Behind every photo I take is a heart full of dreams… and a calendar full of school events, dog walks, and the occasional “Wait, where did I put that box cutter?” moment.

This season has made a lot feel crystal clear. My husband and I just sold our home in North Oaks and we’re buying a smaller home in the Summit-University neighborhood of St. Paul. It’s an intentional move toward “less house, more life,” and it’s made me think a lot about what I’m really building — for my family, for my clients, and for myself.

The Personal Goals

1) Raise kind, grounded humans (even when they act like teenagers)

If you know, you know.

My biggest goal in life isn’t to raise perfect kids. It’s to raise the kind of people who hold doors, notice when someone’s left out, and don’t forget how to be decent when life gets stressful. Teenagers are basically walking contradictions (sweet one minute, slightly feral the next), so I’m learning to play the long game: consistency, humor, and a lot of deep breaths.

And honestly? Parenting teens has made me more patient as a Twin Cities family photographer. I understand big feelings. I understand moods. I understand that sometimes people need a minute before they can show up as themselves whether they’re 16 or 36.

2) Build a home that feels like us — smaller, simpler, and full of photos

Selling our home in North Oaks felt like closing a chapter. A good chapter. A busy one. The kind where life happens fast and you don’t always realize how much stuff you’ve collected until you try to pack it.

Moving to Summit-University is our way of choosing what we want daily life to feel like: simpler, closer-in, more walkable, more intentional. And in the middle of all the purging and sorting, one thing has been non-negotiable for me: photos stay.

Not on a hard drive. Not buried in a phone camera roll under 9,000 screenshots. On the walls. In frames. In albums you can actually flip through.

Because a home can be smaller and still feel rich not in a fancy way, but in a “this place holds our story” way. That’s the kind of home I’m building.

3) Protect the kind of everyday life I actually want to live

I’m a mom, a business owner, and a person who occasionally needs five minutes of silence to remember how to be normal. (Highly recommend.)

This goal is about protecting the little rhythms: the quiet morning moments, the dog walks, the dinner conversations, the fact that I want my life to feel like mine not just a blur of obligations and errands. Downsizing is part of that. So are boundaries. So is learning that rest is allowed, even when my brain tells me I should be doing twelve other things.

It’s also why I’m such a fan of family photos in the studio sometimes. No weather drama. No bug spray. No “Is it going to rain?” group text spiral. Just a calm space where you can show up, breathe, and be together.