Fall Ordinary Days with My Family | Phoenix Photographer

This fall has really flown by!  Probably because to me, it doesn’t feel like it’s really Autumn when the temperature is still in the 100’s so my brain kinda stayed in “August mode” until about the end of October.  The weather got quite a bit colder here in Phoenix just recently, so this is the first week it’s really felt like “sweater weather,” and all of a sudden Thanksgiving is next week.  And I’m PRETTY EXCITED about that because my parents and some of my siblings are coming to visit for Thanksgiving, PLUS THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD MOVIE IS COMING OUT!!!  Family in town + new Harry Potter movie + lots of yummy food = I’ll be living my best life! 

Anyways, we made some fun family memories together this fall, and I want to get those documented before I forget!  Some of these are the “Pinterest/Instagram-worthy” baby-in-a-pumpkin-patch photos, and some of these shots are from what I call “ordinary days,” just the day-to-day moments of real life working from home while raising a toddler, hence the messy desk, laundry on the couch, etc.  We all have both of those sides to life and I think it’s important to document and celebrate both!

At the end of August we made a trip up to Utah because my brother Brad (second from left) returned from serving in the Scottsdale Arizona LDS mission.  He left on his mission while my sister Rachelle (far left) was serving a mission in Bolivia, so this was the first time all my siblings had been together in 3 years, and really the first time our whole family had ever been together, since my brother James got married and my little G girl was born during Brad’s mission.  Sadly this photo is indisputable proof that although the oldest, I am now officially the shortest of my siblings.  It’s called a cruel irony.  (Bonus points if you read that in Yzma’s voice.)  At least I always have my mom beat though!

A few shots from September/October ordinary days with my main girl.  Milestones/cute things she’s done lately:

• Walking all over the place, pushes chairs over when she wants something out of reach but doesn’t know how to climb onto them yet, LUCKILY.
• Can mimic the following animals: dog, cat, cow, bird, horse, elephant, monkey, and lion
• When I pick her up from her crib or when she’s crying and I’m patting her on the back, she pats me on the back too and that just totally melts my heart!
• Learned how to twirl and says “Whee!” as she spins.
• Recent words she’s learned include: no, eyes, night night, banana, cheese, what
• Says “Peekaboo!” whenever she sees her reflection and when I get her dressed in the morning and she pops her head through her shirt collar.
• Loves to be outside and go on walks, she loves dogs and loves to look for dogs on our walks so she asks to go on a walk by saying, “Woof woof?” and bringing me my shoes or tapping on the door.
• Says “Awwww!!” whenever she sees photos of herself.
• Took infant swim lessons and was such a fast learner, she can turn on her back and float after being dropped in the pool.

We went to the Arizona State Fair and had a lot of fun (despite G’s face in the first few pictures, she had been napping on the drive to the fair and was still waking up haha)!  It was my first time actually going to a fair.  We ate some yummy overpriced fair food, G loved seeing the animals (didn’t take photos of that, just video on my phone but she was so cute watching them), and Shawn loved drooling over the bacon wrapped turkey legs and pigs on a spit.  I brought my camera so that I could practice  taking photos in a low-light situation, and that was a fun little challenge!

I have always loved Halloween and all things fall, but now I love it even more, not just because it’s so fun to have a baby to dress up, but because it was the first holiday we ever experienced together as a family of three.  G was born at the end of July, so Halloween was the first major holiday after her birth.  This year, we took G to the same pumpkin patch that we went to last year, and it has been so fun this year to look back at pictures of last fall and see how much she has changed and grown in a year. 

The idea for our koala costumes came from the way G clings onto me like a baby koala when we’re around people that she’s not familiar with.  Literally, she grabs on tight with her arms and keeps her legs around my hip and if I try to set her on the ground she keeps her legs bent midair and refuses to straighten them.  Since Shawn already owned everything he needed to dress up like Steve Irwin (aka the crocodile hunter) it seemed fitting to stick with the Australia theme.

Last week Shawn’s mom came to visit us and we loved spending time with her!  G loved playing with her grandma and got thoroughly spoiled.  We had such a great time while she was here and can’t wait until we visit Logan again for Christmas and get to see her & lots of other family members again!