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.

five (plus five) things Friday: iPhone lately edition

After our recent family trip, my iPhone photo app is bursting at the seams, even more than usual - so I thought it would be a good time to do a little life update, by way of the last 10 photos on my phone. Aside from the ones already shared on Instagram, here's some of life lately, from travel to try-ons.

1. Last year I ventured into the land of rompers, so I think now I might be ready for a jumpsuit. What do we think of this one I ordered from Old Navy to try?

2. School work seen hanging in the hallway. You can tell Hendrik's been learning about various continents, because when we were on our spring break getaway an hour away from home, he informed a woman in the bookstore that "we're just visiting here." (Oh yeah, where are you from?) "North America."

3. Boy by a barn (at Peter's aunt + uncle's place in California).

4. J.Crew sale try on. So I like stripes. And stripes. And more stripes. (And pink.)

5. My boys + cool shades + California sun.

6. New sign by the bathroom at our favorite frozen yogurt place. Love it.

7. Hendrik's sneakers were getting too small, so I got him a mini me version of my new New Balances. Twinning! We're both kind of in love with them.

8. Peter's aunt gave Hendrik a horse riding lesson when we visited in California. Doesn't he look so big?!

9. Speaking of big, my boy heading off the plane with his backpack.

10. Colorful mosaic stairs in Golden Gate Park that just couldn't resist having their photo snapped.


What have you been pulling out that phone/camera for lately? I'm about to re-fill mine with another fun family getaway weekend, this time to meet up with some friends in Chicago!

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.

wearing lately: family time

This week's outfit post comes with the whole family, matching watches, and some thoughts on how we're keeping up with family time lately...

I think any family has to be intentional about it if they're actually going to break out of the everyday routine and have special together time or if they're going to get out of the house and take advantage of the kid-friendly fun around their town (honestly, it's sometimes easier to just stay home with toddlers, right?) but we're trying to be especially so, because in some ways family time is really a new thing for us.

Peter's now a month into his job, and we've been enjoying the new "normal" it's brought for family. Going from residency - when he was usually getting home around 7pm (but it wasn't uncommon to have a day or two a week when he didn't get home until after Hendrik was in bed) and when he was on call 1-2 weekends a month, which meant he was gone all of Saturday and Sunday morning - having him home arriving by 5:30, working only half days on Wednesdays, and being off on the weekends has been a treat - but it's also been an adjustment in figuring out what our family time is going to be, now that it's available to us! We feel a little like we're making up for lost time with the family activities, and we have to remember to actually plan to do things together, because we're not used to it.

Combining the new and improved schedule (not to mention Peter's entire month of July vacation!) with moving to a new city, we've got a great opportunity to come up with a family fun to-do list of things we can all do together - especially with being back in our hometown, where there are things from our childhoods that we want to show Hendrik but also a lot of changes in the town that will be fun to explore. Some of the items on our family fun list are quick or free things, and some are big events or outings, but all will be a nice way to spend time together making memories.

A few things we've done together already this summer:

• Find our new go-to breakfast restaurant
• Go to the pool
• Go on a boat ride
• Walk to the farmers market
• Spend some weekends at the cottage

And some want-to-do items remaining on our list:

• Go apple picking
• Take a family vacation (booked for October - Turks & Caicos, here we come!)
• Visit the Grand Rapids Children's Museum
• Go out for pie at Russ' (childhood memories!)
• Hear a concert in the nearby park
• Do swimming lessons with Hendrik
• Visit daddy at work for lunch

Peter and I have also been working our way through our own date night list, also important quality time... We're excited to try a new restaurant off our list on Friday to celebrate when he finishes taking the boards!

How do you spend quality family time? Any great toddler-friendly ideas to add to our list?

These photos courtesy of my mom, on a dinner outing to a waterfront restaurant to celebrate my grandma's birthday - a whole other type of family time we get to enjoy now that we've moved!

Thanks to JORD for Peter's cool wood watch (that matches mine!) and for asking me to think and write about family time and the ways we can make it quality time.

our Christmas...

