Something a little deeper happened for me when I was editing Owen and Elijah’s images. Owen is just three and a toehead like my little Abe. When I was editing images of him there were times that I felt like I was looking at my own son. His little ear. His blond hair. His cute feet. The furrowed brow. Having a little boy is one of the greatest gifts God can give a mother, and to be so close to Owen’s images really made my heart tug about my own little gift from God.

And then there is Elijah. In six months I will have a little newborn too, and it was so fun for me to dream about snuggling and kissing my new baby, and since it is someone else’s newborn I can be in denial about all the bits about being up all night and getting spit up on all the time!

I did a couple 20×20 collection prints for their parents to look at and I love how they came together! My, what beautiful children…

Then there is the flip side. When you do what you love, you can never really take a vacation. You kind of miss your work. It is such a part of you. Darn those passions!

So I was on one of those vacations at my in-laws’ cabin for the 4th of July. And I met Eavie. She and I took one look at each other and smiled…a photo shoot was inevitable!

Eavie is seven months old. She is incredibly beautiful. She was wearing the cutest little plaid shirt. And she could not stop smiling and giggling at me. Really smiling. Really. And when Eavie smiles, her entire face smiles. Her eyes smile. Her cheeks and mouth, and even her nose, smiles. She really was too cute. The weather was perfect. And my camera was right next to me as of course I was taking photos of my family from the day. With the exception of me being in my swimsuit, it was perfect! How could we not have a spontaneous mini-session right then and there?

During our time together (a whole 15 minutes!), I learned that Eavie recently had her portraits taken. Her mom took her to an unnamed studio (of which there is one in your town no doubt) and had a terrible time. The man taking the portraits was in her face right away and made her cry for most of the session. There was only one shot from the session that where Eavie was kind of not crying. It was not a good experience. 

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to have this beautiful little girl smiling at me, begging for a photo session! Her daddy’s birthday is in July and he deserves a fun photograph of his baby girl. I sure hope they like the images!

Here are a few of my favorites…

The next day they came over to say goodbye, and Eavie was in the cutest little dress for the 4th…and two cabins down there was a blue cabin and, well, I couldn’t resist again! She is the prettiest little girl!

I couldn’t resist making one of my new client favorites with some of Eavie’s images. How fun would it be to have one 20×20 print like this for every year of your child’s life?! I have visions of a hallway full of these from the years and some day when the kids are grown you can just walk down the hallway and see your kids grow up again before your eyes. I get misty-eyed just thinking about it.

CONFESSION! Yes, Eavie liked me. But she really loved my little Bella, who managed to bring out the best in her. Eavie’s face lit up for Bella and it was so fun to see. Apparently during the little shoot, Bella was by my side the entire time, mimicking me. My husband said it was the cutest thing. I get a little “in the zone” during shoots so I have to admit that I wasn’t paying too much attention to Bella, but I did manage to get one shot of her acting like a little photographer. She is using her play cell phone as a camera. And since this was a spontaneous shoot near the lake, Bella is in her skivvies after swimming for a while. I am completely touched by her mimicking me. How I love that little girl…