Oh my goodness. This family. The cutest ever. And Alyssa, holy crap. Doesn’t she look like a freaking MOVIE STAR?! It’s ridiculous how pretty she is. She is also an amazingly talented hair and makeup artist! Here is a link to her instagram. She did my hair and makeup for my last family photos, and I felt gorgeous. Seriously guys, hire a hair and makeup artist for your sessions! It makes you feel amazing! How cute are their kiddos too?
Gosh this party is one of my new favorites. My own little birthday present decided this year for our party, she wanted Flamingos. And for everything to be pink. I’m not a pink type person. But I did it anyway. Everything was kind of thrown together last minute to be honest. The only thing I had done before one week, was her birthday invitation that I designed and glued feathers onto (cell phone photo included of the invite).
I used the greenery from my son’s dinosaur birthday party in July, and we found everything flamingo that we could. Since fall has started we couldn’t find very much stuff that wasn’t online- and it didn’t leave time for shipping. So we had to get a little creative with decor this time around.
I found an adorable cake topper of a flamingo online, but it was expensive and they were out of stock. So I had to decide to make one myself. I spent several hours with tweezers and tiny slips of paper carefully gluing them on. He turned out PERFECT though. Then I decided four days before her party that I wanted a table runner for on the table. So I carefully sat and cut fabric to match the flamingos on her birthday party invitation. It was somewhat time consuming but I think it turned out perfect!!! I included a cell phone photo of just the table runner before I finished it!
My absolutely wonderful momma helped make the cakes. I found out that I am AWFUL when it comes to trying to frost things. So she baked the cakes the day before (we were doing family photos with my in-laws) and then a few hours before her party we assembled them. She got all the frosting on and then I smeared it some more to kind of blend the colors up for the ombre. I think it turned out well. The flamingo cupcake cake she made for me was awesome too!
The only downside to the party was we LOVE having our parties outside- and with as many kids that come it’s nicer to be outside where they can be wild and loud. But it was pouring rain the entire weekend so we had to move it indoors. Thank goodness I’m completely set up with lighting to be able to just hand my camera off to someone and know that the lighting will work for all the images.
I can’t wait for our actual birthday this Saturday! She will be 3 and I will be 31! XOXO
I love to do themed birthday’s for my children. Especially first birthday’s. There is nothing more fun to me! My little Brown Bear was turning one just a week before my husband was turning 30, so we met in the middle and threw them both a little party involving dinosaurs!
This was one of the easier parties to do, to be honest. Dinosaur stuff is pretty easy to find. For the main table, I got some fake leaves, borrowed some dinosaur toys from my older son, used a few plants, and a few of my textured items that I use for newborn photos. I had one of my pots with dinosaur skeletons for the kids on the table too. For his high chair, I used a fabric to cover the seat and hooked palm leaves on it as well.
The cakes were made by Rockstar Cakery in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. You can find her on Instagram, her website and her Facebook. She did a fantastic job. They were so detailed and beautiful. Her work is AMAZING! I highly recommend her for your next party!
The shirts for Us and our littlest Brown Bear were made by Eliza with Day Designs. She was fabulous making these for us VERY last minute. I’m not kidding that I totally slacked off on this party until the week of!
My darling sister-in-law, Katie, made the dinosaur eggs with her kids. Those were so much for the kids at the party! She also made the adorable dinosaur footprint cookies!
The invitations were made by me, of course, and I decorated everything. I also made the quilt for my baby- I have made each of them a twin size quilt for their first birthday. It was quilted by Heidi with Stipple & Stitch. My friend Laura with Tattered Butterfly Photography (Facebook & Instagram) was awesome and took over my camera for me so that I could be in some of the photos.
The little dinosaurs for in the eggs as well as the dinosaur skeletons were purchased at Zurchers!
All in all, this party really was one of my favorites. It was easy and looked great. Super fun and great for a budget party!
Aren’t they just perfect?! Mom chose the most gorgeous location and between the beautiful fall colors that were still there and the beauty of their family combined with the horses was just killing me. I’m obsessed with these images. Really. I am. These are images I would be blowing up big on metal and plastering on every surface in my house. I may or may not even make stickers and put them on everything if it were my kids. Ha. But no, really, I love them. And I adore the people in them. They were so easy to be around and I enjoyed our time together immensely. What a fun family!
