on after we finished with it, (colby’s car is directly in front of it), due to some degree of tomfoolery, the golf cart starts rolling forward. my daughter, who had just turned 9 one day prior, jumps out, gets between the cart and colby’s car, plants her dancers legs as steadily as she could and holds the cart back with her hands…while her brother sort of , well, panics.

here is a glimpse of the entire bike that i showed a peek of in a previous hodgepodge post. john, pictured below with his stunning family, built this by himself, from scratch with all vintage parts. wow.

can i just say that angel blows me away with her beauty. and guess what, it’s not just skin deep.

okc, i love you. thank you for hosting the invasion.

this is corey and cameron, the youngest of the kelley clan. i have to give thanks to these two super, extra-special kids for always hanging with my two oldest kids, who are younger and probably sort of well, you know how it is when “little” kids wanna hang with you. cameron actually holds a very special place in my claudia’s heart…claudia would have never made it through her first summer at camp without cameron. i have the sweetest and at the same time, saddest picture of the girls on the last day. cameron has a sweet little smile and claudia’s poor face is swollen and red from sobbing all day long because it was time to say goodbye to cameron and hop a flight back to phx.


the whole crew, kevin, cari, corey and cameron…actually, not the whole crew. the kelley’s have a fantastic dog named lucky who didn’t join us for pictures. lucky was probably at home lying on the dining room table.

i love these next two, they seem so reflective of the kelley kiddos.

this was the BEST tree ever! huge and glowing orange and yellow. it made everything and everyone so golden.

this image screams kevin and cari.

i miss you guys. i’m so glad we got to hang out, even if it was to “work”.

this first one really made my day. it was early the first full day of shooting and i was having a hard time getting motivated, until, my natty was so delighted by these amazing “robots” at panera. something about her seeing robots in newspaper dispensers was seriously magical to me. i’ll never look at newspaper dispensers the same way again, they’ll forever be robots. of course, getting to start the day with panera was also a treat.

oh boy, big sigh. this is adrianne, she’s been my friend longer than anyone in the world. we met in 4th grade when she sauntered into school wearing a purple barret and  a huge attitude. my heart just loves her. (obviously, i didn’t take this shot…my dear husband did.)

and this is adrianne’s stunning, amazing, funny, witty, precious and wonderful daughter Darian. i witnessed this young woman come into the world, she’ll forever have part of my heart.

this is perfection. love is messy, gooey, ragged, sometimes withered…beautiful.

fall. i had almost forgotten what it looked like.

this is duff, along with my babiest girl and boy.

this is duffs mom and dad. my heart loves aubra too. i’m pretty sure that she’s the prettiest person i’ve ever met in real life (now, fake life…sorry aubs, i’ve met prettier). i think colby agrees, but for him, if he knows whats good for him, she’d better be the prettiest in fake life too. now, all of my other friends who are also amazingly beautiful, i’m sorry, but just look at her. i know you agree. guess what else? you’ll never find a more precious soul.

this is kelley and her boys

and her girl

this is my girl, one of them…loving her dad on the tram at the best zoo in the history of best zoos, The OKC Zoo.

this is my gabe, checking out some badgers at the zoo.

and two of the most photogenic, precious, polite and best dressed children you’ll find. gabby and gavin.

this, well, this beauty belongs to gabby and gavin’s dad, john, and may get it’s very own blog post.

here’s a litte more of it, along with john, the proud owner and his stunning wife, angel “fearless” fairless.
big sigh…so much love.

here is carol with her amazingly sweet boys whom i’m certain are exceedingly proud of their mom. i just adore this image.

i’m sure carol’s parents are remarkably proud of their daughter as well.

adriana, carol’s obviously especially supportive best friend, and her husband.  i love the way he’s looking at his wife, full of love.

the party had no shortage of cute little kiddos, here are just a couple.

all the necessary frills to properly embellish a glorious cup of coffee.  

i think mary looks like meg ryan…except even prettier.

natalie, ever so helpfully blowing my coffee for me.

i’m confident that all of the kids perfectly enjoyed their birthday breakfast cinnamon rolls.

yep, he get’s it.

look mary, we’re bokeh.

a delightful morning indeed.