I’m not even kidding when I say that we barely squeaked this session out. My friend Lauren drove in from Dallas just before the flood of 2015 (of course, we didn’t know at the time there was going to be all of that awful flooding) and we had such a small window of opportunity to photograph her family. Our big plans to hang out in downtown Austin were crushed and replaced by big plans to hang out in downtown Bastrop. But, as they made their way into town, it was getting darker and darker and we did not think we would be able to hold the photo session before the sun went down or before the rain started. So, a last-minute idea had them visiting me at my place again (we shot here last time, too ;-). I was truly grateful for Lauren’s amazing patience and flexibility and somehow, we pulled it off! Her hubby and the kids get major bonus points, too, for jumping right into a photo session after a long day of finishing the school year and driving. Pretty incredible, these guys. Oh, and I got to meet sweet baby P and he’s absolutely perfect!

This little dude has quite the personality and he’s REALLY, REALLY cute. This is definitely one of my favs. Followed closely by THIS one and THIS one.

From Lauren:

Tell us a little bit about your family…

Well… we welcomed our fifth member to the family last July. 🙂 Our “bonus blessing” has brought such joy to us. As you put it, Michele, he’s the perfect little caboose to our family. 🙂

What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc?

We wanted to capture our family of five before our littlest one turned one year in July.

Where was your session held and why?

At the last minute, we decided to hold our session at the Pinkle Toes Studio due to travel restrictions and the always fun Texas weather! 🙂

What did you like about your session location?

I loved that we were all alone in a beautiful, private setting. It was wonderful to have such a special, private place where our children weren’t distracted by this or that and where we could let our guard down and just be “us.”

What was your favorite part of your session?

We loved all of it!

Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session?

Ummm, yes! I always feel (and often look) like a goober in front of the camera! [Ha…not possible…Lauren, you’re GORGEOUS!]

Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session?

Hehehe, when Michele got ants in her pants. 🙂 [I’m glad you find that funny ;-)]

Any advice to other families before their photo sessions?

Just relax and let Michele do her thing…she’s awesome!

What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? 

I adore you!!! [Ditto!]

What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images?

I want our children to look back on these photos and see just how much they are loved. We aren’t perfect parents, and we don’t have perfect kids, but we are so thankful for all that God has blessed us with (most importantly them) and want them to know that there’s nothing they can do to make us love them more…or less. We love our little family!!

Oh…I can FEEL this hug right here!

She is a complete and total ham!

Loved it when the sisters reached for one another…all on their own…

These are wildflowers…country girls through and through. They thrive when given the chance to run freely, giggling and laughing and playing on their family ranch. And when they do this in those perfect, flowy white dresses, it makes for a magical set of dream-like imagery. And I loved every second of it. And is it just me or are moms incredibly beautiful when being moms??? No. It’s not just me. I know I feel my best when I’m snuggling with my own kiddos ;-). Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mommies out there!

I’ve been lucky enough to get to work with Jennifer and her family on several occasions now and when going through the process of trying to cull the images from our most recent photo session, I realized 1) I was having a hard time narrowing them down because 2) the images made ME smile and they’re not even my family!! I got to thinking why they looked so happy in their images and I realized it was because they WERE! So we had a MAJOR rainstorm just before our session and it turned our “sunny” morning into something that looked like Forks, WA? So it was was really, really humid out? So we had to walk through a LOT of silty mud to get to our various destinations along the creek bed? It just didn’t matter because here they were…together…in one of their most favorite places in Austin…hanging out as a family…exploring…and the icing on the cake, Jennifer and her hubby just let the girls BE THEMSELVES! That is what will make or break a photo session. If mom and dad are relaxed and just let it happen, the kids will be relaxed, too, and you can ALWAYS tell it in the images. So, Jennifer…thank you for letting the session happen so organically. You really did make this photo session beautiful and fun for not only your family, but for me, too!

 I couldn’t get over how GREEN everything looked after the rain!

 Oh, this whole series we did on top of the falls was so lovely and romantical! One of my FAVORITES is HERE.

And I think we need to take a minute to talk about Jennifer’s arms. I mean, goodness gracious, she is stunning and she is such a wonderful example of being fit and healthy and looking like a million bucks! I strive to have arms like her one day, but I think in order to do so, I’m going to have to face my CrossFit fear ;-).

 I’m not going to tell you or show you why they (we) were all giggling so hard here, but just know that it’s all fun and games when splashing in the creek until someone loses their balance ;-).

Sisters….sigh…

I’ve worked with this amazing family for several years now and I have to tell you, each session seems like a dream to me…as in a dream come true (remember that time we got to photograph them with their horse in downtown Austin????). This family is so connected with one another. These sisters are so connected. The love and closeness is almost tangible in their images. I literally could not stop smiling and gasping while culling their images from the session.

 Real, true expressions and emotions. THIS is what makes my soul jump for joy and I’m always completely honored when families are willing to open up like this for me.

 Again…this is REAL. These two are SO in love!

 I mean, no words. Just…sigh…and then there was THIS.

The following images were also very dreamlike to me. I kept thinking about the visual pull of The Tree of Life (and oh, how I loved that movie. Didn’t fully understand it, but did it ever inspire me!) when processing them…

 Childhood…girlhood in it’s richest form. Dance, play, spring air and flowers. Hair wild. A halo of sunshine.