This family is always ridiculously fashionable. Last time I did their family photos, I fell in love with Sarah’s blouse and she told me where she got it so I could order one. She’s one of the best dressed momma’s I have ever met. Her daily photos always makes me envious that she is just so naturally beautiful and elegant in her every day life. Don’t we all wish we could be that way? I’ve made a goal to get out of my pajamas more… and to not wear crappy clothes on shoots. That’s a hard one for me, because I am always laying down on the ground. I’m working on it though. Ha.
Anyway, I LOVED getting to see this family again. Ava wasn’t totally sure she liked us but she’s a doll. Sarah made such an awesome choice in doing their family photos at the Payson, Utah Temple and their outfits were absolute perfection, too.
Oh my goodness. This family is just adorable. First there is Ford, with those insanely stunning eyes and delectable curls. Now there is new baby, Asher. He’s so handsome and looks so sweet and snuggly. These sessions always make me want another baby even though my little one is only 4.5 months old and I’m not sure I want to do that again. But seriously, guys. That newborn smell. And seeing the way his mom and dad look at him just makes my heart skip a beat. I’m so glad that he is here and that I got to go meet his sweet little face and take photos of them becoming a family of four! Congratulations Ashley and Sundance! You have a beautiful family!
Okay, hands down one of my absolute favorite shoots. This family is beyond adorable. There aren’t even words to describe how cute they are. The kids are all perfect. So well behaved and happy. You can just feel the love they share. It’s amazing. I loved getting to know this sweet family and hear their awesome story about adoption. They really couldn’t be more perfectly fit together than they already are. I also loved getting to see each of their different personalities that come across in photos. They kept me laughing and smiling the entire time we were together. It was a perfect day for photos and these kids and their parents were awesome!
This family is super duper cute. Boys are so much fun! Mom really wanted an urban setting so we decided to go hang out on center street in Provo. While we were there we saw the most adorable little french bakery, and somehow I bribed them to get breakfast for the kids so I could get some lifestyle shots. These boys LOVE being in photos. That was so obvious as they would continue to look at me and smile even when they were eating. I absolutely adore that they love each other and the youngest wanted to put his arms around his brothers. Such sweethearts. They did so good even though it was early and were such a blast to hang out with!
So, while I was taking my sisters family photos, I had my kids there with me. The car was just a few feet away so I left my newborn sleeping in there with the windows down (it was nice and cool, don’t worry). I turned my back on my children for maybe 2 minutes. When I turned around. This happened. Chaos. Dirt everywhere. It’s a good thing they are as cute as they are. But they were both quite angry that I couldn’t wash them up immediately. I’ve never let them play in the dirt like this so they didn’t know how to handle being dirty. We had to mop them up as best as we could with baby wipes in order to get them clean enough to get in their carseats. So funny. I love the images though. I want one of them printed in my living room. My heart just melts looking at it. These kids keep me on my toes.
This family made me cry. A lot. I came home from this session and sobbed the entire night. One of the sisters booked the shoot and I didn’t recognize her name so I didn’t think anything of it. Earlier in the week, a friend from growing up that I hadn’t seen in probably 6 or so years posted on Facebook that he has cancer again. I was meaning to reach out and offer a mini shoot for him and his two adorable little ones. I hadn’t done it yet since the week was already insanely busy for me (this was shoot #3 out of 7 between Friday and Thursday). When this guy walked up I kept thinking he looked familiar and reminded me of someone. I kept just thinking he reminded me of my own brother. Halfway through the shoot his sister mentioned that he thought he knew me and it hit me who it was. After that it was a struggle to keep from crying through the rest of the session. I tried to get as many images as I could. This family was a dream though. All the kids were on their best behavior. No one whined about having to hold hands with a sibling or be touching with someone. Not once did I have a kid complain about how I posed them or be grumpy. It was amazing. And their outfits were spot on. I am so beyond grateful I was able to do this shoot for them before Jason started chemo a few days later. It was beyond humbling to document this time in their family for them and I hope that I succeeded in providing images that they will love and cherish forever. If you’re reading this, please say a quick prayer for Jason, his kids, and his family. They are so tight knit and a great support for him, but even they need prayers too. This family is beyond amazing. Really. I’m jealous of how awesome they all are. And they hit the jackpot in the looks department too. Yup- I’m green with envy. I love you guys!
