Family Pictures

    Family pictures are something that I find very important for us to do, at least once a year. I love seeing how we have grown and changed over the years when I look back at them. We hadn't had any done since before Aaron deployed, so it was time. I booked a photographer months before Aaron came home so that she could be there for his homecoming, but when I found out he was going to be coming home in the middle of the night things changed a little. We decided to do a family shoot a couple days after Aaron returned home instead.

Family Pictures

    Y'all know I love taking family pictures, so when my best friend Kelsey {my favorite picture taker} was visiting us about a month ago, I had to ask her to take a few of us. She happily said yes, so when Aaron got home from work we quickly got dressed and drove/walked to the creek that runs through our neighborhood. It was the perfect location for a quick and very last minute family photo session. I love them so much!

Bluebonnets

    One of the memories I have of my childhood was taking pictures with my sister in a bluebonnet field. I remember my parents telling us to be very careful and not to step on them because we would get in trouble and the cops would get mad at us. Now that I'm a mom and we are living back in Texas, I couldn't wait to get pictures of Connor and Olivia with them.

Family Pictures

      Family pictures are a must for me every year at this time. We need them for our Christmas cards, and the weather is usually nice. This was the first year we didn't include our dogs, and it was the first year we took them ourselves {thank you tripod and bluetooth on the camera to make my phone the remote}. We took them on November 7, right before Aaron left. We thought they were hard with one kid, but then we added another and getting the perfect shot was hard. I could have kept going, but you can see in the last picture that Connor was over it.  

Mommy + Me

    While daddy's away, mommy and her babies will .... have a mommy and me photo shoot! I really wanted to do a family shoot with all four of us at the house, but Aaron has been gone since last Tuesday and I couldn't wait any longer. I have to take full advantage of Olivia being a teeny, tiny, beautiful, sleepy newborn. While my sister-in-law was here over the weekend, I jumped on her offer to take our pictures! We had so much fun. Well, not everyone did. Connor wasn't very happy to take pictures, so he was only in a few.

At The Hospital With Olivia

 August 24, 2017

     Our first night with Olivia went well. Aaron and I were woken up quite a few times by the nurse, the tech, and by Olivia. I was running off adrenaline, so I didn't mind one bit. I was just happy my precious girl was healthy and the delivery went smoothly. 

    That morning, we were woken up by the sweet tech with my breakfast tray and to get my morning vitals. We went to a mandatory class {about shaken baby syndrome} at 11, and then ate lunch together before Aaron went to pickup Connor and my mom. They did her hearing test that morning, and then we gave Olivia her first bath when she turned 24 hours old. After her bath the doctor came in to talk with us because Olivia had not peed in 24 hours. We made the decision, with the doctor, to do an in and out catheter. It was a really hard decision, I cried, but it was the right one. When they brought her back to us we were told she had a full bladder, but peed around the catheter and continued to pee when they took it out. It was a good sign and she just seemed to need a little help.

 Admiring my baby girl.

Family Pictures in Vicenza

    It's that time of the year again: time for our yearly family pictures so we could have new ones to put on our Christmas cards. Aaron knows that at the end of the year it's time to take them and he is always so thrilled {cough, cough}.  This time I was the one not feeling too thrilled while taking them. Word of advice, never plan to take them after a night out that involves a wine tasting... I'll leave it at that. Anyways, we decided to take them in downtown Vicenza since it will be our last Christmas in Italy. Here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

 Our life.

Motorcycle Accident

     So as a lot of you know, we have had a pretty stressful couple days. Before I get to the bad, let me share our sweet family pictures we took on Saturday in front of the beautiful poppies. I have been wanting to take pictures in front of them since we moved here, and since they bloom this time of year it was the perfect time.      

     What I really wanted was for us to stand in the middle of a big poppy field, but I haven't been able to find one. When Aaron came across a big group of them lining the train tracks near our house, I knew we could make it work. So on Saturday, we met our friend near them and walked through really tall weeds/grass/pokey stuff to get to the tracks. Our friend was able to get some really great pictures after only being there for about 15 minutes. I was so nervous that a train was going to come while we were on the tracks, and sure enough it did! Oh My Gosh! I was terrified, and the only one that was scared might I add. It was a double train track and the train was coming on the one further away from us. My instinct was to grab Connor and jump in the bushes, but my friend kept me from jumping. I'm glad she did because it would have hurt. After that scary situation, I was done! I hope you enjoy our pictures as much as I do :)

One of my favorites!