Carousel and (soon to be) 3rd Birthday

This is a strange blog post combo, but since the pictures were taken at the same time and cross over, I couldn't figure out any other way to do it. I had ordered Paige a new dress that I'd wanted since last year, but they'd been sold out. Some kind soul on facebook that knew I'd been desperately wanting one let me know the same morning they were re released on their site (click here for Dollcake Website). My favorite color is red and I'd been drooling over this dress for 12 long months. I knew it was too fabulous to just be photographed in a field or sitting on a couch. I've had an idea flopping around my brain for ages of shooting in a circus or carnival or fair, but living in a small town doesn't leave many options. We do however, have a carousel! The nice gentleman (Keeper of the Carousel Keys) that I contacted was more than happy to meet us out there for an hour when it was normally closed down. I'd been watching the weather and thought it was supposed to be a little cooler (low 90s) and cloudy the day we shot. It was very cloudy all morning and within an hour of getting there the sun was shining brightly and I'm not sure of the temp, but the heat index was well over 100°. Let me tell you something - that dress is HEAVY. It may look light and airy, but it's multi-layered and weighs as much as Paige (only a slight exaggeration). As always, she was a professional...albeit a sweaty one. Most of the pictures that I chose for editing and posting were taken in the first 5 minutes because after that, her hair was drenched. We shot her and then brought the boys out of the nice air-conditioned car and did another quick few minutes. I mostly focused on Ozzie this time around, since I'd planned for these to be his 3 year old pictures. There are so many photos between Paige and the red dress, Ozzie's 3 year old individuals, and then all 3 kids, that I'll just post a few of my favorite and then the rest will be at the bottom of this post on a sideshow.