Our Weekend...

Happy Sunday!

This weekend we celebrated the birthday of one of my husband's friend's sons who turned 4! Happy birthday Bryan! We also got to see their new home for the first time and catch up with friends which was great.

It was strangely cool on Saturday which was a welcome change from the super-high temps we've been seeing lately.

 Some of my favorite photos are candids of Kevin with Harper�

One of Harper's new words is "bubbles" so she was delighted to find a bottle in her treat bag.

 Then she ran away...

�taking the bubbles with her...

...and she kept going...

Then she wanted to drink from a bottle. It was funny because she was so insistent she didn't want help and everyone was cheering her on.

 How did my baby get so big?

 Harper and the birthday boy ninja!

Today we had our family photos taken. It was the first time we had professional photos done since Harper was born, so I had really been looking forward to it.

Well folks, let's just say that I could not have imagined a more horrible way for the session to go. I planned the session for 9:30 a.m. Harper wakes up at 7, so we had breakfast and we played before we left the house. She was in quite a splendid mood. The session was to last 1.5 hours and then we were going to go out for lunch and be home just in time for her noonish nap time. Perfect, right?

Not so much. The car ride was about 40 minutes and Harper tends to take cat naps in her car seat even when she isn't tired (that's how we got her to sleep on our flights to and from Toronto- put this baby in a car seat, and she naps). She hadn't fallen asleep on the ride to the location but she did start to nod off a little when we arrived and waited for the photographer to get there. I thought she would be fine after that (she had a nap in the car yesterday when we drove to our friend's party, the same distance away, and was great when we got there).

We met our photographer and drove up the road to the field we were shooting in. I wanted a really natural backdrop, so it was perfect. We got all ready to start shooting and for the first five minutes Harper was doing well and cracked a few smiles playing peek-a-boo�after that, it was crying and meltdowns. The. entire. time. All of the stuff she usually loves was a total no-go. She didn't want to be there and she let us know it! 

I gave her some goldfish crackers thinking maybe after she ate them she would be more agreeable to a few snapshots. The photographer suggested we move away from the field so we went into the little town area and tried to take a few shots on the steps of an old looking general store. That was when Harper decided that she had enough and had a full on-throw herself to the floor tantrum. Lovely.

So we decided that instead of trying to wait it out, we would just reschedule. We had gotten some shots in the field and it was time to call it a day.

When the photographer left, Harper was exploring the area we were shooting and we got a few smiles from her then as we played (of course)�but she made her way to the car and we headed home.

Next time, my plan is to go to the location early, play around as a family and let her get used to the environment before the photographer arrives. I can imagine it can be strange for a toddler to exit the car and walk into a field and have someone they've never met keep calling their name. 

When we got home, she was laughing, running all over and smiling ear to ear�go figure!

Here's to next time�and I hear my sweet girl waking up on the baby monitor as I type this�so I'm signing off.

Have a happy Sunday!

Harper's One Year Photos!

The morning of our last day in Toronto (just a few hours before we headed to the airport to catch our flight), Adam came over to capture some shots of Harper. I've known Adam for over a decade, he is one of my cousin's closest friends and we spent a lot of time together growing up. 

I was delighted to learn that Adam was growing his photography business, Adam Biesenthal Photography, and I asked him to come and snap some photos of Harper---and he showed up with coffee, so that's automatically an A+.

You may have recently heard of Adam because a wedding photo he took with Jeff Goldblum and a wedding party running from a dinosaur went viral.

I'm so happy with these sweet photos of Harper. Our conditions weren't ideal (she was due for a nap/a little cranky and the sun was super bright) but he was able to capture her sweetness and personality with the 20 or so minutes he shot for.

Here are some of my favorite shots:

dress- baby gap (love this one)

flower crown- custom piece by willow crowns

hair bow- willow crowns

Harper's Newborn Photos

Before Harper was born, I was already thinking about newborn photos. I had tentatively booked a session with a local newborn photographer and awaited the arrival of our little one.

After Harper was born, her NICU stay and frequent pediatrician appointments made me pretty stressed out and I cancelled my session because I wanted to be home with her and focus on feeding her frequently since she was having trouble gaining weight.

I struggled with the decision to cancel the photo shoot because I really love newborn photos but most photographers won't shoot newborns past 10 days old and I was nervous about leaving the house with her (other than to see her pediatrician). 

When Harper was 10 days old, suddenly, I started to panic. I realized after talking to some friends both offline and online that I would probably regret not having professional newborn photos taken.  She's our first baby and would only be that little for such a short time.

On a whim, I contacted a newborn photographer who's work I liked to see if she had any cancellations or last-minute availability.  I got lucky and the photographer agreed to come and do the session in our home when Harper was 12 days old. It was so great not to have to leave our house for the session and I like that we were able to get some pretty shots in her nursery.

I'm SO thrilled with how the photos turned out and glad we were able to do them on such short notice.  I can't wait to make a gallery wall with these shots in the hallway between our master bedroom and Harper's nursery.

Here are the shots from our shoot:

Do you notice something familiar below? We had the photographer use my feather fascinator that I wore in my hair on my wedding day in some of the photos :)

I hope you liked Harper's newborn photos.  If you are in the Houston area, I highly recommend Maca  of Studio Ainsley.  Please check out her website to view more of her work!