DIY Milestone Pics!

If you're like me, you LOVE taking pictures of your kids for any little reason! 

Birthdays, holidays, monthly, cute outfit days... you name it, I probably have a picture for it! 

One thing I've spent a considerable amount of money on is professional quality photographs for the special moments. Which is crazy because I learned a long time ago that your iPhone can produce those photos with the right knowledge. So, after many Pinterest searches, DIY shoots on my phone and being burned out on paying people to do something I think I'm pretty good at, my husband broke down and got me a Canon rebel t5i for Christmas so I can be our little family's photographer!

Keileb turned 6 months yesterday which was perfect because this was his first Valentine's Day. So, I took to Pinterest. Got some photo inspiration. Looked around my house to see what I had to pull it off. And wahlah! Cute baby pics! 

So how do you this? 

Keep reading and I'll tell you what you need/how! 

What you'll need:

A great camera (the higher the megapixels the better) 

I actually used my canon t5i but your iPhone will work perfect. 

4 iPhone apps = moreBeaute2, PhotoGrid, Giggly & Camera+

A baby blanket (I'd stick with black or white)

Red pants 

Red lipstick

What you do:

Go to a room in your home near a big window with considerable amount of sunlight. 

(NEVER rely on your cameras flash for quality photos. Natural light is where it's at!)

An hour before sun down is best to eliminate harsh shadows & gives the best lighting for picture taking. 

Lay the baby blanket out. 

Try not to allow wrinkles. Clearly i didn't care too much about that in the above pic haha

Dress your baby in red pants

Dress your lips in red lipstick 

Kiss that baby like crazy! 

Keileb and I got pretty carried away during this step 

Then start snapping. 

Hold your camera steady & take pics from different angles. Close ups are key 

Then open up your apps and get to editing until you're happy with the photo!

I used a different app for each picture (some pics I used multiple apps)

P.S . I use photogrid to watermark my pics. Watermark your photos on the internet. People are crazy!

And there you have it, DIY milestone photos!

This was a first/"bday" shoot in one so I saved time and money!

This whole process didn't even take an hour and with mommy being the photographer, baby was so comfortable and happy! 

If you try it or this post inspired you to try something similar, tag me on Instagram! Share with me on Facebook and/or comment below! I'd love to see your pics! 

Click the black social media icons on my page to get to my profiles. 

I hope this helped and I hope you guys love Keileb's adorable face! Wish him a Happy 6 Months!

Ciao! XoXo

Our family Christmas card and a lesson on life

So, here is a proof from our family portrait session with JCPenney yesterday. I post this because family and friends all over Facebook rave about how beautiful it is. I mean, I could stand to lose some pounds with that chubby face but nonetheless it is a beautiful family. But this post isn't about "the perfect holiday card," it's about life just not being perfect! Seriously, as I'm writing this post, I'm entertaining my son to keep him from crying. 

Different people may look at this picture and have various things they "love" or "admire" about our family and this picture. Though we are extremely blessed, life just isn't perfect. This portrait session took 5 reschedules and drama down to the minute. My husband's job doesn't have set hours so we are almost always at the mercy of his job. It's not a complaint because it pays our bills and makes it affordable for me to stay home with the kids for now but it's one of those reoccurring nuisances when you try to make plans. So, the appointment itself was rescheduled 5 times, literally. The last reschedule was not because of work, it was because my husband realized the night before, he hadn't gotten a haircut yet. And as we know, a guy will do nothing and go nowhere (aside from work or an emergency) without a haircut lol. Then, the morning of, he needs to get pants. Yes ladies, he knew about this for over 2 weeks. Procrastinator much? Yes he is and in my opinion the biggest one out there! lol Anyways, while he is out getting his pants for the pictures, the baby is throwing the biggest tantrum ever and my daughter is dropping my makeup all over the floor, unraveling the toilet paper roll and just getting into everything. So of course, I do what any good mom would do, lash out at him for having not taken care of business beforehand and have a mini breakdown! lol  I quickly got myself together because as long as it took to do my makeup, I refused to let it run. Finally, we get to JCPenney and forgot both of our phones! Which this day in age is a pretty big deal! Especially to our family, why? Because of course the Groupon for our photo session was on my phone! and as I should've expected, the computers at the portrait studio do not have internet because they don't want their employees surfing the web while they're supposed to be working. Thankfully, the reluctant photo associate was willing to let me use HER phone to log in to Groupon to get our photo session voucher! Our pictures were finally getting done! But of course, I have a year and a half old who is being asked to have a photo shoot during nap time so she quickly lost interest! It was like pulling teeth to get her to cooperate and of course mommy was frazzled as usual! But! We got them done! By the Grace of God, we got our family pictures taken and chosen for Holiday Cards!

Whew! I promise I didn't write this to "vent" or to "complain" because I am very happy and proud that our pictures came together! A blessing for sure! I write this to say, life just isn't perfect. Being a mom isn't perfect. Being a wife isn't perfect. We all have struggles DAILY. What we CHOOSE to put on social media doesn't refelct our struggles or low moments but they're there! Life in general has a lot of moving parts but when you add being a wife and a mother into the mix, it gets real! I think at any stage, it's hard being a mom or wife but when it's new, and it's pretty much at the same time, it's the hardest! You're used to pleasing and doing for yourself. But now, there are 3 other people I have to please and do for and myself tends to take the backseat (if it even enters the car lol).  If you are overwhelmed, stressed or just happen to have "a moment," believe me, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! We all have our days and it's inevitable! We're human! BUT I've started to count my blessings and not my struggles and the blessing here is Our family pictures happened, Thank God I have a family to take pictures with, Thank God for giving me content for a blog post, etc. If we take a second to breathe, relax, and just give thanks for what is, we can allow peace to enter in our time of stress! So, ladies please remember, life's not perfect, we won't be perfect no matter how hard we try and giving thanks can truly bring peace! 

I hope you all are having a Happy Holidays! 

Ciao! xoxo

Ps. if you're looking to take milestone pictures, family pictures or anything of the sort, Groupon almost always has really good deals for JCPenney Portraits! Sitting fees are included in the Groupon rate and you can choose which package works for you that they offer! We did the 16 X 20 Canvas print for 39.99 then paid about $30.00 extra at our sitting for 48 Christmas cards! Super good deal if you ask me! Happy Holidays!