Boy Mom

That is what her bumper sticker said.  And with four boys under the age of 9 in the family, I should have expected the session would involve a LOT of these little guys.

You might notice their little hands clutched in many of the pictures, as they held on dearly to every little crawling critter they could find- critters who had no idea when they woke up that morning they would be going to the amusement park of death when four active little boys came whooping, hollering, stomping and laughing through their homes.

Allow me to introduce you to these boys, who described their brothers as the following:

Ford- (crazy, likes bugs, handsome)

Tate- (smiley, hungry, short)

Cash- (likes donuts, silly, singer)

and Zane - (fast, tall, and crazy)

Four of the coolest boys (with the coolest names!) on the planet. 

Oh how I loved this fun session!

Hard at Work...

I had a shoot this morning and made mom wait on a park bench all by her lonesome self this morning while her kids were hard at work...

A special message just for you Mom!

(As I was typing this, Jude brought me a snack at my desk. 

One hot dog bun and one V8. On a princess plate.

Love that kid)

{discombobulated}

Wow, haven't done one of these posts in a while!  But am feeling very discombobulated today, so I thought it was apropos. 

• I am starting a behavior ticket system for the kids. If they do something exceptionally well (like get dressed for bed and brush their teeth by themselves without 5,456 reminders), they get a ticket. 10 tickets gets a reward. I announced the new system a few days ago, but haven't had time to actually make tickets, so they have all been verbal tickets.  I finally made the new tickets today, and at least one child who shall remain nameless is starting out in the red for a rather silly little temper tantrum this morning. I'll let you know how it goes.
• I ran my first half marathon 2 weekends ago and apparently passed up former Houston Rockets Clyde Drexler. Nothing like beating a gold medalist on your first race :-) (Ahem- neither of our times were exactly fast, hee hee). I didn't even see him because I was too intent on the finishing line so I could STOP RUNNING. I decided around mile 9 I felt sorry for all the suckers that signed up for the full marathon and that I would never do anything that stupid.  Two days later I did something really stupid and signed up for a full marathon. March 2012 baby- I'll either be running it, walking it, or crawling it... but I'm all signed up to do it!
• The guys that pick up our recycling ROCK. I need to make them brownies or something. Many a time, they have stopped the truck and waited for me as I run down the street in my jammies carrying huge boxes of recycleables... leaving a trail of paper behind me that they actually stop and help pick up. I know they don't have time to wait for people that can't get their trash out on time, but they do anyway. They are awesome.
• Check out this sweet family. Mom is a former Art Director used to working with all kinds of photographers, and Dad is a photographer himself who is also a computer guru for Adobe ( you know- the makers of PHOTOSHOP)- so can you say NERVOUS? Yes, even though they were as sweet and genuine as could be, I was very, very nervous!

Ms. Jelly and her Cake

I was quite pleasantly surprised when Mom surprised me at the end of this session with request for some one year cake smash pictures!

And it could not have been more fun!

I'm catching up on blogging sessions from the fall... in between kid's gymnastics, swimming, and tae kwon doe (allow me a small digression here to push the merits of your little princesses learning martial arts. I'm all about seeing little girls in dance recitals, but I am so incredibly impressed with the skills they are learning in tae kwon doe. Skills that could potentially save their life one day. As crazy as it sounds, I can't get enough of watching my little girls learn how to fight and defend themselves. This is coming from someone that tears up every time she hears the song "Imagine." And they look just as cute in a gei as they do in a tutu :-)).

I think this was my favorite Christmas card I designed this fall:

Front:

Back: 

(I mean, seriously, how much does this family rock for changing into Christmas jammies in the woods, in sub-zero temperatures?!? 

(OK, you have to know I am kidding about sub zero temperature right? This IS Houston after all!)

Expect to hear me talk more about the mommy from these pictures above. She is starting a business full of mouth watering, deliciously tasty and equally as beautiful eye candy, and ... well you'll just have to wait to hear more about THAT later.

Speaking of tutus- check out my niece!

Remember this beautiful family?

Love these guys.

I do love a family that is up for anything and doesn't mind getting a teensy bit messy...all for the sake of art of course.

How fun is this?!?

Playing More Catch UP!!

I'm trying to catch up the blog with all of the awesomeness I have been lucky enough to experience lately.

So let me show you my amazing clients, in order from youngest to oldest :-)

5 days old. She was such a chunky monkey for only being five days old! I can't wait to see her again in a few more months when we do pictures again- I hope she holds on to that chunkiness!

