Larger than Life

OK, so raise your hand if you have itty bitty children and have gotten them to sit still and smile long enough for a photographer to snap the perfect family portrait?

crickets.

chirp.

chirp

hello? hello? this thing on? tap. tap.

OK, now clap your hands if you have tried the above only to have your kids throw themselves down on the ground, run away, and pull each other's hair.

{THUNDEROUS applause}

Which is why I really don't do family portraits like that. I don't like em.

What I really like is when a series of images tells a story. A story about a family.

A little girl looking at her dad adoringly, because after all, he is the biggest, toughest, most handsome man in the whole wide world right? And the dad staring down at this beautiful blond human being that he never ever knew how much he would love until she came into the world.

A family's story is made up, not just of one picture, but of moments. Snippets in time.   The serious moments. The silly moments. The "I have messy hair because I'm spinning my daughter around in circles and I don't care" moments.  And parents- here's a newsflash- you don't get family pictures done for yourself. Ahhhh- you may think right now you do... but when it really comes down to it- you get them done for your kids. It's so easy to forget things when you are four years old. But the pictures are there to tell the story.

Which is why I love this new product.  A series of images that reads like a chapter of a family's story.

Now THIS people, is a family portrait.

It's designed to be big- 30"x40" to be exact. It can be a mounted print, canvas on matboard, or gallery wrapped canvas (which would allow the text on the side).  Can you imagine having one of these babies from when your parents were little? What an awesome heirloom!

One Year Old

I went to this session, not to do family shots, but to capture this little girl in her one year splendidness (is that even a word? I lurv making up new words!).  

But...

the light was so pretty... SOOOO pretty at the end of this session, I demanded asked the family to get together quickly for one last departing shot. 

And this is what we got. 

Love this happy and sweet family shot.  LOVE the light. Delicious!

And here is that aforementioned splendidness...

tags: Houston Family Photographer, Spring Family Photographer, Houston Children's Photographer, Spring Children's Photographer

Outback

I did a commercial shoot for Outback Western Wear and couldn't resist posting this image from the shoot.

I don't have any pets, but if I did, not only would they wear bling like this- I would dress them up in every little doggie outfit I could find - a different one for every day of the week (and would probably get a little karate outfit and gypsy outfit made) - since I typically have to bribe my kids to wear what I want them to.

Alexa- this post is dedicated to you since I know you love the doggie shots :-)!

A Good Summer

Ahhh, summer. This summer is especially sweet because I am not stuck in the corporate world and actually get to hang out with my kids and Jesse- who is off for the next 8 weeks.  How sweet life is right now. And by hanging out, I mean spending every waking minute in the pool because its close to 577 degrees here in Houston. Their hair is crunchy with chlorine, and to be honest with you, they likely won't bathe for the next 2 months ...hopefully I am not the only parent that considers swimming equivalent to a bath am I?!? I mean seriously- you don't really need soap do you?

How about these summer beauties?  I took these at the very beginning of the summer... or maybe the end of spring... and am a little behind posting.  

How sweet are they?!!?  Mom had never put her hair in pigtails prior to the session...I like to think I suggested a sweet new hairstyle for her. LOVE me some sweet pigtails... I only wish my girls would let me do them more often... I think I had to pay them last time I tried it.

 Don't you want to reach through the screen and give her a hug? I love this pouty expression only a sweet little girl like this could get away with. It's so honest and absolutely priceless.

Tags: Houston Children's Photography, Houston Children's Photography

Her name should have been Smiley.

Because really- 10 day old babies just don't give you smiles like this. 

Not normally. 

She must be pretty dang special.

But then again, I wouldn't have been able to get her brother to stop smiling if I tried.  What expressions these two had!

And if I remember the story correctly- his great grandfather wore this hat every single day.

I lllloooooovvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeee that they wanted it incorporated into their session. LOVE.

Tags: The Woodlands Newborn Photography, The Woodlands Newborn Photographer, Houston Newborn Photography, Houston Children's Photographer

The dog day of summer

Summer is officially here so I am short on words this morning... I have four little ones itching to go to the pool.  Staying inside while I work is not their idea of a good time and "are you DOOOONNNNEEEE with your pictures mommy?!?" has been the phrase of the morning.  Holding them off with Free Willy 1 and 2 was probably a little much for one morning. Guess this means I need to go shave my legs before I clog the pool drains...

How about the sweetness of this family? Love these.  Especially that first one. Yum.

Unless you have four small children...

... you have NO idea

how hard it is...

to get them all in one picture.

No, its not perfect. Kaylee has Emily's shoes on. Presley's hair is jacked up. Not sure what is going on with Emily's boots. But I love it.

