oh how i love the dougherty's

laughter, take me as i am, serve, generosity, affection- all thoughts i have when it comes to these friends. i've loved them for a long time and am constantly grateful for who they are.

when i got to julie's house we all just sat around for a while waiting for everyone to congregate and i said "it's amazing how your children all look so different." she said, "and they all act so different". 4 kids, not a one of them alike. but watch them as they come together, they become this force. they know each other, like really know each other, and push the right buttons. when i'm with them i want to be one of them. brilliant, beautiful, kind, and not too proud. they are sophistiated but without pretense.

julie, angela, jenny, matt, and drew. i've loved watching them all grow, change, yet to the core remain. now there's lavern, carter, and alex mixing it up right along with them.

thanks for allowing me to call you friends.

fabric

they ride by my house sometimes.
i’ll be sitting at my desk, thinking, writing, editing, and zoom, there they go. one will pass and I know it won’t be long before the other clips into their bike and follows. i’ve watched them. i watched them when i was three years old; work on projects in the back yard, cheer at races, kiss every time they met. i’m sure they’ve had ups and downs, that’s just marriage. but there is a richness about them, i guess that’s cultivated by hard times, suffering, joy, failure, success, done hand in hand. there is an affection, appreciation, and respect that i remember in the midst of my own marriage.

they never had babies, but they have more kids than anyone i know. in fact, i’m one of them. chris was the first person to tell me about finding life by living for God. i call him my spiritual father, but sometimes he’s been an earthly one too. in fact he has shared with me that he feels he has so much understanding of God, the Father’s, heart and that’s why he’s often reduced to tears in the middle of conversation about a person he loves. it leaves me awestruck. he taught me to pray, she taught me to be tough, he taught me to connect with people i photograph, she taught me to explore.

when thinking about people that have played a part in forming me, the patterson’s make up much of that fabric. when I was little, they lived two doors down, now, they live 6 up. they pour into the lives of my children in the same way they did me. i’m grateful.

teach me how to dougie

if i think really hard, i have this memory of my childhood friends in my basement. we were dancing to some madonna song, my memory fails me, with ice-cream sugar cones taped to our chest in an attempt to replicate her coned bustier. (remember that one?) embarrassing? yes. but more than that a sweet sweet memory of having fun with reckless abandon. not the kind of fun that makes you sick and regretful in the morning, but the kind of fun that i wish more people would let themselves have.

these girls; holly, claire, elizabeth, gabby, and olivia gave me some life. lately i'm caught up in diapers, discipline, lullabies, laundry, and well, life. don't get me wrong, it's good stuff! but, every once in a while it sure is good to dance like a moron and laugh with the others that are doing it right along side.

for holly's birthday all she wanted was a photo shoot with her girls. we did it right with hair, makeup, snacks, music, and in the end great photos! i adore holly and her sweet mama, mary. and now i love her friends!














their stylists fixing fly-aways- love it

























can't you just hear holly? whoa whoa whoa, MOM!






the other fun part was that two of my very best friends, natalie and becky, were there. thanks becky, for teaching us how to dougie......

energized

and this is why. more to come, but let me just tell you that i haven't laughed so hard in a long time. and it's all thanks to a group of 12 year old girls.

two years later

two years ago they said forever. i was there. standing in the back with the camera up to my face i cried and cried. tears of joy of course, because i really was so happy for them. we spent their two year anniversary together, and added one to the party. little addison. her eyes of brown, gummy smile, and infectious laughter.

i'm so emotional thinking of the next two years, and the two after that. what will their little family be up to? whatever it is, i hope i'm around to capture it for them.