School Pictures

A sweet mom in our homeschool co-op offered to do school pictures of the children a few weeks ago.  She took pictures of each individual child, and she also took a group photo of each age group.

Here are the school pics of my kiddos…reasons to laugh, smile, and pull out our hair.  Let me tell ya – our children’s unique personalities came out to play during these photo sessions!

Jensyn

Let’s start with the littlest – she was in a MOOD.  She wanted nothing to do with having her picture taken.  I finally bribed her by telling her that, if she smiled, she could watch Frozen when we got home.  Her smile lasted about half a second, and thankfully, the photographer was able to snap the shot at just the right time.  Here’s how she spent most of her time…

(quick cell phone pic)

the “I bribed my child to smile” photo, and the amazing
photographer caught that brief grin at just the right moment…

On to Max…
…who was having a good ‘ol time playing in the leaves like the wild child he is
(cell phone pic)


the real photo…
proving that he can settle down and focus when necessary, which is a
surprising trait I am discovering as he does more seatwork at home this year.


Alex

And then there’s my oldest…I wasn’t there when his photo was taken.
I guess he stubbornly insisted on having his beanie baby, Rocket,  in the picture.
Sigh.


We took a picture (sans bird) in the backyard at home.
It doesn’t have the same photo quality, but it doesn’t have a bird either

You can see both the good and the bad in our children’s personalities when you look at these pictures. 

You can see the sassy, moody little three year old girl…who can also be sweet as can be, charming everyone around her. 

You can see the wildly energetic five year old boy who is always in motion, and you can see the gentler side of him as well.  (Although that little sparkle of mischief is still in his eyes.) 

You can see the stubborn, determined six year old who was going to have his own way no matter what…and you can see the sweet, compliant boy who likes to please others.

It’s hard work being a parent – trying to balance allowing for a child’s unique personality, yet still trying to help them develop good character skills and attitudes.  There are days where Keith & I feel like we’re doing pretty well, and there are days where we wonder if we are ruining our children.  (Please tell me that’s how every Mama feels some days!)

We’re so honored that God has entrusted us with these three little ones, who are growing to be not-so-little far too quickly.  Oh, how I pray that He can use the seeds we are planting in these little ones, molding their unique personalities, and growing them to be wonderful and faithful followers of Him!

(For the sake of privacy, I won’t post the group photos of my children with their classmates. )

Family Pictures

We haven’t had family pictures taken since Alex was a baby.  Since we feel our family is complete, I thought perhaps we should go ahead and get new portraits.  

Ironically, after I scheduled our pictures, my extended family made plans to get photos done with a different photographer the same week.  And THEN we had church directory pictures only a few days later.  Needless to say, we’re all pretty tired of saying cheese! ;)

Many of you have seen the photos on my personal Facebook account, but I wanted to share these with the rest of you just for fun…and have these on here for when I print our annual blog book so that these photos make the book.

These are going to serve as the kids 1 yr, 3 yr, and 5 yr pictures. 
(These are just the “proofs”, so there are a few imperfections in the pictures.)

 

Jensyn – 10 Month Portraits

I wrote a 9 month post.  It’s still in draft mode, as the photos are all stored on our external hard drive, and I’ve been too lazy to drag that out and add the pictures to the post.  It really does exist, and someday I might just post it ;)

This is not a full 10 month post.  I’ll have to come back to add some everyday pictures and text.  I just thought I’d share from a photo shoot done by a friend who’s getting started in her own photography business.  (If you live in the area and I know you personally, I’d be happy to share the photographer info.) 

These were taking on Jensyn’s 10 month birthday…

Psst…please don’t copy these or add them to Pinterest.  I can’t watermark these, but if I find that anyone has stolen my child’s picture, I might just have to hunt you down ;)

Feathers are not my thing…that was a photo prop.  Personally, I’d never stick a feather on my girly’s head.  It does make for a pretty cute picture, though! ;)

Reminder: Psst…please don’t copy these or add them to Pinterest.  I can’t watermark these, but if I find that anyone has stolen my child’s picture, I might just have to hunt you down ;)

I just can’t fathom how this little sweetheart has reached 10 months of age.  Where did this year go?!

I Gave Up ;) (repost, with editing)

Last week Thursday, my sister Deb & I took the kids for Max's 2 year pictures and for pictures of the 3 kiddos together.  Max completely panicked, cried, and was a wreck. We walked away with no pictures. (But - since I've worn maternity clothes the past 2 fall seasons and had NO long sleeve clothes - we went to Kohl's and got my fall/winter wardrobe instead. Thanks, Deb, for helping me shop!)

