Christmas - The Feeling Of Childhood - Banda Family
Christmas through the eyes of a child is one of the fastest ways to be transported right back to your own childhood. The way Christmas morning felt. The building excitement in the days of anticipation. The wonderment about if Santa was real or not. It’s all so enchanting and magical!
Isn’t it funny how that happens? How being around someone filled with so much joy can easily spread into your own heart and fill every fiber of your body with the same excitement?
Little Emma and Olivia were overflowing with that excitement from the bottom of their feet all the way up to the tippy top of their sweet little sugarplum heads! They took Mom and Dad right along for the ride in all of their joy, thrills, and every single giggle in between! The Banda family kicked off our time together with the decorating of their delicious looking, candy riddled gingerbread house.
Becky got all of the candy sorted out, and Chris kept a watchful eye on the sticky fingers of little Olivia, who was more than willing to eat the candy and by-pass the decorating portion of the activity. Emma, on the other hand was more than happy to make the gingerbread house as beautiful as possible! Being the older of the two, her self restraint was tad higher than her little sister's ;)
These two sisters always keep me laughing when I'm around them! They have so much fun together, and just like with any sibling relationship they can also get on each other's nerves at times. The look on both of their faces in the photo below says it all, and speaks volumes to the older sibling and younger sibling relationship! I was happy to see their smiles and playfulness return just as quickly as it went, and I'm also happy that this very real moment was captured. Mom was too! Haha!
Once they got their gingerbread house all decked out and looking so tasty, it was time to head upstairs to burn off some of that sugar rush, and these girls know how to do just that! The climbing, the jumping, the singing, and the giggling was enough to make their sweet Momma need a nap immediately after. They truly wore her out, and had a blast in the process!
I was told by a very reliable source... it may or may not have been her Mom... that little Olivia didn't slow down for the rest of the day. She was hyped up so high on that sugar that there was nothing that was going to slow her down!
Emma, on the other hand was happy to sit and play quietly with her little doll house, and enjoy some sweet interactions with her Momma! That simple playing of the hair was something I always loved as a child, and I could tell that it was something that happened pretty regularly in the Banda family as well. I also loved how mom was attempting to help Emma's pretend dimples come out, making her look a little more like her daddy who, as you can see, absolutely adores all of his girls!
As does their sweet Momma! She always knows how to put a smile on the faces of her little ones in a way that only Momma can do. What a beautiful thing to watch a child's mood be turned around by their Momma. It's awfully rewarding as a mother as well!
I just loved their story time, and how big sis was settling in for some quiet snuggles and little sis would come and check in from time to time when her favorite parts of the story were being read. Mom and Dad seemed to enjoy the story and the snuggles too, and I just love the small moment of alone time that they had before the girls called Mom over for some more playtime.
There's certainly no denying that these girls love their Momma, and that the feeling is 100% mutual! Parent and child moments are always so special to me, and even more so when mom is the parent simply because she's usually the one behind the camera taking the photos. It brings so much joy to my heart to see moms in photos with their children!
And when it's the entire family simply being a family all together... I don't even know if I can put into words just how special that is!
What a wonderful day, and a truly beautiful time of Christmas, childhood, family, and mom and dad exploring their inner child a little with the Banda family! Thank you to the Banda's! You four are truly such a blessing to me, and I am always so honored to be welcomed into your home, into your world, to capture your every day, ordinary, never boring lives!
Keep It Real,
Nikki Gould
Do you wish to experience the feeling of your family in photographs? To see just how extraordinary, and never boring your life truly is? Don't hesitate another moment, and simply click the button below. Let's keep it real, shall we? There's no better time to begin than this very moment!
Olive Shoot Photography
Houston Family Photographer
Documentary Family Photographer
Family Photojournalist