How has it been a year already?  Most of our family thinks this year went by fast… I, on the other hand, feel like the year went by at a fairly normal pace.  I mean A LOT has happened over the past year… I gave birth to our son, became a Mom, celebrated 5 years of marriage, had a three month hiatus from work, planned a few styled photo shoots, took Kade to Boston, spent a long weekend at the lake with friends, had numerous  work trips and so much more! And then there are all the milestones Kade accomplished this year… smiling, laughing, rolling over, sitting, sitting up, eating solid food, crawling, standing, growing hair, cutting teeth and walking! I love looking back at photos from the past year and remembering how small Kade was, when he used to sleep in the rock-n-play, giving him baths in a little tub, letting him play in the bouncer.  When I look back to then vs. now it is crazy that its only been a year!

I think it was around Christmas time when we reserved the date with Jes and Meg from Maewood Photography for Kade’s 12 months photos. You would have thought with an almost two month time frame I would have had plenty of time to style his shoot. However, I also had a few work trips, a couple other styled shoots and Kade’s birthday party so I wasn’t able to focus on the theme till two weeks before.  Thankfully, his party theme and photo shoot style were similar so I was able to secure items that would work for both!

The theme was 100% going to be rustic with buffalo plaid. I had purchased 10 yards of buffalo plaid fabric for Kade’s party and was able to use some of the fabric as the base/floor covering for the shoot.  I happened to be in home goods looking for some party items and stumbled across this gorgeous Lucky Bums wooden sled and adventure sign.  The sign was only $25 and the sled was on sale for $65…. how could I resist… I couldn’t!  I was going to order the hurricane lantern from Amazon but on another random trip I found it at Walmart. The O N E letters were from Michaels and the themed K A D E letters were custom made for us by Itty Bits Designs.  I ordered blank shirts from ARB Blanks, laid out the designs with a friend who knows a screen printer and had Kade’s shirts made.  His jeans and moccasins I’ve had for a while along with the thick wood slab {we used it for our wedding cake}. Kade’s photo shoot theme quickly became lumberjack/woodland themed and, in addition to pancakes, Lumberjacks like coffee cake. So…I got up super early on the morning of Kade’s shoot to make him a fresh coffee cake!  ANNNNNDDDDD, I’m so glad I did because these pictures are completely adorable and absolutely priceless! Huge thank you to Meg and Jes for capturing so many great Kade moments!

Can you guess which one is my favorite?  I’ll give you a hint… Kade is getting up close and personal with his cake!

STYLED SHOOT INSPIRATION

MAEWOOD photography / ITTY BITS DESIGNS letters  /  DUDLEY DENIM jeans / FRESHLY PICKED moccasins