Shelly…thank you so much for trusting your family photographs with me. Thank you for being so comfortable as a family and letting your girls be themselves. My time with you never disappoints. xoxo

Like many of my clients, Jennifer is a photographer and so she totally knows the value of having your family photographed and not waiting for the perfect time. She also knows the value of having your own family photographed in your home.  Her children are leaving the nest one-by-one, but at least she took the time to make sure to capture this irreplaceable time spent together as a family doing family things in their beautiful family home!

 Loved that we got to work with all of the pets. And did you see what that talented kitty can do?

 Mom and dad are very much in love and they were *supposed* to have a little smooch. LOVED that her son came in to break it up!!! He ended up getting the smooch instead 😉

Yes, there is a lot of love for their mom, here.

 And this one…I can FEEL this hug she shared with her own mother. I love this image.

 I think he was illustrating that he is taller than his dad now. ;-). Guys, we laughed constantly during this session!!! FAV HERE!

Everyone was starving by the end of the session, so they all got to have a snack break. Of course, I’m a sucker for those family dinner table images, so I was the creeper on the ladder outside taking pictures, lol. This session was truly memorable and I am so happy that she finally did this for herself and for her family. I know as they each begin their own journeys, they will hopefully look back on these images and remember all of the wonderful laughs and moments shared together, so deeply connected in their home.

I mean when you have a family this stunning + wildflowers this amazing + THAT dress + THOSE curls + vibrant colors, you cannot go wrong. It was physically impossible to take a bad picture of them and I tell you this, I cannot wait to meet this new baby and hang with big sis again!

She was seriously killin’ me with that hair!

Love how she photobombed us when I was trying to work with just her mommy and daddy ;-). Cute little stinker!

Now that is a perfect baby bump right there! And I was totally honored mama invited me to photograph her family as she is a photographer herself ;-).  She’s going to be so happy she did this instead of trying to take all of the newborn and family pics herself. Believe me. I know. I’ve tried it and it’s incredibly stressful! So much easier to relax and be in the pictures with your family if you’re not worried about all of the technical stuff. Plus, I know personally, my kiddos tend to cooperate better with someone who is NOT their mommy (a-hem, Tristan ;-).

My fav is a toss up between this one above and this version HERE.

Hugs with all her might!

And this face cracked me up!

Their trip from New Jersey to Austin, Texas had been planned forever it seemed. And of course, as their travel date approached, so did some yucky looking weather. Even the day of their session, the weather could not make up its mind what it was going to do and I was so very thankful that they were incredibly flexible and understanding (well, mom *is* a VERY talented photographer herself in the New Jersey area) and somehow, the Texas weather (and wildflower) gods smiled down upon us and gave us amazing temps and the perfect amount of cloud cover to take advantage of my favorite creek and frolic in some beautiful flowers!

As with most siblings, whenever one got to be the star of the session, the other wanted a turn, too. There was a lot of switching the focus throughout the session which I think the kiddos will appreciate in looking at these photos years down the road.

 Loved these interactions between mother and daughter!

And how sweet was this between mother and son?

He had us both cracking up because he was taking his kite flying *very* seriously and wanted to find the best direction, lol!

They were having SO much fun with their dad!!!

Finally, we let them get in the water. They had been chomping at the bit since we first arrived. Their patience paid off! And her dress? WOW! My FAV dress pic is HERE.

What? Is that the sun poking out for like 20 seconds?

It’s always so magical for the kiddos when their parents join in on splashing in the water. Delightful!

All of my newborn photography clients qualify to add on unlimited mini sessions for their baby’s first year. It’s a wonderful way to document those major milestones in a child’s first year of life and experience all of the beauty in Austin’s “seasons”. This beautiful baby girl’s 7 month mini session happened to fall right in line with peak wildflower season, so at the last minute, we changed our location from downtown Austin to this incredible wildflower field filled with Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush. This family is completely gorgeous, but what I want to know is how mom was able to coordinate their outfits to PERFECTLY compliment the orange and blue hues of the flowers we were in? I don’t recall telling her what kind of flowers were here, but maybe I did? Or maybe she’s just that awesome? Yeah, I think she’s just that awesome. My favity FAV is HERE!

Oh, were we ever lucky that the skies parted and gave us this glorious evening for her high school senior portraits!! We had be fretting over the forecast for a week and even the day of, we were checking the hourly every five minutes. But we took a chance and decided to make it happen and I’m so glad we did! She happens to be the sister of someone you may recognize on the blog and I was so very honored to get to create these senior pictures for her. She looked absolutely incredible, full of confidence and full of creative ideas for her photo session! And thanks to no rain, we were able to explore pretty much every single vision she had for this special occasion and then some!

I can’t decide if this one above or THIS one is my favorite bluebonnet pic!

 Oh, I do love confetti!

Gorgeous, gorgeous person and a gorgeous, gorgeous evening!

For so many reasons (far too many to list) this bunch is near and dear to my heart. I am truly blessed to know them and to have watched these kiddos grow and each time I see them, it brings me tremendous joy. Their energy and free spirits inspire me and make my soul happy.

His facial expressions are out of this world!

 Pure. Love.

 I don’t know why, but I adore this shot above.

 This light!!!!!!!!

She’s an old soul.

And how lucky were we to find these amazing bluebonnets!?

 Love.

 This image above just happened. The kids ran off, wild and free. It spoke to me and made my heart happy and ache at the same time.

SOOOOOO much personality in this family!

I was laying down on rocks for this shot. A few days later, I couldn’t figure out where all the bruises came from on my arms and legs until I remember this image, lol. #worthit

YES!