I love taking photos around the same time each year because it's really easy to look back and see how much your family has grown + changed over the years. For us, it's always Autumn or early Winter, because Christmas cards.
I love the first one that I have on file, below, of our little family of four. Lily and Oli are 14 months apart and were like twins for so long (they still kind of feel like that, but less so as grades separate them now). My friend Morgan took the picture below during a perfect snow storm. I remember calling her as soon as I saw the snow and being like, "Hey, can you come take pics like.... now?? It's gorgeous out!" And because she lived so close to me at the time, and we're besties, she literally dropped everything and ran over. Love.
She also took the one the following year, below. I remember that year being really stressful. Chloe was only 7 weeks old and I was EXHAUSTED. Also my hair was insanely blonde, lol. We took the picture at a local cafe, and quickly learned that location shoots are best for older children. Changing baby's diapers and feeding bottles in cafes in between shots was not fun!
We had different friends take the next year's photos, and decided to stay in the comfort of our own home after the stress from the year before. The kid's were comfortable and thus, great. Important when they're 1, 3, and 4! The only snag about taking pictures inside, at least in our condo, is that you don't get a lot of natural light. One of my biggest home goals for our next place is light. I also laugh looking back at the days before I coloured in my eye brows. I'm not a makeup expert by any means, but brows are key, I can tell you that! I blogged about this photo shoot HERE if you're like to read about the behind-the-scenes :)
I love the first one that I have on file, below, of our little family of four. Lily and Oli are 14 months apart and were like twins for so long (they still kind of feel like that, but less so as grades separate them now). My friend Morgan took the picture below during a perfect snow storm. I remember calling her as soon as I saw the snow and being like, "Hey, can you come take pics like.... now?? It's gorgeous out!" And because she lived so close to me at the time, and we're besties, she literally dropped everything and ran over. Love.
She also took the one the following year, below. I remember that year being really stressful. Chloe was only 7 weeks old and I was EXHAUSTED. Also my hair was insanely blonde, lol. We took the picture at a local cafe, and quickly learned that location shoots are best for older children. Changing baby's diapers and feeding bottles in cafes in between shots was not fun!
We had different friends take the next year's photos, and decided to stay in the comfort of our own home after the stress from the year before. The kid's were comfortable and thus, great. Important when they're 1, 3, and 4! The only snag about taking pictures inside, at least in our condo, is that you don't get a lot of natural light. One of my biggest home goals for our next place is light. I also laugh looking back at the days before I coloured in my eye brows. I'm not a makeup expert by any means, but brows are key, I can tell you that! I blogged about this photo shoot HERE if you're like to read about the behind-the-scenes :)
The following year, 2015, we had a friend from church snap a few pictures at a nearby cafe (closer to our home than the one from years back, and with older kids it was much easier). It was FREEZING and we had the kids dressed in so many layers. Noble Cafe is my very favourite in the city and the closest one to our house, so it was fun doing the card pictures there.
Which brings me to this year! Rachel Cheng, a local photographer and friend took these wonderful photos after Thanksgiving this year and I compiled them into a collage for this year's card. Working with Rachel was an absolute pleasure. The pictures aren't very winter-y nor Christmas-y, but we loved them so much we had to put them on our Christmas card!
Every year that we've done Christmas cards I've designed them myself on PicMonkey.com and then printed them with Vista Print. We send out a LOT of cards, and give one to everyone at our church, so it's the most economical option for us. We're super late sending them out this year though... so we made sure to add a Happy New Year message with our Christmas greetings, haha!
Happy Christmas Eve!
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