I Heart Faces - Play

Gosh!  This was a tough decision.  So tough, in fact, that I had my Facebook friends choose for me.  Probably because I so enjoy watching and capturing my children playing.  Especially my little boy, who may as well be Andy from the movie Toy Story.  He's in love with his toys and plays so hard.  It's such a joy to observe and takes me back to my childhood.

I captured this picture of my little boy while we were at my parents' house.  I affectionately refer to my mom as "the crazy toy lady" because she always has something new and exciting for my children to play with each time we go to her house.  This time, it was a talking parrot.  I could not have staged a more perfect interaction between my little "pirate" and this talking parrot.  I was in love the moment I snapped the picture. :)

See more wonderful "play" images here:

I Heart Faces: Love

I love everything about this picture!  Sometimes it is a little difficult to get couples to relax and be "themselves".  I instructed him to hug her from behind, and at first it just wasn't working.  He awkwardly placed his hands on her arms, then her waist.  Then I said "Just give her a big bear hug."  That was it!  I love the joy, comfort, and giddiness on their faces.  You can tell, this is "them".  This is their happy place.  They are in LOVE!

See other beautiful "LOVE" images here:

 

I Heart Faces: Best Face of 2012

Like all of you, it was such a difficult task to narrow all my beautiful clients' faces down to just one favorite.  In the end, I went with a face that I have had the privilege of photographing several times.  She is absolutely stunning and I feel so honored that her mommy and daddy choose me as their photographer!

Meet Little Miss Avery!

See other beautiful faces here:

I am a glutton for punishment....

So here is my problem.  I get an idea in my head.  It's a nice idea...fun, pretty original, and doable.  But ME, I can't leave well enough alone.  My juices start to flow, and one by one, new elements come to me to make the idea better, BIGGER.  This goes on and on for a little while, until the idea becomes so grand (or at least it's grand in my head), I can not fathom just letting it go. I absolutely cannot rest until I turn this idea into a reality.  The problem is that I sometimes forget I have 3 kids now and one of them is a newborn.  Like I said, glutton for punishment!

So it all started with this banner my friend and I found on Pinterest.  It was adorable and a great decoration that the kids could help make.  She was wonderful enough to buy all the supplies for it.  We took the kids for a nature walk to collect some items for our banner and came back to her house to put them all together.  We found out very quickly, this was a challenge in itself, bringing 5 kids on a walk and then actually expecting them to glue things onto felt.  Ha!  Needless to say, the moms had to do most of the work.  But, the banners turned out super cute and we were very pleased :)

Now my wheels start to turn. Here's how my brain works:  "Wouldn't it be so cute to take a picture of my kids holding the banner?  We could send it to everyone in the family......Oh, but what would be even cuter is if I did it with lots of leaves around....oh and I could put an indian headress on Eli and a pilgrim bonnet on Landry, but what will Cooper be?   A TURKEY!!!  Then I have to dress the other kids in full garb.  Headwear will not be enough."

SO, I drag the kids to hobby lobby to get all my supplies.  I decide today is the day I am going to make this happen.  I spend all morning getting the costumes ready, trying to convince my kids it will be fun to dress up, and stuffing my pockets full of candy to prepare for full-out bribery.  Nevermind the fact that my house was already a complete disaster and I had a gassy baby on my hands.  I strapped the baby to me with the Moby Wrap, distracted the big kids with playdough, and kept on truckin.

I managed to get the kids dressed with minimal screams and tears, then threw everyone and everything into the van.  We took off to the nearest Nature Trail.  My plan:  Get Cooper set up quickly while letting big kids explore a little, then entice them back with Smarties.  Once they were back, I would convince them to hold up the sign and smile big smiles while I snapped beautiful, glorious pictures. 

And THIS is how is actually went down: "Come back!"  "Too Far!"  "Don't Touch that, it could be poisonous!"  "Don't go over there, there could be snakes"  "Oh no! Cooper's crying" (Paci In) "Come hold the sign, I've got candy!" "Eli, put your feathers back on"  "Hold the sign up higher" "Oh Gah Eli, Put the stick down!"  (Paci out, Paci In) "Come back Eli, I've got candy!  Please!!"  "What about m&m's?"  "Cooper's crying again" "Lan, look this way" (Paci Out) "Everybody say Gobble Gobble" "Snap, Snap Snap" (And pray I got something)


Who's idea was this again??!! 

And here's what we got:

We'll call it a success :)

I'm exhausted.

I Heart Faces - Orange

When I had my October Baby, I couldn't rest until I got his picture in the pumpkin patch.  Here he is, 2 1/2 weeks old.  No doubt I went home with the BEST little pumpkin!

See other lovely "Orange" entries here:

I Heart Faces - Summer Fun

One of our favorite Summer traditions in going to our local splash park where they also sell snowballs! Sometimes we go multiple times in a week.  Here are my kids sitting on the doorstep of the snowball stand, having a ball!!  This picture makes me smile every time I see it!

See more wonderful "Summer Fun" entires here:

I Heart Faces - Enjoying Life

I just edited this photo and fell in love!!  Their joy is so contagious.  You want to jump in that limo and celebrate with them.  They are so excited to know they get to ENJOY the rest of their LIVES together!

See the other wonderful entries here: