My client friend Whitney is an incredible mother to these three and her energy and patience and love for her family inspires me to be a better mommy myself. I admire how she seems to live in the moment and appreciate both the fun times and the challenging times with kiddos. I always enjoy my time with their crew, it is always an adventure and it is always fun.

While editing these images, it hit me pretty hard that #1 I’ve been working with this family since baby girl was one and #2 about a year ago, I was editing the BIRTH images of the youngest Mr. Man up there. It really is difficult to comprehend and accept the passage of time and I was pretty wistful thinking about the day of his birth. And then I realized I never even blogged his birth images. I think that’s partly because, while I didn’t know it at the time, it would be the last birth session I would take. After my husband’s brother got sick, I decided that I could no longer photograph births in an effort to spend more time with my family. How fortuitous that this would be my last birth, though! It was SO fast! Don’t tell anyone, but I may have run a few stoplights on the way there and I was literally running down the hall, cameras swinging, trying desperately to make it there in time…

See? He was born literally within a few minutes of my arrival! (Remember this?) So fast, that I decided to come back the next day when he got to meet his siblings for the first time and photograph that:

Wow! That was quite the trip down memory lane. I can’t imagine a more perfect birth to complete my six year birth photography career. Thank you so much, Whitney, for that wonderful, wonderful honor and experience!

This sweet and simple newborn session for baby sister was in such contrast to the bright, sunny, fun, citrus-y, summery maternity session we had for her mommy (you won’t want to miss one of my most favorite maternity images from that session HERE). I loved baby girl’s calm nature…she was so unaffected by her energetic, bouncing big brother. She was unaffected by the big ol’ storms that rolled through during the session, too. And seriously, I said it before, but she has the most perfect newborn skin I’ve ever seen! She is the perfect baby sister and the perfect blessing to her family!

As one of the winners of the 2012 Pinkle’s Pic of the Year, they got to have a photo session in downtown Austin. Who doesn’t love SOCO and all of it’s bright, funky, fun and colorful spots? It was so much fun to hang out and catch up with these guys and I’m anxiously awaiting my turn to get my hands on that little baby cooking up there 😉 Congrats again, my friend!!! [One more don’t-miss-favity-fav shown HERE]

I’m going to be completely honest here and tell you that I didn’t know much about St. Louis before going to conduct the Pinkle Toes lifestyle family photography workshop there this past July. Well, I knew there was an arch and I knew the Cardinals played there and that’s pretty much all. But let me assure you that St. Louis–in spite of the miserable humidity and heat this summer–showed me a fantastic time with an equally fantastic group of people! Upon arriving, I was lucky enough to get to bum around the city with my good friend Heidi  (a talented photographer in the St. Louis area and a past Pinkle Toes workshop attendee; you’ll get to see more of Heidi below, actually!). She even took me to a Cards game (where we also hung out with some other photog pals Stacy and Janie).

The workshop itself (hosted by newborn and family photographer Anne Meintrup of Edwardsville, IL) was jam packed and we literally were at 100% from sun up to well past sun down each day! I’m so proud of the girls for sticking with me and hanging in there for our intensive schedule. Our first photo session demonstration was an in-home lifestyle newborn session with the snuggliest baby boy in the world!!!! It was such a great honor to get to work with this family (of FOUR boys) IN their home because it’s the home mom grew up in!

Later on that day, we headed out to the City Museum of St. Louis for Heidi’s urban family photo session demonstration. Unfortunately, the museum was closed, but it is on my bucket list to go back there…when it’s open…WITH my kiddos because there is NO place like this on earth. Wow! Wow! Wow! What I wouldn’t give to have the chance to take my kiddos up here (there’s even a ferris wheel on top of the roof, too)!!! Lucky for us, however, it offered plenty of super cool spots outside in which we could work (how do you like the perfectly timed taxi photo bomb?):

 And yeah, Heidi is kinda gorgeous, inside and out. Oh, one of my favs is HERE!

And finally, after we were all good and sweaty ;-), we headed over to Forest Park to capture a beautiful expecting couple set against the backdrop of a PERFECT sunset:

Quite a spectacular end to a spectacular day!

For what it’s worth, I did make it to the arch. Twice, actually. Even went so far as to buy the tickets to go up, but I was too chicken. It’s not heights that scare me, but the thought of being crammed into that egg did me in ;-).

