A Continuous Edit

writing + editing + changing

[lastminutemama]

I could probably write some super corny caption that is mushy and gushy. . But I'm not. . Short, sweet and to the point. ALWAYS have dreams. ALWAYS have a goal in mind but don't forget to enjoy the ride with the people, places and experiences around you. Hustle, but don't turn a blind eye to your biggest fans that want to see you both successful + happy! . I'm also on my second glass of wine so read into that as much as you want 😉 . #lastminutemama #mommy #momhood #bloglife #bloggerlife #momblog #mamablogger #harrypotter #hp #harrypotterquotes #hustlehard #bloggers #bloggerstyle #momlife #mamabear (at Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq3YSidnPw3/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1x0sz8rgw947y

[lastminutemama]

Thank you Target for keeping my tiny human warm + fashionable in the wonderful Minnesota weather today! . @target @targetstyle . #momblog #mommyblogger #toddler #toddlerlife #fashionista #blogger #bloggerlife #OOTD #target #style #fashion #toddlerfashion #kidsfashion #photographerlife #kidphotography (at Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/BquyfmTnICT/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1tdeu1rovt0iq

[lastminutemama]

We are on round 2 of no naps with this little cutie, but she's a trooper! I hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday weekend! . My heart is so full ❤️ . #thanksgiving #family #traditions #familypicture #husband #toddler #mommy #momhood #mom #momblogger #momblog #blog #bloglife #photo #photooftheday #saturday (at Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqk9YPoHJ0q/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1d4rs1yskgcss

[lastminutemama]

Its #bangsgivesback day. What a perfect theme to be able to take part of today! Something that I'm looking forward to is taking care of my health. . As we drag our feet into the icy tundra of the Midwest winter I plan to try and stay as healthy for not only myself, but for my family because they rely on me! Especially being a stay at home parents it's up to me to keep the house running during the day. . So here's to health and happiness 😊 . Also, because BANGS is a fantastic company that supports entrepreneurs, they are running a black Friday deal for 25% off everything in store! Just use code BANGSGIVESBACK. Proceeds will help support small business 😎 . #bangsblitz #BANGS #BANGSGIVESBACK #Bangsfam #ambassador (at Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/BqiIw-InGTS/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=iy04ztzwn0ba

[lastminutemama]

YOU GUYS! IT'S ALMOST TURKEY DAY! . Roll up those sleeves and unbutton those pants because it's pre-turkey day. Yup I just made that up. But hear me out. This day is filled with last minute shopping, last minute arrangements and last minute recipes! . For real, my brother in law JUST suggested to me what I should bring to Turkey day at his place tomorrow. Okay no bigs right? Right! Seriously, I do NOT stress about this stuff very often. I'm sitting on my couch right now, coffee in hand as my tiny human finally sleeps and casually going over my shopping list. I haven't made it to the store yet. Holla! . In all honesty I can't freak about trying to be perfect, about anything. Because you know what? I'M NOT PERFECT. . This is how our morning is going to go: I 100% promise we are going to be late, my cheesy corn will not be totally melted because although I will wake up early, I will still forget to turn my Crock-Pot on all morning 🤦. My daughter is going to be hella crabby because this whole turkey day celebration is smack dab in the middle of her nap 🤷. We are going to battle anywhere between 10- 100 million tantrums before we even get our shoes and socks on. Well aware it'll probably be around 11 and we haven't left yet, knowing it takes an hour to get there The cute outfit that I picked out ages ago will suddenly not feel right and I'll decide last minute (of course to my husband's dismay) while they both wait in the truck that I NEED to go in and change into something more comfortable. My husband KNOWING I should have just worn the leggings in the first place. I can already feel the eye roll I'm so rightfully going to receive. We will then FINALLY get into the vehicle, pull out of the driveway, turn our blinker onto the highway and start this journey, when I suddenly freak out when I say, "honey! I forgot the Crock-Pot!". Said husband will then shoot metaphorical eyeball daggers into me as we swing back around and grab our cheesy corn. . So you know what folks? Don't sweat the big stuff. Just enjoy today, and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. . #lastminutemama #mom #mama #momblog #momblogger #blog #blogger #bloggerlife #bloglife #lifestlyeblog #mom https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqc_H6Un1hF/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=2iugsy3zojqt

[lastminutemama]

