If there was a fire, what 5 items would you grab out of your home? Here is my answer-

1. Hard drive (all our pictures and important documents)

2. Kid’s yearly photo books

3. “Taggie” and “Zoo Blankie” (our kids’ special blankets)

4. Our wedding album

5. 1 yellow and 1 orange Old Navy size medium, long sleeved tees

Today we will be talking about those seemingly random items at the end of my list- my #5. I have been meaning to share more on this topic for a really long
time, but felt like I needed a few more years of pictures to really make this post special. Now that I’m sitting down to write it, I can’t seem to find the words to share how special those two shirts are to us. It sounds so silly until you see it-

The “yellow shirt” pictures started when I was about 7 weeks pregnant with our first. I knew I wanted to document my growing belly and I thought it would be fun to use the same shirt. I took a picture every month or pregnancy milestone, then one last picture in it after we brought our daughter home from the hospital. After that shot I packed it away.

My mom was visiting when my daughter turned 18 months and helped me do a few milestone pictures for her yearly photo book. I was editing during nap time when my Mom suggested I take a quick shot of Layla in my yellow shirt. GENUS! An idea was born and we have been taking “yellow shirt pictures” every year around her birthday ever since.

My sweet baby girl is really growing up. It is so awesome to be able to see the changes when comparing all 5 pictures we have (so far).I had a bit of a dilemma when I got pregnant with #2. I knew I didn’t want to use Layla’s yellow shirt, that one was hers…luckily I did have the exact same shirt in orange. I didn’t hesitate and started getting photos around 7 weeks again but this time I added a little story to each shot.

And here are the rest of the pictures without the “story”. Note- I started at 11 weeks this time because we lost a pregnancy in the first trimester before Jack. I was very hesitant to take the shirt journey again but I’m so glad we decided to do it.

Around 20 weeks we found out we were having a boy! The next orange shirt picture we did made me think…how long am I going to be able to convince my son to put this women’s shirt on?! And how old will he be before it stops fitting?! I thought about making it into a tie for him but I just didn’t the the results would be quiet the same. It’s not OVERLY girly and it will be fun to see him squeeze into it when he’s much older (for me…I’m sure I’ll have to bribe him).

I can’t even think about the day that my shirt won’t fit the kids. I plan on doing these shots yearly until one of the follow events occurs- a) they no longer fit into the shirt, b) they refuse, c) they turn 40. Slightly kidding about that last one.

We would LOVE to hear about any photo traditions you have with your kids- leave us a comment!