First Birthday Cake Smash Photoshoot

So this post is just a little delayed considering baby G turned one in November. Whoops! Adorable pictures of babies covered in cake never go out of style though, so I’m sharing them anyway.

This birthday made me emotional, y’all. G is most likely our last kid (on purpose) and I had an extremely hard time accepting that his first year of life was already over. He has been such a joy, honestly. I was terrified of what life would be like with a preschooler and a newborn, but G made it easy. He took to breastfeeding right away, which was a miracle considering the awful experience I had trying to breastfeed C. We went right for bedsharing with G – I read pretty much everything available on safe cosleeping and it’s become my new normal now. Because we shared the bed and breastfed, I didn’t feel like a mombie a majority of the time and G slept pretty well from the get-go. He’s always been an extremely happy baby and his smile and giant blue eyes light up every room he enters. My husband and I literally sit in bed at night and say, “G is seriously the cutest baby, ever.” We should probably quit while we’re ahead.

Maybe G just knew he needed to be easy going because his parents are crazy and decided to have a second kid while Daddy is working full time and getting his Master’s Degree. Yeah, we like to keep busy (a.k.a. put way too much on our plate a majority of the time).

Fast forward an entire year *sob* and it’s time to plan his one year photoshoot! I knew I wanted to do another cake smash like we did for C, but I wanted to have a completely different look and feel because, well, different kid. C’s was bright and full of primary colors. We did the shoot outside in the gorgeous sunlight and got some seriously amazing pictures. I cannot thank my lifelong friend, Sarah from Sincerely, Sarah Photography, enough for these incredible pics we’ll always have of our first born. Seriously, she’s awesome, and right here in Austin!

 

---

 

For G’s photos, I was absolutely clueless. My brain is pretty much incapable of creativity at this point because it has to remember to-do lists, appointments and reminders. So I was thrilled when a local maker mama, ThePicklePress, posted this freakishly adorable shirt in her Etsy shop. I had to have it.

Now that I had the shirt, everything else fell into place. I went with a monochrome theme with a hipster vibe and gold accents. I picked out some super cute leggings from TwoDreamsShop on Etsy. On a stroke of luck, I found a gold cake stand at Hobby Lobby on a random adventure one day, so I scooped it up, too! I am surrounded by seriously talented mamas, and was lucky enough to have a close friend make black, white and gold banners to hang in the background of the photos.

I truly believe creative types tend to gravitate toward one another and that’s why I’ve been blessed to know so many wonderfully talented folks throughout the years. One of these lovely individuals is my friend and literal next door neighbor, Lorena. Lorena’s son is C’s bestie. Those boys are so stinkin’ cute – they run around in their respective back yards and stand up on their playscapes so they can see each other and talk or show off toys. She also has a 7 month old baby girl – so we relate on many, many levels in this stage of motherhood. Lorena was a news producer before deciding to stay home with her littles, but she still takes gorgeous photos! As a photographer, Lorena’s goal is to capture families in  raw moments and portray the real emotions we feel in the day to day. More of her amazing photos and videography can be seen on her site, Fig Tree Lab. She kindly accepted my request for this photography session with baby G and brought tons of fantastic ideas and inspiration to the shoot. With her help, we figured out the perfect look for the smash cake, and I reached out to my maker mama community for a cake decorator who could bring our vision to life.

Local Austin mama, Courtney Lue, owner of Let Them Eat Cake, did a seriously beautiful job on this cake! It was exactly what we wanted, down to the perfect little crown on top. Not to mention it was delicious.

The session was definitely fun. G was crawling around all over the place and kept going straight for Lorena and the camera, so I spent most of the shoot picking him up and putting him back in place. At one point I sat with him and she snapped one of my most cherished photos. It’s an experience I will always remember as bittersweet. Sweet because the first year is such a huge milestone in the life of a little; bitter because I’ll probably never experience another first year.

I couldn’t have asked for a better baby to experience my last first birthday with. Looking forward to many more last firsts with my sweet little man.

FIG TREE LAB

FIG TREE LAB

FIG TREE LAB

FIG TREE LAB

FIG TREE LAB

FIG TREE LAB

FIG TREE LAB

FIG TREE LAB

FIG TREE LAB

FIG TREE LAB

P.S. I definitely didn’t cry while writing this. *sniffle*

---

Business Creds

Photographer: Lorena Higuera, Fig Tree Lab
Smash Cake: Courtney Lue, Let Them Eat Cake
Birthday Boy Shirt: Jessica Roop, ThePicklePress (shop currently on vacation)
Pants: TwoDreamsShop

 

---