happy easter! what a great day today was! my son just looooves Easter–really any holiday where he gets lots of candy and treats! last week his school had an easter egg hunt…notice who was first at the gate and first to get to the easter eggs. yep-that’s my son in the gray tshirt! he had more eggs than anyone else in class. thankfully he’s pretty good at sharing and offered his friend Matthew some of his eggs when he started to cry that he’d only gotten 2!

it was  a gorgeous day–i’m crossing my fingers that the warm (but not too hot) weather holds up for the next few weeks so when i’m home from the hospital with the new baby we can go on lots of nice long walks.

today we got to really enjoy our Easter with an easter egg hunt and  lots of candy (of course!)….

A great time flying kites…..

And what else? a commemorative photo to remember the day. Of course even a photographer’s son doesn’t always want to cooperate. Third time’s the charm! Happy Easter everyone!

this is a sample of a new product i’m offering. It’s a 30X30 storyboard that’s perfect for any occasion: newborn, family, wedding, seniors, etc. all the text and colors are changeable and you can include as many or few images from your session that you’d like. this is an example from baby riley’s session from my previous post–love how it turned out. i’m definitely going to make one of these to hang in my new nursery!

just a sneak peak of baby Riley. this was my second session with this family–you may remember their 2 year old daughter reagan’s “naughty or nice” Christmas card! so cute! reagan and riley’s mom is so sweet-while i snapped away during this session we got to compare labor stories and she was able to tell me how her 2nd c-section was different from the first. great conversation since i’ll be having my 2nd next month–wow time is really flying!

this senior session was so much fun! her mom and older sister came along for support and we had a great time! i really have fun doing senior sessions–let me know if you know any seniors that haven’t had their 2010 portaits taken yet!

this is laura and her older sister that was in town from new orleans. aren’t they cute? i always wanted a sister…..:-)

Brrrrrr….it has been so cold. especially on the day that we did this session! miss “P” started off a little sleepy but “warmed” up fast..especially once we made it to the playground. i just felt bad for mom & dad….miss “P” had a coat and gloves but not mom and dad.

Look at that little red nose and cheeks!!!

these are from a wedding i shot (thanks michaelle!) in december. the couple was so adorable and sweet. the groom is a high school football coach and many of his students were at the wedding. too cute. scroll down to see a typical female reaction to catching the bouquet–it cracks me up. i’m not even going to show you then men’s reaction during the garter toss. we’re just different–that’s all i can say.

today my little guy turned 4! where has the time gone? this year he was soooo excited for his birthday–he’s been looking forward to it for days and decided weeks ago with no hesitation that he wanted his theme to be ‘spiderman’. we had a great party today at a westwood gymnastics in katy. the two coaches we had (isaiah and daniel) were PHENOMENAL! so good with kids! i haven’t even had a chance to download pictures from the party yet, but i did want to post a couple of cute things from the internet i found recently.

here is a link to “20 birthday questions” to print out and ask your kids every year on their birthday. i’m going to do it with jackson every year on his birthday. it’s so easy to print out and keep in your child’s scrapbook so you can see how their interests and personalities develop over the years! so easy & fun–check it out!

***Update: when i tested all of these links the 20 birthday questions wasn’t working. if you can’t get the link above to work just copy and past this address in your browser.  http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_e20J6Ophtkw/SoHA6ldRsoI/AAAAAAAABHc/XLXO-NBbb6U/s1600-h/Birthday-Interview-Questions.jpg

this is a link to a site where you can download free printable days of the week tags to organize your child’s outfits for the week–pretty cute and handy when you’re trying to streamline your morning routine and get your little one dressing themselves.

because i have baby brain (due in april) here is a link for all new moms. you can purchase (or get an idea to make on your own) monthly cards to place in a photo with your new baby to help document their growth over the first 12 months.

once again because i have baby brain and have recently been addicted to browsing Etsy here is a link to really unique baby wipes holders. they come in sooooo many cute designs for boys and girls. they’re an original, affordable, and inexpensive gift for any new mom. i ordered the blue guitar design for my new baby boy!

because i can’t post without including any pictures–here’s one of a little guy from a while back. enjoy the rest of the weekend!

so much catching up to do. i hope everyone is having a great new year! i am busy setting my goals for 2010–i’ve just started an online mini course all about ‘Dreaming Big’ and setting goals for 2010. i think one of our first “lessons” is going to be making a list of outrageous dreams and goals that we have–even if they seem far-fetched and ridiculous. its got me thinking about goals for my business and my personal life that i have let sit on the shelf for a while–easy to do when you’re a busy mom, etc. it’s so exciting, especially at the beginning of a new year, to investigate and recommit ourselves to new and exciting opportunities.

this family session was from before the holidays–i originally took pictures of this little girl back in May at janie and jack.  her mom wanted another session to commemorate her turning 1! such a sweet family–thank you for asking me to photograph your family again.

I hope everyone has a happy holiday and safe new year!  this is our 2009 Christmas card –i’m happy with how it turned out considering i shot this in about 15 minutes on one of the cold, gray, rainy days we’ve had recently. thankfully my son had the caboose to play on, so needless to say he toughed it out through the bad weather. i’m really looking forward to great things in 2010–one of them being a baby brother for jackson! happy holidays and see you in 2010!

i finally got my own Christmas cards completed and they arrived today! i’ll be sure to post mine closer to Christmas–it’s pretty cute if i do say so myself! speaking of cute cards…this mom had a cute idea for the wording on her card! “Naughty or Nice?”

I also wanted to post a few pictures from our trip to Costa Rica! what can i say? costa rica is so green, lush and gorgeous! after a 2 hour bumpy bus ride from San Jose through the mountains towards the coast we reached our beautiful hotel in Playa Herradura.

our hotel was near Jaco, a surfing town where, of course, my husband had to try surfing!

the hotel was also near a rainforest where we got to hike one morning. i really, really wanted to see some monkeys…but they were hiding that morning. we did see a lot of other pretty animals and vegetation.

i hope everyone is winding down their Christmas shopping and looking forward to spending time with family and friends! only a few more days in 2009–this year seemed to go by so fast. i *literally* remember last Christmas like it was yesterday. time seems to go by even faster after you have kids. whew! slow down please.