I am a Wisconsin girl who was transplanted to Texas about 20 years ago. It was there that I met my husband and began a family. In 2004, The Bossman moved my then little family 3 (me, the hubs, and our little Byrd) from the bottom of Texas to what is known as the “armpit” of the west. A couple years later, we welcomed our little Bug into the world and then we were a family of four. It was then that I had this realization that I needed to document our lives … their lives … life is full of these fleeting moments … beautifully mundane every day moments … and I needed to document them for us. I bought a little Rebel somewhere in 2006 and there I went, photographing every move my littles made.
This is us pre-move. 🙂
I came to understand that photographing life is what I was meant to do. But you see, I wasn’t just satisfied with journaling our own lives, I *needed* to do it for anyone and everyone I could. It’s funny, because I had set out to be a chef … I wanted to open my own restaurant (yeah, I can cook & bake too) … but around 2009 and half way into my hotel & restaurant management degree plan, I realized that life wasn’t going to work because I just loved spending time with my littles, watching them grow, learning about the world … I couldn’t fathom those working hours, so I switched my degree program to photography. I photographed so many amazing people whilst I was en route to earning my Bachelors and cherished every minute of it! I hold all of them dear to my heart, as they are the ones who helped me discover my dream … realize my potential … and find my niche. By the way, a million years later I finally graduated (my diploma came in the mail last fall and I walk this summer!!).
Now, lets rewind to early 2012 … my grandma’s health was suffering and I had a nagging feeling it wouldn’t be much longer … (turns out I was right, she passed away Summer of 2013).
We made the trek from out west back to wisconsin to visit her Spring of 2012 …
and to be there to help my sister after Bay was born … we stayed for two months. Both events are what set this whole life changing move into motion …
Isn’t she a complete doll now … nearly 3?! <3
After we got back home, we girls were dreadfully home sick for the county roads, corn fields, happy cows, the smell of fresh country air, and a simpler life. I needed to be closer to my grandma and I couldn’t imagine living so far apart … we longed to be near Bay so that we could watch her grow up, be a part of her life, and so that she could be a part of ours too. I begged and pleaded with my husband to go recruiting (this job is NOT a cup of tea, by any means, so yes … begging was totally necessary) and see if we could get orders to MN or WI … I prayed hard, and well, God gave us Iowa.
Honestly, I couldn’t be more thrilled! This place used to be a gas & food stop on the way home for my family, on those long drives from the bottom of Texas to the top of Wisconsin to visit our family, and on the the long road trips I took with my littles from out west to Wisconsin. All the while, never realizing that we were passing our future forever home.
My husband came home from work one day and said Des Moines or Ames, so I popped onto Google and looked for the top 100 cities to raise a family in the USA, praying there was something near those cities. Ankeny was on that list … pretty high up, actually, and so I told him, “Let’s do it. Let’s move there!” Within a day I’d found 6 houses. Within 2 days we ‘d selected THE house (below) we’d make our forever home. Within a week or so we’d signed off on all the paper work and closed … we hadn’t even set foot in Ankeny yet!
It was late July … we had our orders in hand, movers had already packed our belongings, we hit up Disneyland for one last hurrah…and then loaded up the van with essentials.
The next morning the littles and I said “See yuh later” to my husband (he couldn’t join us until late fall) and hit the road, bound for Iowa.
Yes, we moved here blindly. It was an incredible journey … one I’ll never ever forget. We girls had the time of our lives on that trip, stopping on the side of the road or a turn off for photos in nearly every state we drove through!
Wyoming was and always will be our favorite …. ooooh, I-80, we love you.
Someone had to go P-O-T-T-Y for the upteenth time and the next sign I caught was for the “Pony Express” (gas station nearby) and quickly got off the highway … totally random and completely awesome detour. We learned soooo much about that era and how the Pony Express worked … so SO cool. If you ever get a chance to stop, it’s totally worth it. 🙂 Oh, and forgive the crummy cell phone pic, my big girl camera batteries died. 🙁
We pulled up to our new home around 10pm … it was dark, quiet, and a little scary that first night, being somewhere new and all … in what felt like someone else’s house, but when we woke up … we knew we were in Heaven. This little town was exactly what we needed. There were trees. REAL trees! Not the palm variety. Maples and oaks! It smelled so good. The grass was real and soft beneath our feet. The weather was incredible. We were HOME. Our neighbors greeted us with open arms and hello’s and treats and air mattresses (yeah, the movers kinda packed those …. ooops).
Totally a fast forward, sorry, but when fall hit, our girls were enamored … FALL colors are incredible and jumping in leaf piles … even more so. The Byrd would rake the minute we got back from school.
And don’t even get me started on winter … how AMAZING is this?! Our first big snow … gawsh, a blizzard actually … my girls and I went nuts!
It looks like a winter wonderland … so magical!
Ok … sorry … back to the move … the semi full of our belongings arrived a few days after we did and the movers unloaded everything. WOW. Sweet men, they even put all of our furniture together and set up our appliances. The next journey began … navigating the in’s and out’s of the house … finding a home for our things … it took a couple weeks to get it all situated just right, but when we did … oh, it was amazing.
