Interestingly enough, my first two photo shoots of 2017 were for 3rd babies named “Asher.” This dude was pretty much wide awake during his entire session (mom told me zonked out the second I left), but it allowed us to get wonderful images of interactions with his doting big sisters, snuggling parents, and adoring grandparents. And his sparkly hazel (?) eyes! I wonder if they’re going to stay that way? I loved the way his sisters loved on him with all their might. I loved his perfect little back rolls ;-). I loved his long, curly toes. I loved how I could see already how much he looks like his middle sister, who in turns, resembles her father. I loved how his mommy breathed him in every time she picked him up. Most of all, I love that his grandfather was able to make him SMILE *just* as I was packing up my stuff, getting ready to head out. Lucky catch, there!

For one reason or another, we kept having to reschedule his newborn photo session. I actually think it worked out for the better because he was absolutely amazing during his shoot…so incredibly expressive and turning his head and following me with the camera, smiling and cooing and completely wrapping all of us around his cute little baby pinky. His big brother even let us take a few pics with him in between his busy schedule of watching the trucks on TV and playing with his blocks ;-). These boys are both so handsome! Well done! Another fav HERE.

She couldn’t have done any better at her newborn session if we had planned it that way. She was amazing and smiley and oh that hair and just the right amount of baby chub! I think this may be why I’m equally drawn to newborn photo sessions when babies are a little bit older as to when they are just a few days old. So many favs, too…like the one with her hand by dad’s face? The way her mommy is looking at her in all of the pics? And also, this perfectly adorable yawn.

If you’ve ever attended one of my lifestyle photography workshops  or if you’ve ever been a new parent talking to me about when might be the best time for your baby’s newborn session, you may have heard me go on and on about how much I LOVE working with older newborns. And this beauty featured here is a perfect example of the kind of images you can get when baby is around 7-9 weeks old. I love that she was so alert most of the session and was actually making eye contact with her family AND with the camera. And those smiles!!! It’s really fun to get that kind of feedback from a little baby. I was also really struck by how much she looks like her big sister. I just kept seeing her as a newborn over and over again. It was crazy!

She was really, really, really awesome with her baby sister. I think we were all amazed!

See what I mean about the eye-contact and beautiful smiles?

We snuck away to spend some time with big sis in her big girl room and it was precious to watch her play with her toys. They were having full on conversations. We don’t know what about, but it was pretty deep.

(Love. That. Book. It’s a classic in our house).

Ohhhh. those lashes. Those cheeks. Those lips. Sigh. THIS one might be my fav from the bunch.

I spy Pinkle toes 😉

At the very end of the session, as I was ready to leave, mama asked for a pic of her and the hubs together. After we shot the serious image, they surprised me with the high-five, celebrating a hugely successful photo session. Right on! They do make a wonderful team!

From mama:

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… We are a family of four! Scott and I have been married for 7 years and we have Blake Lynn, who will be three in August and we recently welcomed Blair Marie.
We love the current stage our little family is in and spend as much time as possible together.
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? We were celebrating Blair Marie joining our family 🙂
3) Where was your session held and why? Our home- so much easier with a newborn
4) What did you like about your session location? It’s our favorite place to be
5) What was your favorite part of your session? How cooperative Blake was, she was so happy to show off her baby sister
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? Tantrums! The last session we had was full of tears [but it still turned out pretty nicely ;-)]
7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? Blake loved the puppet that Michele brought along!
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Michele is the best, so you are in good hands and no matter what your toddler is like, she will capture absolutely precious memories
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? Michele is the best!
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? Look how little we/they were

I can’t quite put into words how I feel when I’m working with certain families. It’s just that sometimes (or luckily in my case, many times) you meet people and while you’re “working” you feel like family. You share in their joys and celebrate when wonderful things happen. And that’s just how it has been watching this family grow and I couldn’t be happier to meet their new beautiful baby girl!

Two things I want to mention about this lifestyle newborn photo shoot:

1. Yes, any time you are dealing with a young older sibling, you never know what’s going to happen. We must be very patient and very willing to go with the flow and by we, I mean myself + the parents. I really want to give credit to mom and dad on this one for being SO incredibly laid back and allowing their eldest daughter to just be herself, even down to the band-aid she insisted on wearing the entire time. I asked mom if she wanted me to take it out or leave it in when I was editing and I grinned ear-to-ear when she said to leave it in. YASSSSSS! She gets it! How wonderful to acknowledge this phase in her daughter’s life and having the foresight to commemorate it forever in photos. Excellent decision!

