Family pictures: Nautical theme

My Sister in Law, Melanie, is a wonderful photographer and this past summer, while we were both in Alabama, she was so sweet and agreed to take pictures of our crazy brood of kids.

She is great at capturing my kids personality and I love to see her work.

I am so blessed to have such an awesome sister in law and its a total plus that she is also a great photographer... icing on the already awesome cake, if you will.

I love the red and navy color combo so I finally decided it was time to take pictures with those colors in mind.

I love the way they turned out.

Go here to view her website and see some of her amazing work.

She took some in 2013 in the dead middle of winter in Utah too, go here to see those pictures.

I love that Aowyns hair had so much body in the humidity of the South, its best friend is static cling here in the desert.

Braddoc loves his hats so of course he had to have one on.

He hates having his picture taken and most of our family pictures at home and on vacation either don't have him in them or you can see him far off in the background... so I really love having so many great pictures with him in them.

This little lady has so much sass in such a little body.

She loves to follow me everywhere and do everything that I am doing. 

She is curious about the world around her and is always asking questions in an attempt to understand everything. She hates to have her hair brush but loves a good pony tail and bow.

She loves to be in dresses but always wants leggings with them.

She is the sweetest, most caring little girl I know.

The outfit she is wearing is one that I wore when I was her age and one that my mom wore when she was this age. Maybe I can find some pictures to do a comparison. 

Aowyn will be the only blonde one.

I love the South.

I love the chippy charm that is everywhere.

I love how green it is.

I love the random half old, half new barns and the dead tractors everywhere... it makes for some pretty fantastic photo ops.

We went out to my Granddads house to take our pictures.

Most of my childhood vacation memories are at this house.

Riding golf carts around outside, hunting for frogs, playing catch, running crazy in the big open areas, pretending that wild animals lived in the "jungle" behind the fence, playing cards around the table, exploring the house, and just being a kid.

I love that we could go take pictures out there.

It was fantastic.

I really am so in love with these pictures of the kids together.

I'm pretty biased, I know, but I think this is one good looking family.

I love the pictures of me with each of my sweet babies.

Each of my kids has their own unique personality and I think Melanie did a fantastic job capturing each one of them.

Braddoc with his dimples and freckles is one good looking kid.

He loves to wear colored pants and sweaters (even when its hot).

He loves his hats and has finally learned to tie his shoes.

He has the biggest heart and is always worried about the people he loves.

Anxiety rules his life and I hate that for him, but he is slowly learning some coping skills to help him.

Landon is such a smart boy and LOVES college football.

He helps me when he is in a good mood but mostly just loves to be outside doing kid things.

He loves to be in "comfy" clothes... aka basketball shorts and a shirt and hates that I make him put jeans on 4 out of 5 school days.

He loves Math and is slowly starting to like reading.

He loves to build legos and watch The Lord of the Rings and Super Hero movies.

We call Tayton "baby hulk" because he is so sweet and cute and cuddly until he isn't.

There is never a dull moment with this kid.

He says the funniest things that we have dubbed "Taytonisms" and makes me laugh all the time.

He does "bad" things just to get attention even if I just spent 30 minutes reading him a book.

He loves to read and has the biggest imagination and loves to build things.

He takes such good care of Aowyn and loves to follow his big brothers.

Aowyn was in a terrible mood and therefor had no pictures taken of just her this time.

I can't believe that Noah and I will have been married for 10 years in March. 

Time has really flown by.

I love him more and more each day.

He makes me laugh, keeps me on my toes and encourages me to do the things that make me happy.

I love these guys of mine.

I love how crazy they are together and how much fun they have just being silly.

I wish we had more room for them to just run and play.

That's the hardest part of where we live right now... no open, outside area to be kids in.

I miss the South and all the outdoor grandness and adventures it had to offer these busy little boys.

My parents and their grandsons.

This was supposed to be Grand kids.... but Aowyn was literally in full on meltdown mode so she was not in the picture and Braddoc was PO'd, in case you can't tell by the face he is making, but got into the picture upon bribery of candy being offered.

Shhhh be quiet, there are animals in the woods.

I love this picture so much because it is the reality of our life with those crazy kids.

Thank you Melanie for loving us enough to deal with our craziness.

We love you!

Go here for the Winter family pictures she took in 2013.
Such a difference in the backgrounds... lol green vs snow.

Things that have caught my eye Dec 14

I don't know about you but when I'm browsing the internet on my phone or walking through a store and I want to remember something I snap a picture on my oh so handy iPhone so that I can go back to it whenever I want.

Here are a few of the things that have caught my eye lately.

I am LOVING all the Gold and Black everywhere. 

I love it so much that I decided to redo our Master bedroom to use those colors.

The Master is still a work in progress because I am being picky about what I want to go in there.

When I was browsing Target for curtains (which I do frequently whether I need them or not) I saw these gold curtains and snapped a picture because I couldn't decide whether they will fit the space the way I want or not. 

