8 Tips For A Successful Kid Photo Shoot

       

        Have a good photographer.  The reality is my tips I’m about to give only contribute a very small sliver of what it takes to have a successful photo shoot, it’s really the photographer that all the credit is given to.   We are extremely fortunate to have a very talented photographer who also happens to be one of my best friends!  Being she is such a good friend, we are super comfortable around her and it makes for an easy going photo shoot.  If you don’t have a photographer, my tip is to find one you are comfortable being yourself around, the shoot should flow comfortably and easily from there.

       Have a GAME PLAN!  I know Annie’s 1^st nap of the day is very dependable and I can rely on it.  I know her afternoon nap is a little shakier. Therefore I opt for the late/mid-morning photo session when she seems the happiest as well.  We timed this last one so that she would wake up 30 minutes beforehand and the other big tip is to have a well fed baby.  We gave her a few minutes to wake up, then we fed her, and I’m not talking just a snack, we fed her to the point where she would be plenty full.  A full, well rested baby is crucial for a successful shoot.

       2 outfit changes max!  I’ve done 3 outfits on Annie before, I would not recommend it, it’s too much work.  I do like having an outfit change in our session though to add a little diversity in your pictures.   Parents – 1 outfit for you, if you need to mix it up, throw layers on/off.   Make sure you have enough color coordination but not too ‘matchy-matchy’.  

      Bring ideas!  I always come with all my Pinterest favorites printed out for quick reference.   It will keep the shoot moving along quicker too, with a baby, you just never know how long their cooperation will last!  

       Have snacks.  This was a great idea my photographer suggested.  You can’t see the Puffs or Cheerios in their mouths while shooting and it keeps them a little more content.  When Annie started to finicky, snacks did the trick!

      Know how to make your baby smile.  I’ve really struggled with this one in the past!  What works for your baby several weeks ago, may not work the day of.  I reserved figuring out what will make Annie laugh a few days before the shoot.  I tried buying this contraption in the Target dollar aisle that had a long arm to it thinking I would be able to tickle her with it/amuse her.  I got home and tried it on her and right away she grabbed it and wanted it and played tug-a-war with it until I gave it to her.  #1stFail!  Then I went and bought a birthday noise maker, you know … the kind where you blow in them and the paper unrolls out.  Annie hated it, made her cry!  #2ndFail.  Then I just started doing funny things until I got a reaction out of her.  I found that if I puffed my cheeks out and then use my hands to ‘pop’ them or blow the air out, she would roll in laughter.  I was careful not to wear this trick out before the photo shoot by doing it too much beforehand.  On the day of, it worked like a charm!  Giggles and smiles galore each time I puffed my cheeks out and popped them.  This is why you have to be comfortable around your photographer because you will do some real idiotic, crazy things to make your child laugh!  Another thing that has somewhat worked for us is during a family picture, giving her a little belly tickle while holding her will bring on the smiles too.

      Have a pep talk with your husband.  Yes, we must address this ladies.  Before the photo shoot, I go over my Pinterest ideas and my game plan.  That way he knows what is expected and we are on the ‘same page’.  I also make sure to remind him of how important these pictures are to me and to work with me, not against me during the shoot.  I know for men, pictures can be painful.  But luckily, for his own good, he knows having a very mad wife is more painful.  And I just gently remind him of this about an hour beforehand.  

      Lastly, these are moments that are meant to be captured.  Thru all the stress, prep work, time involved… when you see those pictures for either the first time, or the 100^th time, you will constantly be reminded of how precious and priceless they really are.  It’s something that you really shouldn’t by pass!  This picture right here... melts my heart every.single.time..... 

Annie's 1st Birthday Party

Annie had a really special and fun 1st birthday party.  Family and close friends were there to help celebrate and overall we kept it fairly simple and laid back.  I love party planning so here is how it went down!

The invitation

I decided 11 am would be an ideal time as Annie normally goes down for a nap around 8:30/9am and is up around 10:30.  We ended up waking her up that morning so she wouldn't sleep in and stick to schedule and like a charm, between 10:30 and 11 she woke up from a good nap which was a relief to know we would have a happy baby for the party.

