family photo shoot

HOLIDAY CARDS WITH MINTED.COM

Have you ever used Minted? Ok, click HERE and you’re welcome. Oh and pppssst! 20% off your holiday cards through today at noon PST with discount code: CM2015.
Minted did my holiday cards this year, and I am beyond grateful!! I could just rave about the whole process forever, but I’ll try to keep it brief. First of all, the quality is SO good. My cards have silver foil, people! The options are endless depending on your photo and the number of photos you want. It’s all tailored to you with ease. I had too many good photos to chose from (captured by the brilliant Kate Davis! Family photo shoot HERE) so I chose a backing with space for 6 more photos. My favorite part? The envelopes are pre-addressed for you! For free. Whaaaat?? And the wraparound labels with my return address just make the whole card come together like a little package. Could not be happier! You can purchase my holiday card design HERE.
Happy Everything!
xo
-L

HOLIDAY PHOTOSHOOT – OUTFITS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

I think we all sort of cringe a little when we think about dressing up our resistant kids (and husband!) in fancier clothes and convince them to smile like they love taking photos. Just me? But honestly, it’s totally worth it in the end. I don’t always appreciate this stage in my life. The messy, whiney, poopy, busy days that just fly by without noticing any of the details. I’m too tired or stressed or frustrated to really take it all in. Seeing these photos (captured by the BRILLIANT and talented Kate Davis) will always be a fierce reminder of the beauty of our little family in this moment. 
With each photo we saw, we ooooh-ed and aaaahhh-ed and laughed, and omg-ed! Kate knocked it out. of. the. park. She made us feel right at ease, especially the boys! Max nicknamed her Katesadilla. I’m obsessed with her fashion blogger photos and love that casual feel more than the stiff posed look. I also loved taking pics around town instead of in nature like we normally do. Gotta love a good white background! This was shot all behind and to the side of Draper James and at Las Paletas. Ending the photoshoot with popsicles was basically the only way we got the kids through it!
Aside from finding the best photographer in Nashville (duh: Kate Davis) the next step is figuring out what to wear! Coordinating NOT matching is my personal preference. My best tip is to go into one store and use their color palette for the season. I guarantee they have similar colors in different patterns and textures that will be perfect for the whole fam. Start with yourself first. Find what YOU look best and feel comfortable in, then you can plan around everyone else. Selfish? Maybe. But kids and dudes look good in pretty much anything right? 
I’ve linked everyone’s outfits at the bottom of the post in case you want to go with our red, tan, and blue color palette!

 OUTFIT LINKS
Leah: poncho / dress (H&M in-store only) / boots or similar
Jeffrey: shirt (H&M in-store only) / jeans / shoes
Ari: shirt and sweater (H&M in-store only)  / jeans / shoes
Max: shirt and sweater (H&M in-store only) / jeans and suspenders / shoes
Goooood luck, Mamas!
-L

HOLIDAY CARDS + A MINTED DISCOUNT

Have you ever used Minted.com before? It’s so bizarre for us to hear that some people haven’t, because it’s an incredible company! Everything is just so. freaking. easy. We just recently went crazy on their art site which we’ll update you with later! Out of control good! 
Minted has an insane amount of designs for holiday cards. They use independent artists to design, so you can feel good about your purchase. The quality is also amazing, which appeals to these two paper snobs! They have foil pressed cards and we are suckers for anything shiny (hello rose gold foil… muah)! If you have moved, had a baby (and want to announce it 6 months later – insert raised hand here), married the love of your life, or just simply want to say Happy Holidays, there is a card for just that! You can filter it by the number of photos, whether you want it flat or folded, whether you want it to say Christmas/Holiday/New Years, if you want the writing on the top or the bottom… we could go on and on. And the coolest feature? You can upload your holiday photo and see what every single card looks like with your photo! Then you can chose a patterned back or more photos, you can order your return address label that matches your card. And the BEST part? YOU GET FREE RECIPIENT ADDRESS PRINTING. What??!!
Like we said, it’s SO easy! 
We don’t have our photos yet, but are planning which cards and which outfits go with our picks. Here are our favs…which one should we go with? Ah! So many good choices!
LEAH’S TOP PICKS:
Dashing Dots card HERE
Holiday Headliner card HERE
Not So Calm card HERE

