Brad’s mom recently celebrated her 60th birthday with a trip to Dallas to gather with us, Brad’s sister and her family from OKC and Brad’s grandmother, who flew in from Arkansas. We had a fantastic lunch at a Lebanese restaurant followed by homemade birthday cake. After lunch, we had a nice visit and I had a chance to snap some photos of Valerie’s cute kiddos. I designed a wine label to commemorate her milestone birthday using her senior photo from high school.

These cute kiddos are near and dear to me. Meet Madeleine and Jack, my cousin Melissa’s children. We shot these photos for their annual Christmas card, one of my very favorite projects each year. This is the eighth year I’ve done their card and every year Melissa and I have a great time together developing the image, concept and wording. This year I hand-lettered the card and illustrated the ornaments. The final card is the very last image. To see cards from prior years, click here. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Accidental homage to Andrew Wyeth…

I’ve known Stephanie for almost 5 years now and I was super excited to take her family portraits and design her Christmas card! Her husband, Jeff, and little boys are just precious. Drew is 3 1/2 and Quinn is 21 months (and just as obsessed with cars as my son). We had a great session and lots of laughs at the lake on a crisp, cloudy fall day. Here are my favorite shots, ending with their Christmas card.

Christine is a client and dear friend. During our first phone conversation, we immediately bonded over our similar ages, backgrounds and dating/engagement histories. She has two beautiful kiddos, Max (2.5) and Sydney (3 months). I photographed Sydney when she was barely two weeks old and I can’t get over how much she has changed — check out those stunning, gorgeous blue eyes! Max is a cutie, so happy and talkative and he adores his baby sister. I love, love, love the shot of beautiful Christine with her sweet blue-eyed babes! I’m sad her husband, James, wasn’t home during our shoot — lucky duck was at the World Series!!

Check out the beautiful S family: Neil and Tricia and their children Michael, Marian and baby Therese. They were so sweet and the older kids were relaxed, calm and super happy to smile for the camera — made my job effortless. Don’t tell anyone, but I think Michael loves his sister!