Do you remember the first house that you grew up in? We had the opportunity to capture moments of this family right before they moved out of the house that they began raising their family in. We captured the details of the home that had meaning to them, and of course got some images of their beautiful kids.

We got to focus the majority of our time on this sweet girl. age 1 1/2.

We love this home’s character and all the details.

This is the ladder that went up to the loft in the boy’s room.

I remember the nervousness I had as the first day of school began. I wanted to be the best teacher for these kids.

As the school year went on we made great memories, friendships, and hopefully I taught them something along the way. My room moms were awesome, and I still have to this day an album that they made me of pictures throughout the year capturing fun moments that we had.

Believe it or not, my 1st first grade class is now in high school and they can drive!!!! I seriously feel that it was yesterday when I watched a special little boy run out to his mommy everyday after school and give her a hug. That “little boy” is now all grown up, and I am friends with him on Facebook. It is crazy how life changes and how quickly time goes by.

I had 3 wonderful years of teaching first grade, and I am so thankful for the students that I have been able to keep in contact with. Those kids have changed my life, and I am so blessed for the memories that they have given me.

Here is my first class of 1st graders in front of the school.Here is my second year of teaching. This was jog-a-thon day.My third year of teaching. It was the 100th day of school. Shortly after my third year, Tater and I moved to Bloomington and began having children of our own.

Now OUR little boy is entering the 1st grade world. I know how quickly time goes, and I am sad but happy for him to begin another school year. Pretty soon HE will be in high school with his drivers license, but until then we are capturing and enjoying this time in our little boy’s life!

He loves to run! Being a boy… He does it well considering he lives with a lot of girls.His notorious monkey run. He seriously runs like this a lot and goes really fast.

is where we did her photo session. And the pictures continue…

She asked to stand on top of one of the tree trunks.

This girl cracks us up:

At home she is always talking to herself or someone about something or someone.

She says like the word “like” … well LIKE all the time.

She is a total diva and LOVES everything girly and pink.

Well, today she turns 4, and so we did her yearly photo shoot. We have a problem because of the 280 pictures we took of her, we love them all! She has a different expression every second and loves to be in front of the camera.

Her shoot was an entire night event. We first started out by washing and curling her hair. She was in her glory! Next, she got to pick out her favorite color of nail polish and get her nails painted. Again… she was in her glory! She knew it was her special night to get just *her* pictures taken. So out the entire family went to focus on her. I don’t know where she learns this stuff, but she definitely had poses for us and the cameras. Afterwards, we went to Cold Stone Creamery to end the fun evening. These are the memories we love making. We will spare you with posting the 280 pictures, but we will be taking up the next several posts to get our absolute favorites in.

We’re happy to show you our new little nephew. Cruz William

Coming from a family of 3 girls, he will be passing on our family name in a way (Kruse). There is a story behind this little guy, and we are so thankful to be able to see the hand of God in it:

My sister and husband have 2 sweet girls already. The pregnancies of these girls were not the easiest. All births are miracles from God, but my sister’s last delivery was truly a miracle. To make a long story short… My sister’s uterus ruptured, and she went in for an emergency c-section. My little niece came out blue and not breathing. It was very scary! Any future pregnancies would be high risk. Feeling like their family was not yet complete, they prayed about adoption. God placed a peace in their hearts for a little child in the states. They had no preference in race or gender. They just wanted the child that they knew God wanted them to have. And so their journey began. It definitely was one of ups and downs… opened and closed doors, but they held fast and continued to rely on God and be patient in Him. This past month, God revealed their new little blessing to them, and they were able to go and get their new little boy. We are thankful for the life that his birthmother gave our family, and we continue to pray for her. I cannot imagine such a sacrifice.

Tim and Jessie, You are such great parents, and I know you will make a difference in Cruz’s life. We are so excited for you, and we all love him so much already!! Enjoy the pictures of your new little man!

Below is how he was the entire shoot. AWAKE. We tried all of our tricks, and he just wanted to know what was going on. It was too funny. My sister said he is a very alert newborn so she was sweet enough to come by another day and try again. Any asleep pictures were round 2 of the photo shoot.

His big sisters adore him!

Cruz, we love you so much!