It always intrigues me when siblings have such different features, like the straight brown hair vs. the curly red hair. It just goes to show that even with the same parents, God makes us each in our own special way.

The “get-away.”  I love it when 2-year-olds decide they have better things to do than hang out with me and have their picture taken.  And she wasn’t going to let that dress hold her back.

Maddie and Margot’s mom is in the mom’s group that I am part of at her church.  We’re not in the same discussion group, though, so we haven’t been able to spend much time together during our Monday morning meeting time.

I’m so glad I was able to spend some time with you and your family, Emily. It was great to meet them and get to know you better.  I would love to photograph your family again in the future.

Tony and Susan were great to work with.  They did pose one challenge, though.  They are TALL.  I believe Susan said she is 5′9″ and Tony is around 6′7″.  First I had to work with the height difference and then I had to figure out how to position Tony with his long legs.  It all worked out great, though, and they were pleased with the results.

This image is my favorite.

I really loved Susan’s hair pulled back.  She did it for a different look.  I think it looks so classic.

It was such a beautiful day.

It was great to meet you two.  I hope your first “new year” together is a fabulous one.

Amos was 5 at the time this session took place and was a few weeks away from starting kindergarten.  He was named after his great-great-grandfather, which would be my (and his dad’s) great grandfather.

I just want to mention the chair being used in these images.  We borrowed the chair from Mark’s parent’s house.  It turns out that the chair belonged to our grandparents.  It was one of the green kitchen chairs that grandpa and grandma used all the years that I was growing up.  In fact, they probably owned that table and set of chairs for their entire married life.  I would never have recognized it since my aunt had it refinished.

Josiah, or Jo, was 3 in these images and was quite sad when his brother left him to start school.  In case anyone was wondering, Mark had really blonde hair when he was little.

I love Jo’s smile and how his nose kinda wrinkles up.  And I love little boys in overalls.

I’m sure they will love these yearly photos together when they get older.

Thanks, Mark and Jen, for letting my family invade your home every year and feeding us while we are there.  And thanks for letting me be your personal photographer.  I’m already thinking about your session for next year.

Before I get started posting current sessions I want to post a little bit more about our time in Bolivia, even though it was over a year since we were there.  Why?  Because I want to tell you more about the daycare that we went there to serve.  The people in Bolivia inspire me.  While many there struggle on a day-to-day basis, they are still committed to serving God and reaching out to the communities around them.

We went there to work with a daycare called Guarderia Samuelito (guarderia is the spanish word for daycare).  This daycare is currently held at la Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Esmirna (Esmirna Mennonite Church), which is in a poor community on the outskirts of Santa Cruz.  Several years ago people in the church saw the need for a daycare to serve the families in that community.  There were many young children who were left at home all day, either locked in the house or running around in the streets, while their parent or parents went to work.  They just couldn’t afford daycare nor could they afford not to work.  So the church started the daycare to provide an affordable and safe place for these children to stay during the day.

The church building is very small and very basic.  The property consists of two buildings.  One building has a large divided room, two smaller rooms, and a very small kitchen.  The other building has two bathroom stalls, a sink and two shower stalls.  The daycare currently serves roughly 50 children — all that can fit in this facility.  Here are some pictures for you to get more of an idea what the facility looks like:

The church/daycare building on the left, and the bathroom/shower building on the right.

The first door is the 2 & 3-year-old room, the second door is the 4 & 5-year-old room, the next door is the babies room and office, then the room where a family lives that takes care of the property, and finally the kitchen on the far end.

The sink is on the end of the building, the first two doors are toilets and then next two doors are showers.

Now inside the building — the 2 & 3-year old class.  Where they are sitting is pretty close to the wall to the left, and just past the floor space you see at the bottom is another wall.

This divider separates this class from another class.

This is what’s on the other side of the divider wall — the 4 & 5-year-old class.

This shows the other side of the same room.  It gives a sense of the size of that room.  This is where the church service is held on Sunday.

The babies share their room with the daycare office, which is basically a small desk and some shelves.  The little yellow table is right next to the door, and to the right is a few more feet than what you see.

Inside the tiny kitchen.  In the picture on the left you can see how close they are to the door.  The stove it right inside the door to the right.  In the picture on the right, Vicki (the awesome cook) can turn around and touch the stove without moving.  The fruit rack on the back wall is right next to the counter on the opposite wall. Not much room at all.

This shows the outside of the kitchen — the door on the right. You can see the table where they were chopping vegetables in the previous picture.  It shows how close they were to the door.  The room on the left is the large bedroom where a family lives. This family takes care of the property and keeps potential thieves or troublemakers away.

As you can see, this daycare can truly use a new facility.  That’s what we were there for– to help them break ground for the new building that will serve 150 children.