The Gregory Family | Houston Family Photographer | Houston, Texas

I had such a fun time photographing the Gregory family! They are super fun and full of laughs.  This brother and sister duo are just hilarious!

 

 

Little sister is just stunning.  Her curls are just to die for...

 

 

These kiddos have some GORGEOUS skin tones!!

 

 

 

This is one of my very favorites of her picking flowers...

 

 

And of course this series of images of little Miss...LOVE!

 

 

 

I have to also mention that Dad was great during their session! He was up for anything and even had us all laughing.  *High five* to Dad for being such a trooper!

 

 

 

Look how handsome big brother is! Those eyes...

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much Gregory family for choosing me for your family portraits!! I hope you love them and cherish them for years to come!! :)

 

A Sweet First Birthday Session | Houston Children's Photographer

So I have this super sweet friend that I met several years ago (almost 7), when I put my first son in a local Mother's Day Out program.

 

Katie was a teacher there and I instantly fell in love with who she is as a person! She is such a wonderful friend whom I share many similar wants, desires and ambitions with.

 

When I found out she was pregnant, I was so honored that they wanted me to do their daughter's newborn portraits. :)

 

I can't believe it's been a year since that session.

 

Here is gorgeous Miss Phoebe Grace during her first birthday session!

 

 

 This is one of my favorite images of the whole session.  I love the emotion here.. and her face says, "What in the world are you people doing?!''  

Lucky for us, she gave us MANY precious smiles!! This one below is just darling!

 

As you can see, she really enjoyed her birthday cake!! We love you Miss Phee! Happy First Birthday!!

Brotherly Love | Houston Children's Photography | Texas Child Photography

Are you ready for some serious handsome-ness here?? I had so much fun photographing my friend Amy's sweet little boys.  I mean, check out these adorable faces!!

 

This is little brother DJ! He brought all his cute smiles and I didn't have to work a bit to get a grim from him!!

This is big brother Sam and he had me work just a tad to get a smile... but when he did, it was SO worth it! I can't take all the credit.  Mom was behind me doing some serious dance moves! ;)

Sam is so dashing for such a young lad. :)

Sweetest little boy!

Amy, thank you for letting me photograph your precious boys! I love them and I hope you love these images and enjoy them for years to come!! :)

 

For information on child portrait sessions, please visit the Investment link link at the top of this blog. :)

Never want to forget

I want to blog this so that I don't forget.  Usually I will jot things down on my notepad that my boys say, and later I will type them up on the computer.. but just in case I forget any tidbits, I'm going to do it now.

Today Bryce got in trouble for doing something I told him not to do (almost seconds after I told him not to do it).  I was talking to him about his punishment, and how what he is doing when he disobeys me, is also disobeying the Lord.  I'm not stern or harsh when we discuss these things.  The last thing I want is to cause him to feel like the Lord does not love him when he makes mistakes.  As gentle as I was being, I could see the guilt in his spirit and all over his face.  He said to me, "Mom, I need a minute by myself."  I asked him why and he said he couldn't tell him.  So I told him I would close my eyes and he could tell me when he was ready for me to open them. 

So I peek out of one eye, and he is hiding behind the rocking chair in my studio.  He comes back and and I ask him, "Can you tell me what you were doing?"  He said, "I was asking God to forgive me." 
Talk about melting my heart.  The next thing out of his mouth was, "I ask Jesus into my heart almost everyday!"  Wow.  That hit me like a huge weight. 

Since the day he was born, I've thought over and over how our talk with him about salvation would go.  I was so nervous in that moment when he said that.  I felt almost unprepared.  Not because I don't know Scripture; but because he is my son, and it's such a huge thing.  I want him to have a clear understanding of what Salvation is.  I think I fear that I won't say the right things..or have the right explinations.  I want him to understand that the prayer does not save him.  It's not him; it's Jesus who saves him. 

I know it's the devil who wants me to be nervous about it.  So I'm going to pray that the Lord will remove that from within me. 

We talked for a few more minutes, and then we left the room and I decided that I won't bring it up, I will wait until he wants to discuss it more.. Well, a few minutes later he wants me to come sit with him on the couch.  He starts to ask me how he can know if he has Jesus in his heart.  At this point Victor was sitting with us, so we discussed a few things with him.. and we both feel like he doesn't quite grasp all of the details about it.  I told him that whenever he feels ready to talk about it again, to come and get me.  He mentioned baptism, and that he was very shy about that. :) It was cute. 