You've heard this time and time again. . "I always wish this..." But I "never have....". The money, the knowledge, the client base, the support. . These words are like poison. Poking and prodding at your innerself like it's a fragile balloon ready to pop. Those words make their way into your subconscious and tell you all of the little things that your "failing at" but get this. Your not failing. You just haven't got there yet. You have time. But you have to earn it. Work for it. Because if it's worth the late nights, frustration cries and coffee induced anxiety attacks then don't give up when it gets hard. That's just your dream testing you to see if you have the chops. . When you try to accomplish a dream, it's not going to be easy. There's no magic fairy that's going to grant you a wish and give you everything you've ever dreamed of without any hard work to show for. . Limit those negative thoughts. And just ASK for help if you need it. Find a mentor in the area you're trying to make a living out of. Google - seriously. Do you realize how much information is at the tip of our fingertips? Get out of your comfort zone and just talk, talk, talk. Because how do you know of somebody wants what you have to offer, without starting a conversation? . Who needs this reminder today? I know I did. . #lastminutemama #mom #mommy #mama #momblog #momblogger #blog #blogger #bloggerlife #bloglife #lifestlyeblog #momhood #photo #photooftheday #photography #mn #mnphoto #inspire https://www.instagram.com/p/BqcivtBHGGx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=agg7bymt9vpk

[lastminutemama]

Here’s the one where a mini session turned into a full blown session... because of my toddler.

Yep, you heard that right. This is the one where my brother and sister-in-law asked me to take some family photos of them before they moved. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity and what meant to be a 30 minute mini session turned into a full fledged session. The reason why? My adorably, loving and very clingy toddler (hey, its the age right?). My brother has two kiddos and I just have one little one, so three excited kids hanging out and getting antsy, we got started. 

My SIL and I both agreed that we should try and capture their oldest ASAP because he was notorious for exploring. All. The. Time. Which was totally fine. I am completely aware of what was going to happen, because I myself have a really excited, fully energized rambunctious toddler myself! Their shoot went like this: take pictures of Beau for 1 minute, quick gather Bryan, Brittany and Kai onto the chair and then bribe Beau with fruit snacks, bribe my daughter with fruit snacks so she stops clinging to my leg or running into every single shot. Then finally Beau runs back and boom! Click, click, click, click! Rinse and repeat. 

Okay, okay, so Beau might not be smiling BUT I promise that we were all having a wonderful time! Plus this poor guy is a tough cookie to crack. But what can I say, I managed to get in smiling in a few pictures I promise. Aren’t they just the most adorable family every though? I mean for real. The kiddos could be models. Gorgeous! 

As the hour went on, my daughter now fully emerged in Moana on my phone. Thank goodness, because she was a hot mess about 10 minutes into the shoot, that adorable girl. Beau was soon running quickly through the leaves, Kai just chilling like always, and we got ready for more family shots! With Ruby busy and Beau running back and forth to me and his parents. We made it happen! In the end, we made taking pictures into many games. It worked!! Yay! And we ended up getting these INCREDIBLE shots of this awesome family. Until next time!

Oh and p.s. my daughter made it through the shoot with only a few tears and like, only 15 tantrums and so much candy. You can imagine how the rest of the day went ;)

Much love,

Cait

[lastminutemama]

Check out this wonderful family of four!

These past two weekends have been pretty busy for me. I have had a wonderful time shooting my fall minis and they all came out so great. Most days I really lucked out with perfect weather. Even when it wasn’t so perfect, we all still managed to snap some great shots - with 25 mph icy winds. Yikes! 

I had been diligently working on editing all of these photos as fast as I could, but with some ups and downs our dog is going through right now, I had to slow down a little bit to spend some extra special quality time with my big guy. But I am happy to say I finally have a cute sneak peek to show you guys and am so thrilled with how the entire album turned out.

Talk about photogenic right?! This picture is always so fun to have families try because the kids get to stand a little bucket and balance! It always makes for great laughs and gets the kids to become more engaged and get them excited about “saying cheeeeeeeeeese” which is my all time favorite saying during a session. After adjusting the blanket and the kids figuring out whose foot goes where and the parents lovely snuggled up holding them safely, I captured this PERFECT moment for them. 

p.s. Thanks to this Threshold by Target blanket for helping me create these picture perfect moments. This blanket has endured 7 mini sessions with kids and dogs stomping on it, wind whipping it every direction, getting sat on and stuffed back into my prop bucket for the next session. 

