Christmas Mini Session 2011

Yes, Christmas 2011...someday I.WILL.get.caught.up.on.blogging....but until then thank you for your patience! So this was my first year to do a Christmas mini and it was so much fun and filled up in two days! I absolutely adored every family that signed up - I had several regulars that are super close to my heart and even a couple of newbies that were oh so much fun. I am already so excited about 2012's Christmas mini - it's gonna be absolutely gorgeous!

xo

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Whimsey Hollow 2011

I am so glad to be finally updating! I got locked out of my blogger account - seems I had someone trying to guess my password - for what reason I have no idea. Anyways, so I am finally able to log back in. I am so far behind on blogs - but what else is new! ha

 I was so pleased with the turn out with my second annual Whimsey Hollow mini session. The all day session sold out in less than 3 hours - so fast that I opened a second day and filled that one as well! I was blown away by that to sat the least! I had some amazing kids this year and some incredible parents who had those kids dressed like rock stars! 

Also, a very special thank you to my mom and my sister for helping me set up and assisting me all day! And to my aunt and uncle - thank you again for allowing me to shoot on your land! 

Enjoy!

xo

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The Vanek Family!

In October (yes, I'm fully aware it is almost March and that I'm so behind in my blogging its ridiculous) I met the Vaneks! I was so excited to do this session just because I couldn't wait to meet Debbie - see I had been corresponding with her through email for several months getting everything nailed down and she was just so sweet!

So now do you see why there had to be some planning for this session? Count them - 5 FIVE CINCO guys in this family - that's a whole lot to nail down! ha So i'm not gonna lie - I was nervous about this session. I mean just knowing there were 5 kids was scary enough. I have sessions, at times, that's just two siblings that go completely crazy - one is happy the other is not  - one looks at the camera while the other refuses, etc... So yeah I had already prepared myself that this was gonna be a big stretch for me.

Well I was wrong. dead wrong. This precious family absolutely blew me away. I left their session feeling inspired and overcome by the love in their family. Everyone had fun. Everyone smiled. Everyone cooperated. I have to give it to Ray and Debbie - way to parent y'all! Your guys were perfect gentlemen. 

So during the planning stages of this shoot, Debbie and I were emailing back and forth and I asked her what kinds of things they like to do as family - I suggested maybe a board or card game they like to play together? Her response? "I wish, more like tackle football..." hahaha I loved her honesty. I also loved that they brought a football and we ended the session with a little pigskin.

I absolutely love this photo - not just because of how fun and silly it is, but because I learned very early on into their session, that Debbie holds this family together - Ray is head of the house, but Debbie is in the background making sure everything runs smoothly. I loved that. I also love how much her boys love her. Im telling ya, this family has a special dynamic about them ;)

Oh goodness - isn't that just perfection? Probably on of my very favorite family pictures. 

Thank you so much for allowing me to be apart of y'alls fun family for the morning. It was a pleasure meeting each of you. Y'all are a beautiful family - both inside and out ;)

x0

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Justin & Megan Preggo Session!

In early October Megan and Justin came down from the Bastrop area to do a pregnancy session. I had met Megan earlier as her twin sister is Kelsie (you can check out of one Kelsie's sessions here). I was so excited to see Megan again and to get to know her and her Fiancee, Justin, a little bit better. :)

 They were such perfect sports - I had so many ideas I wanted to try and they trusted me, even though i'm sure they were a little worried - they still totally rocked it!

One idea I had had in my head for awhile now was this flag concept. When Megan booked their session I knew it was perfect-o for them! See both Justin & Megan are in the military. Justin is a Marine and Megan is in the Army National Guard (which hellooo respect level just went up a whole, whole bunch)!

Seriously, I think this falls into the "one of my favorites photos i've ever taken" category. 

What I really loved about J & M is the love they have for each other. They are best friends. You can tell he really adores Megan and the way she looks at him - well he's her rock. Together they are the perfect match ;)

Poor Justin, every time he thought we were done I would say "ooh oh oh wait i have one more idea - do y'all mind???" lol I know he was cursing me in his head! You should of seen the look on his face when I mentioned this picture hahaha. Then, of course, that picture made me notice the tats and led me to this picture - which oh my mercy - I could not love this more.