So, I just wanted to jot all of this down so I can look back on it.  I'm praying that the Lord will give me the exact words I will need when the time is right; for each of our boys.  I also found this resource to be super helpful when explaining salvation to children.. kids benefit greatly from visual resources; so I will for sure be using this with Bryce the next time we discuss this.  You can find it here:
http://threethirtyministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/How-to-Share-the-Plan-of-Salvation.pdf

And here's a sweet picture of my Bryce! :)

Last day of Mother's Day Out

I'm so behind on blog posts...Here are some pictures from Britton and Parker's last day of Mother's Day Out.  I was emotional this day because, Britton left MDO forever.  He starts homeschool with Bryce in August and I just can't believe it's already time for Britton to be in Kindergarten.  It just kills me how fast time goes by.  All day I kept thinking about Britton's first day of MDO.  It feels like yesterday to me.  Sniff. :(

We were blessed with some truly amazing teachers this year.  They were so good to my boys and my boys loved them so much!

Next year (August), Parker goes back to MDO for his second year, and Cooper starts is first year.  I'm sure that will be another emotional day for me. Ha! The tears just keep coming! ;)

Being the cheesy Mom that I am, I made them smile for some pictures so we could remember this day.. my favorite is the one of Britton walking down the hall with all his stuff on his last day. 

I need some kleenex.

An evening ritual

Something that we love to do most nights after dinner is head outside and just relax and watch the boys play.  They love it, and we love just sitting together and having a conversation that is somewhat private. ;)

I really enjoy watching them in their element.  Goofing off and playing.. Bryce loves to ride his scooter, Britton loves to ride his bike and recently, has really gotten into rollerblading.  Parker will ride his scooter or his tricycle.  Cooper on the other hand, has not been happy lately about sitting his highchair and watching with us.  He has started attempting to walk, so we started putting him in his walker and letting him cruise around the driveway.  Our driveway is pretty long, but man, he can fly in that thing! Within days he got tired of the walker, and started to climb out of it.  We decided it was time to let him crawl/scoot/walk around outside because he was determied to do it with, or without our permission. :)

The pictures below are some of my favorites of my boys.  I love the one of Parker with his cheesy grin on his tricycle.  And the ones of Cooper first discovering the faucet are hilarious.  You'll notice the image where he had just banged his head on it...priceless.

I also really love the pictures of Cooper with his stick.  Yes, I know sticks are dangerous; I didn't let him hold it but for a few seconds...just long enough to catch these pictures.  My favorite is where he's holding the stick in the air; it looks like he's trying to pull off Harry Potter. ;)

I have a six year old (gulp).

Bryce turned six.  I probably should say that with more excitement...Bryce turned six!!!

While I am totally excited that the older he gets, the more new and fun adventures we have; I have to admit that the Mommy part of my heart was super emotional over it.  It's the end of toddler-hood and the beginning of being a boy.  The babyness is leaving and tiny little dark hairs are showing up above his upper lip (that last one almost gave me a heart attack upon discovery). 

Nobody can ever prepare you for how fast this goes by.  I just cannot believe it.  We are so proud of the little man that Bryce is.  He is probably the most kind-hearted child I have ever known.  Sweet, caring, compassionate and he is always wanting to lend a helping hand.  I love so many qualities about him.  He is strong and brave...he has a serious obsession with all things army and worrior.  He loves the idea of being a protector.  We hope to nurture that into one day being a protective father and husband. 

Even at six years old, he is still very much attached to me.  Not in an unhealthy way either.  If you know me at all, you know that the last thing I want is to raise boys who can't leave their Momma.  NOPE.  I absolutely want them to call home and check on us when they are grown, but I never want them to be dependent on me as grown men.  He will still sit with me and cuddle, he tells me I'm his buddy and that he loves me the most in the house ;)  He will say to me, "Mom, I love Jesus the most in Heaven, but I love you the most on earth."  Adorable.

Anyhow, we celebrated his sixth birthday dinner exactly how he wanted it...at our local Casa Ole.  Hands down his favorite place to eat mexican food.  We gave him the choice and that was his pick.  We met some family there and we had him open his presents from us.  He was super excited about his binoculars and his Leapfrog Leap Pad.  Victor and I honestly went back and fourth about purchasing the Leap Pad.  It's like an Ipad but it has learning games that can be purchased to use.  My thing is that I didn't want to get him hooked on playing video games; because we for sure aren't going to let him sit around and do that for hours a day.  But so far, it has been great.  He even takes turns sharing with his brothers who also like to play. 

We had a great evening celebrating Bryce.  He is loved by so many.  The one person we missed the most that night was my brother, Uncle Bubba as the boys call him.  But he came home shortly after that for a visit and that was wonderful.  We also recently had Bryce's official birthday party.. that was a ton of fun for the kids.  I will be posting pictures of that in the coming days!