My Sweet Boy ~ Grapevine Texas Child Photographer

Well the weather FINALLY cooled down so we headed out on Labor Day to take Beckett's one year old pictures. He's at such a fun age and I feel like I really captured "him" in these pictures. Isn't he just the cutest thing ever? I just love those chubby cheeks, big lips, and toothy grin :)

Holiday Mini Sessions ~ Coppell Texas Child & Family Photographer

Holiday Mini Sessions are back and better than ever! These are perfect for an updated picture for your Christmas card and I have LOTS of Holiday cards to choose from this year. I'm so excited for them all. I'll be posting some next week. So check back :)

This year there are two package options to choose from so there's something for everyone. Check out the details below, choose your date and your package and call or email me to schedule your appointment today.

If a mini session isn't what you're looking for I would love to discuss a full session with you. I've revamped my sessions and I'm so excited to now offer Session Premiers to my clients! The Session Premiers are amazing. One to two weeks after your session I'll come to your home with the dessert of your choice and together we'll view a custom slideshow of images from your session. I'm very excited to offer this new feature for my clients!

I'm moving at the beginning of December so make sure you schedule your session soon so you can get your images and order before I leave. Call of email me for session availability.

It's That Time of Year Again! ~ Dallas Fort Worth Child and Family Photographer

Yep, that's right! It's time to start thinking about family pictures once again :) I know it's hard to think about scheduling family pictures when it doesn't feel like fall will EVER get here (seriously, can't we please at least dip down into the 90's sometime soon?) but if you're anything like me the holidays always come WAY too fast and then I'm scrambling to get my Christmas cards out in addition to all the other stuff I have to do.

So book now and save yourself from the headache of last minute family pictures and Christmas cards. I promise you'll thank me when December comes and you don't have to worry about family pictures or Christmas cards because you had your session early!

As an added incentive, if you book a full session during the month of September, you'll receive a set of 15 custom designed folded press printed gift tags with your Christmas card order!

The Great Cookie Experiment ~ Coppell Texas Child and Family Photographer

With all this heat I've been spending a lot of time inside avoiding some sessions that I need to do, like taking one year old pictures of my 14 month old! So since I'm avoiding my motherly/photographer related duties and don't have much exciting to post about I thought I would do a fun little experiment. I decided to try baking cookies on the dash of my car.

I had my husband get some refrigerated cookie dough at the grocery store when he went grocery shopping for me last week. I didn't want to do too much work in case they didn't turn out ;)

Here they are straight from the fridge ready to be put in the car. I waited until late afternoon since that's the hottest part of the day. It was 105 outside at 4:30 when I put them in the car. And really, who wants to turn the oven on and heat up the house just to bake cookies when it's 105 outside? Not me, that's for sure.

I checked them about an hour later. You can't really tell from the picture, but they're just barely to the melty stage and definitely NOT ready.

Three hours later, at 7:30, I took them out and brought them inside to put on the cooling rack. They look a little flat and weird, but other than that they seemed normal. They were a little soft in the middle still, but these cookies have a caramel center, so I think that was a big part of the reason.

People kept asking me if I was actually going to eat them...OF COURSE! They may look a little different, but they still taste great. Add a little bit of Blue Bell ice cream and they're perfect. Although I don't know what isn't perfect with Blue Bell.

Mmm, I think Blue Bell ice cream is one of the main things I'm going to miss about living in Texas!

And now I can say I baked cookies on the dash of my car. Am I the only one who does things just so I can later say that I've done it?

Although, I think next time I want cookies I'll just stick to the oven. Three hours is kind of a long wait for me :)

Things I Love Utah Edition ~ Dallas Fort Worth Child and Family Photographer

Since I did a post a couple months ago all about the things I love about Texas, I figured it's only fair to do a post with all the things I love about Utah. And this record breaking heat wave has definitely made me remember the things I love about Utah. So here it goes:

• The fact that they're NOT going through a record breaking heat wave right now ;)

• 4 Seasons - Although I'm not the biggest fan of a super long, super cold winter I really have missed fall. It seems to just last a week here in Texas!

• The mountains - I have such an easier time knowing which direction I'm going when I just have to look and see where the mountains are.

• Only 3 freeways - If I lived in Texas for the rest of my life I would NEVER be able to keep all the freeways straight. Seriously, I-635, I-35, 161, 121, 114, 183, US 75, Dallas North Tollway and, I kid you not, 20 more. I don't know how anyone can keep them straight. Give me I-15, I-215 and Legacy Highway any day. That I can handle!

• Family - This is definitely the best thing about Utah. I especially love being able to see my boys playing with their Grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles. I just wish all of my family lived there :)

Just For You ~ Irving Texas Portrait Photographer

My friend Kalli was nice enough to help me out last month and be a model for one of my workshop assignments. It was HEAVEN not having to use my 3 year old as my model. I almost didn't know what to do when I didn't have to ask her to look in my camera every 20 seconds!

