Guess who this little guy visited last month...

Yep!  Just got back from Disney World in FL and brought his new little friend in for his 18 month pictures.  I know his family pretty well so usually he is all smiles for me but he has entered into a "just want to snuggle Mommy" stage and it is the first time I've made portraits of him so it took a little coaxing (and, of course- Smarties) to loosen him up.  Isn't he such a cutie?  I just wanted to sit and play all morning with him.  Thanks for bringing him in, Mom & Dad!  Looking forward to seeing Big Brother (and perhaps the family?) in the fall!

Hoo Boy!

As moms, we love portraits of our kids and when we start to plan a session we have these visions of perfectly behaved children sitting exactly they way they are asked and smiling so sweetly.  The truth is that is not the norm- kids have their own agenda (playing) and portraits are work, who wants to work on such a beautiful (hot) day?  This pair of twinkies were not so much into having traditional portraits made of them last weekend (a familiar scenario to me since my own twins RARELY want to be in front of my camera).  But once we got to the park, they were having fun exploring the garden and I got to capture that.  They still made me work for it- my stash of Smarties is greatly depleted, I got a little very sweaty and there are lots of out takes.  But then there were moments like these:

Take me out to the ball game

Remember back in May when we did the book-a-session-give-a-session benefit for Aid To Women?  Well, this is the final booked session that allowed me to give 10 sessions to moms from ATW.  We did one with this little guy and his mom in May and they knew they wanted to do a baseball one with Dad once summer arrived.  Thank you to all who booked sessions and helped out with this amazing project!  The moms were so touched by your kindness and generosity for them and they are loving their portraits!  It inspired me to put a portion of all session fees aside so I can do more project like it through out the year.

Too Sweet!

All the babies that appeared on the blog over the winter are coming back in for their Grins & Giggles sessions.  It is just such a fun stage when they've gained enough coordination over their hands to grab hold of their little feet.  This little bug and I played quite a bit while mom and big sister read books across the room before we got Sis in on a few shots too.  She was such a little sweetie, so engaging and expressive.  It was hard not to want to pick her up all the time.

Charming!

Ok, so I'm a bit of a sucker for brown eyed little guys with squishy cheeks.  But you have to admit that this little guy is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!  

Sleepy bliss

At first we weren't so sure this little miss was going to slip into dreamland for us, she was all wide eyed after she had her tummy filled up.  I was so pleasantly surprised that once I got ahold of her those little eyes got SOOOOO heavy and I got to right to work.  

Mom also wanted some natural lifestyle images of the family in their home, I LOVE incorporating living spaces like this!  It just seems to put a sense of context into the image.  Here are a few from that series:

Beautiful baby, beautiful family!

I wish I could think of more to say than that, but that just describes this session so perfectly.  Their little sweetie was all smiles and loves her toes.  Mom and Dad are COMPLETELY enamored with this little girl.  And that is what I do is all about, the people and relationships, telling each story frame by frame.