Please note: There is quite literally no way in the world that I could choose five pictures. I have taken thousands upon thousands of photos of my children. Sarah has taken thousands upon thousands of photos of my children. I can't choose five. I'd have this weird nagging feeling. I could maybe choose five of each kid from the sessions we've done with Sarah... but probably not.
So, instead I'm doing the top five pictures from the biggest days of my life.
I do.
Ryan and I decided to do "first look" pictures the day of our wedding. Best decision of the day, well, besides marrying him. You would think after being together for seven years we wouldn't be nervous, but we both were. We opted for a later wedding because I wanted to be married at night but we didn't want to miss any time at the reception so we took pictures prior to the ceremony. This moment was worth it. Just me and him and our dear photographer there to capture it. We were able to talk and pray and just spend a few precious moments together.
Peanut.
As soon as we found out we were expecting, we dubbed the baby "peanut". Even after we knew he was a boy and picked our a name, he was still Peanut. Radley arrived 9 days early but was the longest labor time I had. We initially arrived at the hospital at 6:30am and were sent home with instructions to drink water. I sent Ryan to work but by noon I felt like my uterus was going to pull an Alien and just shoot out of my stomach. He arrived at 6:31pm to an entire cheering section of people. I think we easily had 20 people in the waiting room which should have really been called the "we are so impatient we are standing outside your door and will push it down if you don't let us in" room. Charis was there snapping pictures that I didn't even know I would need or want. How silly of me. This picture to me defines the moment I became a mom. This dark haired beautiful boy was all mine to love and discover and protect.
Big brother.
Radley was so excited to be a big brother. He just couldn't wait to hold the baby and love the baby and just be a huge helper. I loved watching this sweet moment happen. He got to hold for the first time and as soon as he did, he looked up at me, smiled and kissed her head. He's been an awesome big brother from that moment on.
A trio.
I just can't love this moment enough. Ryan and I had discussed how we wanted to let everyone know that MAK was a boy or a girl + what his or her name was. I had shirts made that said "Team Landry" or "Team Aubrey" (what her name would have been if she would have been a boy) and we decided that he would walk out wearing the shirt holding either two pink or blue balloons. This picture is everything to me. I'm not in it, and I wasn't even there to see it happen. I saw it hours later when we were alone in the hospital room with Landry while the bigs were back at the house with Gigi and Pops. I can imagine how he must have felt - carrying his baby to meet his babies. What a joyous thrill to kneel down and say, "Meet your sister."
We5Kings
For our 10 year anniversary I surprised Ryan by recreating our wedding day. I had planned for ages to get my dress to Sarah so when the girls and I left the house I was wearing my Easter dress. I sent him a text after we had "checked the lighting" to let him know that he could head up to where we were with Radley and then gave him a little hint ... he was SHOCKED to see me in my gown. He may have even produced a tear or two. The kids LOVED being there on our "wedding" day and I loved showing them what love looks like all these years later.
Happy Friday y'all!
