REDWOOD FAMILY PHOTO SHOOT | the incredibly extra pictures I took myself in a national park

This week on Instagram I’ll be sharing all my top advice for orchestrating your OWN family photo shoot! I’m not talking snap snap snap done - I mean a full out extra EXPERIENCE with all those big frame-worthy shots and the little quiet candid moments in between.

Scroll through this post to see how even a tripod shoot can turn into the beautiful content you’d never think you could do on your own!

Questions? Ask over on Instagram and I’ll include them with my advice this week!

SEE ALSO
KIM FAM COSTUMES 2019 | yes that's a twilight themed pregnancy announcement halloween costume yes it is
A CUSTOM BABY BOARD BOOK | a rainbow book of the places we've been

KIM FAM COSTUMES 2019 | yes that's a twilight themed pregnancy announcement halloween costume yes it is

“Bella, it’s Carlisle. What’s going on?”

“I—” I wasn’t sure how to answer. Would he laugh at my conclusions, tell me I was crazy? Was I just having another colorful dream? “I’m a little worried about Edward.… Can vampires go into shock?”

“Has he been harmed?” Carlisle’s voice was suddenly urgent.

“No, no,” I assured him. “Just… taken by surprise.”

“I don’t understand, Bella.”

“I think… well, I think that… maybe… I might be . . .” I took a deep breath.

“Pregnant.”

RENESMEE 🍎 Feb 2020 🍎

Oh yes. Yes we did. We announced our pregnancy with a Twilight themed Halloween costume featuring Edward, dying pregnant Bella of Breaking Dawn, and a tiny werewolf Jacob. I have absolutely no regrets. This will be her legacy.

“Hold on tight, spider monkey.”

“You know it would have been a whole lot worse if Edward wasn’t there. He knocked me out of the way… it was amazing I mean he got to me SO fast he was no where near me…”

It's a... RENESMEE. But really, it's a girl! And @ my mom's boomer friends on Facebook who aren't familiar with Twilight or internet sarcasm, no that will not actually be her name.

"I pressed my hands to his face again, hefting the shield right out of my mind, and then started in where I'd left off—with the crystal-clear memory of the first night of my new life... lingering on the details.

I laughed breathlessly when his urgent kiss interrupted my efforts again.

"Damn it," he growled, kissing hungrily down the edge of my jaw.

"We have plenty of time to work on it," I reminded him.

"Forever and forever and forever," he murmured.

"That sounds exactly right to me."

And then we continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of our forever."

🍎 THE END 🍎

SEE ALSO
KIM FAM COSTUMES 2018 | fry sauce? It's like.. if ketchup and mayo had a baby
KIM FAM COSTUMES 2016 | costco sample lady + hotdog costumes that we can never top and I'm fine with that

A CUSTOM BABY BOARD BOOK | a rainbow book of the places we've been

Before my first child, I made a watercolor ABC book and decided that I wanted to do it again before number two was born - with a SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER PAGE COUNT. It was easy for me to decide on colors, because I love them a ton. You know how photographers are “supposed” to wear all black? (Who decided that?) Well that ain’t me. For some insight, I’ve been trying to convince my husband that we absolutely need this extremely colorful duvet set for YEARS. Please leave a comment below if you agree that I need it. Please leave no comment below if you do not.

Anyways.

Color. I just love it so much and I love painting with watercolors and I love road tripping to different beautiful places around the country, particularly national parks, and this board book combines it all.

I printed the book just like I’d print a photo album. This one in particular is through ZNO because it’s on the affordable end and they offer these rigid pages that are crucial if you ever actually want to trust your baby to handle the book themselves. Printing as a photo album is significantly more expensive than a regular ol’ board book you’d find in the infant section at Barnes & Noble, but it was important to me that the image/color quality was just as good as a photo print and in the end - you’re paying for the value of giving your child an experience completely unique to them.

My number one piece of advice for doing any sort of custom book project like this is to truly make it AS CUSTOM AS POSSIBLE. Make the pages about you and your family and use all the tiny details you can to make it unique. My favorite detail about this book is on the very last page, I included all the photographs that the landscapes are from! I’ll show them here in a bit.

I like to think that these pages can be conversation starters in the future. I don’t know about trips that my parents went on before I was born - I don’t know how or why that would come up in conversation. These pictures are just a glimpse into lots and lots of stories from our trips. Such as, but not limited to, running out of dry clothes because we went to the Redwoods during the rainy season but arriving at the laundromat 30 minutes before closing so we put our dirty wet clothes DIRECTLY. INTO. THE. DRYER.

Designing the inside cover pages is truly just a lil treat for myself.

These board books are the perfect size to prop up in front of a baby when they’re doing their daily mandated tummy time.

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Here are the full illustrations and photo that goes with each:

So there it is! I’d love to keep making books for my children (and other children? idk) so if you know a more affordable way to make board books than using this photo album route, please share!