My thanks to my awesome husband Jesse- whose story about mermaids and diarrhea elicited the laughs you see below.

This.

This picture.

Was my Mother's Day present.

Warm fuzzies. Love these kids.

And check out this family. These cousins were all in town for grandparents 40th anniversary.

Awesome.

My grandparents were married 62 years before my grandfather passed away. Their neighbor said she would hear music and see them slow dancing late at night. Two little Italians in their 80s who met when they were teenagers.  May we all experience that kind of love and commitment and celebrate 20th, 30th, 40th, 50th, and maybe even 60th wedding anniversaries <3.

Boy Boy...

... is his nickname. Rumor has it he eats from 6 pm to 6 am.  He's quite the little snacker.

Hey man! What's up? Give me a high five! Oh man... you're leavin' me hanging. Don't leave me hangin!

You left me hangin'. Uncool man. Uncool.

Tags: Houston newborn photography, Houston newborn photographer, The Woodlands newborn photography, The Woodlands newborn photographer

I'm not going to lie...

We (the parents and I) worked our tails off to get these shots.

But all's well that ends well, eh? And I would say these shots ended oh so well.

Love these kids.

Tags: Houston children's photographer, Houston children's photography, The Woodlands children's photography, The Woodlands children's photographer

Happy Happy Day

The little boy that may as well have ripped my heart out and pumped it full of helium and happy gas turned three today.

Jude- when you crinkle your nose up like this:

Thats it- I'm a goner. It's done and over with. You can have anything you want. Anything. End of story.

At three years old, this is who you are:

- A lover of Dora the Explorer and all the show's characters. You know more Spanish than me because of it. You think the squirrels outside are Tico. I woke up one morning to find you staring at me. You asked:

"Mommy. Do you like Boots?"

"Yes Jude."

"Mommy. Do you like Isa?"

"Yes Jude."

"Mommy. Do you like Big Red Chicken?"

and on and on.  It was awesome.

- A curly headed monster. Sometimes, usually at the grocery store, the top of your head and those blond curls are all I can see while you throw a little mini tantrum face down on the floor. Yesterday it was over the stickers in the H.E.B Buddy Bucks machine. Sometimes its over the cereal you have coined "dog food" (i.e. Cracklin Oat Bran). By the way... when the pediatrician asks you what your favorite food is- don't tell her dog food again. It takes some explaining and she didn't really look like she believed me.

- Attached. Prying you off of me to send you to your first days of pre-school three weeks in a row was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. It stunk. Your teachers all said you did great once I was gone, which WAS a big relief. But the show you put on for me- phew!- it ate at my conscious for hours!

- Still sleeping in your crib. You like things cozy. Can't say I blame you.

- Linus-esque.  You probably don't know who Linus from the Peanuts gang is- but you are just like him with your blankie. You drag that woobie around like its nobody's business. The nighttime routine involves laying in the crib. Head on pillow. Cover with woobie. Insert soft part of woobie into mouth. Proceed to suck on it until you fall asleep.  The ultimate gift of sharing is when you ask me or Dad if we would like to suck on your woobie with you. And we always do.

- A little brother.  One day you will be able to hold your own against your three sisters. I keep telling them to leave you alone now, because revenge will happen eventually and one day you are going to grow up and date all their friends and they are going to hate it. Those girls are going to go crazy over your big blue eyes.

Happy Third Birthday Sweet Boy.

Jude's friend Jack was born about 24 hours before him- Jack was quite early and Jude was quite late. I remember visiting Jack's mom in the hospital, hugely pregnant and overdue with Jude... wearing a gray Bon Jovi Tshirt and black yoga pants (because -  although I have a hard time remembering to pick up milk at the grocery store, I can almost always remember what I wore to any event of significance in my life :-)).  I had bought two sets of newborn outfits- a boy set, and a girl set because I did not know what I was having. I was so sure I was having a girl, I gave the boy set to Jack's mom as a gift.  

We throw a joint birthday party for the two boys every year, which of course requires a photo shoot for their very special invitations.  Here are some pix of the boys and JackJack.

OK, so you know how...

crazy stuff always happens on my shoots? Well this was no exception. Dad had this crazy allergic reaction to pollen or something- the second ever in his life- that caused him to leave the shoot early in search of the nearest drugstore. 

After the shoot I wondered if I had put my foot in my mouth by telling him his face looked really painful. I mean ... it wasn't so much his face that looked painful (after all, this was one seriously.attractive.family as you can see)... it was the hives and the red swollen puffiness on his face that looked painful- I mean not even Matthew McCounaghey (ssiiiggghhhh... Matthew McConaughey) could look good after a reaction like that! 