I firmly believe that every woman should have pictures taken of themselves. Everyone deserves to get dressed up and feel beautiful once in a while. I know that I get caught up in all the mommy stuff and sometimes feel like "Elise" gets lost in the shuffle or I forget that there's more to me than just being the mommy.

Looking at these makes me wish my mom had pictures like this taken when I was younger. Yes I'd probably laugh at them a little, I mean it was the 80's :) But they would be priceless to me.

So whatever your excuse is for not getting pictures taken, let go of it. Go get dressed up and feel beautiful even just for an evening. Do something for yourself. I promise it will be worth it. And you'll always have those pictures to remind you that you are more than your job, or your kids.

Happy 4th! ~ Coppell Texas Child and Family Photographer

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July! We all know how long weekends confuse me to no end :) But I'll be back on Thursday with a session I did last month.

Right Now ~ Irving Texas Child and Family Photographer

I took these pictures for another one of my workshop assignments. We were supposed to interact more with our subjects and not worry so much about technical perfection.

A lot of these I took while holding the camera at about my waist and not looking through the viewfinder at all. I love the pictures I got. They're obviously not perfect, but they show my boys as they are right now. And that, to me, is priceless!

Packaging ~ Dallas Fort Worth Texas Newborn and Family Photographer

I delivered an order to a client the other day and thought I would snap a few pictures of my packaging. There are a few things that I'm still going to tweak, but I always love seeing pictures of what others are doing for packaging so I thought I would post these pictures.

Who wouldn't love to receive pictures and freshly baked cookies? I know I would!

Wow! ~ Irving Texas Portrait Photographer

I realized the other day that I totally skipped my usual Tuesday post! Oops :) Holidays just throw me off a little. After having a Monday "off" I can never really get a grasp on what day it is for the rest of the week. So it was Thursday before I realized I had totally missed Tuesday...since it was kind of Monday. See? Confusing! Now you know how things are processed (or not processed) in this head of mine :)

Since Friday came so fast and I didn't really have anything else planned I'll just leave you with a picture from my session last night. It was such a fun session! We just talked and laughed and took some pictures :) You're gorgeous Kalli! Thanks so much for helping me out :)

Rain ~ Dallas Fort Worth Texas Child and Family Photographer

I'm taking an online lighting workshop and one of our assignments was to take some pictures right before or after the rain. I was really happy with how mine turned out and Cohen had the best time jumping in the puddles! He was so surprised that I was actually letting him jump in them. It took him a couple minutes but he really got into it :) I love his facial expression in the first one.

Things I Love Texas Edition ~ Dallas Fort Worth Newborn & Family Photographer

Lately I've been noticing a lot more all the things I love about Texas. Even though my husband's graduation is still 7 months away, I just can't help thinking about how fast it's going to come. We're not 100% sure where we will end up after that, but most likely it will not be in Texas. I don't know if I've really mentioned it on this blog before, but I LOVE Texas. I couldn't have even imagined when we moved here how quickly I would fall in love with everything, but I did. Hook, line and sinker. I'm not going to lie, there are things about Texas I don't love, like the hot humid summers, the fire ants, & all the bugs. But for the most part I have really enjoyed our time here. Now with the prospect of leaving on the horizon I find myself noticing and appreciating all the little things that I love about Texas a lot more.

Here are just a few...

• Texas thunder storms - AMAZING...what more can I say?

• Wild flowers - I love how they just bloom on the side of freeways and random roads. They make my drive so happy and scenic.

• The Big sky - Don't get me wrong, I love the mountains but the sky here just seems so massive.

• Sunsets - It seems like every sunset here is just breathtaking.

• Gorgeous light - I think Texas has some of the most beautiful golden light I have even seen.

A Fun Evening ~ Irving Texas Child and Family Photographer

I love, love, LOVE this family! I know I say this every time, but seriously aren't they just gorgeous?

We had a hard time choosing a location. They had so many great ideas, but none of them really worked out for one reason or another. These canals are just a block or so away from where they live and they go for family walks there all the time. I love that they were able to incorporate a little part of their daily life into our session. I think it makes these pictures so much more special.

I had such a great time with these guys. Lindsey is the nicest, most friendly person ever. She's one of those people who is friends with everyone. She also has amazing style. I was seriously in awe over her living room. If I weren't moving at the end of the year I would hire her to decorate my apartment. Dan is hilarious. I honestly felt like I laughed our entire session. He also writes for SideDish Magazine and a great food blog all while attending medical school. Talk about busy! But if you want to know where to eat in Dallas, he's your man.

And don't they just have the cutest little man ever? Those eyes just make me melt!

Happy ~ Dallas Fort Worth Child and Family Photographer

Here's another of my bluebonnet sessions. I had such a great time with this family! They are just so happy. And aren't they just gorgeous? I get some amazing families.

I loved that they had Grandma join us at the end. She almost didn't make it! The location that we were shooting at was little out of the way and hard to find and she ended up getting there just a few minutes before the sun was gone. Luckily there was a few minutes of light left and it was absolutely breathtaking. She was giving this session to her daughter as a birthday gift. What a great idea! I really don't know any gift that is as personal or lasts longer than capturing these special moments in a family's life.