  Psalm's 27: 1-3 I absolutely love that verse.

 

  Look at Megan and that cute baby bump!

What I really like about their love story is the fact that they met in middle school and became boyfriend and girlfriend for awhile. Of course, they broke up sometime later but have since made it back to each others arms. Doesn't that just make your heart go pitter patter??? 

So since the shoot I'm so excited to say that they welcomed a perfect little angel into the world on November 4th, 2011. Her name is Lynzy Grace - and even though I have yet to meet her in person I can tell you she is precious and so so loved (plus I heard all about her recently from a very proud Aunt Kelsie). And if that isn't enough - Justin and Megan are getting married February 18th, 2012! Congrats!!!

J+M+L -  thank you so very much for coming all the way to Waxahachie and allowing me apart of this magical time. You guys are awesome and I cant wait to watch all God has in store for your new family!

x0

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Chelsea's Baby Shower

Several of you have asked about the details of Chelsea's shower, so I thought I would spill all the goodies here ;)

So this past weekend we had my sister, Chelsea, baby shower. The shower was planned for Feb 19th, but right after Christmas she was diagnosed with preeclampsia and was put on strict bed rest. SO because of the fact the doctor thought Feb 19th would be to close to a possible due date, my mom and I decided ok its now or never...in about two weeks we pulled this off. We were busy bees but am thrilled with how it came out. 

We wanted to go with a vintagey circus theme..

Here is the invitation. Originally, I was going to make the invites myself, but with the time constraints and the fact that I just couldn't seem to make exactly what I was wanting I decided to go to Etsy lol. As always, you can never really go wrong there. Within 15 minutes I had picked out the invite and had emailed the shop owner all of the details. Within 48 hours I had these babies printing at Office Depot. This is SO the way to go when doing invites! Its so simple - you pick out the invite, pay for them, send the shop owner the details and then they send you a pdf file of the invite customized to you! I then just emailed it to Office Depot and had them print it on card stock. The total cost (for file and printing) was about $35.00 for 53 invites (does not include envelopes or postage). Lisa, the shop owner on Etsy, was amazing to work with! She redid this invite about 3 times for me! She rocked. Go check her out here!

We decided to go with bottled soda and strawberry lemonade - I got the mason jar idea off Pinterest. Both were a huge hit and a fun twist!

Mom bought these straws from another one of my favorite vendors Shop Sweet LuLu. They have some really great stuff for parties and change out inventory regularly. 

The popcorn was another find off Pinterest. We did Kettle Corn and Caramel Corn. To make them stand I bought a piece of styrofoam and spray painted it green. I then bought skinny wood skewers and pushed them down in the styrofoam and put some hot glue around the base. I then slid the cone over the skewer to make the popcorn cone stand - when someone took a cone the skewer stayed in place and I would just put another one on there. The cones are just rolled up pieces of scrapbook paper ;)

My mom made this adorable Diaper Cake! 

We found a lady to make the cupcakes and then found the cupcake liners at Walmart. 

Here is the food table - We bought the pink pompoms from Party City.

My mom made this adorable wreath for the entrance of the shower. What's great is we went with the theme of the baby's (Maylee) room so Chelsea can put it in her nursery.

I made Chelsea her corsage - I think real corsages are way overrated - plus I wanted to do something different. I made her this one - what is great is all three flowers can be used as hair clips or put on headbands for Maylee - or they can be pinned on outfits as they have safety pins on the back as well :) And even better - this was cheaper than some fancy  flower corsage!

Here is a picture of one of the guest tables. We had 5 tables with these on them - we used pink and yellow pinwheels.

I found these online at Lauren Makes - she has several colors to choose from and they are completely free! I printed off tons of these and put them on the guest tables with some markers. Thought it was cute and different and something great Chelsea can put in the baby book ;)

We knew we had to think of a game that didn't require Chelsea to do much moving since she is on bed rest. Thankfully I found this fun little game called Match Mommy - I found it on the blog Little House Big Heart - emailed the blog owner asking if I could use her design and she was so sweet and customized it for the shower for me to print! She has some other fun ideas as well - be sure to check her out!

Well, that pretty much sums up the shower details - we had a blast and Chelsea was blessed with lots of love and gifts. I LOVE PLANNING PARTIES! 

x0

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