...was merry indeed. Highlights included:

• Getting to be with Peter on Christmas Day! He had the whole week off, so he was able to do all the family fun for once, and to actually be with us on Christmas morning for opening stockings at my parents' house (sadly my dad was the one working this year...).

• Having the latest Christmas morning start ever - Henkie Pie did a pretty great sleep in, and none of us minded starting the day late (especially not my college-aged brothers, who have changed their tunes from Christmas past). We thoroughly enjoyed our stockings, staying in PJs until noon, and having our traditional brunch including cinnamon bread and  mimosas.

• Benefiting from giving Peter the best Christmas gift ever (besides the remote car starter he gave me!) - a night at a cool hotel with grandparent childcare... HOURS to do whatever we wanted equaled a quick workout, happy hour, window shopping, walking to dinner and thusly enjoying a whole bottle of wine, spending 12 hours in bed sleeping + reading, and going out for brunch.

• Playing our annual Christmas Day family bunco game, always a rollicking time.

• Seeing Hendrik enjoy all of the festivities this year - so much more fun than his first Christmas!

• Introducing Hendrik to his cousins, finally, and having Peter's whole family together for the first time since before Hendrik was born.

first Christmas with baby

After celebrating an early mini family Christmas in Cincinnati with our stockings, we packed up the car (oh, so much to pack!) for baby's first road trip to Michigan for his first Christmas. He got lots of love and presents and snuggles from lots of family members, from grandparents & great grandparents, to aunts, uncles, and great aunts/uncles, to second cousins. He even got to meet his 90-year-old great great great aunt. We enjoyed all the family gatherings, the holiday baking & treats, and of course the cute baby Christmas outfits - a few photos of our festive fun:

Now we're back home, happy to be reunited with Peter (who couldn't stay all the way through Christmas because he had to work the day before & after), but readjusting to life without all the extra helpful sets of baby-holding arms...

Hope you all had an equally merry Christmas time with your family & friends.

family time

Sadly Peter had to head home to Cincinnati already since his vacation week is over, but Henk & I are still enjoying some family time with all these fun people...

(Shenanigans from our family Christmas card photo session at Thanksgiving with a tripod & camera remote. The funniest thing about the series was how by the end of this next one you can see people are holding the baby a bit away from themselves... as we passed him down the line we realized there had been a bit of a diaper blowout.)

Wishing you much joy with your families too - see you after Christmas!

yours, mine, ours: cozy winter holiday edition

I'm a homebody from way back, and having the house all festive for Christmas makes a weekend at home even nicer - there's just something about cozying up with the heater going and the lights twinkling while it's dark and snowy outside (these sentiments end about January 1, unfortunately - then I'm wishing for spring).

So now that the decorations are up we just need the weekend to hurry up and arrive - and Peter's Saturday work obligations to be over - so we can snuggle up as a family. I've got all the essentials for a cozy winter holiday weekend ready to go in the daddy (yours), mommy (mine), & baby (ours) versions, starting with the stockings on the mantel...

toasty toes

festive plaids

fuzzy vests

warm drinks

(Thanks, Anne, for the sweet new mom care package with this gorgeous Lindsay Letters mug. I love it!)

See the previous installment of yours, mine, ours here.

weekend: destination baby

I think Cincinnati has never been a more popular Thanksgiving weekend destination... just look at all the people who came to visit us (okay, Hendrik) in the last few days:

Oma (Peter's mom)

Opa (Peter's dad)

Poppy (my dad) | GG (my mom)

Aunt Clayre & Uncle Joe (my sister & brother-in-law)

Uncle Owen | Uncle Dirk (my brothers)

Other highlights of our holiday weekend:

• Eating delicious food with family at two of our favorite lunch places - Dilly Cafe and Nada
• Going to two spinning classes
• Starting the Runner's World holiday running streak (run at least 1 mile every day from Thanksgiving to New Year's) with my 1st postpartum outdoor run (4 miles) on Thursday
• Not having to send Peter off to work on Sunday evening since his month of night shift is done - yay!
• Waking up to sunshine
• Having a great Sunday brunch with my family and some amusing family photo shoots

But really, it was all about this turkey, of course: