Landry's 2 year old photo shoot

I got a crazy idea to try something for a photo shoot for Landry. You know anything that involves a 2 year old, balloons and a creek might be a total torture fest. But I'm a gluten for punishment so I did it anyway.

We needed a way for the balloons to stay put in the creek so we tied them to sticks which we were proud of ourselves for coming up with that idea. Well too bad we didn't think about how they'd constantly be floating around and we would have to keep chasing them down the creek. Pair that with a little toddler who hated the water and it's a miracle that I was able to catch anything of this girl.

Either way, all the trouble, frustration and hilarity of it all was worth it. I absolutely adore these photos of her. I hope my kids don't remember all the craziness involved in these shoots but just appreciate what I did to remember their childhood.

 

And here are so UNEDITED outtakes that show what was really happening behind the scenes.

 Oh the things I put them through for a good pic.

Our berry sweet girl turned 2!

It's hard to believe that my baby girl is 2. There's something really monumental about turning 2. Up until this point, I had no problem calling her baby. Don't get me wrong, I will still continue to call her my baby and she always will be BUT don't judge me when I'm still calling her that at 8, 12, or even 20.

This baby girl, the one who I didn't think I would ever make it through with my pregnancy, is now full of life, so stinking adorable and everything I prayed for in a daughter. She's changed so much in two years. I'll never forget the HORRIBLE record-breaking summer that I was pregnant with her. I still have to whisper about it because just talking about it makes my ankles puffier and my toes turn into little Vienna sausages. Stretch marks, muffin top, cankles and all, she was 100% worth it.

I found this little outfit for Landry before she even turned one on mega clearance for $10 at Gymboree . It was a 2T and so it was decided before she even turned 1, that her 2nd birthday would be a strawberry party. That is the most I have EVER been ahead of the game and it was by accident. And then, as luck would have it, I found loads of strawberry stuff on clearance at the end of the summer last year in the Target dollar spot. The strawberry tablecloth was $2. I found strawberry notepads, coasters, sticky notes all for 30 cents! SCORE!

I made the little strawberry banner for her using my Cricut. That thing has paid for itself tenfold. And I made the birthday hat out of paper and a ton of ribbon. I've gotten pretty handy at making those after making them for several photo shoots.

Hello adorable $10 outfit.

All the fun tags for the goodie bags and the sandwich headers cards were made by Justin, of course. I tell him it's time to open up an Etsy shop with all the artwork we've done for our kids parties over the years.

 

And most importantly, another amazing creation by Amanda with the strawberry cake. 

Not only was beautiful but tasted amazing too. This is Landry's yummy face.

I found these cute strawberry glasses for the girls' goodie bags at Party City. 

After eating cake, we opened up presents and this little girl got a lot of babies and has been playing with them ever since.

She wanted to open all her gifts immediately.

My baby girl loves hard and it was so precious seeing her hug everyone because she was so excited to see all her friends and family. She was missing them over the summer.

 

I'm so grateful for the help that everyone gave to get this party ready and especially that they came out in this horrible heat to celebrate our sweet girl. 

 

  

And we've made a video of each of our kids' first year. We watch it on their birthday as a tradition for our family and just reminisce about how little they were. They absolutely love it. Poor third child...it took almost to her second birthday to get her first year done but it's done, that's all that counts, right?

Happy Birthday Landry Kate.You have completed our family and I'm so so grateful to all the joy and love you've brought to our family. We love you so much.

Family Camp

Athens, TX is sacred ground for me. It's where my camp journey began. I met friends there in 5th grade and am still really close to them even now. That feeling I got at camp was a mountaintop high every year. It's unexplainable but so so meaningful.

Justin took Nolan two years ago when Justin lead music at a camp but this year we heard about Family Camp. I was a little nervous about how it would go with Landry. The thought of bunk beds, play pens and more had me a little worried about the logistics of it all.

But it was amazing, in so many ways.

Seeing my husband play guitar for the camp always warms my heart.

I want my kids to love this place like I did. It's not like it's hard. It kind of just happens when you open the car door.

