At mid-December, hopefully your mailbox currently is flooding with lovely cards and photos from friends and family. It is such a treat to see how our loved ones and their families have changed throughout the year, which has me reflecting on my own family’s progression. We’ve been fortunate enough to have some pretty fantastic help from incredibly talented friends in capturing our family as it grows throughout the years. Here’s a little recap of Team Buell’s Christmas card game.

2012

Kid Status: No kiddos, just our wonderful fur baby Molly
Location: Downtown Morrison, CO
Props: Oversized balloons
Photographer: Timkim Photography

This was the first time we enlisted a professional photographer to capture a family photo. Tim is a buddy of ours with an excellent eye, we were so fortunate to have him take these great photos. We had been to a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater a few months prior to these photos and I was so enchanted by the little nearby town that we had to do our photos there. I poured over various outfit and concept ideas for these photos, embarrassingly so.

What I remember most about taking these photos is that just after we took the solo shot of Molly (because, duh she was our only baby) she bolted down the street without her leash. Craig was just recovering from knee surgery so I was the designated dog chaser. I took the rest of the photos trying to keep sweat from  running down my face!

2013

Kid Status: I was 12 weeks along with Coco when these photos were taken
Location: Chatfield Reservoir in Littleton, CO
Props: Baby books, chalk board and a plaid blanket
Photographer: Gillespie Photography

After seeing how incredibly these photos turned out, we have begged Stacy to take all of our family pictures into eternity. Since this shoot, she’s done all of our Christmas photos as well as Cody’s newborn and 1-year photos. Little did she know when we showed up at 7 a.m. to get these photos taken that she would be doing a pregnancy announcement. As soon as we told her, she had tons of amazing ideas on different things we could do.

Given that these photos were taken in October, I should have considered the weather factor and brought different footwear. We had to walk through frozen wild grass to get to the photos in the middle of the field (which turned out amazing). After that, Molly’s fur was completely covered in dirt and ice. Whoops!

2014

Kid Status: Cody was 5 months old
Location: Denver Union Station in Denver, CO
Props: A baby 🙂
Photographer: Gillespie Photography

After months of working on the redevelopment of Denver Union Station and getting to tour the building throughout the various phases of the project, I absolutely couldn’t think of a more perfect place for our first Christmas shoot with Cody. I am such a sucker for historic buildings and although I may be a little biased, I think the finished product on this building is absolutely incredible. Because Stacy is super cool, she was able to get us access to the beautiful Cooper Lounge, which is usually reserved for hotel guests during the day – I think it helped that we were there before the day had really begun.

We were nervous about how Cody would fare with being forced to “perform” for the camera, but our little show stopper was a natural. Looking back at these, I cannot believe how much she’s changed in the last year. The child in these photos looks so tiny and young compared to the toddler I have running around my house currently. Ah, memories.

2015

Kid Status: Cody was 17 months old and I was 15 weeks along with Baby #2
Location: Downtown Central Park in Boulder, CO
Props: A toddler and some leaves – they really are nice additions
Photographer: Gillespie Photography

Living closer to Boulder definitely has its perks. We had been to a handful of farmers markets right next to this park and thought it would be great for our Christmas pictures. What we didn’t quite anticipate was how incredibly crazy our toddler is. By this point, she’d been walking on her own for a good six months and was full of sass opinions.

When we first arrived, we tried to get a few pictures of her next to this adorable creek. Thinking she’d want to stick her fingers in the water, we set her up right on the edge and backed away slowly. Sure enough, our little explorer ran into the water. Thankfully, I grabbed her before she could get ankle deep, but seriously? Girlfriend had no chill. Getting her to smile was a bit more of a challenge this time around, but I think we got a great number of adorable photos to share.

That’s it for our Christmas photo recap. Looking back at these makes me reminisce years past and excited for years to come!