Cheese!

When I was a little girl, my mama got my picture made quite often.  There was a photographer near Eden named Tim Tally who was the Blair Philips of the area and several times during my childhood, Mama forked over a ridiculous amount of money for a photo shoot with wardrobe changes and creative props and the like.  We even went back to him once after we moved to Kannapolis because mom liked his work that much.  Mama is still a sucker for pictures and insists on printing most of the pictures we take of Layla with our phones.  She’s got a Groovebook subscription and takes her 100 photos a month very seriously.  I knew when we started having children, we’d want to have their pictures taken regularly by a professional.

When Layla was born, we looked into newborn photography and, holy smokes, was it expensive.  We decided instead of hiring someone, Skip and Luke would take them.  I had grandiose visions of family shots and shots with just the girls and shots with just Layla and me, and boy was I mistaken.  We got enough good ones to craft an awesome Christmas card and that was about it.  Instead of curling up into a cute little newborn knot, Layla stretched out all 5lbs 9oz of her and managed to look like a pale Ethiopian baby in almost every picture.   We decided the next time we wanted pictures, we would hire a professional.

As Layla got close to 6 months old, we started talking about scheduling a photo shoot.  Since Skip is in a similar industry, he has lots of photographer friends and we follow their work on social media and have about a million options when it comes to family pictures.  The last several times we’ve wanted to hire a photographer, our friend, Becca, has been in Montana working for a photographer there.  She was not on this side of the map for maternity pictures, Amoura’s first birthday, or Layla’s newborn shoot.  When I realized she’d be around when Layla turned 6 months old, I knew we’d be hiring her. Becca shot our wedding and we’ve had one of those friendships that feels like slipping on your favorite sweatshirt on the first cold day of Fall.  She’s comfortable to be around and there’s a familiarity with her that makes you wanna smile with your whole body.  She was patient as I switched the date about three times to accommodate Skip’s ever-shifting schedule and didn’t force me to choose a time when lighting was the best and Layla (would have been) the worst. 

The afternoon of the shoot was a hot one and in the middle of one of Skip’s busiest weeks of the year.  Nevertheless, we dressed up in our coordinating-but-not-matching outfits (thanks, Pinterest!) and headed to the park.  You can’t tell from the finished products, but Layla was less than agreeable and kept her hands in her face and her fingers in her mouth for most of the shoot.  She wouldn’t smile unless I was all but cutting flips while blowing raspberries. Still, we got some really great shots and it was hard to narrow them down to 25 images- the package we agreed on with Becca.  We actually made the selection process into one of our “summer date nights” (more on that later). We put the pictures on the TV and picked our favorites while sipping Sonic milkshakes and marveling over the beautiful daughter we created together.  I want to get three or four of the pictures framed in fairly large coordinating frames to replace the collection of small frames on the shelves in our living room.  It looks great in my head, but I’ll have to let you know later if it looks great in real life.  For now, I’ll leave you with some of my favorites of our little family. 

 I can picture her as a little girl here, telling a story and laughing as she goes.

 You think she has any idea how much we love her?

 My hair doesn't always look this good, so I had to share!

Just like her mama, she is a Nanny's girl!

Oh, my heart!

 She's up to something.

I hope we're always embarrassing her with kisses.

You can't really see them, but our whole family is in this picture.  The necklace I'm wearing has all our babies on it.  Layla might be the only one we get to snuggle every day, but there's another baby boy and little girl who have a piece of our hearts.