Texas Bluebonnets

Ever since I first saw photos of Texas Bluebonnets online years ago, I wanted my girls to have their pictures taken with them. But, we didn't live in Texas, so I didn't think it would actually happen. 

But, when we moved here, I was giddy because we could finally take pictures in the bluebonnets!!! 

I found a photographer through Instagram (thank God for social media!) and scheduled a session with her. 

While she was snapping away, I took a few with my cell phone. We'll get our photos from the photographer in a few weeks, but I couldn't wait to share these.

Enjoy.

Texas, we love you. 

Family Pictures & Weekend Fun

Last Friday, we had family pictures! It's been about a year and a half since we had family pictures made, and I wasn't planning on having them made until sometime next year, but one of the teachers at our school is beginning her photography business, and I realized we needed a good picture for our Christmas card! So, I booked a quick photo shoot with her, and we met in our little downtown! 

I went on Pinterest for some outfit inspiration, and decided to go with a neutral color palette. We ended up throwing in some pink, well, because #girlmom.

Gretchen wore a cream sweater dress and a pink plaid scarf from Gap. (I couldn't find the scarf online.), and her booties. 

Adalyn wore a cream lace skirt, a pink ribbed top (which I can't find either, but it's from Gap as well), and her booties. 

And since Megan is more comfortable in jeans, I picked her up a sweater to wear, with her leopard flats. 

While big sis was getting her picture taken, the little girls were acting all sorts of crazy waiting for their turn! 

Later that night, we managed to get two sneak peeks from our photographer and I'm already amazed at what she was able to capture. 

Plus this one, which I'm thinking needs to be put on a canvas and placed in Megan's room, because this is 100% her! 

After we had pictures, we headed to Andolini's for pizza! 

If you're ever in the Tulsa area, it's a must-eat! 

And after pizza, we had gellato at a new shop in our downtown. 

\

The rest of our weekend was spent cleaning and organizing. Doing laundry, watching the Emoji movie, and was pretty low key. 

We went to church on Sunday, and took our weekly John Wesley photo!

This post contains affiliate link, if you click on the link, I may be awarded a small commision. Thank you for your support. 

Show & Tell Tuesday: Portraits Edition

Hey, Hey Tuesday! I'm linking up with Momfessionals for Show & Tell Tuesday, and today, we're sharing our top 5 favorite photos ever. 

And, let me be honest.... there is absolutely NO way that I could narrow 11 years of marriage and 3 children in to 5 pictures. I mean, that's like asking me to choose a favorite child. 

So, I picked my favorites from our family photo sessions. 

Gretchen's 1 year photos were the first time we had ever hired a professional photographer outside of our wedding. And, her cake smash session proved to be my favorite ever. This girl loved her some cake!

And then when she was 2 1/2 we had 4 generation pictures made. And, I am so thankful for these portraits. Especially since they include my grandmother. 

We shot these at the Minnetrista and Ball Brother's Mansions (think Ball canning jars.) And we also used these to announce our pregnancy with Megan. 

Fast forward to these little photos of squishy Gretchen, and newborn Megan.

#heartmelts

And then when Megan was a year old and we headed back to Indiana and the Minnetrista, for her one-year portraits. 

About a year after we moved to Oklahoma, we had photos taken at the university football stadium. Football is our life, and I loved that we were able to incorporate the university, our team colors, and the place where we spend so many days in the fall. 

And then Addy Pearl came along, and our photographer captured her in the most precious and unique ways. (Unfortunately, our Oklahoma photographer isn't working anymore, and boy do I miss her portraits.)

When Gretchen was 5, Megan was 3, and Adalyn was about 9 months, we had pictures taken again. This time, my mother made the girls coordinating dresses. I made them over the top hair accessories, and we rented a purple sofa. 

And, probably, my favorite pictures ever wore captured. 

#breathtaking

And, then Adalyn turned one. I special ordered her dress and made her a huge matching hair bow. And of course, we included her ballet baby, which makes this photo extra special. 

And last summer we had photos taken on my parent's property. I now have a thing for couches in our photos. We lovingly refer to this as the "Mexican couch" because my grandparents bought it in Mexico. I use to spend many an afternoon laying on this couch (it's so uncomfortable because of the wooden arms) and watching t.v. in my grandmother's kitchen. 

We had family photos taken....

and sister-cousin photos. 

So yeah, asking me to choose just 5.... was not going to happen. I hope you've enjoyed this look back and our family photos over the years. 

Family Pictures

While we were at my mom's house back in July, we had family photos taken. We have never had family photos taken all together but we've talked about it forever! This year, we planned ahead, and scheduled our portrait session with Lady With a Camera. 

If you're in the central Arkansas region, I highly recommend her! We used her for Adalyn's one year pictures, and my mom has used her for my niece's pictures several times. This year, we decided to keep it easy, and have our picture session on my parents land. This kept us from having to load the girls up and go somewhere, and when we were all done, we were already home. My parents live on about 40 acres, so we did drive our cars down to where we were taking pictures. This kept us from getting sweaty on the walk down and allowed us to have a place to cool off if we needed to. We started our session around 7:30 pm, and it was hot and sticky, but it wasn't miserable. Our photographer told us (the adults) to just be ready and she would deal with the kids. It kept us all happy when she would work with them rather than us growing frustrated. 

We did pictures of the entire family first. 

 And then we did individual family photos. 

And we finished off with just pictures of the girls. Although she was constantly shooting while the girls were playing and in between "sit down" shots. 

Adalyn insisted on having her pictures with Bailey, our dog, and they are my favorites! Out of all the girls, she loves Bailey the most. 

I absolutely love photos where kids can just be kids. Let them play and dance and twirl. I promise, if you're working with an amazing photographer, she'll get shots that truly capture your child's personality. 

Gretchen and Megan decided to follow suit and have some pictures taken with Bailey too. 

Now, the tough part is figuring out which ones to print and which ones to enlarge on to canvas'.