 

Today my mom & I tried again. We practiced last night with an old Viewmaster (remember those?) as a camera. We got to the studio early today so Max could play and feel comfortable before we did the pictures. He giggled with the photographers, and he was having a good old time. He stopped, though, as soon as he was supposed to sit down & smile.

 

Although he was slightly more cooperative, we still didn't get great pictures. I gave up on torturing my kids. We'll take what we got, and we'll call it good.

 

So, with LOTS of balls (since Max loves them and the balls kept him on the backdrop...) and a Viewmaster in the pictures, here's what we got. Feel free to giggle. We did!

 

Happy big brother, little brother having a tantrum…it’s a regular day in my life! ;)

 

It took THREE photographers helping in various ways to get decent pictures today.  Oh, my…when you have three children ages 3 and under, don’t ever expect great photos or an easy experience.  THANK GOODNESS for a studio we love and patient, friendly photographers!

 

 

I’m using the proof CD, so I might not have the correct image, but this one (or one very similar) is my favorite…

 

Because I typically dress my boys in polo shirts & nice shoes to have their pictures taken with random soccer balls ;)

This melts my heart.  I only wish she was smiling…

 

It won’t let me rotate the picture, but this is the best close-up of all 3 together…with a soccer ball.

Can you see Alex tugging on Max’s shirt to keep him from escaping…

and can you tell that Max is on the verge of screaming at his brother?

The ONLY shot of Max with a smile on his face.  His hair was a complete wreck by this point, but a wise mama doesn’t mess with the hair of a cooperating child!   So, his hair i a mess in his 2 year portraits!

 

Since we were there, and since I think the photographers would all run & hide if we tried to set foot in their studio any time soon, we decided to just call this Alex’s 4 year portrait…3 months early.

And there you have it…the last time we’re setting foot in a studio until my children learn how to cooperate and behave in public!  Ha! ;)

Portaits, finally!

We haven’t done this in far too long.  We got pics of both boys when Max was a newborn.  I took Max’s picture at about 4 months old.  That’s it.  Oops!

So, finally, I took them in today for pictures.  We didn’t order all of these, but I spent enough to get the photo CD.  Here are some of the photos from today, unedited & straight from the disk.

Amazing, Alex didn’t freak out, cry, or squeeze a stuffed monkey for dear life.  Max didn’t crawl away.  Now, getting them to *smile* in the same picture?  Well…here’s what we got: This picture is the reason that Alex cooperated.  When we promised him he could sit on the motorcycle if he did a nice job with his pictures, it’s all he needed to hear:

I didn’t want these, but the photographer encouraged me to have them taken anyway.  So, just for fun…   

Happy Mother’s Day!

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not capable of taking a photo of my children smiling simultaneously.  Still, these pictures make me smile.  These are the photos that were in the Mother’s Day cards we gave to the grandmas this year.

(Yes, Alex, your mama does need to take you to get your hair cut sometime soon.  Yes, Alex, your mama is procrastinator.  I’m sorry, buddy!)

Nine Month Pictures

Our baby boy is 9 months old already! Where does the time go? He's so big, so full of personality, and so fun...and getting to be mischievous at times, too.

Seth didn't come today, which left us with an unexpectedly free day. Since it's such a nice autumn day, I couldn't resist doing some "fall-ish" things. First, we made vegetable soup & homemade wheat bread. (Mmmm, this house smells delicious!) After that, we ran to Alco and bought a clearance blanket & a fun pumpkin for a quick photo shoot.

I dressed Alex & stuck him on the blanket. I just kind of went with whatever Alex was doing, making no effort to pose him. Here's what we got before naptime:

HAPPY!

Mischievous
Goofy

What can I say? Crazy kid.

She took away that pumpkin - I'll go get it...

But wait...I don't know how to crawl. Mama, can I have it back?
(I wish the focus was on his face, not his shirt...darn camera!)

The white background washes out the picture.
We're going to try again after Alex wakes, and we'll use the brown blanket again...

AFTER NAP:

These didn't go as well. There are some cute ones, but I definitely like the "curly" pumpkin better than the boring plastic one that I found in the shed. Alex was really unsure about wearing that bear suit. He'd better get used to it - he'll be wearing it to the Pumpkin Chase at church!