I’m going to *try* to just narrow it down to a few favs for the blog. But I’m not promising anything. Aren’t they a BEAUTIFUL family? And such a joy to work with them.  The kids had great personalities and everyone was game for whatever I threw at them. Truly couldn’t have asked for a better session!

Okay. This is just too difficult. I can’t help myself. Here’s their session in full: 

Looking for fairies at sunset…sigh. This session was such a joy!

This last shot was quite literally the last shot of the evening. Doesn’t it always happen this way?

All in all, I’d say the first-ever round of Pinkle Toes Xpressions sessions rocked my world. Such BEAUTIFUL families and such patience—you wouldn’t believe the kind of heat and Texas-sized mosquitoes we were dealing with here. So sorry we didn’t get to do the morning sessions this weekend (thanks to the threat of storms and a bad radar map), BUT that works in your favor because…

I’m adding a NEW Xpressions date! If you’d like me to notify you of the new date and times available, please fill out the form here.  Also, we’re going to make another exception this round…I will accept families up to 5 members (extra fee over 3 subjects), but babies still must be at least 3 months old.

To these beautiful families that had their Xpressions sessions this weekend…I’ve already got your disks burned (everyone ended up with around 70+ images!) and prints on order! It won’t be but a few more days and you’ll have everything in hand!  How about that??? And by the way, these previews have only received the basic edits for contrast/color…no additional retouching, etc., so this is exactly the kind of stuff you’ll see on your disk.

There’s just something extra special about getting the honor of photographing friends…dear friends. Laura’s eldest was (is?) my eldest’s first love since they met in preschool a couple of years ago. Through that relationship, our own friendship grew into an easy understanding, a love of all things artistic, and sharing in the joys (and challenges) of motherhood. 

When my business was just getting off the ground, I found myself very overwhelmed with it all and struggling to enjoy being a mom. I would watch how Laura embraced motherhood with such poise…like it was her extreme honor to be granted such a job (hence, exhibits A & B above – grace under pressure). I used to tease her and call her Supermom and really, it’s true. I don’t think she knows this (well, now she does) but she is my living example of the kind of mom I try to be with my kids: involved, creative, nurturing, and willing to do whatever it takes to encourage her children to thrive. She’s been such a source of support (ie. letting us leave a Brett Dennen concert in the middle of his set because I was hurling in the lovely bar bathrooms thanks to morning sickness) and understanding (ie. following my escape that night, she didn’t laugh once as I sped us to Wendy’s where I proceeded to order and devour two cheeseburgers before she had even gotten 1/2 way through her own). She’s a great listener.  She has a knack for keeping things calm. Her family just glows with love and peace and it was my extreme pleasure to get to spend a few hours trying to capture that on camera.

And just like the troubles I had when trying to narrow down the images from their session, I’m finding it difficult not to blog them all right now. So, here ya go–the whole enchilada: 

Today, we went here:

In an effort to:

like…

and…

or…

…and…

This made me proud:

These made me giggle:

And this made me cry:

It was a much needed dose of sanity and love before the holiday season takes hold.

Limited engagements in Austin, TX, Washington D.C. and Richmond, VA. Learn more!

(Photogs…even if you’re not interested in a session, do check it out if you want to get together for a "meet & greet" lunch December 20th in Richmond).

If you are planning to have photos done in time for the holidays for cards, gifts, etc., the time to schedule your session is now. September is pretty much booked, October is on it’s way, and in November we reach our holiday card/product ordering deadlines. (Stay tuned to the Session Openings Calendar for updates).

I mentioned this before, but a reminder: as a special incentive, I am offering a set of 24-5×7 flat holiday cards with CD purchase to anyone who holds their holiday session in August (you can choose from a handful of designs).  This offer is good only while openings are available, so jump on it NOW! If you already have a session booked in August, you can receive these cards. If you’ve already booked your holiday session for Sept, Oct, or Nov, and move it to August, you can take advantage of this offer, too, but again, only until August books up.

Also in August, our Senior Xpressions for Austin area seniors graduating in 2010. Details.

(How do you like this moldy oldy? Our holiday card, circa 2007)

Brace yourself.  This post is chock full!!!  You will want to read through all of it to get through the hodge podge of information, including a special holiday offer! ;-)

First, some incredible news I got today!  See that adorable baby girl in the heart up there? Yeah.  Well she took home FIRST PLACE in the humorous category for the annual Miller’s Baby and Child Contest.  I’ve never submitted any image before, but this year, on a whim, I decided to give it a go.  I am so very happy for her and her family. Congrats to you all!!!  (Click HERE to see the rest of the winners!).  This would be the "over the moon" portion of my post.

Second, I got some incredible deliveries on my doorstep today (which would be the "out of this world" portion), starting with this STUNNING Platinum Album:

If you could see their house you would notice that it matches their decor PERFECTLY.  I’m thrilled that mom thought outside the box in the design of this album!

It’s been like Christmas around here, people.  Here’s another set of books I shipped off today…matching maternity and newborn.  These are SO adorable together:

And then, I got this gigantic canvas too:

Of course, we had the AWESOME mini maternity sessions at Baby Coco this weekend.  A quick sneaky peek here:

And here’s a pseudo sneak peek of the newborn session that has been postponed and rained out and postponed again (LOL, V, I promise we will get to his newborn session while he’s still a newborn):

(I promise to explain the boxes later.)

And finally, some pics of the biggest reason why I’m sooooo behind on blogging:

I’ve got the theme from Flash Dance running through my head.

Okay, there you have it. That pretty much sums up the past week or so.  What??? It’s only been a week?  Wow! July is almost GONE! 

Which reminds me, if you haven’t booked your family holiday photo session yet, the time is NOW! September is pretty much booked, October is on it’s way, and in November we reach our holiday card/product ordering deadlines. As a special incentive, I am offering a set of 24-5×7 flat holiday cards with CD purchase to anyone who holds their holiday session in August (you can choose from a handful of designs).  This offer is good only while openings are available, so jump on it NOW! (If you already have a session booked in August, you can receive these cards. If you’ve already booked your holiday session for Sept, Oct, or Nov, and move it to August, you can take advantage of this offer, too, but again, only until August books up.)

Thanks a bunch and stay tuned for LOTS of sneak peeks coming up over the next few weeks! 

…since I’m too tired to wait for the rest of the images to upload to get the one I *really* wanted to sneak tonight, I’ll do two other favs. Totally genuine, beautiful, and loving family tonight.  Little man (not pictured) gave me a run for my money, but mama…I promise, we got some gooooood stuff.  Thank you guys and enjoy the rest of R’s R & R.  Nighty night.