This was probably one of my favorite moments of the entire shoot. I LOVE when the kids really get into it and show off their goofy sides. I’m all for a everyone-smiles-perfectly picture, but I am actually obsessed with candids. I feel like they really show the energy and momentum of each shoot. These two loved the camera and were not shy in the slightest! Which of course made my job about a million times easier. I had a few tough cookies that didn’t want to smile and you know what, thats okay! Every session is different and I have just learned over the course of my photography career that you just have to go with the flow. Especially if there are kids involved, like... young toddlers. They run the show!! Not me! It’s all about: where do they want to go? What do they want to do? Do they want to be held or run around? How can I incorporate the parents?

9.5/10 I have no problem staying on my toes and rolling with the punches. So when these two were just the most ideal subjects, I felt myself relax juuuuuuuuust a little more. I then just get to sit back and click my camera button and capture these effortless images. A definite win in my book! 

So all in all it has been a fantastic few weekends of minis, I still have one last mini tonight, that I know will go off without a hitch! I don’t know, I just feel it in my bones that it will go really well. I’m so excited! But for now, I will be finalizing the rest of the O’Connor album and sending them off to happy clients to enjoy! I hope you all have a fabulous Monday (as much as you can, because hey, it IS Monday!) 

Cait

[lastminutemama]

A windy day in Minnesota. The usual.

I truly believe that last weekend was just a glimpse of how cold it’s going to be this winter here in Minnesota. It was brutal. Twenty-five mile mph winds at 22 degrees. So you can imagine how chilled to the bone it was. The Everson family  put on their think MN skin and battled the icy temps with me. Here are a few sneak peek photos of their adorable family!

Talk aout CUTE! The kiddos were so excited when I said “Okay! Let’s wrap ourselves in a blanket!” It totally worked. The kids were so excited to wrap up in a warm blanket. 

We were at the St. Peter Arboretum back in the trails area and nabbed a spot with a few trees that still had some colorful leaves on the trees and a beautiful blanket of fallen leaves scattered across the ground. It made for the perfect backdrop! 

We ran and ran some more to keep those kiddos warm! I remember it was time to switch locations and I thankfully had those blankets and gave them to the parents to block the kids from the wind. We sped walked down through the grass and into the trail and I was holding my gear and when I went to put it down, my hands were so frozen stiff I could hardly click my buttons on my camera! Oops! My mistake for not being prepared for MN weather! Either way, the shoot went really well and I am so happy this family hung in there with me. Wind and all, it was a fabulous day! 

Cait

[lastminutemama]

Take a look at this sweet family!

I am lucky enough to call this sweet family... family! You got that right, this gorgeous family are my cousins, so you better believe when they asked me to take their family photos, I immediately jumped on the opportunity! The weather was PERFECT, 58 degrees, sunny and the trees were the most vibrant color. It could not have been a more perfect session. Scroll down to look at the rest of the sneak peak :) 

You guys... this was their FIRST shot. You can imagine how the rest of the session went (mega heart eye emoji)! These kiddos were so fun to work with, between one running away while the other smiles perfectly, or somebody (cough, cough Ms. Ellie) rubbing her baby brothers head for good luck perhaps? I’m not sure, but there were plenty of laughs to go around!

It’s official, I'm obsessed! But last but definitely not least, the absolutely stunning parents! These two jokesters are beautiful inside and out and I was in literal tears coaching them on hand placement. The struggle was only momentary, but by the end they were a well oiled machine. Side note, having couples give each other a butterfly kiss is absolutely hysterical and I ask that every photog ask their clients to do it. Talk about some genuine smiles guys! So dang cute! I absolutely thrilled about this sneak peak!!

UGH, I COULD LOOK AT THESE ALL DAY. I am so excited to edit the rest!!! :)

Okay, I’ll stop. *scrolls through 10 more times*

Much love, 

Cait

[lastminutemama]

Last Minute...Everything #sorrynotsorry

I am all about waiting until the last minute. Last minute to wash those dishes that have been sitting in the sink for two days (oops my bad). Last minute to wash alllllllll of the 70 loads of laundry that is never going to fold itself and put itself away - a girl can dream *sigh*. Last minute to get out of the door every. damn. morning. That one is actually a pet peeve of mine, surprisingly, I hate being late. I could wake up early, get myself in somewhat of an haphazarad ensemble, make coffee, get lunches and f*cking fruit snacks packed away, get my daughter up EARLY and STILL be so last minute out the door, I might as wake up the night before. I mean honestly. Thankfully my husband is a saint because I'm usually running around the house like a chicken with my head cut off trying to somehow figure out how to put toddler shit into this poor diaper bag that doesn't stand a chance. Someday I will eventually figure it out, figure out how to be on time. Figure out how to “use my time wisely” (which by the way is to wake up EARLIER - obviously never early enough - and drink at least half of your cup of hot coffee before it gets bumped out of your hands by your child or dog or goes cold). 