I love all the wood signs everywhere and I really love the look of words burned into the wood.

I am determine to make one someday soon.... I hope.

I LOVE everything about this outfit. 

I loved it so much I pulled what I had in my closet to try to match this for Thanksgiving.

I mostly love the frame, for umm.... EVERYTHING.

But I'm really into the vintagey prints right now too.

Aowyns room is all vintage so this would be so cute in there.

I see Subway signs like this everywhere, but its always places in New York or California and as cute as they are, they are never what I am looking for.

When I saw the Subway sign with all the glory of the South I had to have it, but the nearly $100 price tag made me choke a little.... so I did what any smart shopper/crafty crafter would do.... I took a picture so I can make it at home.

This picture is blurry because I wasn't sure if I was allowed to take pictures... so I quietly hid my phone and took one anyway.... its totally legit, right?

I want a table like this for behind our couch upstairs.

I really really want this table in my living room upstairs. 

I also really want the old apothecary ones that are the rolling carts... these pieces of furniture make my heart pitter patter.

Ahh the beautiful black and gold.

Some more the of the vintage charm goodness.

Our bathroom downstairs is navy blue and yellow and I "love" this for an empty space I have in there... but I'm debating about whether or not a heart that says love in it is appropriate for the bathroom. Maybe? Maybe not?

These beauties are NEEDED in my house.

I want them on my dresser in the master and as many other places as I can put them.

I'm just waiting for the handle sale at Hobby Lobby and they will be mine... oh and the courage to make the 45 minute trip over there with the kids.

I really want this print to go above the piano in the family room.

I really want some library barn pully's to go downstairs too. 

Every time I find them online they are sold out.... so as soon as my luck wins out I will have some of these bad boys in my possession.

This whole space just speaks to me.

There is a wall in our master bedroom where I want to do this. 

I have a feeling that it will take forever to get this to come together... (read that as: stupid Las Vegas and its inability to fulfill my vintage/antique obsession.)

$50 price tag? For that? 

Just wait till I get some burlap, paint and canvas and its on.

That pillow... oh that pillow.

I have a NEED for that Bakery sign in my house.... even though I'm not a big baker, its really just the beauty of the sign that matters right?

This redo!! Wow! I love everything about this space. I love the giant clock and the bench and the center piece and the buffet.... and everything else.

I stood there and looked at this forever debating whether or not I wanted to buy it.

In the end the fact that I had NOWHERE to put it, or even an idea of where I wanted to put it won out and I left it at the store.

I love the house on it. 

I really love the whole sign.

In the past I have just bought things because I loved them and usually ended up with a garage full of pieces that I loved but had no where to put them, so I stopped buying things unless I knew exactly where I wanted to put it.

Again, nowhere to put it, but I still loved it.

This is one of the first things on my list of things to make at the first of the year. 

It will go in the downstairs family room.

Oh the gorgeousness. 

Lets just take a second to gaze upon this beauty....

Need more time?

Man I love this whole piece.

I will be doing this with our desk, sometime in the near future.

This color combo just makes me happy. 

Aowyns room is these colors and I love to just go hang out and look at all the greatness that these colors are.

Oh swoon!!!

I love all the books and the ladder... one day, one day. 

I need this sign to go above the window in my kitchen.

Man, Ive got a lot of projects this year.

This needs no explanation. 

I will own something like this someday.

Its probably the one piece of furniture that I dream about and search for everywhere I go.

Its just perfect.

For a little while I debated on doing something like this as our headboard in the Master, but in the end a tuft headboard won out. Ill post about my headboard hunt soon.

I want one of these so badly... but that requires having the space for one of these.... and that is something we really don't have right now, so for now Ill just dream of the day I can have one of these.

This is what I am going to do with the vanity in my bedroom. I just love it.

I am also doing something kind of like this to the dresser/tv stand in the family room.

I have something kind of like this in our master bedroom. I love the idea of a shelf on the door with the mirror. 

Ill have to post my mirror soon to show ya'll what I did.

What girl doesn't love Tiffany Blue?

Such a cute idea for a jewelry station.

I want one of these mirrored dressers in my house... anywhere in my house will do.

I would really love to have it in my Master, but I won't be picky, I just want to own it.

I'm not huge fan of animal prints, but I do love this outfit.

It screams comfy yet stylish.

I.must.own.

I used this chair as inspiration for my chairs upstairs in our sitting area.

I love the tuft look.

I want to do this to the dresser in Landon and Tayton's room. 

Their room is vintage America, think Route 66 diner type feel.

I think this dressers colors would be perfect in there.

This piece just needs to be in my house so I can love it and look at it everyday.

La sigh! Its just a thing of beauty.

Am I the only one who takes pictures of everything that they love?

I promise I take pictures of my kids and husband too.... really I do.