I can’t believe it’s been a year since I last saw these two. And they were just itty bitty newborns then. Now they are adorable little ladies on the GO!

(Mom – I do promise that I have some with Miss M’s tongue not sticking out. But it was so her that I just had to include them here.)

Photography still makes me feel like a kid in a candy store. I’m sure most of my clients don’t know this, but I typically leave my sessions, hot little CF cards in hand, and race home to be greeted by hugs and kisses from my boys  – who act like I’ve been gone weeks instead of just a couple hours. Then, the second I have a break, I start downloading those cards. I just can’t wait to get them on my computer and take a look at them. Depending on my schedule and backlog, it might be a few days before I can stop and go through them again, let alone start working on them, but I always have to download them and take that first look through them right  away. Just seeing those sweet images, fresh off the cards, makes me almost giddy with excitement.

Little Jax was supposed to have his session last week, but we got rained out. Luckily we had a gorgeous (albeit steamy) morning for his session today. Jax was feeling a bit serious today, but I just  loved his beautiful gray-blue eyes with that dark peach-fuzz hair. And I think he still looks so much the same from when I last saw him in December.

when the very firsat shot of the session is this:

Sweet little Sara Beth is the daughter of WDSU reporter Rachel Wulff. Keep an eye out for the rest of her sneak peek – coming soon!

I’m gearing up for a long, mostly-relaxing weekend, but I couldn’t leave without posting sweet Cole’s session…

My sweet, stubborn, wild and wonderful boy is two today and growing up much too quickly.  I can see the babyness fading from his features right before my eyes and it makes me so sad.

He is my “mini-mack.” He approaches life with all of the enthusiasm and subtlety of a mack truck. Fear? Not this boy (unless you happen to be a bug, lizard, frog or itty bitty turtle).

He approaches everything with a fierceness that’s hard to describe. A hug from Logan can take your breath away. While Dylan will happily cuddle for hours, Logan is more of the hit-and-run type. Not content to sit on my lap for any length of time, he wants to get his hug or kiss and then get on with it.

His laugh is loud and joyful. And his temper is Irish all the way. He has no patience for TV, but loves books and will pester you to read to him for hours. His vocabularly is growing by leaps and bounds and even developing into full sentences, but he gets sooo frustrated if you don’t understand what he’s saying.

He loves animals. Especially ducks, alligators and owls. And he loooves his chenille baby blanket. He commands you to say prayers with him before he’ll go to sleep at night. And he wants to do everything big brother does (much to big brother’s consternation.)

He demands that you put down his window the minute you get in the car (ironically by yelling, “up! up!”)

He’s my good eater, but demands “chocolate” (milk) and “ap-pel joo” from the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes to bed. He calls all dogs “Nola.” He can smell candy a mile away.

He loves to sing at the top of his lungs.

He refuses to hold my hand when we’re walking.

He hates getting his picture taken.

Happy second birthday my wild thing! I love you.

I have to preface this post by saying that I love these two. Seriously. These boys are the sons of good friends of ours and it’s sooo nice having friends with boys right around the same age as my two boys. At 5 and 3, Sullivan and Harrison were so good for their session. (I swear it’s true N+W, even if it didn’t always seem like it to you, lol!) I hope they got lots of beignets!

I love getting to see my little clients over and over again. I first photographed Raegan when she just 4 months old. Now look at her! A big sister and getting to be such a big girl. And little sister Lilli is just as sweet as can be - I loved her little scrunchy face!

I find that there’s two types of sibling shots for kids this young. Hard. And harder. I literally got just  minute or two from these two to get this shot.  But hey mom, we got it!

Isn’t she growing into such  beautifl little girl?

And there’s that scrunchy face! I love it!

This was my second session with the L family. I just love my out-of-town clients that come all the way over here for their sessions. Of course I can’t take all the credit. The city of New Orleans is such a big draw for so many people along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere in the South. And I love knowing that my clients that come here get to experience all the fabulous food, hospitality and music that we’re known for around the world. Young Davis is so much fun to photograph too – a real trooper. And look, he’s starting to lose his baby teeth! Is it wrong that watching my clients grow up almost feels as bittersweet as watching my two boys grow up?

Okay, not really. But things do seem to have gotten a lot more country-ish since we moved to our new house on much-less-than-a-green-acre. Every night my boys delight in the frogs and toads that hop onto our front porch. (Dylan thinks the frogs are the “babies” and the toads are the “mommies” and “daddies.” It’s so darn cute that I haven’t corrected him yet.) And today we found a new visitor…

Isn’t he cute? The boys were enthralled. Until he started moving around. Then Logan was petrified. I’m not sure what he thought an itty-bitty-slow-as-molasses turtle  was going to do to him, but  apparently it was bad. Very, very bad.  Maybe it’s a ninja turtle.

I just love a cloudy day. Seriously. Now I don’t mean those yucky, dark as night, depressingly cloudy days. Nope. I mean the bright ones where the clouds just diffuse the sunlight, creating the softest, prettiest light. Like below. Luckily we were planning an indoor shoot for gorgeous Natalie’s maternity session anyway, because those clouds did deliver some rain outside. But inside we were cozy and able to use that light to its full advantage.

N – Thanks for your patience, I hope you enjoy the peek! I can’t wait to meet your little one.