It is with a very heavy heart that I tell you that Jim, my husband’s brother, lost his incredibly short battle with metastatic melanoma earlier today just a few weeks past his 36th birthday. It is a surreal time for all of us and words cannot appropriately convey our shock and sadness. To friends and family of Jimbo that are reading this, we have arranged two memorial/celebration of life services for him this week and if you would like information on those, please e-mail info @ jimprints.net to get those details. To all of our friends and family that have offered their support and words of encouragement over the last few months, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It is quite uplifting to know how much love has surrounded us. Every e-mail, every phone call, every hug has meant the world. All I can say is thank you. Thank you.

In lieu of flowers, if you would like to make a donation in Jim’s honor to www.melanoma.org, that would be incredibly appreciated. Thank you again, and much love to all of you who have shown such kindness and concern for Jimbo and his family.

(To all of my clients, we are taking the next week or so to be with family and I will return messages as soon as I am able.)

I know you must recognize this beautiful family by now as they are no strangers to the Pinkle Toes blog. I look forward to our session together each and every year when they drive in from New Mexico. Meg really wanted to do something in the wildflowers this year and oddly enough, I stumbled upon the perfect place just as my car broke down. I guess it was meant to be. Loved this little undiscovered spot. So much so, when Meg took our pictures :-), we came right back here. Can’t wait to see what Meg created for our family, too! Two more favs HERE and HERE.

ADORABLE fellow! He is the quintessential baby…chub in all the right places, dimples, big hazel eyes, and a smile that lights up a room! Finishing up my edits on this session today was quite therapeutic. His infectious smile and the relaxed, lifestyle nature of our session made me very, very thankful for the opportunity to be there to capture this time for their family. (Don’t miss this little gem!)

A while back, someone mentioned to me that I never shared my sister’s bridal session that we did back in September. How could that possibly be???? I had to check and sure enough, I had not. I also did not realize that the other day was National Sibling Day. She’s been on my my mind a lot, for many reasons. I love my sister very much. We’ve been through a lot together and I feel very blessed that we now get to live right down the road from one another. She has the most wonderful sense of humor and is such a thoughtful, beautiful person. I am grateful to have her.

So here is my beautiful, beautiful sister just before she got married last year. I will never ever forget this day we had together. I loved throwing together her bouquet from a bunch of grocery store flowers while we listened to music and she got made up. I loved that we changed our location plans last minute just because we felt like it. I loved helping her get into her gown in the parking garage at UT ;-). I loved how it took me FOREVER to actually shoot the images because I kept breaking down into tears of happiness for her. I loved hearing all of the “Congratulations!” and “You look so beautiful!” and the other well wishes all of the people on campus sent to her while we were shooting. I loved seeing her look so radiant and confident and happy. I loved our dinner afterwards. I loved how much we laughed and laughed and laughed. It could not have been more perfect (well, I wish our mommy could have been there to share in it with us).

If you follow me on Instagram,  you may have seen that I recently put together an album just for myself from the FABULOUS wedding images by Tanya with Cozy Impressions Photography. Not having professional photos from my wedding and considering the timing of her wedding, these images mean the WORLD to me and I can’t help but to grin from ear to ear each time I flip through this album. Looking through images on a CD somehow just doesn’t have the same power and impact as they do when they have been put together to tell the story in something tangible. Tanya’s images are gorgeous. I can’t wait to take my album to my date with my sis tomorrow so she can enjoy her day all over again, too!

Wedding photography by Tanya with Cozy Impressions Photography (I’m sorry I can’t get my watermark off the gallery…please forgive me).

Hair and make up for the bridals AND for the wedding party by my friend Katie with Modern Muse Makeup

Let’s travel back in time to a few years ago…when Mr. Man became “Husband of the Year 2010” with his Mother’s Day surprise to his wife. (I imagine I’ll *still* be talking about that years from now, btw ;-). When we had that photo session, they were a family of three and they lived in a completely different city. Fast forward a few years…mom is now a photographer herself and I even had the privilege of spending a couple of days with her sans kiddos at one of my professional photographer workshops earlier this year. My time with them in Dallas a few weeks ago just wrapped it all up for me in a pretty little bow. They now have a daughter and a new home in a new city and they are rocking parenthood like champs. I stayed waaaaay too long at this session, LOL, but it was only because we were having such a lovely time. Mom and Dad can DANCE and we cranked up the music so they could show off their moves. Baby boy still LOVES to read just as much as he did when I first met him, and little miss is just too sassy for words.

The last image there was a special repeat request from mom. We spent some time photographing big brother and the fam at the dining table when he was an only child and got some of my most favorite images from that session. I’m thrilled we revisited the table setting to document the changes!

[P.S. shared a sneak of her proof box HERE. I’m a little sad to let it go ;-(.]

It won’t be long before they are on to their next adventure as a family, but for now, this session was all about capturing the Texas-like environment before they move. In true Texas fashion, the weather started out pleasant enough, but as soon as the sun went down low enough so we could shoot by the water, wow, did we get chilly! But also in true Texas fashion, the kiddos were complete troopers and put up with the cold weather to let us even capture a few Texas wildflowers (some people call that yellow plant a weed, but I don’t care…it’s a pretty weed ;-). Thank you so much, Laura, for such a fun and relaxed session. Your children are trained well by your photography skills and I hope you enjoy these images of you and your beautiful family! {P.S. full family version of the sunset pic HERE}