2. Along those lines, notice the gloves in the series of the sisters together? Well, we decided to give big sis a little break and focused on baby sis for a little while. I was concentrating so hard on photographing the baby that I freaked out a little bit when all of a sudden, these gloved hands appeared in my frame:

But once again, we decided to roll with it. If big sis wanted to be in the photos with her baby sister, I wasn’t going to stop her and nor were we going to try to take away the gloves ;-). Turns out, I believe she was merely copying me because I often wear gloves when working with newborns so my touch won’t startle them. I started laughing so hard when I got to these images in my camera roll during editing! I’m so glad we have them!

And now, from mom (by the way, my fav image from the session happens to be with her and her new baby girl, shot through the prisms of her chandelier which she worked so hard to put together for their new house):

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… We are a family of 5 counting our dog Lola. My lucky husband is surrounded by 4 girls; Myself, Lauren: 2.5 yrs, Marilyn: 5 weeks old and Lola: 6 yrs. We are a very active, loving, fun, silly, caring, kind and Christian family. We love to be outdoors and going all the time. We rarely stay home and we love spending time with our extended families.
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? Newborn photo session! Introducing Marilyn Rose Kalb, born March 13th.
3) Where was your session held and why? Our house; for convenience. 😉
4) What did you like about your session location? Convenient and comfortable
5) What was your favorite part of your session? Pictures of Marilyn Rose and Lauren
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? My 2.5 year olds compliance and getting her to focus. 🙂
7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? My daughter totally ruined her dress from the photo session right afterwards. Like hugged a pole with black tar on it and ruined the entire $75 dress. Stinks!
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Relax and enjoy cause you’re not in control of your kids’ photogenic outcome.
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? Michele’s amazing work
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? Sweet, silly and loving family.

I was lucky enough to kick off the Pinkle Toes Photography 2016 photo season with this BEAUTIFUL baby girl a couple of weeks ago! She was so perfect for her debut session, giving us the perfect blend of quiet alert (showing off her sparkly blue eyes), and then wrapping up with dozing off comfortably while her parents (and fur brother) snuggled up with her.

She does this again later on in our session. Sigh….adorable.

Puppy dog just couldn’t NOT be in the photos. Love that he sneaked in here for this shot ;-).

Check out that eye contact…and the hint of a smile, like, “Oh, dad…”

And is that  perfect little infant smile I see up there? Yes, yes it is!

See? Back to covering her face, lol.

Love, love, loved all of the great pops of color throughout the house!

A sweet necklace from her dad. Mommy has a matching one.

I told you she was perfect! And then my favorite shot from the day is HERE.

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Note: as we gear up for the Pinkle Toes Lifestyle Photography workshops coming up the first weekends of Feb and Mar, it will probably get a little quiet on here. Busy, busy, busy making plans and tidying up loose ends. We have just a couple of openings left for each workshop, but if you’re considering Feb (which is more full), I would jump on that workshop as soon as possible because there is some pre-workshop homework that you’ll want to allow time for completion.

Of course, all that depends on IF I survive a rather big event for me this weekend ;-).

So, when I was in Houston a few weeks back, I got to meet the newest addition to this family and honestly, I just didn’t want to leave. I had so much fun getting to hang out with them in their beautiful home and watching big brother and big sister love all over their baby sister. I’m not sure if I’ve ever laughed so much at a newborn photo session in all my photography days…and let me tell you, the parents are just as hilarious as the kiddos. And when they’re not being hilarious, they are being so very, very sweet.

And then, when we finished up all of the sweet newborn snuggly photos, we did what everyone naturally does at the end of their newborn photo shoot: DANCE PARTY!  

And these guys take their dance parties VERY SERIOUSLY. This was for real. Complete with lights, custom sound, and a robot dance off. Like I said, I was cracking up the whole time and feeling like these three children were very, very, very lucky to have such cool parents like this.

