They just GLOWED the entire session…so much love between them, so much excitement about the journey ahead. Their connection is going to serve them well as they become parents.  As you will be able to tell from the images below, I didn’t really have fun at this session at all:

There. I believe that will get you through the next few weeks while we shut down for a bit to recoop and regroup. This will probably be my last post for a while (unless I get *really* inspired over the holidays). 

I *will* be announcing the winner of the Heartsong drawing on Wednesday via Twitter and Facebook…it’s not too late to enter. Oh, and don’t forget about the Bump Mini Maternties at Baby Coco on January 9th. If you’re pregnant in Austin and due in February, March, or April 2010, you can get a FREE mini maternity session with me when you book your newborn or birth photography session.  Even if you’ve already booked a birth or newborn session with me during those months, you can still come play! Please, take advantage of me ;-) and sign up quickly because once the spaces are gone, that’s it for this round.

When we return in 2010:

• we will start the voting for Pinkle’s Pic of the Year!!!!!
• clients and clients-to-be will be able to check out our rockin’ new collections and products
• we will announce the 2010 Xpressions dates
• and there’s some even *bigger* stuff in the works, but my lips are sealed for now!

Oh, I’ve been having so much fun looking at all of your beautiful holiday cards.  I was hit with the holiday spirit something fierce this year. Maybe it’s because my boys are finally at an age where they get it, but they don’t fully get it? Or maybe it’s the unusually cool weather? Whatever it is, I’m feeling very blessed and very joyful and I hope that you, too, have an AMAZING holiday season with friends and family.

Happy Holidays and since I’m no longer in school and technically shouldn’t do this anymore because I’m a grown up: "See you next year!"

Love,

Me

Driving out to his house today to drop off some stuff, I realized that I hadn’t blogged his session yet! Gasp! Especially since out of all the sessions I’ve had with his family, this was my absolute favorite. The first time I met him a few years back, I dubbed him Mr. Cool because no matter what I did (and I know a lot of tricks) he was soooooo serious!  He was just a baby at that time and I could not figure out what he could possibly have to be so concerned about. Mr. Cool has always plays it cool.  So, I was a little nervous this time because I was out of fresh ideas to break Mr. Cool. But evidently, Mr. Cool is now Mr. Giggles.  Seriously, he was laughing and giggling and cracking us all up the whole time. I think we finished up the entire session in less than an hour, he was so easy to work with!

Check out the sweet mom and dad time. By the by, I had to take these shots with Mr. Cool Giggles on my back to make sure he stayed safe. It was a kick butt location, though.  Definitely want to go back here!

Lurved this shot. He’s such a sweetie! Thanks again guys for such fun and relaxed session. (Now hurry up and finish that tree!)

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: 

I’ve been itching for a while now to try something a bit more edgy, different, more hip for babies and kids. Tonight I had a willing model ;-) and we gave it a go. LOTS of possibilities here for a *very* different and unique kind of children’s portraiture.

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).