September 18, 2014

Fall Family Photo Outfits

I love having our family pictures taken.  It usually only happens once a year and it's always in the fall.  That is the only time I am actually guaranteed to get professional pictures taken.  It's mostly for Christmas card purposes, if I'm being honest, but I do love to change out our pictures in our house every once in a while too.

I do not, however, like trying to find coordinating outfits for us all {families bigger than four are laughing at me right now}.  In this day and age the idea is to all wear outfits that coordinate but don't "match".  Gone are the days of everyone wearing jeans and a white top.  Today we want to look more casual as if we just happened to look this cute while we were at a park and stumbled across a professional photographer.  Right?  Wrong.  

The whole coordinating but not matching thing is cute, looks great in pictures but boy oh boy doesn't it cause me a lot of sleepless nights.  I know, I know {hashtag: firstworldproblems}.  I mean I didn't literally lose sleep over it but I did have many text conversations with my friend over it {I'm lucky she still speaks to me after that debacle}.  It just stresses me out.  


I knew I wanted to wear THAT dress. I got it a few days before, fell in love with it, loved the fit, it was perfect.  I was able to coordinate Jimmy and baby James with no troubles but Kendall?  She had nothing in the orange, olive, black/white department.  I was struggling.  Again hashtag: firstworldproblems.  I'll say this, if you are looking for something black and white for a little girl, think again.  It basically doesn't exist, I looked everywhere.  So I had to figure out a new way to tie us all together, because I was wearing that dress, damnit. 

Enter the denim vest.  Seriously people, what did I do before this 1990s throwback?  I am obsessed.  I wear it pretty much every day that I get dressed in real clothes.  I love it.  So throw that on and all I needed was a denim dress for Kendall, some orange accents and a pair of brown boots and we're good as coordinated.  

I also knew I wanted to get some pictures of just Jimmy and I because the last REAL pictures we have together are from our wedding, everything since has been family.  So then our outfits had to look good together but also with the whole family.  You guys I think way too much about this stuff.


Our pictures were a bit different from last year.  Last year James was just a tiny baby.  We didn't have to worry about him looking at the camera because, who cares, he's a baby!  He also wasn't mobile at the time either.  Now he's mobile in the sense that he does whatever he wants and also is too young to listen so that's fun.  But my sweet friend Sarah was so great with my kids.  She knew what to do to get them to look at her, made them smile at the same time and when she shot this picture I knew it was going to make my heart melt.



It's safe to say I want to start a gallery wall with just canvases from this shoot because I am in love!  When Sarah sent me my slideshow I cried, literally.  So beautiful.  I didn't even care what the outfits looked like together anymore.  This is my family and my whole heart.  I know that the days seem long but the years are short and these photos reminded me of that.  Kendall is four and James is one and I can remember the day each of them was born as if it were yesterday.  I am so incredibly lucky to be their mama {or "mom" as Kendall calls me these days}.  As for Jimmy?  He's stolen my heart all over again.  He's the one who keeps me sane, the one I can be silly with and the one who has my back no matter what.  I don't know where I'd be without him.


Outfit details:
Jimmy- Shirt//Jeans {similar}//Boots {similar}
Shannon- Dress//Vest//Boots {similar}
Kendall- Dress//Bow//Boots
James- Shirt//Pants//Shoes

10 comments:

  1. haha. you're lucky I was as into that fashion discussion as you. spending my evenings googling dresses and ish ;) turned out awesome.

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  2. Haha, definitely #firstworldproblems but for us all :) These are beautiful pictures x

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  3. I am currently stressing over family picture outfits, as well. I have a Pinterest board to keep everything organized and I have already gotten Colson and Hailry's outfit. It is definitely had to get something for everyone--and I have one more than you! :oP bit you did wonderfully and your pics look great!!

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  4. That dress looks great on you and you coordinated very well. When we had our family pictures done a few months ago, I picked my outfit first then built my husband and baby's outfits around it. I have a feeling that will be how outfits are chosen from here on out. Your pictures are gorgeous and you all look incredibly happy.

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  5. These are seriously amazing!

    And so glad you don't do matchy matchy, even if it was difficult. I still know people that wear jeans and all black tops and I'm like NO.....

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  6. you nailed it. these outfits are perfection! and the photos are everything.
    you look so so so so so good. and so happy.
    love the new look of the blog!

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  7. These are breathtaking!! And I think the outfits are perfect!!

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  8. Pretty sure we just had our daughters 6 month photos taken in the same park!!! Love the look of the outfits. We have a 90's family photo where we are all wearing white, so cheesy!!

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  9. I love everyone of them! Can you plan my match but don't match outfits?

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