family picture time

Do you know how amazing it is to have a friend who is also an amazing photographer??  It's pretty dang fantastic!  Danielle took our family pictures in the Spring, and has taken pictures of both Brooke and Colby.  She offered to take some Fall pictures, and I was super excited.  I wanted something different, and was really wanting a white fence, or white wall of some sort as the background.  We couldn't really find a location that matched my vision, but then I saw some pictures on pinterest that looked perfect.  The link took me to a photographer's website, but the location said something like "Tarrant County Ivy."  I sent Danielle the pics to see if she knew the location.  Sadly, she didn't, but suggested that I email the photographer.  I sent the email, but received a response that they only disclose locations once you book with their photographer.  Ugh!  I understand, but yet again, I wasn't in need of their photographer.  I relayed the message to Danielle, who put her super sleuth skills to work.   Within 15 minutes, she had figured it out...TCC Downtown :)  We weren't sure where exactly on campus the pictures were taken, so I decided to drive over and figure it out. I headed over to the main campus, but on the drive over, Colby fell asleep.  I was aimlessly driving around towards Sundance Square, when I saw the tall ivy wall from the pictures.  It was a few blocks from the main campus, and was part of their Health Sciences department.  Score!!  I parked, we walked the grounds, and were officially ready for picture day :)

Finding the outfits we wore was a whole other story, haha!  I originally started with a pleated navy and white polka dot dress for Brooke, and a navy plaid shirt for Colby, but the rest of the outfits were not coming together.  One night, as I was showing Kevin all the stuff I had purchased, he threw out the idea of doing more formal pictures since he liked his navy suit.  I liked the idea, but I also didn't want to start over!  I looked in Brooke's closet and found the jewel collar dress that I ordered from Crew Cuts last year, and decided that could be the jumping off point.  After a trip to Nordstrom Rack, I had a dress for me (on clearance even!), new shoes, and a tie for Kevin. Then I had to make two other trips to find a sweater for me, and one for Brookie.   I was just crossing my fingers that Kevin was a fan because I was seriously sick of shopping for outfits.  I texted Danielle that I was probably overthinking it, and she confirmed that I probably was, haha.  But i'm so happy that I listened to Kevin's suggestion (and that he liked the tie) because I love the slightly more formal pictures. 

I love the smile she captured on Colby.  And when Brooke laid her head on my lap, I told her to sit up for the picture.  Danielle told her that she could lay her head back down, and the picture was so precious.  It helped a lot that my kids know Danielle, and that she made us all feel so comfortable. 

I love my babies so much!  They are both at such a fun age right now, and I really hope that they will always want to be friends. The picture of Brooke and Kevin melts my heart.  She adores her Daddy, and she has him wrapped around her little finger. Like I mentioned, we took these at a Health Building.  When Brooke saw the 3 on the glass, she as so excited because "it was three, just like me."

I totally bribed Brooke with a gift that she could open at the end of pictures if she was a good sport.  Well, I felt like she earned that present, so I let her open a Belle Barbie ($7 at Kroger), which may or may not have made an appearance in the last picture or two, haha. 

The night before pictures, Kevin asked if we were going to do the ballon picture tradition with Colby.     We were in Brooke's room when he asked me, and he had been looking at her ballon pictures on the wall.  I told him that I figured Danielle could take some shots of just Colby as his official one year pictures, but that we probably didn't need to do the exact same thing we did for Brooke.  But then we both thought we might regret it, so on the way to pictures the next morning, we stopped at Party City for a gigantic balloon.  And I'm sure glad we did :)

Colby's picture is now proudly hanging in his room, just like Sissy's one year picture!