wearing lately: classic casual family photo outfits

When Hendrik was about 8 months old, we had some family photos done, his first official session, and I still love those pictures so much - especially how they capture not only his sweetness and chunkiness at that age but also his nursery and our first home. So now that Freddie has reached 8 months, I thought it was time to do another round of the same, but in our current house and with our family of four! Of course that means figuring out more outfits... here's what we landed on for a casual, coordinated-but-not-matchy-matchy, classic look: 

I just adore how they turned out, capturing our home and our little misters' personalities so well. 

As for the outfits: We like to keep it casual with a fairly quick, informal, candid session (my mom's friend Janelle has done our periodic sessions since we moved here, and she's super easy to work with in this way), so fairly casual outfits that feel like "us" but have some polish are the way to go. That usually means jeans + a solid color sweater for me (can't go wrong with the sweater blazer!), and jeans + a button down for Hendrik and Peter. Except with Freddie in a button down this time too, it felt like a lot to coordinate all the plaids and blues, so we put Peter in a solid sweater too. An easy formula for any photo session!

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

 

Only problem is that babies change so darn fast - by the time the Christmas season rolls around, he'll be so much different... so might have to figure out a different photo for our cards! Meanwhile trying to decide which one of my many favorites to order as a canvas print to add to our upstairs hallway gallery wall.

family photos

Now that Hendrik is two, I thought it was time for another official photographer photo session to capture his current toddler essence. Bonus: doing a photo shoot at around his birthday is perfect timing for capturing a Christmas card family photo! Here are some of my favorites:

As in the past, we found it was not so easy to capture shots in which the whole family was actually looking at the camera and smiling, but all you need are a couple of good ones, right? Mostly the photographer let Hendrik just do his thing, and I love how she was able to capture his two-year-old boyness that way, from the serious to the silly looks and from the sticks to the stubbornness.

For our past family photo shoots, we had fun choosing different locations of Cincinnati that were special to us (maternity photos in Mariemont, 6 month photos in our home and area of Madeira, 1 year photos on the Ohio River overlooking downtown), and it'll be fun to continue that tradition with our new home. For this batch, we started with a couple of shots on our front step, and then we walked down the block to the big park that we walk through often (and where Peter and I had our prom photo shoots in high school together, fun fact!), wrapping up with a few on the steps of the church two doors down from our house that we've been attending. Loved capturing our new neighborhood along with Hendrik at this age!

Photos by Janelle Coffey.

week(end): beach week, round 2

I'm back from pure Michigan, round 2... Another lovely week at Lake Michigan (though a little chilly at times - weird August weather!) and even nicer this time because Peter had the week off, so he was along too. Most it was spent at a cottage with his parents and all of his siblings, followed by a few days at my parents' cottage with all of my siblings - rare to have all of these siblings together at the same time, so it was great. Some photos of our fun, sun, and even a baby shower - so nice.

Peter had a chance to read his first novel in a while... I got in two

the rental cottage | one of many lovely sunsets over the lake

family ice cream outing - flurries are my favorite

pregnant lady happy with her ice cream | nephews too (everyone a little chilly)

nice walks with Peter in the mornings | peaceful views in the evenings

evening strolls around the area

baby party with the whole family

fun games included baby bottle bowling for the kids | adorable knit things from my grandma

Peter & his pup on the porch at my parents' cottage

my whole fam on the beach, in profile to show off our newest member

Our last pre-baby trip to Michigan - hitting the 31-week mark today, I'm thinking that soon I won't want to venture too far from the hospital where we plan to deliver, plus there's lots to do around here in preparation. Exciting, but a little sad to be done with the beach (and getting to see our families) for the summer. How was your weekend?