Aldridge Gardens, Birmingham, AL - Toddler Pictures

My husband had surgery last week and so I took off this week to take care of him as well as the kids. Stephen is the Stay at Home Farter and part of his recovery wouldn’t allow him to lift more than 5 lbs so that meant he couldn’t do his STAF duties without help. It’s actually been really nice to be able to take care of my family in this way. One of the things I did to get the kids out of the house and give Stephen some peace and quiet so he could rest was taking the kids to one of our favorite spots, Aldridge Gardens, in Birmingham, AL and take some pictures of our sweet toddlers.

Aldridge Gardens is such a beautiful place. On our first visit, shortly after we moved to Alabama, there was some nursery, plant sale going on and lots of people were there. We had the pleasure of speaking with the former owner of the property and he told us about it. It used to be his residence but the acreage of gardens was just too much to keep up with so he donated it and still participates in the events and loves to see people come and enjoy it. They have a dock where you can go out and feed fish, turtles, ducks, etc. There are trails that go around a large pond area. They have some statues and beautiful trees. It’s just a really beautiful and peaceful place. There are always weddings going on and I’m sure it’s an amazing setting for such events.

While I was still pregnant with my daughter, (who is now 3!) I took my son to Aldridge Gardens to play and took some pictures of him. He was only 18-months old and he’ll be 5 in a couple of months and just started preschool yesterday! The saying, “the days seem long, but the years are short” is completely holding true for our little family.

I took the opportunity to get some pictures of both kids at Aldridge Gardens so I could document this milestone for my son and to be totally honest to give me a picture I could use to update my huge frame that has been hanging over our couch for years. This will probably be the one I end up printing, I didn’t even ask them to pose this way but he put his hands out and she followed.

We found some caterpillers on one of the trails and spent a lot of time letting them crawl all over and observing them. This kid loves creatures of all kinds.

I’m telling you, this girl knows how cute she is. She turned 3 and she has become sassy and my fears of her having speech delays were calmed when the flood gates of her vocabulary opened overnight and she went from saying a couple words and pointing to having full conversations with us. She clearly has been soaking everything in but took sometime to build up her confidence to let it all flow. Very different than her brother in that way but it’s fun to see her personality shine.

And that shirt! I found it at Target on clearance for a couple dollars! Score! Stephen loves it as well.

They really are great friends. They fight and struggle like any siblings do but they are mostly sweet with one another.

She was so sad when he left for school on the first day. It was very emotional and so sad to see.

This is a face we know all too well. She isn’t shy about showing her emotions, for sure! Doesn’t Aldridge Gardens provide excellent backgrounds.

This haircut is new for this kid and it’s the same one that Stephen had from age 5 until very recently. I love it on him.

I’ve been playing around with different photo edits and have some new actions I created that I run on all photos. This is my new favorite look with a subtle nod to Sepia tone but a little hazy and yellower. It doesn’t work on every image for me but I’m really loving it! What do you think, should I leave it in my work flow or keep at it?