At any rate, thank you St. Louis for an amazing few days. Thank you, Anne, for all you did to make this workshop happen. Thank you, Heidi, for giving me such a wonderful St. Louis experience. And thank you to all of the workshop attendees for being such a fun and interactive and can-do group:

• Brooke Boyer Photography – www.brookeboyerphotography.com – St. Louis Metro Area
• Caroline Strong Photography- www.carolinestrongphotography.com – St. Louis, MO
• Jessica Ebeler Photography – www.jessicaebeler.com – St. Louis MO
• Susie Vreeland Photography – http://blog.susievreeland.com – St. Louis, MO

(Will be posting the full list of attendees soon!)

Speaking of things coming up soon: I’m *almost* ready to announce the workshop calendar for 2014. I can tell you this…it’s going to be hectic and it’s going to involve travel to some new and far away places ;-). Intrigued? Make sure you’re on the list to find out everything as soon as it’s announced!

Since I first met Bev three years ago (and under the most stressful of circumstances), her world has changed just a little bit…and I would say for the better. I am so very impressed with how she took charge of her birth experience with this little chunky monkey and fought for what she knew she could do and searched and searched to find a doctor who believed in her just as much as she believed in herself. I hope she will get around to sharing her story someday online because it is truly inspirational and I am just in awe of what she did. Even during baby E’s newborn session, she kept exclaiming, “I can’t believe this baby came out of me!!!” I agree. I can’t believe it either. She is soooooo petite and he is sooooo…well, er…well nourished. He has the best personality already and truly captivates everyone who dares to lock eyes with him.  It was something else to watch how his big brother took such care of him. (Speaking of big brother: wow, he’s changed a tad since I saw him last).  More favs I couldn’t fit in this post HERE, HERE, and HERE. 😉

P.S. I am choosing to blame my clients/friends for my serious Kendra Scott addiction. That’s what I tell my husband, anyway.

As cliché as it may sound, it really does seem like just yesterday I was photographing his big brother as a newborn baby. I really do enjoy getting to carry on the photo session tradition with siblings…I find it so fascinating to see the similarities and differences between them. And I like to imagine all of the fun things they’ll do together when they get older…especially when they learn how to gang up on their parents. Believe me, I’ve been on both sides of that one ;-). [My absolute favorite image from this session can be seen HERE.]

These two sisters couldn’t have been any more adorable if they tried. Their debut photo session was textbook, really, and they barely made a peep. Flawless, they are. They got it from their parents. [Another fun image HERE]

I mean, really? How lucky can two parents be? To have two gorgeous, well-adjusted, adorable little boys? This session was so enjoyable and it was such a treat to see big brother want to take such an active, loving role with his baby brother. One more image that I LOVE not shown can be found HERE.

Okay, this little angel has the most incredible blue eyes I have ever seen and a sparkling personality to go with it. I’m always a little bit nervous when doing a cake smash photo session because I’m never sure how it will go. More often than not, we all end up being a little disappointed when a baby decides to have nothing to do with the cake. That was NOT the case this time as she put on quite the show. I’m pretty sure we stayed there and watched her attack this cake for about 40 minutes. My favorite moment is HERE.

In addition to celebrating her birthday, we had another surprise planned for this photo session: mom and dad would get to find out the gender of their next baby! I was incredibly thrilled when mom and I cooked up a plan to make it happen. They had the big appointment a few days before the shoot and mom gave the secret envelope to their nanny (I so do not know how mom didn’t manage to sneak a peek, but she didn’t). When I came over that afternoon, I met behind closed doors with the nanny to help stuff the colored balloons into the box she had made. I was SO scared I would somehow say something to give it away before it was time. I don’t think I did ;-). And when the time came, this is what happened:

The greatest part was baby girl’s reaction…she was SO enthusiastic, clapping and grinning! It was priceless!

We started our session off indoors with the intention of going outside to enjoy the nice spring weather. That sweet baby girl was so content snuggling up with her mommy and daddy that we ended up staying inside perhaps just a little too long because by the time we ventured outside, well…we could only stay a few minutes. No matter, though, because she was a perfect angel the whole time and we were able to capture so many sweet moments with her family. And that little furrowed brow of hers…love how that makes babies look so much wiser than we are. Two more favs HERE and HERE.

On the subject of chilly weather (which, sadly, I’m missing big time today, LOL), we spent a great deal more time outdoors for their maternity photo session and let me tell you, mama surely took one for the team. If you look closely, I’m sure you can see her goosebumps, lol! I don’t know how she managed to look SO beautiful and glowy while shivering like crazy that morning…