first holy communion {part one}

I know it will be excessive.  I am sure I will do about 3 posts on Kate's communion.  When Will and Harry made their first holy communion it was extremely special.  They both made theirs on Mother's Day weekend also and we celebrated with family. We lived in VA when Will made his and I was not blogging then so I don't have a post about it at all which makes me sad.  I do have some photos somewhere (it was before digital).

Anyway, as my kids get older, I kind of cling to each milestone a little bit more.  When I think about all the "lasts" it makes me super nostalgic.  For example, tonight is Harry's 8th grade dance and while I know it is not a huge deal, I find myself think him about his childhood a lot today.

So, with Kate's communion approaching, I asked my friend Shelly if she would do some portraits with Kate before the actual day. I really wanted the day of the communion to be about receiving Christ.  I did not want to be thinking about capturing the moment in photos.  I wanted to be present. I am SO glad we did this.  The boys would have never agreed to a photo shoot at this age but Kate was excited and cooperative.  It was perfect.

I want to share how Kate chose her dress so I will remember. For about a year or two I had been pinning dresses onto my Pinterest board as I saw them.  Just after Christmas, I showed Kate the board (which easily had 100 dresses on it) and she immediately pointed to this dress and said, "I like that one. That is the one."  I tried to show her others and persuade her a bit toward one I liked more.  But she was steadfast.  She LOVED this dress and thought is was perfect.  I had my doubts because a) no one in Texas carried the dress, b) it was more than we wanted to spend and c) there was one I liked more.

However, this was her day and I wanted her to love her dress.  So, I called around and found ONE dress in the entire country in her size. Even the designer was sold out in her size. And I happened to have a big pile of clothes that Kate had outgrown just waiting to sell. I put them on-line and they sold immediately paying for the dress.  It was win-win.

Ironically, I found the dress in PA from a shop where I probably got my communion dress growing up and they were so helpful.  When it arrived, it was even more beautiful in person and it fit her perfectly. I was very nervous about the fit because Kate is almost 9 but she measured a size 6. I had a hard time believing it would fit and I was so relieved when that dress fit her.  I should have trusted Kate all along because this dress was just absolutely perfect for her.  She felt beautiful and special in it.

A few days after Easter, we got Kate all dolled up and Shelly and I took her around on a 2 hour photo shoot.  It was a lot of fun.  In this post I am going to share some of the shots I took with my camera.  Then, I am going to share Shelly's (which are so much better-she's a photographer!) and then finally I am going to re-cap the actual communion day.

I snapped some pictures while we were waiting for Shelly to arrive....

{I know this one shot is totally over-exposed but I like the dreamy quality anyway}



And just to keep it real~Kate was laughing and goofing around but teasing me for taking photos of her waiting for Shelly at the window....

You can really see the detail in her dress in this one above. You can kind of also see a bruise on her forehead above her left eye.  The week before, Kate fell right on her head doing a one handed cartwheel with her hand full of a water bottle, snack and sock as we were leaving for the gym.  She came down HARD on our wood floors and had a gigantic goose-egg and bruise for a few days.

I bought Kate a little Mass book and she is obsessed with it.
 She wanted to read it though the whole photo shoot:)

I will post part 2 in a few days.  Have a great weekend!