family pictures: four of harts

A couple of weeks ago we were lucky to have our family pictures taken by the talented Bri, who if you remember also took our last family of three pictures. I love the moments she captured of our new family of four! She also shoots film which I really admire. The weather was beautiful, the girls were mostly cooperative (LM wouldn't pose by herself), and Bri made us feel comfortable right away. It was hard to pick just a few favorites, so get ready for an onslaught of photos!

All photos by Bri at Collected Photography

In case you are wondering, yes, LM is wearing the same dress as our last photo shoot. I just couldn't find one I liked with the rest of our outfits as well, so there you go! I was glad it was warm enough she didn't have to wear a sweater this time so you can really see it because it's one of my favorites. And, I think she is even wearing the same hair clip which is funny because I grabbed it at the last minute as we were walking out the door.

I love my little family of four. It is amazing how it is already hard for me to remember what it was like with just the three of us - Lark has added so much joy in our lives. Can I tell you that I am already looking forward to adding another baby or two (or three) into the mix? Not now, but soon enough!

Just in case you wondered...
Mama wore: dress, Shabby Apple/ necklace, Target
Papa wore: sweater, Gap/pants, Gap/shoes, Vans
LM wore: dress, vintage/tights, Old Navy/shoes, Old Navy/hair clip, handmade by my sister
Lark wore: dress, vintage/headband, handmade by my sister/tights, hand-me-downs/shoes, gift from lovely friend Vanessa

photo editing tip

Happy Monday friends! How was your weekend? Husband was out of town the end of last week and all weekend, so I played single mom by day (exhausting) and edited a ton of photos for the shop by night! My cute niece came over to model some older girl dresses for me again, and I'm excited to make them available soon!

She is a lovely model, but unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating the day she could come over - it was sunny when we first started but it quickly turned into a cloudy dark rainstorm! We just had to work with what light there was, so the pictures turned out less stellar than I was hoping...

I am trying to learn how to use my camera to its potential, and still need to practice and learn a lot more. Obviously, the best case scenario that I am trying to work towards is to have all of my photos ready straight out of camera, but that just doesn't happen most of the time.

Because it was so dark, I had to turn up my ISO which added to the amount of 'noise' on the photos, or in other words made them more grainy. My SIL, who is awesome at taking pictures and helps answer my questions, turned me onto a free Noiseware software that helps get rid of noise (the bottom one is free). So, that is what I ended up using on this photo shoot. 

Click on the pictures to make them bigger and you can see the difference better.

It definitely helped salvage my pictures, so I thought I would pass this little tip along in case you find yourself needing it. I would love for you to leave any photography tips you have in the comment section, I know there is a lot more I need to learn that you could teach me!

And, in the meantime, I will practice, practice, practice!

three of harts

Here are our family pictures we took the same day as the baby bump pictures I posted earlier. I really wanted to capture our family of three before we became a family of four (even if that meant posing with a big belly) because we had never officially taken family pictures before! I always meant to, but somehow it never happened...

I'm so happy we have these to look back on now. They will remind me of this bittersweet time and the feelings I have of being sad that my one-on-one time with the Little Miss will be ending and excited that we'll be adding another sweet girl into our lives.

I haven't been sure that the Little Miss really understood what was happening until today. After her nap she told me that when baby sister is born she wants to give her a hat and then she gave my belly a hug and told the baby that she loves her. I realized then that she does know her sister will be here soon and probably has known for sometime now...

...because if I am being honest with myself, it has felt like baby girl has been a part of our family for awhile now. So maybe these really are the first official family of four pictures we've taken. Either way, I love my little family!

All photos by Bri

cousins

I almost forgot to post these pictures... let's rewind back to my 30 week baby bump at Christmas time. My sister-in-law, Valerie, took these at a farm near her house.

It was also the first time all of the cousins on the Hart side of the family were together at once so we took the opportunity to get a group shot - easier said than done with so many young kids with different nap times! But I think she did a great job. If you happen to live in Southern Utah she is doing a special right now, go here if you want to learn more.

if those walls could talk...

I don't know if I'll ever be able to fully explain my love for old things but maybe if you look at these pictures from heinrick05's photostream you will understand a little bit.

(found via SJV)