Julie Birdseye Photography Denton, Dallas newborn, baby, child, children, senior, and family photographer

Chock Full of Charm

'Tis true, I do not get the chance to photograph older children very often. I'm not sure why! Most of the inquiries I get about my photography are for toddlers or infants. So when I do get the chance to capture families with children who can talk, and walk, it is a fun change of pace! (And very different at the same time!) For babies, I just have to play with them and interact, but for older kiddos, I actually have to be.... gasp.... funny! And entertain! Do you know what that means on a 5-yr-old's terms? Running, and jumping, making silly faces, and tickling.

Yep, we had fun!

I love that this shows both her crazy side, and shy side...

 

These little twins get to live in a beautiful, historic home. We got to capture not only the outside, but much of the inside as well. I completely LOVE older homes, especially when they are chock full of charm.

Now, looking at their Mommy & Daddy, you may be wondering how these 2 little ones ended up as blondies.... The answer? Though they may not be their biological Mommy & Poppy, (M called his dad "Poppy" at first sight), they are their forever Mommy & Poppy. They were adopted.

I think adoption is such a gift, for both the children and the parents. To actually meet your child for the first time, and instantly fall in love and know that while they were never in your womb, they were always there in your heart. As cliche as it sounds, it makes me love these children, knowing how this family was meant to be together, and it was all orchestrated from Above.

Such a personality with this little guy!  :)

M & L were born in Estonia, and lived there in an orphanage until they were 3 & 1/2. Until their Mommy & Poppy brought them home.

L is sweet and shy when you first meet her. Then after a bit, she opens up and takes off chasing her brother, horsing around!

M, on the other hand, he is outgoing from the start! Talkative, funny, playful, and has an easy-going smile that can't help but flash across his face every 10 seconds! Such a charmer, and an easy little guy to photograph!

They are both so so loving. I have seen them a handful of times since this session took place, and each time, they want to play with me and show me their toys, and hold my hand, and get my attention. It is hard to say good bye when I leave because I want to stay longer and play!

M enduring kisses from sister!

They had the sweetest kid-sized table in their dining room, with a dainty tea set from their grandmother. The makings for a lovely tea party!

Then we headed to the Denton downtown square to play around town!

Such silly heads!

 

 

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my BFF's wedding anniversary! As I've said before on here, we've been friends since 1994, which I think is just incredible. Not many people get to say they have been best friends with someone for 16 years! Yes, just like any relationship, we've had our spats and even bigger spats, but clearly our friendship was deeper than that, of which I am proud to say.

Last summer I captured her beautiful family to commemorate her little guy's new walking skills! (Yes, last summer. She's had these pics since then, but has been waiting patiently for them to make it on to the blog!) Her little Andrew is the cutest little boy I know (proud honorary auntie that I am!) And he is also the most blessed little guy I know to have the two parents he does. His world is their world and he is surrounded with so. much. love.

Happy Anniversary, Kim & Pablo. To a wonderful couple and wonderful parents.

I am always blown away by how much Kim looks like her mom. This picture below looks like the handful of pictures I've seen of her mom in the 70's, and captures that twinkle she had in her eye. Spitting image. 

The sacred item that helped nudge Andrew in to walking....going after the TV remote control! So it was fitting to bring it along for his session!  :)

Look at that perfect, tiny bubble on his tongue!

Sweet baby.

 There's never a question as to when kids are done with their photo session! They are good about filling you in on those things...   :)

Love you guys!

Trustworthy Captain

I get to see this family everyday. In the form of the 30x45 inch canvas that hangs in my office! The first picture in this post from their last session is the large and in charge image that I love and proudly display.

The widdle baby in that post from last spring with the peach-fuzz hair is now a big, walking, one-yr-old toddler! We met up last fall to capture his new big boy status.

 

Look at him! Showing off his big boy walking skills! Like he's been doing it his whole life...