So here’s to those Last Minute Mama’s who (mostly) have their shit together.

[lastminutemama]

This image is so absolutely deceiving because it what was suppose to be a really enjoyable 1 hour walk turned into a 3.5 hour horror movie. My daughter and I decided (well I decided, she was just coming along for the ride) that we we're going to go hiking over at the local trails by our house. We have done these trails hundreds of times and have never had an issue until this day. We started on an easy one for a warm up, it took probably 20 minutes to walk the entire thing and then we crossed over to the bigger side of the park and I picked "Trail 8 LOOP" Keep in mind it said loop so I thought this should be a cake walk. WRONG. Wrong on so many levels. What I thought was an easy trail ended up being my worst nightmare. I thought I was in an episode of Supernatural where something fucked up always happens because every trail I walked on I ended up BACK AT THE SAME SPOT. Literally, the "loop" that the sign showed was in fact not a loop but an absolute terror. After seamlessly walking in circles for hours - taking EVERY path that lead in different directions and copius amounts of tears and snot and yelling at each other I found one more trail called "Trail 10 PRAIRIE LOOP". I'd just about had it, we've been walking for 3.5 hours and references the trail maps (there were incredibly unhelpful) I'd already walked about 15ish miles. So anyways, we got to this new trail, trail 10 and low and behold it's STRAIGHT UP A FUCKING RAVINE. I mean, this trail was a double black diamond of a Minnesota trail. I had my hysterical 25 lb daughter who REFUSED to stay in her stroller, a massive Eddie Bower jogger with flat wheels and a over the top diaper bag filled with all of my daughters essential shit (fruit snacks and diapers). I seriously thought about sitting down on the side of the path and just wait for help. I was toast but a screaming toddler was making my ears ring and my blood pressure rise by the millisecond I had to act. Scooping up my daughter in one arm and grabbing hold of the stupid stroller in the other I dragged all our asses up this giant hill. Let me tell you, I was at the PEAK of exhaustion here and mentally drained that between gasping for air and yanking on the stroller I figured this had to be the worst part. Because I mean, we have been stuck on these trails for hours and we finally saw the sky and open space that by the time we got to the top of the trail and hit the "prairie loop" I sat down and started bawling my eyes out like a middle schooler who just got dumbed by her first boyfriend. It was ugly. Secretly happy no one was around to see us. I remember looking on the trail map and saying to myself "okay, just 4 more right turns and your back, four more." Thank God my tiny human decided she was more over it and sat in the stroller so we could actually get home before the sun started to sink. I was on a mission at this point, power walking like those speed walkers in the mall that get irate when you step in their Lane so we hustled. But as we were dreadfully headed back into the fucking trails we pull up to random trail that WASNT ON THE MAP and here we go again, the fucking map lies. There wasn't suppose to be a trail here. I was suppose to go straight for awhile and THEN take a right. Mother fucker. I decide to follow what the trail is suppose to do and keep going straight hoping that I took the right way and thank goodness I did because on my left was a random fucking neighborhood that popped out of nowhere. You bet your ass I baha'ed my way through a thicket of trees and spiders to get into this neighborhood. After pounding on a few doors that were left unanswered I snuck up on this older gentlemen - bless his heart - that showed me so much kindness and warmth (and totally ignored the fact that I was ugly crying - again) and offered to drive me back down to my car. Guys, whether you're religious or not (I'm not insanely religious), I'm pretty sure I was being watched over because this older couple was so eager to help me and my daughter (I said thank you between my sobs and obnoxious sniffling) that they instantly told me about their grandkids and that it was no problem because they even had a car seat for my daughter. Like I was meant to meet these people. Long story short, don't go on the fucking Trail 8 Loop unless you don't care about getting absolutely fucking lost. The end.