First, a little history lesson:

Back in January, 1991, there lived two couples in neighboring duplexes on the street Juanipero Way in Medford, OR. What drew them together was the bundles of joy they both received in that month of January in 1991. The first couple, Greg and Christy, received their bundle, Katelyn Noël, on January 19th. The second couple, Joe and Charlene, received their bundle, Jessica Marie, exactly one week later on January 26th. Those two days changed their lives. Before they new it they were dear friends and their bundles were growing up. An old wooden fence separated their yards, but not them. Charlene and Christy, and Katie and Jessie, were constantly meeting at the old wooden fence and climbing over it to visit one another. Jessie and I tore around the yard, met at the fence, posed for photos in matching outfits, climbed trees, drew pictures, played with dolls and stuffed animals, imagined all sorts of interesting worlds, wrote stories, swung on swings, had sleep-overs, and did all sorts of other delightful things that children do. In the summer our families had rip-warring water fights as Joe, or Big-Buffalo as I called him, would clear the fence and race after us with the hose.

But, our lives changed in the second grade when my family had to move to another side of town and Jessie’s family took up residence in my old home due to changing rent. As we grew, we still got together and stayed in touch, but could not meet nearly as often as before. We grew even older and both of us moved multiple times. Hardships came to both our lives, in very different forms and we were lucky if we made contact with each other once a year. Life took us different ways and though we lived in the same valley, it felt like our lives were miles away.

Until, one day, last May, I found an email in my inbox from my dear friend, Jessie, whom I had not heard from for over a year. She wanted to know if she had tracked down the right Katelyn Rich because she had something to tell me. I immediately replied that, yes, this was the right Katelyn Rich and Jessie told me that she was six weeks pregnant. We went to lunch and caught up with each other over the summer and picked right back up where we left off.

In December, I took maternity photos of my dear friend and her boyfriend, Luke. We headed out to Lithia Park in Ashland on a lovely snowy day. We trudged through the snow and managed to stay warm, having a wonderful time as I tried to keep my camera under the umbrella and the umbrella out of the frame, which I discovered was quite a pain to do. Luke had to work that day, but managed to show up for the last eight minutes of the shoot before they ran off for Jessie’s doctors appointment. They are expecting Akaliah Marie to make her grand entrance into the world on January 18th, but Jessie and I both think it would be quite fun if she came one day late.

I love you, Jessie and it was nice to finally meet you, Luke and I can’t wait to meet your darling daughter, Akaliah!

Enjoy the photos!

So beautiful.

I love how she’s looking at him in this one.

So, my dad tagged along for part of the shoot and decided to photograph me while I was photographing Jessie. When I saw the photos I realized why Jessie was laughing at me. (Obviously I was going for warmth, not fashion.) I looked quite  hilarious as I tried to keep my camera dry. Jessie decided that I need one of those rainbow umbrellas that you wear on your head, then my clients would really be laughing at me.

Here are couple of the photos he took:

I just couldn’t help myself   :-D