Big brother, M, caught a ride!

 

LOVE these two pictures, especially together! A happy family.  :)

Precious chubby cheeks and lips!

  He's an experienced captain...

Corbin - day 6

The parents of this little man are my home group leaders at my church. We met them last September when Corbin was just a little mango in his Momma's tummy. Since then, my hubby and I have gotten to spend every Monday evening with them as they generously open their home to our group to discuss what we learned on Sunday, lift each other up, grow friendships, and accountability. (And bake the most delicious cookies!)

It has been amazing to watch this sweet, caring, Godly couple turn in to a family of 3.

:)

 

 

His Momma's friends made these letters for him as the center piece on the table at his baby shower, before he made his debut.

Craftiest friends ever!

This painted train and airplane, Corbin's Daddy made them last summer when they found out they were pregnant. They incorporated them in to their maternity pictures, so it was only fitting that we complete the circle by including them with Mr. Corbin himself!

 

Perfect, feathery eyelashes!

Daddy is known to wear Fedora hats often. He has accumulated a little collection of his favorite man accessory. So of course we had to see how much Corbin would fit in to one of his hats! 

And then a hat made just for the Little Guy himself... (funny enough, we did not try to fit Daddy in to Corbin's hat, though I'm sure that would have been a fun picture!)

:)

 

Love these newborn skin rolls... so much room for baby chub to make its way!

Little Ears

I love meeting friends of friends. This family shared their pictures with some good friends of theirs who live in Colorado, Ernie & Branden. A couple times in the past year, Ernie has emailed me and asked questions about my photography since she is a photographer as well, outside of Denver. When they started planning their annual trip to Texas to visit their friends, she emailed to see if I could capture her family while they were in town. It worked out perfectly that we both had a morning free, so I finally got to meet my email friend, and her beautiful family!

Aren't their boys little stud muffins?! S was 2 years old, and E was 7 months old at the time.

It's always a little intimidating photographing another photographer and their family. It can feel like my skills are being critiqued! But the results of our session are some of my very favorites of my work, ever. I had so many favorites that I wanted to blog, as you will see once you finally get to the end of this post... miles and miles from now! 

Normally, the Dad in the family is typically just "there" for the session because he has to be. It's a bit of a grind for guys to get their pictures taken, I'm not sure why! But this Dad? He just played and played and played with his boys, resulting in natural, fun, AWESOME captures! (if I say so myself...) I'm sure he was just being his typical great-dad self who probably always plays with his boys at home! I'm so glad he did the same during our session! (the kids respond to that, too, and can feel more at ease with Dad being fun and playful!)

Isn't she beautiful? One of the main priorities of the session was to get Momma in the pictures! Being the photographer in her family, of course she is usually behind the camera, not out front! Her boys need some pictures of her with them so they can look back at these early days with their lovely Mom.

 

Dodge the leaves!

Peek a boo. I see you!

S is one lovey little guy! Sweet kisses for everyone.

Outfit change! I love when families bring a change of clothes. It just adds variety and gives a new spin to the session. And I've said this a million times here, but I'll say it again,  hats + small children = CUTENESS!

And what's even more special, Ernie made the boys' hats! I love love the little ears on top!

One of my faves. Brotherly love.

 

Selah Ranch does a body good

Last Friday, May 7th, Stuart and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. Since in the years past, I have decided with my way-too-long-and-boring blog posts that you all are so very interested in what we do for our anniversaries, why stop now?!

We like to go out of town and get away for our anniversaries, so this year, we had been thinking of maybe staying in a little cottage in Oklahoma or somewhere not too far, but still just get away for the weekend. Well, go back in time with me to March. The mom of these three cuties contacted me because she wanted to book their annual session for this spring. She said that they definitely want to include her brother's children in the pictures as well so they can have one of all of the grandkids for her parents. At first we decided we would have their session at a local park, since her niece and nephew also live in the Dallas area. Then a few weeks later, after booking, she mentioned that her parents have a ranch in East Texas, and 'what if we had the session there / would you be willing to meet us out there (2 hour drive!)?' Well my reply was 'of course!' I love a little road trip and I also love being able to personalize the session and include things (homes!) that have meaning to your family. 

