Making a Hot Coco Bar {Christmas Edition}

 I am so excited to finally be blogging my first Christmas post of the season! I LOVE Christmas and Matt let us set up our Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving this year. Growing up, my family always decorated and set up our tree the day after Thanksgiving. Now that Matt and I travel down to Texas, we set up our decorations before we leave and they are waiting for us when we get home.

This year, I made a new addition to our Christmas decor...a hot coco bar, and I love it! We have a coffee stand that worked perfect for the bar. Here's how it turned out with a little inspiration from pinterest!

  I first layered a green leaf place mat with a silver tray from the thrift store. Then add two mugs for convenient spoons and yummy candy canes! I also decided to decorate the mugs by writing on them with permanent marker with a Christmas song quote and baking them! I love how they turned out.

This set up works well since I can heat up enough water in the coffee pot when friends come over. Then, there are plenty of hot coco and apple cider mixes in my wire basket from target. 

To put some final touches on the bar, I added a fun chalkboard, Hershey kisses, and mini marshmallows. The little bowl holding the kisses was on sale at our grocery store and the container holding the mallows was from Family dollar...I was so excited that they matched perfectly. Hope you got some inspiration for creating your own hot coco bar!

Stay tuned for more Christmas Edition posts. Can't wait to share more of our Christmas decor and spread the holiday cheer! 

Andrea's Seniors {Duncanville, TX}

Meet my beautiful sister, Andrea! She is the 4th sister out of us five girls and is one of three redheads. I was so excited when she asked me to take her senior pictures this year. We had so much fun during this session and Andrea was up for anything...even climbing down in a creek bed with a very questionable tunnel! It was all worth it, because these shots turned out great and really capture how GORGEOUS she is! I am so proud of her and the beautiful young lady she has become.

Hope you enjoy my MANY favorites from our session. It was so hard to narrow them down!

 

The Gray Family {Littleton, CO}

 Meet the Gray family and their newest addition, Callie! I met Andrew and Pam through Denver Seminary and remember Pam talking about how much she wanted a baby. Well, now she has a precious little girl. At seven weeks old, Callie was awake and squirmy for our whole session, but she was such a trooper. It was adorable how she loved to hear her daddy's voice. No matter how fussy or upset she got, she would calm when Andrew talked to her. SO cute! Hope you enjoy some of my favorite shots from our family and baby session! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the Grays for letting me capture some beautiful moments of your new family! 

To my Denver friends that are expecting or have a newborn, it is never too late for pictures! Ideally, it is best to do newborn pictures within their first week. Then they are sleeping more and easier to work with and get the best shots. However, I know that is not always possible, but don't give up on pictures all together! You can still capture some great moments of your little one that you will have forever. So if you are interested in baby or family photos, send me an email at erica_cavanaugh@yahoo.com and we'll do them as soon as possible!