Anyway, the other day I got her graduation open house announcement in the mail, and that was a little kick in the pants I needed to get these images posted here. Her and her mom and my aunt came down to Texas from Ohio one weekend, so we wondered around the Deep Ellum Arts District in downtown Dallas before heading out to historic downtown McKinney the next. Here's a few of the images we came away with.

I love photographing the Moores. Seriously. They are so easy going and fun, and we always have a good time at our sessions. The first time I photographed them, there were only 4 Moores. Then in late 2010 they added one Moore. [I see you rolling you're eyes at my clever use of the name Moore] And now that little JP (or "Gippy" as mom and dad call him because, being the 3rd child, he gets gipped out of some things) is a little older, it was time to update the family artwork on the walls with new images. We met up at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve for a mostly chigger-free session before they headed off to Disney World with the kiddos.

BTW, before I get to the images, I need to apologize to the men in this family. I can't tell you how many times in the middle of all the action at the session I mixed up their names. You'd think this being the 3rd session we've done, that I would have them down by now, but in all fairness, they don't make it easy on you with names like JC (dad), RJ (oldest son), and JP (youngest son). I'm sure I threw in a couple PJs, RCs, CJs and JRs while I was at it. Sorry guys. I'll have it down by our next session... unless you have another son/brother by then. [grin]

Here's some of the images from our session.

Perhaps I should actually thank Pinterest. It got my to do what nothing else has for a month and a half now... a blog post. My blog thanks you, Pinterest. And it thanks my wife, too. She wanted a way to measure and document our kid(s) height(s) in a way that we can take with us whenever we leave this house. [For those reading between the lines and wondering what "kid(s)" means, number 2 is not on the way yet... just planning ahead.]

So, after a quick search of Pinterest, my wife found several examples of oversized rulers as growth charts. And then came the honey-do look in her eyes, and that's where I enter the scene stage right. After a quick assessment of skill-level required to do our own ruler, I was confident - even with my, ahem, underwhelming handy-man skills, - that this is something I could do. And for extra credit, we wanted to Pottery Barn-ize our version by sprucing up the numbers a bit. Easy peasy... instead of painting them on, we just went out and bought some decent looking brushed metal finish house numbers.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I did have a little issue when sanding the 2nd coat of polyurethane where it fogged over a bit. Still not sure why, but it wasn't terrible and it was hard to notice unless you got it in just the right light. It does kinda bug me that something like that happens at almost the very end after all the work I put in on it, but I'd rather just try to ignore my perferctionist tendencies than start over and have to tape off those God-forsaken tick marks again.

Anyway, here it is in it's final (for now) resting place in the kitchen. And keep on reading below if you're interested in the process and wanna make your own.

Anyway, this is what I started with... a pre-cut 6' trim/molding board from Home Depot. I had planned on having to find buy a larger piece of wood, cut it down, and sand it before I could do anything else, so I was pleasantly surprised to find this score.

The next step was to lightly sand the edges of the board to soften them up a bit since they were pretty sharp when I bought the piece of wood.

After sanding, I wiped down the board to get rid of the dust from sanding and then applied a coat of stain. I used the "Jacobean Bean" color because I wanted something darker and a little more sophisticated.

The next stage was the worst part of the whole process. I tried to think of every shortcut I could think of to make quick work of the tick marks, but in the end I knew I wouldn't be happy if they didn't look good. I'm sure there's probably an easier way to do them, and if you know of one, I'm not sure I even want you to tell me because I don't wanna be annoyed by how much time I might've been able to save. I used a ruler and a pencil to mark off tick marks at every inch and then drew each tick mark on the board with pencil. Then I used painter's tape and masked off the edge of the board exposing only the areas I wanted to paint. I'm not gonna lie... total beat-down. I wish the NCAA men's championship game woulda been a little more exciting to distract me from the monotony of taping.

Next up, painting! I chose an oil-based glossy black paint to make sure I got a durable finish that would stand out enough against the dark stain color. I put on 2 coats, and let dry overnight.

At this point I had 3 choices. 1) Dial down my anal perfectionist inner voice and let it ride as is. 2) Try to fix the fogging with some kind of ad-hoc, cross-my-fingers-and-hope-this-doesn't-ruin-everything rework process. 3) Start over. Option 2 got eliminated pretty quickly after talking with a couple people about how I could and most-likely could not easily fix it. Option 3? Pffft... Not gonna happen. I'd rather light my hair on fire and then throw gasoline on it before having to do all those tick marks again. Sooo... option 1 it was. And rather than call the slight fogging in a couple places defects, I'm calling them character. Besides, they really are hardly noticeable once you get them the board outta the sunlight.

The last step was to attach the brushed nickel house numbers to the board and hang it. The numbers were self adhesive, so... bonus! I marked the board 3/4" from the opposite edge of the tick marks for my baseline for each of the numbers to make sure they lined up.

And voila! Here's a closer shot of the final product after hanging it in the kitchen.

I think each year where going to put a small image of each kiddo on the board at the location designating their height for that year. And I'm also marking my height on the board this year when I turn 40... so I can see if I've started shrinking yet.

