Our Family Photo Shoot

In July we had our first family photo shoot as a family of 6.  A friend of mine, Brooke,  has recently started her own photography business, so I hired her to take them.  It was so fun to catch up with an old friend and to have our pictures taken.  She did a fantastic job!  She spent so much time with us and tried to meet all my crazy demands.  She was so flexible and easy to work with too.  Thank you so much Brooke!  

I was really hoping for an orchard setting, so Brooke suggested Apple Works which is close to where I grew up.  It was a bit of a drive for us, but it was fun to be back in my hometown and see how things have changed.  

 

 

It ended up being a super hot day unfortunately, so Evy was pretty grumpy.  

In the past, our family has usually done pictures in the fall, so I wanted to change things up a bit.  I didn't really think about how incredibly hot it would be though!   We were pretty sweaty by the end of the day.

I felt bad that I dragged everyone out on such a sticky hot day so we ended up abandoning the orchard backdrop for some shade.  

Apple Works has some lovely gardens and sitting areas that are shady and worked out nicely for our pictures.

Kyler

Tayden

 

Ady 

Evy

All in all I am really pleased with how the day turned out.  We had a lot of fun and have some wonderful pictures to put up.  Thank you so much, Brooke, for humoring me :)

More of the Photo Shoot

Here are some more of the pictures from our photo shoot in July with  Brooke.

 

I ♥ this one so much!  I love how it really captures a moment.

Here are some fun ones of the older kids.  I love Ady giving some sass!

 The sun was coming through the gazebo roof in a fun pattern.  The kids thought it looked like a jail cell, so we went with it.

Here are some sweet ones of Dave with Ady and of me with the boys.

We did some really fun pictures of Dave with the boys and of me with the girls too.

A few more of the kids

I love how these turned out of Dave and I

Thanks again Brooke!  We had so much fun and I love, love, love how they all turned out!  ♥♥♥

Tomatoes!

This summer we had a garden and ended up with tons of tomatoes. In the past I have mostly either used everything fresh, chopped it up and put it in the freezer, or let it go to waste. I was intimidated at the idea of canning. I decided that this year we would give it a try.

My friend Rachael grows a huge garden every year and is a pro and canning so I asked her if I could come over and watch her can tomatoes a few times so I could get the hang of it. I tend to learn best by watching someone else do it rather than just reading about it.

She did a great job helping me feel like I could do it, so we bought a Pressure canner and all the necessary supplies and gave it a try!

Here is some of our bounty. It feels good to put away some of our own home grown goodness to use throughout the year!

Thanks for the help, Rachael!

Warren Dunes

We took a fun camping trip to Warren Dunes on Lake Michigan with a group of friends. We drove up and spent the day at the beach, then camped overnight and spent another day at the beach. The Lake Michigan beach was a lot of fun and the waves were nice a mild for the younger kids. There was a big group of us, but the beach wasn't too crowded, so we were able to find a nice spot to spread out and be able to keep track of all the kids.



There is a fun little hike to take along a creek that takes you to some mud pits. Everyone goes back and gets caked in the mud.

After being covered in dried mud its refreshing to come back and jump into the waves.

Ady and Macie

The girls trying to jump the waves on the beach.

Tayden watching out for the big waves!

The boys.

The kids all had so much fun. The water was the perfect temperature and it was super fun to be there with so many friends.

Dave with some of the men. You could stand pretty far out and still touch. Bigger waves would come and it was fun to bounce around in them.

We thought it would be fun to take some fun beach shots with all of us girls. We got to practice being models. :)

Here we are at the campsite.

There was a creek running right next to the campsites so in the morning the kids had fun wading and looking for shells.