So first we scheduled the session for Easter weekend since that is their normal time to drive out and stay with her parents out there. I was just going to drive out that Good Friday morning, and then leave that afternoon when we were finished. Then it turned out that they all could not make it on Easter, "but how about May 7th?"

Well since that is our anniversary weekend, before agreeing to the session on that date, I took a look at her parents' ranch website. I was under the impression that it was just an old house, maybe a barn, some animals, and some land, but pretty simple. Well take a look at their website! It is a gorgeous bed & breakfast retreat!!! SIGN ME UP, PLEASE!

So how perfect was that that not only did that weekend work for all of them to stay out there, but we were going to a gorgeous B & B, it was our anniversary weekend, and my hubby could go with me! It was divine, and I believe Divinely Organized!

Even pictures do not do justice to the beauty of the B & B home and land! We pulled up to this:

The main house has several suites. Each room is entirely different in its layout and decor. In addition to the main house, they have 3 cottages that are stand-alone little houses. A little getaway even within the beautiful bed & breakfast retreat! We were lucky enough to be booked to stay in The Drake.

The inside was so so nice. We knew we were staying in the woods, so we expected it to have a hunting or fishing theme to the room, or have bunk beds, or just what you envision when staying in a cabin in the woods. But we were oh-so-wrong! It was elegant, classy, and had top-of-the-line linens and towels, and dishes, and fixtures in every area. Not to mention the jetted tub indoors, and the hot tub outdoors! Definitely a retreat where we were spoiled and pampered.

They also provide the guests who stay in the cottage a golf cart so you can explore their 400 acres of land, and 16 lakes on their property at your own pace.

That was so nice to have our own little transportation to get to and from the main house, and also explore around.

One of our favorite things to do was to sit in one of their several hanging swings, and just swing back and forth, enjoying the breezy wind and beautiful scenery.

 

Gotta love a hand-held self-portrait!

Another fun part of our stay were the resident furry owners. Pete & Cookie. They were always there to greet us with tail wagging and companionship.

That is until they spotted an intruder - a squirrel on their land! The audacity!

They chased it right up a tree!

 

And guarded it carefully...

My camera-shy hubby let me snap his pic! Even just for a second, I was happy about that! So handsome. I'm a lucky gal.  :)

Because normally when I pull out the camera, this is what I usually get...   :)

So since I photographed him, he wanted to return the favor to another person who doesn't really enjoy being on the other side of the camera!

We sure did enjoy our stay and were just blown away with all of the amenities and how gorgeous everything was. Oh! And the breakfasts! Homecooked goodness! On Saturday morning we enjoyed a delicious quiche, and fresh fruit. Then on Sunday, we devoured blueberry french toast! I had never had such a yummy breakfast!

On Saturday, we did photograph the whole family. Grandparents, kids, and grandkids, all together. We spent the morning and afternoon snapping everything from the whole family together, the smaller families without the cousins, just the grandkids with Grandpa ("Chief") riding on a golf cart, to the kids jumping on the bed in their pajamas! It was a great day photographing this family in their own surroundings, very natural, and definitely fun! I can't wait to look through all of their pictures!

The grandparents have done a wonderful wonderful job of creating this get-away for families and couples to have a place to go to get back to God and nature. (Yes, the owners built this whole oasis from the ground up! They felt called to leave the city in the Dallas area where they had raised their children, had already planted roots and had an established ministry that was growing, to look for land in East Texas to build this retreat center. They left everything they knew to provide a place for people to reconnect and rejuvenate themselves by spending quiet time with our Creator.)

 

 

 

Um, can I come back this weekend?!