(hey... I know lots of married men that have little man crushes on McConaughey, so its ok to type that right?)

So Dad, if you are reading this- sorry for my big mouth- I'm hoping you didn't take it the wrong way :-) {grin!}.

And here is a sneak peek of the beautiful ladies in his life :-).

City Slickers

There are a few things this subarbanite girl learned while visiting this family farm to take pictures.

1) the existence of stinging grass. Its grass that HURTS you. Seems so archaic dosent it?  Or right out of a Harry Potter novel!

(Allow me a slight digression... any other Harry Potter fans out there? Can I get a fist pump and a "whoot whoot!" for the genius of Ms. JK Rowling?!? Thank you very much)

OK where was I?

Ah yes, the things I learned:

1) Stinging grass hurts. If you take pictures on a farm in a pasture, wear boots, not flip flops.

2) If you take a mule (cross between a little tractor and a golf cart) out into a pasture, a dozen or so cows will follow you because they think you have food.  Once you exit the mule, they will stand around you in a semi circle and stare at you until it gets through their head you do not have food. It's a little unnerving. But it's also quite amusing.

3) Cow pies. They are everywhere. And they are HUGE. And flat. Weird.

And Mom, this pic is just for you :-)

Baby Plan!

Babies never grow as much as they do in their first year of life. The type of growth a baby experiences in that first year is equivalent to me gaining 300 pounds, learning to understand Portugese, sprouting wings and taking flight (now there is a sight... a 420 lb Portugese speaking photographer flying through the air...)

One of my biggest regrets in life (and I try not to regret ANYTHING... it is such a pointless emotion, don't you agree?) is not having an organized photo album of each of my kids that showed that first incredible year. Sure, I took thousands of pictures. And they now happily reside on a pretty silver external hard drive.  

I finally got my act together and started creating awesome birthday signature albums for each of my kids.  And one day - in between soccer games, birthday parties, and staying up all night with whoever has contracted the virus of the week- I will get around to printing and organizing baby books.

So what's my point? I am going to, very soon, introduce a very cool baby plan for that first amazing year.  The details are being tweaked (i.e:  I need to create pretty brochure that sums it all up), but give me a holler (tracy@doe-ee-bird.com)  if you just can't wait and want to hear more :-).

And some recent newborn pix.

This little beauty was perfect, just perfect.

I love her little round face!

Tags: Houston newborn photography, Houston newborn photographer, The Woodlands newborn photography, The Woodlands newborn photography

Remember these beauties?

The mom of these girls was my manager when I worked for IKEA. Aside from being an AMAZING manager, she is an incredible human being. She speaks a ridiculous number of languages (like five or something). Think you can't travel to Europe by yourself with a tiny infant? She did.  

And their dad... one of the funniest people I have ever met. Like the kind of person who would sport a really pretty, colorful silk handkerchief in his suit pocket at a formal company holiday party.  And then you sneeze and he pulls it out and it's actually women's underwear.

I'm not saying he did that.  Just that he is the kind of person that would do something like that {wink!} 

My Kiddos

OK, these pictures are from months ago when it was freezing cold outside and I had to find something to do inside (those of us that live in Houston consider 38 freezing cold and try not to venture out for fear of immediate frostbite :-)).

Someone once told me to remember that EVERYTHING is washable.  Which is why I not only allow this type of activity, I usually encourage it- much to Jesse's dismay.  Call me crazy, but anything the kids are doing that shows creativity- even making an ungodly mess that I knew would take 2 hours to clean- is usually encouraged.  Sometimes I regret that decision ...like the time they said they were going to build a fort out of styrofoam peanuts...inside... and they were demonstrating such teamwork and creativity, I chose to ignore that my house looked like it had been snowed on ... that little project took me two days to clean... who knew styrofoam peanuts stuck to EVERYTHING?!?

The BEST class I ever took in my entire life, including college and graduate school, was one called Creative Thinking.  Why I had to suffer through required classes like Business Calculus, but Creative Thinking wasn't even offered to undergrads, is a travesty!  Creative Thinking is something that everyone can use in all aspects of their life. I spent almost ten years in the corporate world and... shocker... business calculus was never needed. Creative thinking WAS.

OK, off the soapbox. Some more pix of my kiddos... I just ordered these in big floating canvases, I'm so excited!

Presley and Jude

and Emily prior to getting eleven inches of hair chopped off !

Tags: Houston Children's Photography, Houston Children's Photographer, The Woodlands Children's Photographer, The Woodlands Children's Photography