Ezra's first birthday

This sweet boy is one years old!!

When I tell you this little man is all seriousness and means business, I mean it. I know his mom, Chrissy, through working in the NICU, and this was my first time meeting him! As soon as we got to our session location and I introduced myself, I knew I would be working to get a smile from him. He simply just looked at me, like "who is this person?". I accepted the challenge! I could tell through his serious face that he was such a sweet boy who loved being around his mom and dad so much. Between me, Chrissy, and his dad, Alfonso, we were able to capture some genuine smiles and laughs!

His birthday session was an astronaut theme! I could not get enough of his cute space suit! And when he turned around, y'all, he had a backpack attached to his back. I obsessed over it, and of course I snapped a quick picture! We started off with his astronaut outfit and Chrissy brought a little fold up NASA tent and some balloons. It looked so cute, but the wind was not on our side, and it was blowing the tent every which way, and the balloons were acting crazy as well! I took some shots of him standing up and sitting down, though I think my favorites are of him just running around. I would be chasing after him trying to get SOMETHING because he was so fast! I couldn't thank Chrissy and Alfonso enough for putting up with me helping to put Ezra back to his original spot countless times. I was bending down and chasing after him so much, I got a great workout in, and I was sore for the rest of the night!

Ezra got changed into another outfit with suspenders. Oh my goodness. He looked like a little man, he was so cute! At this point of our session, he warmed up to me more, and the sun was peeking through the over casted clouds, so these were some of my favorite photos from the session. I got to get a bunch of his genuine smiles because at this point he was having a blast just running around chasing his mom and dad!

We ended with his smash cake that was wonderfully decorated with the astronaut theme. It was such a detailed cake with a vibrant, deep blue icing. While we were doing the majority of the session, we had the cake sitting on the ground until we were ready for it. By the time we were ready for it, there were ants EVERYWHERE on the base of the cake! We all looked at each other and just laughed, because how. We did our best to shake most of them off, but a lot of the ants had their enjoyment from that cake. Luckily Ezra smashed the top of the cake and wasn't really affected by the ants towards the bottom of the cake.

When Ezra did start digging in to the vibrant, deep blue icing, it went everywhere. Everywhere. Haha! Oh my goodness that icing was the most vibrant colored icing I'd ever seen, and when we went to wipe it off of him with baby wipes at the end (Chrissy is a mom who is prepared!), it was not only staining Ezra's skin, it was staining our hands as well as we were trying to clean him off! It was everywhere (did I mention that already?)! It made for some really cute and memorable pictures for sure. Even his little chanclas were covered in blue icing. Ezra thoroughly enjoyed his cake!

I love that the people I know personally have faith that I will give them photos they will treasure. It really makes me so happy to be able to photograph families and kids, because these moments feel like they go so fast! I very much enjoy it, all of it! Thank you, Chrissy for trusting me!