Well today I’m excited to announce something that has been years in the making:

An Integrated Life : Practical tools for your Faith, your Home and your Work

An Integrated Life is an 18 lesson audio course (think a podcast that you can keep coming back to!) outlining a framework for you to grow deeper in your faith, take authority in your home, and gain clarity in your work - all for the kingdom of God.

And most of all, this course is about integrating your faith, home and work to work beautifully TOGETHER.

You can learn all about it here.

It will only be available for 2 weeks (until July 13th!), as I am preparing to welcome our 4th baby in just 4 more weeks and will be taking a 6 month work and social media break after that. 

Here’s what is included:

There are 18 audio lessons (think podcast meets short audiobook meets online course!)

• 6 Lessons on Faith

• 6 Lessons on Home

• 6 Lessons on Work

• A full Workbook for you to complete as you listen

You can buy each set of lessons separately, and I’ll be going over whats in each over the next few days. Or you can buy them all together! 

I have been SO excited to release this course. I feel like it’s truly a representation of my heart, life, and work. I begin each lesson with Scripture, and I talk about my faith in Jesus in almost every lesson. I share practical ways we run our home, and my favorite tools to work effectively with a clear vision.

I’m so grateful to finally be able to share it with you!

It’s basically my heart meets my podcast meets my life meets an online course.

Can’t wait to hear what you think about it!

I just checked, and I officially have 1,648 photos and videos currently on my phone. This is an issue, people. And I’m fairly positive I’m not the only one. As a photographer, the funny thing is – my personal photos rarely get the time and attention they deserve.

When I first began photographing weddings, I took no less than 4,000 photos on a wedding day. Then I sorted them down to around 1,500 to deliver to my client.

Who in the world has the time to do anything with 1,500 photos?!

After being in this business for years, and after being a normal human being with a full schedule and a full life, I wish I knew this one, beautiful truth about photography:

Less is more.

Photo by Elizabeth Tate

That’s why we treasure our grandparents’ photos, right? There are only a few sacred images we get to cling to.

Less is more.

That’s why we never ever do anything with the photos on our phone. It’s just plain overwhelming.

Less is more.

So if you are overwhelmed with all of your photos – remember that simple truth: less is more. You don’t have to document every tiny moment or every tiny thing. Just the highlights will do. Your kids, your spouse, and YOU will appreciate the gift of quality over quantity if you embrace this!

Photo by Elizabeth Tate

The Legacy Photo System is separated into 3 Phases:

1. Your Printed Photos
2. Your Digital Photos
3. Your Photos Moving Forward

In this post, I’ll only be focusing on Phase 2: Your Digital Photos! Here is a brief overview of what needs to happen to organize all of your digital photos:

1. Purchase ONE external Hard Drive (2TB or more) to store all your digital images on. Check out my suggestions in my Hard Drive highlight on Instagram!

2. Put a File Folder System in Place (see images below)

3. Gather ALL of your digital images and put them onto that external hard drive, in order by date and folder

4. Back them up

The most important aspect of this system is the file folder system! If you don’t purchase a Master Hard Drive and follow a Master Filing System for organizing your photos, all of your digital photos will stay on several different computers and laptops, taking up space on your iPhone, old CD’s, USB’s, and scattered hard drives.

So HERE IS MY MAGIC SAUCE!! Take a peek at my File Folder Organization System:

As you can see, everything is organized by Year, then Event (by month).

Now let’s pause and talk about that “Event.” Maybe it’s Father’s Day, maybe it’s a beach trip, maybe it’s Disney World, maybe it’s just life at home. No matter what it is, you still need to organize those photos within that event!

For example, if I take 100 photos at my kid’s birthday party, I’m never going to go back and really enjoy all 100 photos. I’d like to keep and enjoy 10-15 or so. That’s when it’s important to organize your Event Folder into 3 parts:

1. Originals (the place I dump all 100 photos)
2. Picks (the place I drag the 10-15 absolute favorite images)
3. The Event Folder (the FINAL folder of edited and re-named photos)

You can see below my personal event folder for our “Snow Day” a few years ago:

A few KEY tips for you to remember as you organize your digital photos:

• Gather all images from all over the place (laptops, phones, computers, CD’s, USB’s, etc) and put them onto ONE hard drive: your new most prized possession!

• You have to remember to also back those images up! I use Dropbox to back up my Final Event Folders only.

• It’s helpful to create the entire file folder system on the Hard drive first, then drag your images into the properly organized folders.

• You’ll be more likely to enjoy and print your digital images (even the ones on your phone!) when you have them organized!

Happy Organizing! To learn more about organizing your printed photos and establishing a system moving forward (so your phone isn’t so out of control), look into my Legacy Photo System course!

It’s true - Baby Ray #4 is on the way! We are so, so grateful!

I’ve always been open and honest about my journey as a mama. Before I had Milly, I was so scared to get pregnant, to give birth, and to give up so much of my personal time, freedom, and let’s be real - my sleep. :)

Fast forward five years, and I’ve had Milly, Lyndon, and Beaufort… and now I’m pregnant with baby #4! WHAT THE WHAT!

Thank goodness God worked on my heart and finally brought me to the place of surrender, because it has been the wildest ride and one of the greatest joys of my life. A mama to 4 babies. I could have never imagined it if I tried.

Onto the details I’m sure you are curious about!

When are you due / how far along are you?

July 29th - same due date as Lyndon :) at the time of publishing this blogpost in mid February, I’m 16 weeks!

Were you planning on having another baby?

Yes! But not quite this soon. 🥴 It was definitely a surprise to find out we were pregnant in early November of 2020 when we were thinking we would start trying in Jan/Feb 2021. My words to Will : “As long as we don’t get pregnant in 2020, I’ll be good.” HAHAHA. All that to say, I AM GOOD and God’s timing is perfect.

How are you feeling?

T I R E D. My most exhausted pregnancy by far. Thankfully no nausea, but definitely tired beyond anything I’ve ever really felt before, other than the newborn phase! It’s a big reason why I’ve been pretty quiet on Instagram. It’s taken every bit of my energy to just keep myself, my children, and my podcast alive. Also, feeling very thankful. Trying to savor this season as it’s likely our last biological baby.

Are you going to find out the gender?

Nope! HA! I just keep telling everyone “We aren’t meant to know the gender of our babies.” 😂 Plus, if I got an ultrasound and they told me I was having a boy or a girl, I would doubt them the whole time. And being surprised is just so stinkin fun.

If you have any other questions for me, leave them below! I hope to do a podcast episode about Baby #4 soon, and I’d love to cover all of your questions in the episode.

A big thank you to Olivia Suriano for these images we will treasure forever. Love you so much, friend.