From mom:

1) Tell us a little bit about your family… We are chaotic and silly and a mixed bag trying to navigate life as a family of five. We have lost any notion that we can control anything, and when we try, it is a complete fail. But we love each other and we learn all the time how to do that better.
2) What made you decide this was the time to do a photo session? Were you marking any special occasion, etc? Baby Ruby arrived!
3) Where was your session held and why? At our home because we couldn’t possibly get all five of us dressed and to a location and all be in a good mo about it. I hear this is possible later, though.
4) What did you like about your session location? It was the cleanest the house has been in months. Seriously. Months. Also, it made it very laid back and we just had fun.
5) What was your favorite part of your session? Hard to say whether it was the robot dance off or the battle over the smelly stickers.
6) Was there anything you were nervous or worried about before the session? Lactating all over myself. [bwa ha ha ha – that’s a new one on me!]
7) Any funny stories or interesting happenings during your session? Dance party again here. And August and Matilda wrestling. Standard.
8) Any advice to other families before their photo sessions? Relax and just enjoy your family. [Truly…relaxed parents make for relaxed kids and babies which all make for a relaxed and AUTHENTIC family photo session.]
9) What made you choose Pinkle Toes Photography? Michele. Done and done. [xoxoxo]
10) What do you hope your kids/family will say years down the road when looking at these images? They love each other and they have fun!

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And now, I have to share a couple of outtakes – this was our first attempt at getting a solid family pic:

And then big sister totally smothering her baby sister with love:

A little while ago, we did his official newborn photos, but because his grandparents live out of state, his mommy decided to give them a very special gift: their own session with their first grandbaby when they came to visit again in August. I thought that was incredibly thoughtful and such a wonderful idea! It was amazing to watch how he connected with his grandparents and how much they adore him. I also was reminded of how quickly babies can change in just a short time…he has filled out so much since I last saw him and those smiles…those sweet little gummy grins are priceless!

See what they were seeing HERE (which also happens to be one of my favorite newborn images EVER)!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that I heard these two were high school sweethearts? Or maybe even together longer that that? Wow. Wow. Wow!

At the newborn session, baby boy’s daddy was really excited about these hats he had for him, but little man ran out of patience before we could use them. But we got to use them this time!

Her dad is reading to her son just how he used to read to her as a child. Price. Less.

Surely you remember when this stunning family was featured on the Pinkle Toes Photography blog during their maternity portraits? Well, this little apple did not fall far from the tree as I was completely blown away to find that she is pretty much a carbon copy of her mommy. Face shape, jawline, and delicate lashes. It’s too early to tell on eye color, I know (by the way, mom’s eyes were green at the maternity shoot, but proved to be a gorgeous ice blue during the newborn photo session ;-)), but she even looks like her mommy in the eyes, too!

I love that baby girl spent equal time passed out and beautifully alert during her photos.

It wasn’t terribly hot yet outside that day, so we got to spend a little bit of time outdoors and I think this little one quite enjoyed it!

Amazing eye contact, don’t you think? This is one thing I do love about working with newborns in the 4-6 week age range.

This face!!! But my favorite shot outdoors was THIS one!

She is also lucky enough to have TWO big sisters. I’m so sad we missed them at the newborn photo session, but I can’t wait to get to see them all together soon!

Random snap, but I loved that it captures this time when she still looks so small in this chair.

I mean, really? Gorgeous.

Sooooooo sweet!

And then at the end of our photo session, I wanted to capture how mommy expertly carries her around in the wrap. There’s something so beautiful and intimate about baby-wearing and it’s obvious that baby girl is completely comfortable here:

For the past couple of years, this family has graciously traveled to Austin for their family photo session, but this year, seeing as how they welcomed the “caboose” of their family, it was my turn to pay them a visit when I was in Houston last month. It was pretty cool to see that this very colorful mama has an equally colorful home, FILLED with happy pictures of her bubbly family! She is such an inspiration to any photographer who also happens to be a mom because oftentimes, we are so busy taking care of printing everyone else’s photos that we don’t take the time to print our own. I should have taken pictures of her displays because wow! She did an amazing job creating them.

Of course, the real star of the photo session was their brand new baby boy. He. Was. So. Good. I guess he is already pretty used to his brother and sisters bouncing around him and he wasn’t phased one bit by our little photo shoot. He fits in perfectly and it’s quite impressive that his older siblings have welcomed him with such love and affection. By the way, how anyone can look that good after just having had her FOURTH child is beyond me. Like I said, an inspiration!!

While I know this photo session was about baby boy, THIS might have been my favorite little moment.