Originally, when I found out I was due with Charlie on Oct. 20th, I was planning to have some family photos taken in mid-November. I thought it would be perfect because I could get some photos of Charlie while he was tiny, some two year photos photos of Henry, and then a photo of the four of us that I could use for our card. Well, that didn’t work out quite like I planned. Charlie came eleven days late and by the time I started trying to figure out photos it was already getting close to Thanksgiving. And at first, Henry wasn’t super crazy about getting close to the baby or being in a photo with him, so I thought that trying to get professional photos at that point probably would have been a waste of time/money. (That’s definitely changed because now he’s obsessed with his “brudder” and wants to be near him all the time!) Not to mention, November here in Oregon was super rainy and so trying to do family photos outside like I had planned was just not going to work. So I had to scratch that idea and decided we’d just do a picture of the boys for the card and try to take a picture at home instead.
Since we weren’t going to do Christmas photos outside any more like I’d envisioned, the wintery plaid ensembles I had picked out for the boys seemed slightly excessive for our living room and I thought Christmas pajamas would be super cute instead. (And I have to give a shout out to Hanna Andersson for generously providing my favorite stripe PJs for the boys and I this year – and I’ve got more matching photos to come soon!) I was planning on trying to have Cameron help me take photos of the boys, but luckily my good friend Megan offered to assist, which worked out awesome since fellow bloggers tend to have slightly more patience for taking a million photos 🙂 She managed to catch this shot of Henry cheesing and Charlie with his eyes open and that was that! And while I love all the elegant card designs Minted offers, since this card was featuring just the boys, I thought this design, which is a little more cutesy and whimsical, fit perfectly with the photo 🙂
I knew I wanted our card to serve dual purpose this year as Charlie’s birth announcement, so I loved that Minted offered this adorable birth announcement backer as a design option. The day we took these photos, Megan and I were trying to get a good photos of Charlie alone but he was being sort of fussy and it just didn’t seem like it was going to happen. However, right before we were going to call it quits, he fell asleep and she got this sweet shot of him that I absolutely love so patience paid off!
(And just FYI, he’s been wearing the striped hat from the photo whenever we got out and I’ve received so many compliments on it – everyone asks me who made it because it totally looks homemade but it but it’s actually from Target!)
Sending Christmas cards is one of my absolute favorite holiday traditions; in our digital world, I think there’s something so special about sending some snail mail this time of the year. We’ve used Minted for our cards the past few years and I’m continually impressed with the creativity of the designs they offer, as well as the quality of the finished product. There’s still time to order cards to send before Christmas (with expedited/rush shipping) or better yet, send out one of their cute New Year’s designs! Plus, they have a ton of great gift options that still have time to get here before Dec. 25th 🙂
I really wish I could send all of you who have continued to read and support my blog a card, but I hope that you and your family have a blessed holiday season!
