katherine ann

This spring has been full of engagements, seniors about to graduate, and newborns. Being on this side of the camera, I am welcomed into the most important and joyous times of other people's lives - sometimes complete strangers who quickly become friends, and sometimes old friends who have grown into completely new (and still wonderful) people.

I met Chelsea and Danny around my senior year of college. They were a few years older than me, married, and preparing to move back to Dallas after graduation from graduate school. They seemed to already have their lives together. Here I was, barely 21, trying to decipher some sort of plan for what I was going to do after graduation. Marriage, houses, family - how could I even think that far ahead?

Luckily, over the years things fell into place in a way far better than I could have ever designed. I realize now that I am where they were when I met them. I'm married, in graduate school, own a house, and Charlie and I feel nicely settled in to this life. However, this familiar stage that I remember seeing Chelsea and Danny in has already bloomed into something even better for them. Isn't it funny how quickly time changes things?

Soon enough, these two became three, welcoming little James into the world. Jump forward, and once again they have grown, now to a family of four (well, six if you count the sweet pups). I hadn't seen these two in years. The last time we were together, they were not parents (again, unless you count the dogs). Last week, I saw them fully immersed in the partnership of parenthood and it was so natural, and so strange that it had ever been any other way. Little Katherine Ann, not even two weeks old, seemed as if she had always been there with them. James, too.

Congratulations, Danny and Chelsea. Parenthood suits you so well. I love watching you two and your family grow together. I love seeing all of your joy, and knowing that life plays out in some wonderful ways. Someday we will be in this new stage too, and that's absolutely terrifying. But thank you for always being a few steps ahead of us, and for always taking things in stride. Your family is absolute love, and I am so grateful to have been invited in to celebrate it with these photos.