My Louisiana Trip......went GREAT! After I left my best friend in Houston I had a layover in Dallas and then a short flight over to Louisiana. Katie came to pick me up at the airport and I was SO excited to see her. Their family moved from Milledgeville about a year ago and I've missed them so much. This family holds a special place in my heart. I....love them.
One of the goals for this trip was to help decorate their new house with pictures. The first morning I was there I started working on some stuff with Lyn(aka Supermom). After we finished up some stuff she told me she didn't have any matching clothes for the kids. So, she wanted me to go to Old Navy and pick out clothes for everybody. A lot of people ask for ideas on what to wear for photo shoots. I usually tell families to start by basing their outfits on the same color pants. So let's just say, start with jeans or khakis. Lyn said they are not really a khaki type of family(me either, I never can keep them clean!) so we went with jeans. My second suggestion is to think of everybody as if they are wearing one big outfit. Things need to go together. You shouldn't have one person wearing polka dots and the other wearing stripes, you shouldn't use colors that will clash, etc. So, I wrote down everybodys' size and Lyn told me what the family likes and doesn't like. I wanted the clothes to look like them and not something I was trying to make them wear. Johnny and I finally located Old Navy and I started the hunt. I had NO clue it was so hard to get families to coordinate. By the way, I found a new appreciation for my family clients. I now realize what I'm asking when I quickly say in an email or phone call "Oh, just make it like one big outfit, blah blah blah, etc.". I was so excited that I got to be apart of picking out the outfits though. This was honestly frustratingly fun. I got three different choices together for Lyn. I had this cool yellow/navy combination together, then another set with more muted colors like navy, tan, lighter eggplant purple(not sure how to describe that one obviously), brown, and off white, then, my last set was really "matchy matchy". Lyn and Katie loved the first two sets but decided they weren't really a "matchy matchy" type of family. They couldn't decide between the first two outfits so they made a few tweaks and bought the first two sets. Yay. Mission Accomplished
One thing that Lyn wanted in her new hallway were lots of random pictures. So, we definitely have to get Noah up on the wall doing what he absolutely loves, playing soccer.
The only day that everybody could do the family pictures was Saturday. It was supposed to rain Saturday so we starting praying and praying it wouldn't. It's one of those times you tell God, "Hey! You made this place, You are in control of it, PLEASE please PLEASE hold the rain off, You can do this I know it!!!" I know I don't have to tell Him that He is in control, but it helps me to trust Him more when I verbalize it. ;)
All of the images below were done on Saturday......with ZERO rain while we were doing them! :) :) :) We broke the sessions up between morning and afternoon because well, that's an awful lot of pictures for kids to smile in for one sitting!
This girl makes my heart so happy.
"Ashah, wanna be best friends?"
Katie, this girl is amazing. She's one of my best friends. We've been through a lot together and grown closer over the years. She is such an encouragement to me in my walk with Christ. I LOVE HER!
I made her, it's because I like that song from Willow Smith "Whip My Hair", it's so pointless but it's fun and helps ya let loose;) In the middle of my days of editing, I have to break this song out and dance around my office, then sit back and edit. I'm weird. I admit it!
Sister pictures!
"Ashah, wanna hold hands?"
He asked me this several times during the trip and it melts my heart every time!
His eyes, I know, incredible. He is so used to people raving about his eyes that he sometimes winks at ladies after they start commenting on them;)
My Old Navy helper. He's the man. He has such a sweet heart!
John and Lyn. I admire this couple so much. They are definitely Super Dad and Super Mom. They have FIVE kids. They have been married for 25 years and are still madly in love with each other. John is listed in Lyn's phone as "Best Friend". ;)
One of the best gifts you can give your kids, is having a strong, loving, Godly marriage...
Hott Mama!!! ;)
This is my FAVORITE picture from the entire week. There is something about this child that my camera can't get enough of. If I thought modeling was cool I'd tell Lyn to get her into that, but, I don't so I won't. ;)
This was the second outfit I picked out, the muted colors I tried to describe.
After the photo shoot, we took pictures and measured certain areas in their living room, hallway(longest hallway I've ever seen), & kitchen that we wanted pictures to go up in. They have two huge blank walls in their living room. We had a vision of what we wanted and then went to Michael's and bought tons of frames. There are so many times that people order pictures that are way too small for the area that they are putting the pictures in. So, when we went to Michael's we bought one 24x36 frame for the big family picture, 6-11x14s(for each of the kids and parents), 6-5x7s for the kitchen(for each of the kids and parents), and at least 10 big frames(with random 5x7, 4x6, and 3.5x5 pictures sizes within the frame) to go into their long hallway. We then ordered a 2.5 ft X 5 foot 5 inch (approximately) panoramic canvas of the picture below. All of that seems huge right? Well, these walls are huge, so we wanted to fill it, bam! I can't wait to see it up!
NOTE: ALL of those frames(not including the canvas) only cost around $400. Michael's often runs specials on their frames for 40% off, so we got that PLUS a very nice employee handed us a 25% off coupon that was in the newspaper that week(another blessing from God).
This picture represents their new life in Louisiana...
We did Noah's portraits in-between the family shoot because he couldn't do it earlier:)
This is the picture they chose for the 24x26...
By the end of the day, we were exhausted! That night as I walked to the guest cottage, it started raining....I smiled so big because I knew that God had held off the rain for us.