Botanical Gardens Photo shoot

On Memorial Day we had a photo shoot with MckMama!

I wanted to share some of my favorites!!

These are some of the ones I plan on framing very soon! I love how they turned out :)

Which is your favorite?

Family Photoshoot

At the end of May our family had pictures taken at the Botanical Gardens! An other blogger I follow, MckMama, came to our city took photographs! Hubby surprised me on Mother's Day with a paid session with her.

MckMama posted a sneak peek on her blog today! I was so excited to see that she got a picture with all of us looking at the camera. No small feet these days...

I am so excited to see how the rest turned out!!

Flowers and pictures.

We spent our Memorial day holiday at the Botanical Gardens. I'd never been there before but it was gorgeous! I kept telling hubby over and over again that my grandma {who passed away in 2006 of cancer} would have loved it there. She was passionate about flowers. She always had a beautiful garden and lawn and I loved visiting her in the summers and helping her water them as she told me about each one. I decided to throughly enjoy it on her behalf!

I knew what several of the flowers where called because of her educating me as a child. Hubby was impressed! My absolute favorite flower is -who am I kidding, I have several favorites- but I really, really, really love peonies! {And we didn't get any pictures of them because my camera battery died soon after we got there.} I think I convinced hubby to let me plant one or two in our yard. He thought they were pretty neat before they bloom, they are these tight, small little balls. And when they bloom they are these big, fluffy and soft looking flowers! Ah, I just love them.





The actual reason we went to the Botanical Gardens yesterday was to have family photos taken! Hubby surprised me on Mother's day with a paid session with MckMama for yesterday. I had been telling him how I wished we would be able to schedule something with her while she was here {for those of you who might not know who she is, she is a mama blogger who lives up north and her family is on a summer long road trip in a camper headed out west! She is also a photographer by profession and takes amazing pictures.} We actually had a photo shoot with her last winter when she came out for a Focus on the Family marriage conference.

Here the kids are dressed for the pictures.  I made Little lady's dress. :)

The funny thing is when she came out last February Little lady was 7 months old and now Little dude is 7 months old, having our photos taken by her again! She recognized us and recalled us from the first time once we told her about it. It was fun to chat with her again. She is so good with kids {shoot, she has 5 of her own!} and we can not wait to see how the pictures turned out!!

Wonderful Weekend.

What a wonderful weekend! I hope you all had a great one too.

Let's see, on Saturday we got up and around and went out to our favorite outdoor shopping center close by to snap some picture of the kids! Imagine my surprise when we pull up to the courtyard {that also has a ground fountain we enjoy through out the summer} and find that all of the flower gardens surrounding it are filled with TULIPS, all in full bloom. I was so excited because tulips are my absolute favorite flowers!

And they were gorgeous! The fountain was going to, which was also a surprise. Although I can see why, given our 80 degree weekend. Summer is just around the corner!!

The kids were in pretty good moods and we got quite a few great shots! Even though Little lady is in a phase where she doesn't mind her brother as long as he isn't touching her. That left little hope for a sibling shot.

After we took pictures, I spent the afternoon at our church helping put together rose bouquets that our mom's group sold for Mother's day to benefit a local place that helps single moms in the area. And we went to Saturday evening service as well, where I won the "Mom of the youngest child" contest! Every year they do a competition for the "Mother of the youngest" and "Mother of the oldest child" at each service. Little dude happened to be the youngest little dude there on Saturday night! I won a beautiful bouquet of roses and book!

Sunday morning my mother's day wish came true and I was able to sew for the whole morning!! I actually completed a little summer dress for Little lady! {All except for the shoulder straps which I still have to attach before she can wear it.}

 

I used the tutorial over at Make it and Love it blog! It was really simple and so very cute! I'm excited to make a few other adorable little outfits for her from a pattern book I found.

We also spent Sunday afternoon with hubby's mom and his aunt and we always have a great time visiting with them! To finish off our day, we went to the park and watched in amazement how much Little lady has grown since last year this time.

 

And Little dude had his first experience in the swing! He really liked it, much more than his big sister did at his age.

A little work out with daddy was in order as well!

What was the best part about your weekend?

My sweet family.

My sweet family.