Given my 11 am start, I knew we needed to serve lunch.  I was so undecided on what to do for lunch,  I'm not an indecisive person at all!  Grilling in March with the weather is too unknown.  Plus it creates work for Aaron, more of a mess to clean up, and takes Aaron away from enjoying the party.  I thought about doing pastas, but decided a little heavy for lunch.  So I ended up with a HyVee platter of deli sandwiches and I was very happy with them.  They were served on cibatta bread with a toothpick on top with a cherry tomato. They presented well and tasted fabulous!  With that I served a Ceasar salad and given macaroni and cheese is Annie's favorite, I made up a batch of that the night before and all I had to do was bake it before the party started.  Easy peasy and it seemed to go over well with everyone.  I know the guest of honor was putting the mac and cheese down so we pleased the most important {little} person of the day!

Annie and her Dadda (heart melting!)

Love this little girl -- who does she look more like?  I think she is a good mix of both of us.

Poor Charley, she is such a good dog but when guests are over, we struggle getting her to listen and calm down, I wish she wouldn't get so excited when guests are over, for most of the party we had to detain her at the bottom of the stairs.  At least it's because she is 75 lbs too friendly, could be worst! 

Grandma, Annie, Nana and Cousin Eli.  Eli is so good with Annie!   He is no longer the only grandchild and he shares and is amazingly sweet with Annie

Annie with Uncle Cody

Grandpa Hyde getting his cuddles 

Lots of smiles with Grandma Hyde

How many 1 yr olds have a true best friend?  Alaina and Annie are! 

Lots of playtime was had

These two play pretty well... most of the time.  We are getting a glimpse of the struggle to come with sharing toys!

After lunch, we opened gifts.  When guests asked what Annie wanted for her birthday, we replied with outdoor toys.  We are running out of room for indoor toys so I thought outdoor gifts would be the most useful.  We got some great outdoor gifts that I'm looking forward to seeing her play with this summer.  I was stumped on what Aaron and I were going to get for her.  We wanted something a little special given it's the first birthday.  At daycare they had a play kitchen that Annie seemed to really like, although a little too tall for her, it would be a gift she could grow into so a play kitchen it was!  It's pretty cute seeing her open the doors and hide toys in the oven and reopen to check they are still there.

Annie still doesn't get opening gifts yet, next birthday will be a different story I'm sure! 

After gifts we went straight into cake as Annie was starting to show she was wearing down a little and likely not far from her 2nd nap of the day.  I had a pretty good feeling the cake smash would not go over the best and I was right.  Surprisingly she didn't cry while we sang happy birthday to her but had zero interest in the cake and when I tried to put a little frosting on her lips, she started to give me that look and arch her back as if she was close to a meltdown.  I know this look and know what happens here, there isn't a chance at this point we will get her interested so rather than continually trying, the cake smash ended and we let her run the last bit of her energy out before going down for her next nap.

Cutest 1 Yr Old I know!

One taste and that was it! 

First birthday party is a wrap!  Good memories, great company, yummy food, new toys, 2 naps... what more could a one year old ask for?!

Now for some "behind the scenes" details...

When I was planning the party, I saw so many cute decorations to buy and personalize on Etsy.  When I added up all my favorite items, it was going to cost hundreds of dollars.  That just didn't make sense!  So rather I figured out how to replicate and make my own and you know what... my own turned out better than what I liked on Etsy.  I may show some tutorials in coming posts but for now, let me show you what we did!

Upon finding this sweet little outfit on Etsy, it was how I came up with our birthday theme.. which was simply the colors of gold and light pink.  LOVE!

Made all on my own!  The ones on Etsy are going for $30... mine is $5 made from scratch. 

DIY at it's finest!  Less than $5 -- a little scrapbooking paper , stickers and colored string. 

Another DIY project, making good use out of those stressful monthly photo shoots

A-N-N-I-E! 

Aaron's coworkers wife was able to make this for me, how nice was that! 

