You know that feeling when you just click with someone? Well, she and I do. And I like that. A lot. So grateful to know her and her bright, enthusiastic, energetic, sparkling family! (But, she better watch out because I'm going to come by and steal that umbrella of hers--and possibly her shoes, too--in the middle of the night...I do know where she lives ;-)

I've known Carrie online for quite sometime now (actually, she snuck in a session with me a couple of years ago and managed NOT to tell me that we knew each other online ;-) until after the fact. I had the privilege of getting to know her even more when she attended a workshop last year and we've been planning this family session almost since then. I mean, a LOT of planning. She did an amazing job of pulling together some beautiful clothes for everyone and we had scored a DREAM location that was halfway between her house and mine. The day of, I drove out with my mom (aka - photo assistant). The sunrise was beautiful and the weather wasn't nearly as hot as it had been. Everything was perfect. Except...

Oh, bless her little heart. I swear no matter what we did, nothing seemed to make her happy. Maybe she was tired, maybe she was teething, maybe it was just Murphy's Law. We had all driven all this way to make this session happen and I gotta say, I was truly worried we weren't going to be able to pull it off.

Somehow we managed. I think it mostly had to do with Carrie's wonderful sense of humor and how she embraces motherhood and all that comes with it so gracefully. Those girls of hers are truly beautiful and when we finally discovered the secret to happiness (banging pots and pans in the kitchen), all was right with the world.

Carrie...I totally enjoyed our adventure that day and I'm so glad to know you!

Our first scheduled date got delayed thanks to a horrible bathtub mishap that led to a severely busted lip and the potential loss of teeth - I was just as scared as Kristin (also a photographer ;-) for her poor baby girl having just been through a bathtub mishap with one of my kids this summer (that one ended up with stitches). But she pulled through with flying colors and we were able to have our session on a glorious Austin fall day in a GLORIOUS Austin home!!! 

Sometimes, I have to work really hard to eek out smiles from people, but I'm going to let you in on a little secret here: not the case with these guys. I truly believe when happiness comes from the inside, you can't help but to grin from ear to ear. I also can't help but to grin from ear to ear when I look through their pics.

While working on their holiday card design today, I realized I had promised a part 2 to this post. There were definitely too many fav images to tell their story in just one post. So here you go!!!

[Note: If you book a 2012 family photo session now, you can still qualify for a holiday mini session. But you should probably hurry because I only have a few openings left. Also, if you had a session with me this year and you wanted to order holiday cards, please contact me THIS week! I won't be able to process holiday card orders any later than that.] 

...I photographed weddings, because if I did, I would have photographed this wedding in a heartbeat. I believe I may have screamed out loud with excitement when she asked me to do bridal portraits for her. I enjoyed their engagement session so much!  And then she sent me a picture of the dress and I just about fell over.

Yes. It was perfect:

To say she was stunning would be the understatement of the year. She was the most beautiful bride I have ever seen and her personality just makes her 100x more amazing. I bawled like a baby watching their amazing preview video by Mason Jar Films. I absolutely cannot wait to see what dreams come true for their new life together as Mr. and Mrs. Congrats again, you two!!!