Summer's End : just because // northeast, tx portrait and lifestyle photographer

What is it, this golden sheer draping itself over us

Like silken tapestry painting the sky and everything below?

Tis the last drop of summer's light

Treasure it, children

Because sooner than you would like to believe

It is gone. 

You probably have already gathered how dearly I love these girls. I am both highly aware and extremely fond of every time they blink their long perfectly curled eyelashes, shining up those dazzling sapphire eyes. I giggle inside when they talk to me in their country accents so thick and rich like honey, molasses, and maple syrup combined. I can't help but smile when a frosty blonde tipped curl brushes over those round rosy cheeks. And when they smile back, sometimes mischievously, or shyly, or excitedly, or trustingly...I would freeze time, if I could, and just squeeze 'em until they couldn't take it, not a minute more. :)

Lack of front teeth. *sigh*

This is a favorite Maggie face of mine. :)

This is Maggie's favorite Maggie face. 

Sometimes I wish I could see what is behind these dramatic looks...what beautiful thoughts are reeling in that mind of hers? :)

Perhaps you have noticed that things have been rather quiet around here...vlog wise. I haven't forgotten about it. :)

My Mam-maw has been very very sick this past month. We had scare after scare as she dealt with severe blood pressure irregularities which caused her to pass out and stop breathing multiple times through the past few weeks. She had a major operation to repair a main artery in her neck that was blocked. And she has spent more of her time in the hospital than not as of late. She is home for now, still taking it easy. The Lord has been very merciful to her and to all our family as we wait by her side. He has given us all peace, knowing that no matter what He determines to happen, it is perfect because it is His will. :)

As you can see, Graham is fixing her up just fine and so a vlog may be quite feasible in the near future. 

Thanks for the help, Graham. :)

Things don't really feel like fall around here yet. Maybe because Texas hardly has a true autumn. Its more like hot, Hot, HOT...then, Does it feel a little cooler to you? and BAM! It's winter, baby!! You didn't cut firewood?? It's December you fool, don't you know it gets cold?! Yeah. We don't have a gradual textbook transition from summer to fall to winter. It's all discombobulated and timed very...uniquely. Despite the lingering of the scorching heat at midday, I can feel summer singing its swan song as tans fade, the days get shorter and the mornings  and nights are crisp and chilly. It has been quite a summer indeed. And this fall is promising to be just as delightful. :)

~Through Christ's Love ♥

Tyler Lee : portraits // northeast, tx portrait photographer

It's early summer, 1998. I'm on the floor of my parents' bedroom, my legs crossed and my head tilted to the side. My little hand is resting on my mom's lap. She is on the edge of her bed, leaned over slightly, one hand gripping the phone, the other covering her mouth which was turning up at the sides more and more as she listened intently to her brother as he spoke excitedly. I hear his muffled voice and wonder at my my mom's growing grin. He was telling her the news they had gotten at the doctor's office. He was telling her about the sonogram.  He was telling her about his twins. My cousins. A girl and boy. 

Many months pass. I'm a wide-eyed and curious child. My golden hair falls down my back past my waist, my knees are dimpled, and I'm probably barefoot. I lay on my stomach in my grandmother's living room floor, my head, tilted to the side again, is resting in the palm of my right hand, my left hand up to my mouth as I rub my lips, my signature "thinking position". I'm face to face, looking deeply into the navy blue eyes of a chubby faced boy with a coat of the downiest blonde peach fuzz on his round little head. He's drooling and I'm wondering why it had to be a girl and a boy instead of two girls. Everyone knows boys are yuck. I'm frowning on the outisde but there is something inside me that thinks he's kinda darling. 

Years go by. I am a snaggled tooth third grader with crooked bangs. I have my hair wrapped tightly in a shower cap as I sit on a patchwork quilt in my living room floor. Beside me is that little boy, now five or so, with a shower cap of his own covering his buzzed haircut. His sister is already dozing off as she tugs slightly at her shower cap. We are all exhausted and though we feel like crying we can hardly keep ours eyes open. My mother and sister have been fighting the lice infecting all three of our heads of wavy flaxen hair all day. We don't even have the energy to itch anymore. We can focus on nothing but our desire to sleep and the discomfort of our oily heads. Beneath our shower caps we are drenched in mayonnaise, a home remedy to get rid of the pesky bugs. Just as I finally bring myself to lay down I hear his pitiful, lisping sob, 

"I smell like a sammich."

Now we're back to present day. The uncle that spoke excitedly over the phone has brought those twins he was gushing about so long ago before they were even born, up from big city Austin to tiny community Johntown. We sit in Mam-maw's floor again. The red carpet is the same. Though it's on a different wall than before, the same piano sits, adorned with all the same old knick knacks and hymn books, to the left of us. I look again into those navy blue eyes. No more blonde peach fuzz or chubby cheeks. His hair is dark, his jaw is chiseled, braces on his teeth, his shoulders broader, and his voice has a froggy gruffness that wasn't there the last time I saw him. He speaks in the same natural, down to earth, gentle way that has always been characteristic of him. I tell him to go get something nice on so I can take his picture. He runs off to the bedroom and then comes back in a clean cut, no nonsense, icy steel gray shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He looks way too much like a man instead of a little boy. If I look hard enough I can still see that Tuller boy, with a lisp and white blond curls. And as we trudge off to capture some memorable images of his strapping handsome young self, for a split second I catch something I believe will always be there...that glint of darling in those eyes.

~Through Christ's Love ♥

Portraits of his twin sister Kelsey coming soon! :D {Happy Dance.}