 Watching my kids eat s'mores....well it's on my parent bucket list.

Watching my kids sing camp songs and loving every minute of it. Another check on my list.

Even though it was a weekend camp, we filled every minute of that time with family time. And even better that we made homemade ice cream. It was more like a sugary liquid but you know I didn't turn it down.

Painting a family portrait, which now welcomes you as you walk into our entry way.

Swimming in a lake and pool had us worn out in no time but something about camp...it's like the trees give off a little bit more energy and you breathe it in and can't help but keep going.

 For that entire weekend, we bonded as a family. TVs were not around, phones were put away, video games weren't anywhere to be found. Although board games were played. It was glorious.

 

And it ain't summer without some watermelon.

So grateful for this place for what it's meant to me and my prayer continues that my children will have this place mean as much to them as it has to me.

The weekend reminded me that family time is sacred time, it's holy time.

Amen.

Making lemons out of lemonade

It's no secret of mine that my least favorite season in Texas is the summer. It's miserable. I'm talking I need a shower after checking the mail at the curb.

I think my true hatred of summer was official after two of my 3 kids were born in September. Having to make it through the brutal summer with double cankles and toes that resembled plump sausages has me a little bitter still.

So when I began my journey into photography full time officially in June, I knew that I needed to come up with a mini session that would be short and sweet because of the heat but would scream summer.

Here's a little video of my little sunshines.

I made lemons out of lemonade and dreamed of doing lemonade stand minis. My friend, Kelly, just replaced her fence and had a yard full of old fence wood that was perfect for the job. Justin amazed me so much by building this stand. It was exactly as I envisioned and I am so so thrilled with how it turned out.

These flowers are actually weeds but perfect for the location and with the sun coming through, it almost made me forget that we were doing a session in 100 degree heat. What you can't tell, is that this field is pretty much in the ghetto, but hey, it works.

We decided at the last minute to do these with my family and I did a trial run first before I did sessions with clients. It's a good thing, I realized which props needed some tweaking and used an inhumane amount of hot glue, super glue and velcro.

 

And wouldn't you know in complete Forced Family Fun fashion that after our session was done, what doesn't start? My car. It's dead...like really dead. Fortunate for us we had a guy who was riding his bike introducing himself that he was straight out of prison ready to help us. Say what? That was a little frightening to say the least.

Luckily, even in the ghetto, you can get a jump and be on your way soon. How is it that our car batteries die at the worst times i.e. bring Landry home from the hospital.

I joked that God was smiling down on me on catching this pic. There is NO head swapping on this pic. Even with props blowing all over this field and the car battery dying. It was worth every single second.

Amarillo by morning

Early this summer we planned on taking a trip to Colorado. Justin's grandmother who had been ill for over 6 months suddenly took a turn for the worse. We decided to cancel our trip because we had a feeling she wouldn't make it long. Our instinct was right and our dear sweet Rosie passed away.

As part of our trip to Colorado, we wanted to stop in Amarillo and visit my grandparents. It had been since last summer that we had seen them so it was definitely time. So since our trip to Colorado was cancelled we took another weekend just to go and visit them. I'm so glad we did.

We made it in really late Friday night, but we filled our weekend with some quality family time. My grandmother's yard is amazing. She works so hard on it everyday and it shows. Her grass it like carpet.

And my kids love it too. They play like crazy barefoot and all because when else can you feel like you're walking on carpet outside in Texas?

It warmed my heart to see my kids playing her in backyard and loving on my grandparents.

 

And can you believe that I grew up in Amarillo and I've NEVER been the the Big Texan?

That's blasphemy in those parts. While we waited for what seemed like eternity for our food, they had some really great music and the kids loved it and we even got to see someone attempt to eat the 72 oz steak in under an hour. He didn't make it by the way. 

 

Losing Rosie really helped remind us how precious our grandparents are to us and I feel so lucky that I still have some of mine.

My grandmother is so beautiful, trendy, lively and so generous. She's always volunteering at her church and to help others. I hope I can be her when I grow up.

We love you Great Grams and Grandpa!