A very nice gentleman at the pumpkin patch first complimented me on the way I was taking pictures of the kids (he liked that I was allowing them to do what they pleased, not asking them to sit and smile) and then offered to take a picture of all of us together! To top all of that off, he dropped down to a knee to shoot us, which is above and beyond for a candid of a stranger if you ask me. It was a lovely day at the Ardenwood pumpkin patch.

Morning faces in Houston, 2013

We are spending this week in Houston, staying with our friends from our time at business school. We have boys the same age, and our youngest kids are only a year apart, which will matter less with time. I’m most looking forward to the feeling of absolute acceptance and comfort whenever I spend time with them. We make dinner together, clean up together, stay up too late together. Moving around a lot makes it hard to make it to that point with people, the point where you aren’t putting on a performance at all and are able to fully be yourself.

As I mentioned in a previous post, TH is working a lot more than we thought he would (even more than his last job) so these trips are chance to deepen connections with people I love, and have a fantastic time eating and exploring and photographing with some really fabulous people. I don’t know if we’ll be able to make this trip next year, when T1 is in kindergarten, at least not for this long. I’m not sure what the policies are in our school district where we live now, but I’ve heard that the schools can be pretty aggressive about pursuing parents who don’t have their kids in school enough. A friend told me about being reported to the police when she went out of town for a week, and then kept her daughter out of school the next week due to illness! What’s that like in your area?

If you’re in Houston, I’ve mentioned before that I’m interested in doing a Jenna Cole photography shoot while I’m here! Send me an email or comment below if you’d like to learn more.

Last week while driving home from preschool T1 invented a game for us to play together that is as fun for me as it is for him! It’s simple enough for him to play with me at four-years-old, but I can see it becoming a staple activity on our road trips throughout his life. He gets to try to stump me, and I get to build up his vocabulary by attempting to be a human thesaurus.

To play: Read more →

I don’t think I take that many selfies, but our kids are like little windows into who we really are with the way they mimic.

We’re visiting Houston for the last week of October and I have availability for a few mid-week sessions. I’ll be offering a (slight) discount since I’m only doing them mid-week and because I’m still working to build up content for my website makeover. Anyone in that area who needs photos done? Let’s chat! Email jenna{at}jennacole.com for more details.

Mamiya 645. Portra 800. Pushed 1 stop.