For the past three years, we’ve gotten together to do family portraits up right. Every session has been vastly different from the last, but every session has been equally fun, entertaining, and beautifully styled by Tracy (no surprise there since she is an amazing photographer herself ;-). I have to admit I get giddy each time she schedules her session because I know it’s going to be a beautiful collaboration. This is the most easy-going, most colorful, most loving, most fun-loving, most energetic, most dynamic family you will ever meet and I truly feel privileged to get to photograph them. Thank you, my friend.

I was literally got goosebumps when mom asked if they could bring their horse to the session? Um. A horse? A beautiful family? Girls in white dresses? Downtown Austin? Sure. I’ll take that. Our morning together was every bit as magical as we had dreamed it would be. I kept having to pinch myself to see if this was really happening. Especially when THIS happened. Truly one of those sessions that I will never, ever, ever forget or be able to duplicate. Thank you so much, Shelly, for an absolutely fantastic time! (Check out the last pic in black and white. I can’t decide which I like better ;-).

…and we didn’t jump on that opportunity to take pictures there, what kind of an artist would I be???? I was more than thrilled when K suggested this place for her family’s photo session in downtown Houston. Now, don’t get me wrong, the location was amazing, but I think it was the exuberance and fun-loving nature of this beautiful family that really made this session magical. I left their house on such a photographic high…windows rolled down, singing to the radio at the top of my lungs, totally honored to have been chosen to capture their relationships and love for one another and love for life at that point in time. And believe me, I pulled very much from that strength and energy in the days to come. Thank you L family…I don’t know if you’ll ever realize how much our photo session impacted me and it was a pleasure getting to work with you all.

{Want to know where this is? Check out this image…}

If it looks like we did a lot at this family photo session, well, we did! How else do you keep a three-year-old happy and entertained?! It works out okay, though, because she and I both have about the same attention span ;-). I love that she pours her whole heart into everything that she does and doesn’t she fit the part of hot air balloon traveller so well? But my favorite image might just be this little moment shared between her and her mommy.

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!

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}

We sure did have a lot of plans for our session, but Mother Nature had other ideas. What was supposed to be a lovely spring day, turned into a rather chilly and wiiiiiiiiiindy March afternoon. The wind made it sooo tough for us to hear one another and to keep the hair out of our faces (LOL), but it was quite perfect for the awesome wind chime collection mom had brought for her baby girl to play with.  And she sure looked like an angel in that lovely cream chiffon dress by the creek. I think I could have photographed her all day in that dress if the weather had been a bit more cooperative. This was a different side of L than what we’re all used to…she usually has boundless energy and a million things she needs to do. This particular afternoon, we were privileged to get to capture the sweet, clingy, lovey, “I don’t feel well and I just want to snuggle up with my mommy,” side of her. And I think that’s quite a lucky thing to be fortunate enough to get that on camera, too. [Another fav HERE].

They are no strangers to the Pinkle Toes blog, but this session was a little different. This time, it was just the two of them. Goodness gracious their eyes are amazing and I just LOVE how she always comes up with the coolest, hipest wardrobe selections. And who else can wear pink lipstick like that?! Also, can you believe the height he got on that jump? Craziness. Another take HERE. Love, love, LOVE!

I was chatting with some photog friends today about sessions gone wrong. You see, I had big plans for a special Valentine’s Day image with all three of my kiddos, but because of all of the struggle and fighting it took to get there, I just can’t look at the pictures without thinking about how miserable our shoot was. Instead, I posted THIS ONE for today because it was more authentic and in the moment and not forced. I don’t understand why it’s so hard for me to photograph my kids together. Individually, I’m good, but the three of them together and it just ends up with me being a manic maniac and my kids in tears. I don’t like that. I don’t want them to hate the camera.

Time and time again, I remember that the best images are usually the ones that are unplanned (like the one from this morning), but it is my nature to plan. A lot. To a fault. And when things don’t fall in line with my plan, I shut down. When you have three children, you *do* have to plan. Someday, I hope I will learn to plan enough and at the same time, be flexible enough with my own kiddos to adapt. I can do that with my clients. I do it ALL the time with my clients. I preach about it over and over again at my workshops. And yet, I can’t apply it to myself. I started to go down memory lane of all of my personal photo shoots gone wrong (this one in particular comes to mind) and I suppose I’m thankful for those images, too. But I don’t know…I just wish it wasn’t such an ORDEAL whenever we try to do a shoot.

All this leads up to these images that follow up to her four year photo session. I had big plans for the shoot. In my head. But unfortunately, her birthday falls in line with holiday season…the busiest time of year for family photographers. It had been nagging in the back of my mind for weeks, “I have to get those 4 year pics taken! I have to make time for that! I have to have the perfect dress! The perfect shoes! Must have 4 balloons! I need NO rain and beautiful light!” Etc, etc, etc. There were other things going on, too…I was trying to get ready for the Holiday Mini Sessions, my grandmother was very sick, and we were very worried about why my husband’s brother had become so suddenly ill.  My mom (AKA MeeMaw) was in town to help out and I was spilling out all of my worries to her. She listened patiently, like she always does, and she said, “Let’s just go do her shoot right now. Why not? Let’s just do it.” But I wasn’t ready. I hadn’t finished planning. Where would we shoot? I was planning to drive out to this wall downtown, but even if we left right away, we would never make it before sunset. This would be a disaster!

It turned out to be a beautiful evening with my mom, my baby girl, MeeMaw’s pup, and a delicious golden sunset right here in our yard. It was all of 15 minutes. Tear free. And some of my favorite images of my little girl perfectly captured at four. I needed to go back and look at these images tonight. These were taken just days before the holiday season turned into heartbreak for all of us. It was pure joy. It was time spent with my mom. It was perfectly unplanned. It is a nice reminder to me today. Just let go, Michele. Let go and enjoy these moments enough to capture them how they deserved to be captured.