- FAM PIX 2022 -

After a family primping party in the master bathroom... 

 

...we had some family pictures snippity-snapped at the park in town by our #1 photog, Paige!  

Girlllll, you MAKE MAGIC HAPPEN! I will treasure these photos of our family forever! <3

[^^ Especially this one, since I blew it up into a 24x36 canvas for the living room mantle...! ;) :) ]

xoxo

 

 

- Cousins make the BEST friends! -

First there was one...

...then two...

 

...and now three!

I love these sweet babies more than words can say!  They also served as pretty good props/lighting-testers in anticipation of shooting some cousin photos in the back yard!  Let the chaos ensue in 3...2...1... :)

Soooo happy that my kiddos get to do life with all of these fun cousins!  The photos say it all...this crew really has a blast together! <3

 

- From Four to Five -

THANK YOU, Mother Nature, for giving us a tiny break in your sweltering August heat wave to squeeze these family/maternity photos in at the park one evening!  And THANK YOU to my parents for snapping them!  :)  Maternity photos are never something we've hired a legit photographer to take [because honestly, I've never had the desire to wallpaper our house with enlargements of me being enlarged -- but also because by the time we take them, a baby is only a few weeks away from joining the fam and it's much more exciting to hang up new and improved family photos with our littlest member included!] -- but!  That doesn't mean I don't want them taken at all!  While pregnancy doesn't feel rull glamorous in the thick of it, I tend to adore looking back on this stage of growing a tiny human and will always enjoy reminiscing on our last few weeks as a family of four!

 

 

Totally grateful for these 3[.5] beautiful humans that I'm lucky enough to do life with! :)  I am so excited for us to navigate the next chapter together and see what dynamic our newest little pal will bring to the fam! <3

 

- T-giving 2020 -

It's Thanksgiving: COVID-19 STYLE!  Since we weren't going to be able see 3/4 of our Grammys and Papas on Turkey Day 2020, we spent Thanksgiving Eve in the kitchen whipping up some treats...

...and Cricut-ing/coloring some sentiments...

...and hitting the road to drop off all the goodies on everyone's doorsteps! Muffins and drawings were all made with love, and the grandparents were thrilled with their little surprises! #SUCCESS.

Then!  Thanksgiving morning was nothing short of our normal family tradition:  Black Friday ads, Starbucks, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! SIX YEARS IN and still rollin' strong. 

After Brian and I paged through ads, they reached the left end of the island where the kids cut them to shreds to create a custom Christmas wish list!  It came to my attention that Harper wants EVERYTHING Yoda [despite the fact that we've never watched Star Wars...]...who knew?!

 

After lunch and nap time, we dug our turkey roasting pan out of the basement [an unopened wedding gift still adorned with the gift receipt and all! 2020: moving onto bigger and better hosting duties!] and had my parents and Uncle Blake over for Thanksgiving dinner! It was definitely a weird holiday this year in some ways, but so laid back and more intimate in other ways.

 

What a year!  2020 may not have it all together; but together in 2020, we have it all!  We are certainly thankful, grateful, and blessed!

 

 

- Sunflower Sesh -

I'm not one to pull the trigger for professional family photos; I'm more of "that mom" that dabbles in amateur photography and just wants to set up the tripod + remote every now and then to snag a new family shot!  However!  Past experiences would prove that I'm notorious for pissing off all family members in the process of snagging said photo, AND the photos don't even turn out all that great anyway.....

...so when Paige opened up these sunflower sessions, I signed us up without hesitation!  It's been a hot minute since we've been in front of her lens, but it's always a guaranteed great time! ;) :) After showing up to the WRONG sunflower field [1 state and 54 minutes away from the real destination, holy stupid mistake on my part!!!] and pulling a few sunflowers out of Paige's booty, we cheesed real hard and smiled real big and 'da rest is historyyyy!  

Oh, and one more thing!  I've always loved this quote from Helen Keller, and I can't think of a better place to paste it than right hurr: 

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"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do." 

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Thank you soooo much for working with us, friend! We love the way you capture our crazy, and you know dang well that I will treasure these photos forever! <3