Since Annie's birth, I have spent hours documenting her life in 2 book. Left one is a memory book, right one my mom made to collect picture.  Both are full of the 1st year's memories! 

I did not make this.  Let's be clear, I do not sew and never will.  My Aunt/Uncle/Cousins sent this early for us to open.  How cute!  Loved it! And to have a hat and balloons on the bib to match the set up -- it was too perfect! 

Again... let's be clear -- I did NOT make this cake.  It was the same cake vendor we used for our wedding, so it was something special we wanted for Annie's 1st birthday.  The cake turned out exactly as I asked for it to look.  So cute!

Cake display, simple but cute

Smash cake -- again by our cake vendor.  Perfect for the purpose intended.  Although I just ended up eating all of it later that week since our little Annie wanted nothing to do with it! 

Annie's 12 Month Update

Holy Cannoli, we got a 1 year old folks!  Happy, Happy Birthday Sweets!  Lots of fun stuff happened last month worth blogging about.

This picture took multiple days and hours each day of begging for cooperation! 

Blowing kisses!  She is learning how to do it on command and it is super cute.  We are still working on it but if you ask her to blow kisses, she has been able to do so without me doing it first; same with waving bye-bye.  I love that she is understanding what we tell her, she really seems to be comprehending a lot of words lately and it’s pretty cool when she picks up on one.  She has also learned how to hold her finger up to show you she is one years old when asked how old she is. Although this one is a little more tricky for her to want to do and we get her to do it about 50% of the time. 

One thing I’ve noticed that is so sweet is when she is studying a book or an item and finds something new about that item.  Example, we have a book with flaps that we’ve never opened, one day I opened the flap and her eyebrow rose and she starred like ‘Whoa…I didn’t know this book we read every single day does that.”  Her reaction is always the same; she slightly raises her eyebrows and stares in surprise, completely intrigued and taking it all in.  And then that stinker never forgets her knew found knowledge either, I think all the flaps are torn out of that book now!

One struggle I have never talked about is that for months now this girl just hates getting her diaper changed.  Screams, kicks, cries and fights it so hard!  And there is nothing about this that gives warnings signs to us that something is wrong other than she just flats out hates being pinned down on the changing table.  This has been going on for months now and we just try to get thru a diaper change as fast as possible!  Same goes for the car seat, we’ve tried 3 different seats, made sure the straps aren’t too tight… but doesn’t matter; we’ve ruled everything else out, it’s all about being strapped down, she hates it and screams like mad.  We purposely plan trips in the car around her naps or else it’s her screaming and us with a massive headache.

This month we weaned her off the bottle warmer in preparation for her to switch to cold whole milk, surprisingly it has gone way easier than I expected it too.  We just stopped warming her bottles one weekend and never have turned back.   May have been the easiest transition we’ve had thus far in this whole parenting journey!  Whoo hoo Annie!  {#winning!}

I am beyond happy to made it thru 12 months of these dreadful photo shoots.  Please remind me to never commit to such posts ever again.  I’ll still post on Annie, but don’t count on a monthly post as that stops here!   Way too stressful and not enough time on the weekends to make for picture perfect blog posts.  

Look for Annie’s 1^st birthday party post very soon!  Can’t wait to share!!

Happy Birthday Annie, A Love Letter From Your Mom & Dad

To My Precious Annie,

Today we celebrate your first birthday, what a sweet, sweet day it is!  You bring smiles and joy in the most awesome of ways.  Your twinkle and vigor for life is unmatched.  You are truly a one-of-a-kind…we love you SO much!  What a year your first has been…

You came into this world teaching your Daddy and me to have lots of patience and to love and to nurture in the toughest of times.  You suffered from colic for 4 months, there were a lot of trials trying to comfort you when you were in a lot of pain and would scream for hours on end!  It was heartbreaking and exhausting; we learned that patience, love and nurturing were what you needed most in those first few months.

