Your house is picture perfect, or maybe it’s not. You have handpicked every piece that occupies the walls, or perhaps you have a hodgepodge of hand-me-downs. Maybe, your find that your home is somewhere between what you imagine it could be and the mismatch of college furnishings you had in that first apartment. It’s quite possible that you don’t feel an emotional tie to this home. It’s just a place you’re passing through, and it doesn’t hold any special place in your heart. Either way, it doesn’t matter to these little hands and feet as they scramble as quickly as they can around the corner. These little ones are not giggling because your curtains don’t match your bedding (if you even have curtains). These little ones are giggling because they like the sound of their hands slapping the floor as they scoot away from your, “I’m gonna get you’s.”

It does not occur to the little toes what surface they are taking their first steps on, whether it be linoleum or the finest hardwoods money could buy. Their little eyes are not darting about the room judging your decisions on the latest Pinterest projects left undone. They are taking in all the little details that we no longer notice, and to them they are magical and incredible.

What I’m getting at here, folks, is that it matters not what your house looks like. That is not what makes it a home. It’s these little bitty beings and other loved ones, their laughter and tears, their joys and heartaches that make it a home. It’s their chapters that flow seamlessly into your own story that create a home full of epic moments…all found within these spectacularly decorated or very plain eggshell, white walls.

Lifestyle photography is one of the greatest things I think you can do for your family. I bring elements of it to my sessions outdoors, but there is something so special and real when a client allows me into their homes. To capture the moments that you swear you’ll never forget, the ones that leave as quickly as they came…those moments. No matter how hard you try, they do fade and some are forgotten. However, with images like this you can easily look back and say, “Oh my, look at how his little toes curl, and the way he is sitting. I forgot that he used to sit that way,” and instantly, you are brought back to that seemingly simple day, and it becomes extraordinary.

In the end, you find that that house did in fact hold a very special place in your heart, despite the length of time spent here. For we’ve all heard, home is where the heart is, and these little ones, well, they obviously hold your heart.

~Melissa