Every mother should make it a point to be in the photographs. Whether you hire someone for family photos or hand your camera to your husband, friend, family member, or a stranger, just get your relationship, your moments, your bond captured to be enjoyed for years to come. And don’t forget to pay it forward…when you are out and about at the zoo, in the city, at the lake, etc. and you see a mom taking a photo of her family, ask her if she wants to jump in the photo. (And get those dads with cameras in there too).

I vividly remember the day I was taking some photos of my family on a big rock in Central Park. Two ladies were walking by and offered to take a photo of all four of us. As nervewracking as it was to hand over my camera, I did it and I love having that image of my family. Everytime we went to the park after that (which was many, many times since we were living in Manhattan at the time), I kept my eye open for anyone who needed a kind stranger to help them get into their own family photos. Little did they know that I photograph people as my work and own my own photography business.

To celebrate, I thought I would share a few mom/child images from the past year.

These photos make me so excited for this fall when we get our new puppy. I loved the relationship between Hannah and Ruby, our first dog and can’t wait for the girls to have that again. But secretly (well not so secretly anymore), I envision myself as the favorite this time around. Last time, my husband was the favorite because he did most of the training for Ruby and he took her hunting. I couldn’t compete with that. But this time, I am the one who will be doing a lot of the training as well as spending the most amount of time with him…which I hope endears me to the new dog. Of course, I am sure the two little girls in this house will be competing for the #1 spot as well.

On to Leah’s birthday…the majority of these are trusty iphone photos.

In Leah’s world…life is full of unicorns and rainbows.  I was a little concerned when she said she wanted a rainbow unicorn party.  But never fear, Pinterest is here!  If you haven’t checked it out yet, Pinterest is a virtual pinboard.  Obviously I could think of rainbow food on my own and had already made a rainbow cake last year, but Pinterest inspired me beyond that.   The unicorn horn hat above was pinned originally from Hostess with the Mostess blog. The rainbow ribbon wands (in the photos below) were also inspired by pinterest – pinned from Style Me Pretty.  The rainbow on the cake was also inspired but unfortunately whoever pinned it did not do it the correct way as to lead back to the original source.  I had bought her a cute rainbow tee from old navy to wear with the rainbow tutu that I made her but she has her own opinions.

The cake.  It definitely takes more time than a basic cake but I love the moment of reveal when you first cut into it.  And homemade butter cream frosting makes it even better.  A couple of years ago I was tired of paying for cheap cake toppers in whatever theme my girls desired…so I invented my current “buy a real toy that can actually be played with” approach to cake toppers.  This year the ever so beautiful Princess Celestia (of My Little Pony fame) topped Leah’s cake.  Yes, I realize she is a pegasus unicorn…but she is still a unicorn.

(Side note: The grammar teacher in my head tells me that that should be “an unicorn” but that just sounded wrong.  So I looked it up…”an” is used before a vowel SOUND and “a” is used before a consonant SOUND.  Long U sounds actually begin with a Y sound – like “yoo”.  And there is your grammar lesson for the day. You are welcome.)

I found a great unicorn pinata at Party City.  It was very entertaining to watch the guys try to hang it from a tree with an orange electrical cord – look out MacGyver.  After some pinata fun outside, Leah wore the sacrificial unicorn on her head

Sigh…I can’t believe my baby is 4.

Why yes, there may have been a bit of a hair singe during candle blowing.

More iphone details!

More from my impromptu shoot with the girls.  This first version is pretty true to life.  The sky was blue.  The clouds were puffy.  The sun was setting and the grass was very brown.  While I love this edit since it is true to my style, I wanted to do something different.  My husband commented they looked like girls on a prairie…which of course, since I was born in the 70′s, takes my mind to Laura Ingalls and the Little House on the Prairie.   I wanted to give this photo a more vintage style.  I love how it turned out.

I adore these fabulous  frames.  They come in 4 fun shapes and 5 classic colors – perfect for every house.  In fact, I hung this one on my kitchen wall to take a photo of it…and I love how it looks and plan to order another one but with one of my own family!  Imagine a set of three of these fun frames above a crib with newborn photos or perhaps a cluster of frames in your entryway  Can you picture your favorite photo from a Becky Anderson Photography session in this frame?  These frames come ready to hang complete with your mounted print.