what 7 looks like

I decided a few months ago that I wanted to do 7-year photos of Celia in a studio, something very different than what I usually do.  I'm typically an outdoor shoot girl.  But I had in my head very moody black and whites in a loft type setting and I couldn't get it out so that meant I needed to make it happen.  I got super lucky and I found the perfect studio in downtown Houston.  I made sure not to cut her hair for several months so it would be long for the shoot.  I perused the net for outfit options which of course I didn't find because I never seem to find what I have in my head.  So instead I got my mom to make her a skirt out of an old curtain sheer and we added some lace to a top from Target for what turned out to be the perfect outfit.

For some reason 7 sounds really old and it was hard for me to edit these pictures without getting sad about how old she looks.  But this turned out to be my favorite shoot ever.  I loved the place.  And I loved how the photos turned out.  So much fun.  And I even got to do some for my niece as well.  Those I'll post separately.  For now check out Miss Celia...at 7...sigh.

I talked my husband into a new Lensbaby lens for Valentine's Day mainly for this shoot.  I've always wanted one, but wasn't sure if I could master it.  It took forever for the lens to get here and I ended up canceling the first order and reordering it so it didn't arrive until 2 days before the shoot.  There's a pretty steep learning curve to figure it out.  But I took it outside for a few minutes each day and got the basic idea of it.  I wish I had had more time with it though because I could have gotten so many more cool shots.  As it is I was lucky enough to get a few that I liked.

Lensbaby love...

this one I prefer in color for some reason...

some a little less dark but I'm still in LOVE with...

Happy Birthday to my baby girl!  You rocked this one.

Oh that Oklahoma Light

I never got around to taking official 4-year-old pictures of Kye.  And since his birthday is just about 1 month before we head to Oklahoma for the summer I decided to just do them there.  It is HIS element.  This is honestly where he feels most at home.  So it was the perfect choice.  Of course I always take a few of Celia too.  So here they both are in this gorgeous Oklahoma light.  I even got a few of them together, totally their idea by the way.  I wasn't planning on shooting them together, true story.

R&R at the RR (aka Rippy Ranch)

There's this cute little ranch in a little town in Eastern Oklahoma.  It's where I grew up.  I never appreciated it, of course, until I didn't live there anymore.  But we LOVE going to visit.  My "city kids" think it's way better than any Disney World.  It's where they get whatever they want, whenever they want.  But most importantly it's where they get oodles of love because this is where Nanny and Poppa live and if I let my kids have their way it's where they would live too.  In fact, the little one tells me quite often he's moving there.  Watch out Nanny and Poppa.  But for now they will just have to make due spending nearly half their summer there.  I only go with them for one week and I usually use that week to catch up on any books I've wanted to read throughout the year.  Even though I love getting stuff done here the rest of the summer when they are back in Oklahoma I must admit I miss seeing all the fun stuff they are doing with their grandparents.  And I wish I could fly back just to snap a few pics then back to Houston to clean out closets etc.  Here are just a few snapshots from their first summer week at the Rippy Ranch.  Way more of Kye than Celia for some reason, oops, guess she was off doing something else when I had my camera out.  Promise to make up for it in my next post...

Young Family

More from my Fall sessions.  There are so many of these photos that I wish I had of me and my own kids.  I'm jealous, seriously :)

This one with her Daddy (yes the one where you can't see either one of their faces) is one of my favs of all time.  I would love one of these of Mark and Celia.  I would print it out huge on my wall, it's true.