Katharine Elizabeth Photography {the blog}

We carved our pumpkins this weekend.

Well, actually, my husband did most of the carving.  I was busy feeling under the weather.

But the kids separated the “guts” from the “seeds,” so I did our annual seed-roasting on Sunday night.

All you need is an oven, a pan, a piece of tin foil, a little bit of water, and whooole lotta salt.

Because let’s face it:  the seeds are really just a vehicle for the salt.

Mmm … so warm and toasty and salty …

Remember a couple of weekends ago when we had that awesome warm fall weather and all of the beautiful leaves were JUST starting to fall off the trees?

Yeah.  Me too.  Now THAT was a great weekend for pictures.   Especially with these two cutie pie kids.

I love this shot:

And I love this one, too:

It couldn’t have been a more perfect fall morning and and I couldn’t have asked for a more adorable, super-laid-back family to spend it with.

Olivia’s mom just redid her bedroom.

And it’s pink!

And adorable.  (seriously adorable)

And they needed some new pictures for her walls.  So we took some!

Look at that gaze.  Like she’s looking right through you, ya know?

Olivia’s personality reminds me so much of my own daughter.  I love it.  Look at her!, she is going to be an awesome teenager.  Headstrong, but so fun.   Man, I can’t wait until our kids are that age.  It is going to drive me crazy, but in the best possible way.

The good thing is, Olivia’s got a great brother to help look after her during those years.

Those are a couple of cute kids right there.

This is Olivia reading me one of her books:

Man, she is one cute kid.

It occurred to me this week that maybe I should take pictures of some of the lovely things that have been going out the door around here.

Parents pick such great images of their children and have such great ideas for displaying them; I am going to try to remember to take pictures of some of them before they head to their new homes.

Below are three 11×14 standouts that this family decided to do in sepia (brown and white) to hang in their main living room.  I think they turned out really nice and I love the warm brown color.

And below is a beautiful 16×20 gallery wrap that this family chose to do in color (and how could they not? … look at those gorgeous blue eyes).

His lips are just perfect, aren’t they?  It’s crazy.

This is fun stuff, I tell you.  Fun stuff.

When the mom of this next family first emailed me, she wrote something like, “Hi, I’m checking on your availability for a photo session … we live on some land and have 3 horses,” and then she added, “but it’s kind of boring around here.”

“Three horses.”  “Boring.”

HA!

I have to tell you, the perpetual 12-year-old girl in me got all excited when I received that email.  And the session turned out to be really fun, of course.

The 3 kids were so good and put up with me so wonderfully.  I never caught even a HINT of eye-rolling from the oldest two (and I believe I was a heavy eye-roller when I was that age) no matter what I asked of them.  And I credit that 100% to the parents.  They are definitely raising great, respectful, fun kids.  When my kids are 9 and 11, I will call them back for tips.

Anyway.

Like I said, the kids were great.  And handsome!  And they had these really great cowboy hats that had been autographed by rodeo riders.  It was so perfect.

And their whole home and barn and land were just so nice.  I wanted to move there.  Like, right onto the end of the driveway.

Because you can’t tell me that growing up in an environment like that won’t forever shape the way those kids view the world and nature and family and everything else in their lives.

I’m so envious and impressed and overall just happy about this family.

Plus, did I already mention how handsome they are?  I did?  Well, let me say it again.

They’ve got good genes, though.  So it’s not surprising.

As an aside, you KNOW this middle daughter will take the above 2 pictures to college someday and set them in her new dorm room.  And if it was me, I’d look at them the first week — when everything is new and scary — and miss my Mom so much.  But by the end of the first month, I’d just look at those pictures and smile, totally settled into my new life at school, knowing my family was always there at home when I needed them.

The next picture might be my favorite from the day, actually.  Nothing special.  Very simple.  Heavily backlit.  But I just love it.

I’m so glad this family contacted me for a session.  And I’m so glad I got a little glimpse into their lives.

They are lucky, lucky, lucky.  And the great thing is, I’m pretty sure that they know it.

Real quick, my cousin was in town from Maryland last weekend and I just have to show one or two (or three or four) pictures of her baby!

Okay, she’s not a BABY baby anymore.  But she’s still small and adorable.

I mean, REALLY adorable.  I don’t care if she’s related to me or not; you cannot deny the adorableness.

Plus, she has the best family name that carries with it lots of sentimental meaning for her parents and relatives:  Svea.

Isn’t that a great name?  I love it.  Totally suits her, too.

We all had lunch at my Mom’s house and little, nap-less, jet-lagged Svea was a total trooper the whole time.

Heck, I’ve been crankier after finding out my Diet Coke has gone flat.

Oh, I love how babies hunch over like that and stare at their hands and feet.

Sighhhhh…