Family Picture Photo Dump

It's Tiffany here, still playing catch up. 

These are our first official family photos as a family of three besides the ones we took when Kellan was first born and an itty bitty baby. Do those even count as family photos?? I'm not sure. Anyway, around Kellan's first birthday seemed like an appropriate time so early November 2014 is when this actually happened. It seems so funny sitting here at the end of February 2015, the coldest month on record here in CT, and saying that it was such a cold day when we got these pictures taken. I want to say maaaaybe it was in the 40s? Ha! I don't even remember what that feels like at this point! Buuuut we were cold. It was seriously the only cold cold day in at least a two week stretch.  We got all dressed up and put our coats on over the top of our just amount of match-y outfits (in my mind we were fully intending on taking the pictures coat free as to appear warm and happy) and never took them off.  I left the photo shoot feeling so sad and disappointed that it was so cold and the pictures we wanted didn't happen because of that and because of a certain 1 year old's reaction to said cold and just like they were going to be a big flop. Hunter was insistent that everything would turn out just wonderfully and that I shouldn't be worried. Much to my surprise, he was completely right and I absolutely LOVE all of these. I got three of them made into canvases that are hanging in our house kind of love. 

Lesson learned (probably more like reinforced, I'll likely be learning this lesson for the rest of my life): it's okay when things don't work out perfectly and according to plan. Whatever happens instead may just be perfect and exactly what was supposed to happen.

Without further ado, here are the photos! I think I included one of all of them, black and white mixed in, because I just love both versions so much. 

Blowing kisses!

This was about the mood of the day:

...but also happens to make a fabulous picture! haha. 

We soooo wanted to get a good swinging shot and this was the best we could get (which is actually remarkably good). Don't be fooled into thinking Kellan is enjoying himself though, that's definitely a scream face going on.

Thank you delayed, slow, New England leaf changing for allowing the slow pokes like us to still get fabulous fall pictures well into November.

Photo credit once again goes to Marci Dawn Photography. Thanks for putting up with us and hanging out in what we thought was the cold!

Kellan's 1st Birthday!

Having a child is definitely right at the top of the list of best things you can ever do with your life. This whole last year has just been such an adventure. It is soooo much fun! Yes, there are challenging times, but really, it just keeps getting better! It's crazy looking back at these pictures now that Kellan is almost 15 months old because so much has changed already!

 

A few notable things about our sweet 12 month old:

 

He took his first steps on October 30th on a frisbee field, which is very appropriate.

He continued to take steps with assistance until his birthday when he decided he could do it all on his own! He did continue to prefer crawling for about a month before completely converting to walking.

He cut his 7th tooth (bottom right) on his birthday as well - it was a big day. haha.

Official stats: 29 lbs even, 32 inches.

His first haircut came a couple days after these pictures were taken - so be sure and enjoy the curly mullet in all its glory in these pictures as this is the last time it will be seen.

 

We were SOOOO excited about him unwrapping birthday presents! We figure he would love it so much and we were not disappointed! However, a couple things of note for the future: 1 year olds prefer bags and tissue paper to wrapping paper and don't open the coolest toy first - no matter how excited you are about it! No other toys will exist or matter afterwards.

 

 

I was so excited to make his cake! It took a while to decide what kind of cake I would make for him, but in the end I decided on a white cake with orange (flavored and colored) frosting covered in clementines - which are maybe his favorite things in the entire world.

 

We were quite surprised at his reaction to having a whole cake placed in front of him - Kellan loves his food. We fully anticipated him diving right in and loving it. However, he wasn't sure what to think of it and didn't know what to do with all the sweet. He made lots of funny faces and sounds of dislike before deciding it was okay to eat a little of it.

 

He did do a little better with it when we cut it up. He definitely seemed to prefer the cake part to the frosting part - boy after my own heart.

 

Happy Birthday sweet boy!

 

It was so much fun celebrating his first year of life. I can't wait to see what the future holds. Raising a child is a trip to be sure. If you're on the fence about it, I say take the leap and have a baby. Life will never be the same again in such a wonderful way.

 

Without further ado, bring on toddlerhood!

 

End note: Big shout out to Marci Dawn Photography for the awesome pictures!