When happier days were upon us, you wanted to be on the move constantly, you never cease to amaze me by how determined and tenacious you really are!  You are a go-getter, you are so driven, life with you is clear cut - you either like something or you don’t.  We’ve grown to love that so much about you, although you know how to put up quite a fight and are very bold in what you want… we see your strong personality as a positive and we truly think you will become a force to be reckoned with some day.  I pray that you use your strong willingness to bring good in this life and to others.  I’m beyond excited to see that tenacity of yours continue to grow!  

You are so fearless; you definitely don’t get that from your Mama!  You try and do things that make you seem so invincible.  It’s scary as your Mama to watch you be so adventurous at times.  There is not much that frightens you, your love and curiosity for life is without boundaries in your mind. Never forget that my sweet Annie, you can do ANYTHING!  Continue to live without fear. 

You have such a cute way of knowing when you are being ornery.  Most of the time it entails you running off with something you know you shouldn’t and squealing loudly as you pitter patter away, turning around as you run to flash me a mischievous smile.  You might just be the cutest when you are the orneriest! 

As your parents, we are your number one fan.  We run to your rescue whenever tears start, when you aren’t feeling well, to cheer you on when you took your first step, to share in the little celebrations, to laugh at all your silliness, to comfort you in the middle of the night… there isn’t anything we wouldn’t do to cherish every moment with you.  You bring joy to our lives, a fresh perspective to life; you are our blessing, our sliver of heaven on earth.    

As your Mama, I have so many hopes and dreams for you!  I pray over you and pray that you will be a child after God’s own heart, that you continue to be prosperous in good health, that your joy for life never fizzles, that your Dadda and I will be the parents we need to be to lead you on the right path. I want so much for you and can’t wait to see what the future holds! 

You came into this life as a handful and a handful you continue to be!  You keep us on our toes, I can’t imagine it any other way… we love you Annie.  So, so incredibly much!  Today is a day to celebrate your life.  What a sweet day it certainly is.  Happy Birthday My Sweets! 

Love,

Mama 

_____________________________________________

Annie,

I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday. After hours of anticipation you were finally born. The moment I became a father was a surreal moment for me.

Wanting to be the best parents we could be your mother and I went to several classes, watched videos, and read books. We always have and always will want the very best for you. Nothing can truly prepare you for parenthood. All of the worrying about whether you’re doing this or that right is only relieved with time.

As I write this we are fast approaching your first birthday. It is amazing all of the changes and advances you have made over such a short period of time. I am amazed at how big you are, that you’ve been walking for a couple months already, and how intelligent you are. Your birth has been one of the biggest changes and greatest challenges of my life.

I love to hold you tight and read you stories. I will pick you up when you fall. I will be your cheerleader in the stands and will be there for hugs to make it all better. I am far from perfect but will do the best I can to teach you and protect you.

As you grow older you’ll find out all too soon that the world is a rough and crazy place. But I can already see that you are courageous and persistent. You will be fine. You will fail but that is because you are trying and pushing to be the best that you can be. When you fail now you pick yourself up immediately and try again. I have no doubt that that is how you will approach life.

Be open to new experiences and other cultures. Be the one who doesn’t care as much about clothes as the person wearing them. Be kind, be compassionate and be humble. Love others, as God calls us to love all first and foremost. 

You (and your Mother) are the absolute loves of my life and it’s impossible to fully express the depth of feelings and hopes I have for you. I want so much for you. There is the stuff that’s easy to say: I want you to be happy; I want you to find love; I want you to be smart and ambitious; I want you to be kind; I want you to visit your Mom and me often.

Lastly, you can have whatever you want in life. When you’re younger it is easier to think material possessions and money is important…but it’s not what’s most important. As you get older things will get taken from you and people will pass. The sooner you realize that life is about the people around you and experiences you go through, the happier and more successful you will be.

Love,

Dad

Monster Cookie Dough Bites

Monster cookie dough bites are way out of this world!  So yum.  You could call them energy bites, as I have referred to them at times, but let’s get real…they taste so good because they are full of sugar, they aren’t exactly a healthy energy snack.