Kylie and I and Saige went to Indiana to visit Kylie's family for Saige's first Christmas. As you might imagine, Saige got no attention from anyone back home at all. None. [grin] Actually, I think as long as we bring her, Kylie and I's presence is optional these days. I kid, I kid. We had a wonderful time watching our little girl experience the wonderment and magic of what to everyone else was Christmas. To Saige, it was just another day... except with wrapping paper and bows! But it was special to us nonetheless. In fact, Kylie and I kinda joked that we kinda felt a teeny bit guilty for not having gotten Saige anything other than a first ornament for her first Christmas. Then we laughed and blew it off knowing the grandparents and the rest of the family would take care of that. And they did. Hugely.

Such a great time just to relax and hang out with such wonderful people. Here's a few images from our visit.

Saige's newest talent, blowing raspberries, was hilarious... except at the dinner table. In fact, my father in law Garry and I got "excused" from the kitchen one night for encouraging Saige by laughing.

Love those eyes.

The in-laws: Bryce, Tina, Saige, Kylie & Garry.

Christmas day! Saige got in a little exercise with "Grandfather Garry" before show time with the presents.

As expected, Saige was all about the paper, and especially the bows. The gifts? Ehhh... not so much.

Bryce gets a little testy when I don't give him photo credit, so here it is. He took these next two.

Saige's first camera! Won't be long 'til I've got myself a cheap 2nd shooter.

While we were in Indiana, Bryce, Garry and I took a little trip to New Harmony, IN. It was founded as an experimental Utopian society in the late 1800s. The Utopian part didn't last, but the historic, cool little town did.

The next three images were from a roadside find on the way there.

The whole town had this kinda feel to it.

The town's been partially flooded a couple times, and the water was a little high in some spots the day we were there. Bad for the residents. Good for photos.

Bryce and Garry looking "normal" on a bench.

Kylie and I stopped over to Nana's one day for a little visit. Nana is Saige's great grandmother.

On top of that I seem to be stuck in this internet no-man's land between Facebook, Twitter, the blog, and - for about 2 days - Google+. Sometimes I just post on Facebook, sometimes on Twitter, occasionally on the blog, and once in a fort night on all 3. I feel technologically discombobulated. (for the record, that may be the first time I've ever used that word in the written form.) Occasionally I hate technology because as much as it benefits us in so many ways, it also has a way of enslaving us to it to where we feel like we're gonna be left behind if we're not constantly paying attention to it. You suck, technology... but I love you.

The message at church this past Sunday was about creating more margin in our lives. Making time to focus on the things that really matter, and discarding the things that don't. Very timely and very personal to me as I spend an insane amount of time worrying about, working on, or playing around with things that are relatively unimportant and won't matter tomorrow, next week, next year, or on my deathbed.

One of the quotes from the message at church on Sunday was, "What would you do today if you knew you couldn't possibly fail? Now go do it." Those are inspiring and at the same time intimidating words. Exciting to hear, hard to do. Think about it, though. What would YOU do?

And while you're thinking about it, I'm off to do something easy for now that I know I can't fail at... I'm off to have fun playing with Saige. In the meantime, here's a few images from her 7th and 8th months.

Kylie's parents came in town for Saige's Baby dedication at church back in November. Here's Saige hangin' out with Grandfather Garry.

And here's Saige and Kylie's brother, Uncle Bryce.

Love how contemplative and inquisitive Saige is now.

Gettin' some grub from Grammy (Kylie's mom).

I posted this image on Facebook a while back. Poor Mia. Saige tugs on her fur, ears, and Mia just whimpers and takes it without ever snapping at her.

Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'? Slap that baby (the camera, not the baby) into "P" mode, and I've got myself a budding assistant/2nd shooter!

Saige at the park with "Nonni" (my mom) at the park. BTW, Nonni means grandmother in Italian. Record that in your head for a future Trivial Pursuit game.

Headin' for the tree in a Christmas outfit from my step-mom, Kay.

Her big eyes kill me. I'm toast when she gets older.

Hangin' in her high chair.

Not every minute's a rosy one around the Nicolosi household. Unfortunately, faces like this one seem to be more frequent these days.

Poor Mia... just waitin' for some scraps to fall her way.

20 years from now, the kids aren't going to care about the shoes, games, iPads, dolls, underwear, etc. you get them for Christmas this year (although I highly recommend getting them underwear just to see the disappointment on their face). And your wife, sadly, won't cherish the earrings you got her. Again. Because you spent 4 minutes thinking about what to get her and remembered she didn't throw you out of the house the year before when you got her earrings. (All the men out there, say it with me: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.) And wives, you know it doesn't matter what you buy your husband for Christmas because he won't remember what you got him by the first of February anyway, let alone 20 years from now.

Sooo, why not find a photographer you like and invest in capturing the story of your family at this moment in time. I promise you, your kids will cherish that gift more than anything you can buy them. Maybe not this year (although a photography session might actually seem less disappointing than underwear), or even next, but one day they'll count those images as some of their most valuable possessions. And as parents, you know all too well that your kids change and grow so fast, and as much as we'd like to hit the pause button sometimes, unfortunately time marches on. Documenting your family in images is just as much a gift to you as it is your kids.

Ok, wow... I got all sentimental there for a moment, didn't I? Back to regularly scheduled programming...

When Kristin and I were talking about locations for their session, she mentioned there was a creek in their neighborhood that they occasionally go to with the kids. Jackpot. Not only was it a new place for me to shoot at, it was meaningful to their family. And with the trees changing colors, it was an easy decision.

Here are my favorites from their session.