Our First Family Photos

EEEK! I'm so excited to share these. I knew that shortly after we got home from China, that I would want to get some photos of our family of 6. Just as when you have a newborn, you do the same.  It's just silly to wait that long, you want to capture those moments when it's new.   Even though we are all still adjusting, I didn't want to wait very long.  

Typically we do pictures in the fall so it was nice to change things up and do a Summer shoot. Plus I wanted to dress in a different type of wardrobe as well.  It was definitely warm during our session but if you wait till an hour before sunset it's not terrible and that is what we did.  We met Sarah, the photographer at 7:15 in Dallas. She was so sweet and great to work with. 

I know being a photographer myself that late evening sessions can be tougher on the little ones but it's so worth to try and make it happen so you can get this yummy light. We put the girls down for later naps that day so that they wouldn't have a meltdown mid session or be really tired and out of it.  Plus it's Summer so I figured, what the heck! Let's try and make this work. 

The first picture I'm sharing is my favorite one of our family of 6.  It's not really posed  (which is what I wanted) and we each are just looking at each other.  Willow was patting Coopers back which was sweet and Libby was just looking at the flowers,  I think it just turned out perfect.  You can see all of our outfits pretty well too.  This mama worked hard on that part.  LOL!

Choosing outfits for a session can be daunting, lol.   It really can.   I genuinely tried to make this work without having to purchase anything.  However I did end up buying (on the day before our session) a few items because I really just wanted this to come together as best as possible.  It was obviously a very special session with Willow now being home.  There are more images of Willow too since this was her first session.  That was intentional in case you might be wondering why there are so many of her.  I have thousands of pictures of my other 3 kiddos as I've always got to photograph them since they day they were born.   

Typically I tell Moms to choose what you want to wear first.  Because lets be real, how often our us moms always in the pictures these days??  It was actually Libby's matilda jane romper though with the lemons on them, that I centered the outfits around.  I knew it was the perfect summer outfit for pictures so I started there.  The boys were easy.  I brought in blue as another color so we had a pretty soft pastel palette.  Cooper wore the blue shorts with a grey shirt, which he already had.  Score!  Aiden wore the green pants so all the boys were not wearing shorts and it was a nice compliment to the green in Libby's romper as well.  I did buy Aiden just a plain white polo to wear which he can totally wear again. No big deal.  Tyler wore a blue polo shirt which complimented Cooper's shorts and a light khaki shorts which he already had in his closet as well. 

I wanted to bring in more yellow (which is definitely not my color) so I found this simple yellow dress at baby gap for Willow with the white lace embroidered trim around the bottom and it was the perfect compliment.  It was on sale too for $14 which made it even better.   I try not to mix too many different patterns for a session.  I already had the flower crown that Willow is wearing and believe it or not, she loves to wear it.  Unlike her bows that she always pulls out. 

So far, I had only had to spend about $30 for Aiden's shirt and Willow's dress but I still could not find something that I loved for myself.  I had some dresses but nothing that was the right color or style. So I glanced at Nordstroms the day before and got super lucky with this one.  It was a soft pink and very flattering on.  It had these beautiful ruffles around the front and had a nice flow to it.  Although it isn't something I will wear often, I absolutely fell in love with it and will wear it again. 

Here it is.  If you need a dress for a wedding or just a special occasion, consider this dress.  It comes in 5 colors too. The color I got is called Hibiscus which is a little darker than the color shown on this model.  Its a great price as well and great length for those that are not real tall....like me. ;)

Alright, so enough about our wardrobe. Let me share the other favorites from this session. 

Lots of tickling here :)

I love the colors so much in all these photos but I love me some black and whites too!

 I wish you could see some of Willows face in this picture but she was reaching down to grab Cooper's hand.  So Sweet! We were all just doing our own thing and that is what I love about it.  Definitely one of my favorites!

Now Willow is looking, but Miss Libby looks kinda sad.  ;)  She wasn't her perky self for this shoot.  She was not a fan of the tall grass not to mention she is 2 1/2 so there ya go. LOL.  But this is real and this is us.  I still love it!

Kisses...I just adore this one!

I'm so thankful for all the precious photos Sarah got of me and Willow.  It really shows what a joy she is and how much our love is both growing for one another.  It's still so surreal that she is home and in our arms.  God is so good and my heart is so FULL!

Next up, was photos of just the 4 kiddos.  Much easier said than done. lol. But they turned out really cute!

Libby's face though...there is always one. ;)

This is when Tyler and I were acting totally ridiculous trying to get them all to look like they love each other.  Lol. They really do but if you are parents you know what I'm talking about.  It's more so on their terms so whenever you really want them to cooperate, it's going to be more of a struggle.

I can't believe we have 2 blondes, a red head and one with black hair.  Looks like we need a brunette now. haha.  I'm sure if Tyler is reading this, he might of just passed out. 

We were getting ready to all lay on the quilt for more family photos and Willow came up to me which made for more sweet shots of just me and her.  I couldn't love these more! 

Tyler joined in as well.  The other 3 kiddos were having some skittles (yes we bribed) and taking a little break.  The boys especially were getting hot. Aiden complained about having pants on.  There is always something with one of them. 

How beautiful is this quilt that Sarah brought? 

Thank you again so much Sarah Hamilton Photography! We will cherish these photos and absolutely love how they turned out.