10 days old and ready to party. He did not want to sleep for me... I think he wanted to show me what I can already tell are going to be beautiful eyes :-)

7 months old. I am SO incredibly jealous of her pouty lips! Angelina- watch out!

A high school senior. Who brought a huge bag of some of the most rockin' clothes I have seen in a long time.  I'm almost jealous of her wardrobe, but then I remind myself even if I had all these cool clothes, I wear running clothes. Every day. All day. It's hot, I know. It's probably better than the yoga pants/fake furry crocs I was sporting last winter.  Hopefully mom jeans are not in my near future. Don't judge- it could happen to you too!!

It was about 127 degrees outside when we did her shoot, but she's as cool as a cucumber!

And a couple soooooo in love with each other. Oh, and did I mention what hotties they both are? Um hello! Take a look at Mr. and Mrs. Your Hotness.  

Thanks for playing catch up with me!

Baked Goods

A beautiful mother/son session with two beautiful human beings.  The session was a surprise gift from Grandma.  Her sister and I collaborated for weeks to make the surprise session extra special.,and putting our two heads together, we came up with this party for two.  

And you probably remember this wee one teaching us all How to Yawn in this post here.  Now he shows us 

The 3 Essential Steps in Smiling 

by Jackson

And last we have a good old fashioned dance off... the only music being the rap I started spur of the moment to get these kids moving.  I've participated in a couple of dance offs myself ...although they typically involved a little Prince or Michael Jackson... and occasionally Poison. Yes, you read that right. Poison. A la "Unskinny Bop". Oh yeah.

Mini Sessions!

By popular request, I decided to do mini sessions this year!  What's a mini session? A very short (20 minutes) session with me. I have three "concepts" in mind (you'll have to email me for details on THOSE). 

Cost is $275 and this is what it includes: 

- 3 fully retouched digital files with reproduction release (this means you can print as many copies as you want for personal use!)

- (1) 11x14 print (from one of the digital files)- sprayed and mounted for durability

- (25) 5x7 flat Christmas cards on pearl paper

- option to upgrade the 11x14 print to any other product (for example a larger print, or a canvas)

- option to purchase any other products (including additional Christmas cards) at 10% discount

Here are the dates:

October 30 (Saturday)

November 6 - this is the back up date in case October 30 is rained out.

This is a huge savings off of my regular prices and I have very limited spots, so let me know if you are interested and I will put you on the list right away (we will nail down exact time and your "concept" as soon as I get a final count.)

And here is a FUN family session I did last month! This family is from Australia and I probably sounded like an idiot telling them over and over how much I loved their accents and how I was going to start calling sunglasses "sunnies," and coolers "eskies" because I thought it sounded so cool!

This little girl was a TOMBOY... Mom reported she loved making mudpies. I love tomboys... probably because I was a bit of a tomboy myself... I reportedly wore a pair of little boys Levi's 501 button fly jeans for my entire 5th grade career and absolutely refused to wear a skirt no matter how much my mom begged and pleaded with me:-).

Flying Kites

When I first showed up for this session, Mom explained that the boy's hairstyles were telltale of their personality. I think this picture matches their hairstyles pretty well... who is the mischevious one and who is the rule follower?

I don't normally blog quite so many pictures in a sneak peek, but I just had to with this session... these pictures tell such a story!

It was about 5,567 degrees outside with NO WIND (not even a tiny little hint of a breeze), but that didn't stop us from first flying kites...

Then celebrating with a birthday cupcake and a birthday wish....

Then the heat got to us and we got a little silly...

Love families that want something a little different and a little more fun for their annual family pictures...love these!!

Out in the Country

This awesome family invited me out to their IN-CRED-IBLE family property out in the country to take pictures.  I can't even begin to tell you how jealous I am of this property. I wish it were closer because you can bet if it were I would be knocking on their door every session with clients in tow begging them to allow me to shoot there.  It's like a little piece of heaven on earth.

 Jesse walked in while I was editing these and asked why I had a picture of Russell Crowe on screen. I'm not sure if he was kidding or not...but when you first see how good looking the parents are...

...then you can appreciate why their kids are so gorgeous.

And one of their "country" dogs.  My lesson for the day was that when you live in the country, the dogs all have multiples names because they run around with the neighbor dogs and each family names each dog differently :-).

Oh! And I almost forgot- turns out Jesse is these kiddo's swim coach! We had no idea until we were driving around the property chatting away and put two and two together. Small world!

Have a wonderful 4th of July holiday weekend!