Nowadays it seems that every family gets new pictures taken for their Christmas cards, but sometimes it all seems like such a rush during the BUSIEST season. My friend and VERY talented photographer, Rennai Hoefer of Ten 22 Studio, came up with a GENIUS idea...Do family photo shoots centered around the theme of a favorite bedtime book for your family!

It's such a creative idea, and a great way to personalize your photo session so that you don't always have the same family photo every year. She asked me to be her first client for this new concept, and it didn't take but a second to tell her that Elle's favorite book was I had a Favorite Dress by Boni Ashburn.

It's about a girl who had this very favorite dress, but as she grew her mom had to alter it from a dress to a top to a skirt to a hair bow to simply a picture because of her size or because her dog chewed it up.

To see the full story unfold, visit Rennai's blog. Elle and I had so much fun modeling, but I sadly can't sew. I have a sewing machine, but I don't know the first thing about using it. haha. I had my friend Meghan Green from A Purposed Life create different variations of the dress using a $4.99 dress from Walmart.

First of all she took this plane Jane dress up a notch by adding tule and flutter sleeves, and then she did an amazing job taking it apart into the different stages.

Acting out a book makes you think outside the box to achieve such a specific idea, and it really made my time with Elle special when it all came together. I especially treasure these photos of us because they not only show our love for each other, but they capture us spending time together in a way we often do: reading books, playing dress up, eating snacks and watching her play outside.