Happy 11th Birthday, DJ!

With a blink of the eye, my little man is already 11. Sigh.

We headed out to Pena Adobe Park in Vacaville for this year’s birthday photo session. It was a beautiful day and aside from a few day camp kids, it was fairly quiet out there.

This is my favorite from the session. I couldn't decide if I liked it better in color or black & white.

A few of months ago, out of the blue, he asked if he could take guitar lessons. Apparently, he’s a natural at it and is picking up songs pretty quickly. (I’ll go ahead and take credit for him having a music gene. )

He is starting middle school this year….and like every year, I’m not ready for him to grow up.

I was especially not ready for this to be the year he became taller than me!

I am proud of the young man he is becoming. With each year, he is more defined in his character. He makes his dad and I proud.

He is determined. He is optimistic. He is selfless. He is confident.

He is an awesome big brother that treats his brother with much kindness. The older they get, the less fighting they seem to do. The shouts of “MOM! Make him stop!” are far less. The moments of finding them sitting side by side watching TV and laughing together are more common. My heart is full.

Maybe one day the wrestling will stop. Maybe.

Happy birthday, my DJ! I love you!

More Happiness from A to Z

When I first met this family 3 years ago, little Z was just days old and big brother was a toddler.

This is what they look like now!

And they have added another cutie, baby Z, to the family! She has the same gorgeous, big eyes that big sister Z has!

I love being able to watch kids grow up in front of my camera, but at the same time, can they please slow down? :)

Little Z has beautiful, curly, long hair. I see hair commercials in her future.

It took awhile for Baby Z to warm up in front of my camera, but when she did, she brought her A game!

There is just something super cute about two bottom baby teeth popping out like that. ;)

One of my favorites of her!

When you look at these next two, I know what you’ll be thinking. All together now – “awwwwwwwww”.

LOVE this one!

And one last one of Baby Z. This was the last shot of the session.

A perfect, happy one to end on.

Pumpkin Patch Fun | Silveyville Pumpkin Patch, Dixon, CA

One of the things I missed out here while we were gone is the variety of Pumpkin Patches. We were used to the parking lot pumpkin patches of San Diego and were quite content with them. In fact, we preferred them.

Then, when we were away from Solano last fall, we missed them. We actually missed the get-muddy-pick-your-own-pumpkin-from-the-ground type Pumpkin Patch.

I was excited (even more excited than the kids) to visit the Silveyville Pumpkin Patch this fall! This was our first time there for their Pumpkin Patch. We had visited before during Christmas and loved it so we were excited to check it out during the Fall.

It did not disappoint!

Pumpkin after glorious, funky shaped, colorful pumpkins greeted us!

Cody wants you to know that this place is #1!

DJ enjoyed riding the “horses”.

We rode the “Clydesdale” pulled wagon. I think the adults enjoyed it more than the kids.

Along the path, we saw scarecrows hidden in the Christmas trees and…

….the park that housed the ducks.

Along the path was the pumpkin field with tons of pumpkins. Tons!

There was also an endless amount of farm animals!

This was our favorite site!

The kids picked out pumpkins to paint. They concentrated hard on their pumpkin painting!

 

A Fall Mother/Son Session in San Bruno

I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing this family last year. They were such a pleasant family to work with that I was excited when they scheduled a session this year!

This session was a special session of just mom and her handsome son.

They were dressed in fall colors and I think they somehow managed to get the tree in the background to coordinate with their outfits as well! :)

Children have this ability to be completely comfortable in front of the camera. Mr. J did not mind taking a break from playing to strike some poses in front of the camera for me. :)

 

 

These two have been friends since preschool and I enjoyed seeing how close of a friendship they have. 

(If she looks familiar, you may recognize her from yesterday’s post )

A Mother’s Love

The rain stopped long enough this past weekend to give me the opportunity to photograph a loving mom and her adorable son.

The theme of this session was simple, “love”. We wanted to capture the love that she has for her son.

This image oozes nothing but love! It speaks of the special bond that mothers have with their sons. The “I never want to let you grow up” feeling that us moms all feel.

This was the first time I went out to Tilden Park and the view was AH-MAZING! It was the perfect setting for mom and son to have some fun!  The hills were full of trees and just an absolutely beautiful setting!

Who doesn’t love some Ring Around the Rosy?

 

One of my favorite things about capturing families is witnessing the love between them. This mom has so much love to give her little man and you can tell that he absolutely adores her as well!