Photo Booth Filter card HERE
JENNI’S TOP PICKS:

The More, The Merrier card HERE



Gold Illume card HERE


Santa’s Newest Helper card HERE

Silent-less Night card HERE

The other good news? 
Minted is giving you 15% off on holiday cards through 10/30/15 using code: LOVELION15
That’s something to be jolly about!
xo

TRIP TO THE PUMPKIN PATCH + FRESHLY PICKED GIVEAWAY!

Fall is my favorite time of year! Love the colors, love the weather, and adore fun fall activities. Jeffrey and I took the kiddos to Gentry’s Farm this past weekend to pick pumpkins and take a billion pictures. My twin sis, Ellie, was in town (always a ridiculous amount of laughs), so we made a day of it and afterwards went to one of our fav standbys for dinner, Burger Up. Ari ordered salmon and salad. What. A. Little. Weirdo. But he’s MY little weirdo. Meanwhile Ellie and I ordered Hatcher Farm milkshakes. So… anyway…
You know you all dress your littles up when you go to the pumpkin patch. You’ve gotta, right?! Luckily, Max can fit into all of Ari’s old clothes, but shoes are a different story. Jenni and I are OBSESSED with Freshly Picked Moccs. We might have one or three or five pairs for our littles and can’t stop won’t stop. The are THE softest shoes in the most beautiful colors. They’re absolutely perfect for almost walkers like Max too. He is a turbo crawler and these babies have elastic that slip right on and don’t fall off. Seriously. The only shoes that Max can’t pull off. Also one of the only shoes that fit his chubby feet! The soft, buttery leather and the elastic work their magic.
Jenni and I are so obsessed with Freshly Picked Moccs that we wanted to share the love with you! Scroll down for deets on how to enter the Freshly Picked Moccasins giveaway.
Max is wearing the Butterscotch mocc. Such a yummy color and perfect for fall!
Can’t cut those curls. Baby mullet.
**GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**
And now for the
FRESHLY PICKED MOCCASINS GIVEAWAY!
The lucky duck will win one pair of Freshly Picked Moccs in their choice of color and size.
TO ENTER:
1. Comment on THIS blog post with what color mocc is your fav. See all the beauties right here.
On your cell? Comments only work on the full web version, NOT mobile- blerg
2. Follow @loveandlion and @freshlypicked on Instagram
3. Tag 3 friends on our giveaway Instagram post (@loveandlion)
That’s it! 
Contest closes Thursday, October 23 at 12:00am CST.
We will announce the randomly selected winner* on Friday, October 24th right here on the blog.
*Winner must ship to US only and must not have won a giveaway including Freshly Picked Moccs in the last 60 days.
**GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**
We so appreciate you coming by our little ol’ blog, and hope you stick around. Rad parties, crafts, recipes, style, and snippets of our lives!
xo
-L

FAMILY PHOTO SHOOT – WHAT TO WEAR

We had a little family reunion on my husband’s side of the family in St. Louis- so fun! Magic House, Butterfly house, lots of outdoor play- if anyone needs ideas for kiddos in St. Louis, please email me. So much great stuff to do. I grew up in St. Louis, but going back there with littles is a whole new ballgame. 
We had all eight little cousies together and needed to document it! We wanted our outfits to be coordinating, NOT matching, which I think is key in planning family photo shoots. We went with the color scheme of chambray, navy, white, and yellow in different patterns and textures. I love mixing stripes with plaid with solids…to the horror of our photographer! But I think it really worked. If you mix patterns and shades, it looks a little more natural than being totally matchy matchy. Since each family lives in different cities, I did all of our shopping online to make it easy – Gap, J.Crew, and Zara. 
A classic.
I hope this helps give you ideas for your own family portraits!
-L