Family Photo Shoot and a Visit 2016

We had a wonderful visitor back in March. My stepmom flew in from Florida to spend a week with us. To see our home and explore our town and just spend time with us. We had a great time exploring our little town on the first day shopping for her summer rental properties in Montana finding cute antique wall decor, going to the train museum and having lunch. We spent our evenings snuggled under blankets and watching MMC and other kid friendly shows.

We went and had wings in tribute and tradition, laughed, reminisced and talked all about how big Emma is and how great living in our area is going to be for her. We went to the park and played with all the kiddos and even had a meal with my parents to celebrate her visit, and Daryl got a sewing tutorial and made some of her own wall hangings for the rental.

We also trekked out to our old stomping grounds to have a photoshoot with our favorite photographer. She took our family photos last year, that I inadvertently forgot to post here! OOPS! She moved out of state, but would be in town that weekend and I thought that it would be perfect timing to have a nice family shoot with Daryl since we have never gotten professional photo's done. She got some wonderful shots and too many to post so here is a snippet.

We always love spending time with Daryl and are always sad to see her go. I cant wait for our next adventure together!

Our Easter Sunday

Happy Tuesday everyone! I am late to the update about Easter bandwagon, but let's get real...I still haven't posted about Christmas. I'll get to it!!!

So here's the down low. I'm not big on the Easter bunny so I had no intention of taking Emma to see the Easter bunny.....then I thought to myself "Self, are you going to regret it if you don't take her to the Easter bunny on her first Easter?" So the hubby and I loaded her up and stood in the 45 minute line to see the Easter bunny. Friends.....why do we torture our poor children this way? Not a single child, mine included, wanted to sit with this creature. They all cried or screamed and made a hullabaloo all so we can spend $22 for two 4x6 photos. Never again! But hey.....we have the photo!

Next up on our agenda was dying eggs. In the 13 years the hubby and I have been together we have never dyed eggs. I know we are lame. So I bought a tie dye kit and with full intention to let Emma solid dye some of them. While intentions are always good, they don't always work out. She was NOT having it Saturday night so daddy held her and she watched as I squirted dye and each of us soaked out eggs until they were the desired color. Ya'll I have never dyed eggs with vinegar only and was thoroughly impress with the color payoff! Definitely going to do it that way from now on!

Easter morning Emma got her basket.....lots of snacks and some bubbles. I am SO creative! ;-) Then she napped and we went to the Easter service at our church. Afterward we went to my grandmothers house and had our Easter meal and then everyone played with Emma until she was so exhausted that she crashed the second we put her in the carseat. She got lots of fun things from her grandmothers and godmother but I got a great bench pillow from my mom! I am so excited and requested all the seasons already!

Of course I had to do a styled shoot for the holiday so I took her out to the park area behind our apartment and let her play with some plastic eggs. She was more interested in pulling on the grass and stuffing those eggs in her mouth to care about smiling for a photo.....priorities. So it wasn't until daddy whipped out the cell phone and put on music that she even cared to look up....then it was way up. But hey, we got that super cute photo above!

Happy Easter Friends!

A Newborn Photoshoot

Most hospitals have a photographer come in and take photo's of the newborns. Many new parent's don't know how to take photo's or have the energy to take decent photos so it's a nice thing to have when the babies are so new. We were the same. Even though we both know how to take photos and consider ourselves amateur status, exhaustion and forgetfulness played a role in which photo's got taken.

Our hospital has a professional photographer come in and take the newborn photos. I was skeptical that the photo's were going to be any good, because I have seen some of the ones that have been done, considering some hospitals have new photographers come in and they don't always look the greatest. I was highly impressed that our photographer came with a basket and a pillow. She used our blankets and the handmade hats that we received also. I am glad I packed some headbows as well! I fell in love with all the photo's that were taken, minus the ones of me because she came in right after my shower, please don't mind our unkempt look! I love all of them and even though Emma was having a fit because she was hungry, the photographer managed to get some really cute and serene shots of her! We will cherish these always! Thanks to Baby Bella Photography for the great shots of our little angel!

DIY Maternity Shoot

I had every intention of having a maternity shoot done, one with Darin and I together celebrating the birth of our first baby. However so many things have occurred and the fact that we had two 3d scans to involve all members of the family in this process. We have gotten to the point of no return of this pregnancy so something had to be done.

I really did not want to be taking photo's my last weeks when I am huge, uncomfortable and lets face it hot.....the end of June beginning of July are the start of the unpleasantness here in SoCal. Honestly.....its already hot and it's the beginning of June. So what did we do? I hired my hubby. He got lots of kisses and hugs and baby kicks for his services! Our DSLR has seen better days....it's been dropped so it doesn't function like it used to and it's a pain to use indoors, but it still takes relatively decent photos. So we decided that this past Saturday while the house was empty to take advantage and get some cute photos of my bump.

I perused Pinterest and the internet for tips and tricks for taking maternity shots. Our photo's are not original by any means, but I like them and they showcased our growing family nicely. We used some props and a couple of wardrobe changes and we spent the afternoon having fun. I have every intention of having a newborn shoot done! We need to showcase Miss Emma! On that note, onto the photo's that we did!