One of the nights after we moved in, there was a power outage (welcome to Iowa, right?!). All of our neighbors were outside, hanging out, chatting, and so we joined them. The kids were all playing flashlight tag in the dark … the giggles and laughter was that filled the streets was simply fantastic. That was the first time we met the Byrd’s. The next day this girl (Emily) stopped by, and of course … I was totally clueless as to who she was. Turns out, she was a flash light tag kiddo that we met in the dark! Her family came by with chocolate chip cookies to welcome us to the area. Oh, the midwest is great, isn’t it?? That was the start of a beautiful friendship. Since then, Emily’s mom, Allison, has proven to be like a big sister to me … time and time again. When we got really REALLY sick our first year here, she made us dinner and watched the littles so I could go to the dr. and she even ran errands for us. When my grandma passed away, she listened to me cry and hugged me. I needed that … Whenever she was baking up a storm, she always sent something over (and vice versa — below the Bug is traipsing through the MAY snow, cookies in hand).
We spent our summer nights playing Phase 10 & Settlers of Catan ’til the wee hours of the night and having family dinners. Those days I cherish, as it’s been waaaay to long since we’d had any family nearby … that’s exactly what they’ve become to us … FAMILY.
On my birthday, they brought me a super yummy birthday cookie! I hadn’t had one of those since I was a kid … it was nummy!
What’s so so great is that our kids get along so well and our oldest girls are the same age! E is like a sister to them … they love her to pieces, as do I … when she’s here, it’s like having another daughter. My girls love love love their youngest, M … and their older brother, R. They are such incredible people … full of kindness and love, empathy and understanding … they have been such a Godsend to all of us, sometimes the glue that keeps me together, and that something that was missing in our lives … a hole, now filled, and it feels so good!
Now, I’ve homeschooled our girls since the beginning and had planned to continue, but when we were looking for our house we decided on a neighborhood near this one school that just sounded good … on the off chance our girls wanted to try it out someday. The Byrd and I looked at the school’s website whilst we were still out west, checked out the teachers for 3rd grade, and saw Mrs. Keese … we read her little bio and saw her photo and fell in love. I remember telling Miss Byrd, “Ooooh, if you get her … oh, you will get her … she sounds incredible! I bet she’ll change your world!” The Bug was still going to be homeschooled, no matter what. Anyway, one day we walked around the area and saw the school … the littles were curious as to what it looked like inside, so they gave us a tour. Once the Byrd saw the library, and they told her she got to go there during school to check out books, she said she wanted to give it a whirl. Oh, and guess what?! She totally got Mrs. Keese! Fate, friends … fate.
And as fate would have it, they were the best pairing ever. She was the best FIRST public school teacher I could’ve dreamt up for my Byrd … the absolute BEST. She taught her to knit. She encouraged her to write and to build her love of reading. She really listened to her and truly came to know her soul. She became family to us and I don’t know what we’d do without her in our lives … a gift from God. The Byrd also met one of her good friends in that classroom, A …
And through her, her mom, who has become one of my nearest and dearest … and I met her amazing family of 6, plus her parents and her in-laws — they are one of the most incredibly loving, amazing, openhearted, sweet, down to earth, motivating, REAL, honest, helpful, encouraging, uplifting, God fearing families I’ve ever met. They have all grown on us. When I’m down, she picks me up. When I’m lost, she tells me how to get found. When I loose faith in myself … which has been a lot lately … she encourages me. When something breaks in my house, she tells me how to fix it or asks her husband and then tells me how to fix it or who to call (she & the hubs are sorta this ninja DIY team). Oh, did I mention she’s a photographer too? Not just any photographer either, she’s pretty darn incredible! That’s her below with two of four of her littles … helping me with yet another homework project — she’s the best!
Since our arrival back in August of 2012, we have had so much love and joy and laughter come into our lives … and at just the right time. We ALL finally feel HOME … for me, it’s the first time in 20 years (and I am only 30)! It’s amazing, this little place called Ankeny. The people here are so nice, friendly … random people say “Hello” to you and will strike up a casual conversation on the street or in stores, they smile and go out of their way to hold a door for you … gawsh, it’s good to live here. I cannot even fathom another move … this it it for us. Which brings me to why I’m REALLY here! After giving my family time to really adjust to this new lifestyle we have here and for me to finish my degree, it’s finally time to launch this little old dream of mine. I’ve been waiting soo soo long and the day has finally come! So here it goes …
Hi! My name is Jaime (that’s me above being all crazy with my two littles), and I am sooo excited to meet you … ALL of you!
I am a Lifestyle & Portrait photographer specializing in the creation of modern maternity, newborn, baby, child & family portraits. My style is a bit eclectic and spans from classic portraiture to that of a journalistic nature, as I strive to capture authenticity in every soul I photograph and beauty in the mundane of their every day lives. When you mix those two styles together for your family photographs, the results are epic. I will laugh with you, cry with you, chat with you, and maybe even hug you — together we will create an atmosphere that will encourage genuine moments, raw emotion, natural expressions, smiles, laughter, and silly’s. If temper tantrums should arise in your kiddos, as they sometimes do, no worries mate — those are just as much a part of life and childhood as everything else — I’m sure you’ll want to remember those beautifully trying moments as well. 🙂
Cheers!
Jaime