 

I am trying to be mindful of my sugar intake recently.  I have always known that I eat way more sugar than the average person but it’s been a real problem for me lately.  I can’t go cold turkey on sugar though.  That’s why these bites are great, I can just have a small nibble without going completely nuts and eating a whole bag of Starbucks jelly beans or 2 sleeves of Chips Ahoy or those devilish boxes of Girl Scout cookies (I may or may not have done all the above recently).  There is something about opening a whole bag of something that makes me out of control versus something that I spent the time making therefore I want to savor it and make it last longer.  These bites are just that.  They really don’t take a lot of effort to throw together either!

Several things come to mind about this recipe.  First, no oven heating required!  Secondly, they are super quick to mix up and enjoy immediately.  Third, I see this recipe as a good one that kids can join in on.  No flour here to make a mess out of!  You could even make it a lesser sugar version easily by cutting back the measurements of the sugary ingredients (kinda wish I would have considered that before I made them!  Will do next time.)   And the best part of all… you can freeze them, hence more control over how many I eat at once.  I don't see a lot of cons here. 

   Monster Cookie Dough Bites  

Yields: 30-36 cookie dough bites, depending on size

3/4 cup chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (optional, but it adds a distinct "dough" flavor)
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup quick cooking oatmeal
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup mini m&m candies

Stir together the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, baking soda, syrup and vanilla until creamy. Add the oats and stir again. Add the chocolate chips and m&m candies and stir once more. Scoop into 1" balls and smooth with your hands. Refrigerate until ready to eat. Bring to room temperature before serving, if desired. The cookie bites will keep well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for 3-4 months. Enjoy!

11 Months Old

I can’t believe I’m blogging about an 11 month old!  Time is flying now.  My baby is starting to turn into a little toddler, she’s not a little baby anymore!  #Tear!

Annie is exclusively walking now.  Shortly after posting her 10 month update, she took off walking and no longer crawls.  And now that she is walking, she is EVERYWHERE!  The other day she was really on a roll, I would run to do something in the kitchen, come back out to the living and had to look to find her in her bedroom playing by herself in the dark, she’s a quick mover!   One of the sweetest things she does is while she is walking she is just smiling and giggling as she goes.  My heart stops when she is walking towards me full of happiness coming right at me, so full of life.  It’s certainly one of the most rewarding things right now is her smile, giggles and joy for life.

This girl is still throwing a fit in her highchair.  She just hates being pinned down when she know she can be on the move.  We started to get into a bad habit of feeding her while in the living room, it’s just so much easier to get her to eat when she isn’t strapped down.  I know I need to be careful doing this for several reasons, I definitely don’t want her to choke on her food when moving around but she’s also to the point where she is just having her way with us and that we need to not give into her throwing a fit in her highchair.  It’s so hard though, I am the worse when it comes to running to her rescue when she throws a fit and giving into her every demand.  Aaron on the other hand, is better at not giving in as quickly as I do.   I just hate seeing my baby cry so if she wants something I’m the total pushover that gives in to her instantly to stop the tears.  I’m going to have to not be such a softy and let her know that being in the highchair isn’t a choice during feeding time.  

This past month Annie did get a really bad cold that kept her home for a few days with an ear infection.   During the last 45 days, she has had 3 ear infections that have just been a real struggle for all.  We are pretty certain her last cold was our fault, we had her out and about on a cold weekend.  I cannot wait for warmer months, right now we are stuck inside and after the last illness, I’m definitely not taking her out and exposing her to getting sick again.  UGH, winter go away, us Hyde’s are getting cabin fever and need to get out of the house!

Annie still isn’t really talking, no first words really.  But she definitely understands what we say and am beyond impressed with what she knows.  She has finally gotten bored with Charley and stopped crawling all over her but will not leave the dog toys alone.  When Annie has a dog toy, I look at her and say take it to Charley, she turns around, looks at Charley, walks over and gives it to her.  9 times out of 10 she will do it.  I’m blown away by what she comprehends.

Speaking of Charley, that dog is amazing with her.  The other day, Annie grabbed Charley’s nose and dug her fingernails into it and literally tore a piece of skin right off Charley’s nose and it started bleeding.  Charley had zero reaction but it definitely hurt because she started pawing at her own nose.  I was impressed with how Charley handled that.   The only times we have troubles with Charley and Annie together is when guests are over.  Charley is so zero’d in on the guests that she will plow over Annie to get attention.  Charley doesn’t do this intentionally, I don’t even think she realizes she does it, she is just such a big dog and goes completely nuts when people are over.  

  

I can’t wait to celebrate Annie’s 1^st birthday.  It’s coming up so fast.  Invites are out, cake is ordered, and party planning is in the works!  I’m hand-making all of her decorations, you will be impressed!  I’m getting her memory book and pictures all scrapbooked; it’s a lot of work but she is just so special, that birthday party is really going to be a memory we are going to treasure, so pumped for it!  

Annie's 10 Month Update

This was a highly stressful month to get her to cooperate for this picture! 

Our sweet little Annie is 10 months old!  It’s hard to believe now since we are in 2015 that her 1st bday is right around the corner.  I’ve started the initial planning of her 1st birthday already; it’s going to be awesome!

What’s new?!  Walking.  She has been doing a step or 2 on her own for the last few months but this
month I would say she officially took her first steps.  Check out the video for yourself, that’s legit if you ask me.  She isn’t exclusively walking but I feel pretty good that by her 11 month update she will be.  Go Annie, Go! Check out her video:

This girl is a go-getter!  She’s feisty, she knows what she wants, and she’s not lukewarm at all about anything.  Laid back child she is not!  If this personality of hers continues {which I’ve grown to love}, I think we will have our hands full and things will always be pretty lively keeping up with her.

We’ve finally gotten into some good napping patterns with her.  Her naps are predictable and good.  Her bottles are stretching to 4-5 hours apart, and bedtime is consistent.  We introduced solids this past month and it started out great.  She seemed really interested in them and eating them fine at daycare too.  But then the last few weeks, she’s been not having it at all, purses her lips, refusing cheerios which she did love, and will even spit the food out if I manage to get it into her mouth.  Then she doesn’t cry in the high chair but she has learned the art of screaming.  She looks at me and screams loudly.  Like a ‘get me out of this chair NOW’ scream.  I usually can win for a few minutes by giving her a MumMum (the only solid she will eat – (rice crackers)) and then once that’s gone and I try with solids again, she starts in on her screams.  Told ya… feisty!  I don’t want to force her to eat anything she doesn’t like, but I don’t feel like that’s the case though so I have to keep trying and putting up this fight with her to try to get her interested again.  It’s a delicate fight though, I don’t want to make highchair or eating solids a negative association or something that feels forced upon.  So that’s our latest battle with our little Annie who is highly stubborn with solid foods out of the blue.  

She is really loving piggy back rides lately from Daddy

Annie loves Charley.  Too much.  On the weekends I feel like all I do is police those 2.  Annie crawls all over Charley and wants to tease Charley with the dog toys.  It’s cute for a while then it’s like okay you two, that’s enough.  It usually ends up with Charley downstairs behind the baby gate just to separate them.  I can’t tell if Charley likes it or just puts up with it.  I kinda think it’s a little of both at times.

Annie is the youngest in her daycare class.  We are so lucky to have a daycare we really love and Annie does too.  BUT… we are finding out that our little Annie, the youngest baby in the class is being a bit of a bully to the other babies.  She has a tendency to jump on the other baby’s backs and try to ride them around the room.  Why am I not surprised by this?!  Oh Annie! 

Other things worthy of mentioning is her top 2 teeth came in.  We had 2 icky back to back ear infections L.  She can wave ‘bye-bye’ (although it’s not mastered yet).  And crawling up flights of stairs. 

Although she is certainly feisty and stubborn in the most innocent of ways, she is SO beyond sweet!  She’s earned a very, very special place in Aaron’s and my heart!   We just love to watch her on the monitor after she goes to sleep, just see her all curled up, peacefully sleeping.  The way she can flash a big smile across her face just gets me every time.  Although she doesn’t like to be held much, she does give the best hugs ever.  Happy 10 months Annie, you’re so super sweet, a big ball of feistiness, and so darn loveable.