Fall Family Pictures

We have a friend photographer that occasionally does mini photoshoots on a weekend, and I am always quick to sign up for a ten-minute slot!  This particular shoot was on Sunday right after church so I didn't even have to wrangle my kids into nice clothes, we were already dressed and ready to go!

All picture credits in this post go to Kristen Catt Photography.

This one is my favorite except for Thomas hiding in Matt's legs.  I like that it's different from our usual go-to pose of me and Matt holding the kids.

Katie Wynn did great taking pictures by herself!

Thomas, on the other hand, needed a little support from his Daddy.

I love these of the two of them together. 

I don't hate these either.

Kristen is always so good at getting smiles from everyone!

The older we get, the more I love this guy of mine.  So glad to get to do life with him.

Labor Day Mini Session

Matt's sister, Jill, and her boys came to visit for Labor Day weekend, so we took advantage of the rare occurrence of the whole family being together and scheduled a mini photoshoot.  These pictures are all credited to Kristen Catt Photography.

This one of Bill and Pat and all of their grandchildren is probably my favorite from the whole shoot!  Back row is Anna (16), Wyatt (17), Nathan (13-ish?), Henry (11-ish?) and in their laps are Katie Wynn (4) and Thomas (3).  

The Indiana crew.

And the southerners.  :)

This one is my favorite of our family, I think.

But this one is a favorite too.  What can I say, I have a lot of favorites...

I like this one of Jill's boys too. 

Ok, this was taken at the end of the summer and do you see how my skin is glowing?  Or reflecting all the light?!  Maybe I wear too much SPF.  Gone are the days of bronzed skin for me, I guess.

We are so glad to finally have family pictures with Matt's side of the family!  And the fact that we already have good options for a Christmas card this early in the year?  Bonus!

Easter 2017

A couple weeks before Easter, I caught wind that one of the kids' old daycare teachers had a nest of bunnies and was "renting them out" for pictures.  I couldn't get our photoshoot lined up fast enough!  We talked up getting to see the baby rabbits for days beforehand and the kids were so excited.  Guess which child was scared to death when the sweet, cuddly bunnies were placed on the blanket?

Yep, so scared she hid behind her little brother.

We took a little breather without the bunnies and their Daddy got them laughing.  Those are the smiles we were hoping for!

When we brought the bunnies back, we corralled them in a basket.  This helped Katie Wynn feel braver near them.

The sweetness!  I was really impressed at how well Thomas did with them.  He was not scared to touch or hold them at all.  

Of course I love these sweet little grins.  We had them push the bunnies' ears down to see if they would pop back up.  Worked like a charm!

As all you mamas surely know, those sweet grins and gentle touches can only last so long.  I guess every photoshoot has to come to an end at some point, and Thomas tackling Katie Wynn signaled the end of this one.

The weekend before Easter, Lala and Poppa came to town for a visit!  We took some quick pictures after church with them and the kids because they aren't all together very often anymore.

I love this picture of Bill and Pat (on the left).  And tell me Thomas's baby legs and that crossed foot isn't stealing the show over on the right.  I'm going to miss seeing him in bubbles and knee socks.  Why does he have to get big?!

Since Lala and Poppa wouldn't be here the next weekend for Easter, we pulled out some of the confetti eggs early to crack some good luck (and confetti) over their heads!

Katie Wynn had an Easter party at school and I was the room mom in charge of it.  Matt helped with all the snacks and we decided it'd be easier to go ahead and bag them up for each child so we wouldn't have to divvy out each food in the classroom.  In a last minute, use-what-you-have rush, we pulled off these cute bunny snack bags.

It was fun getting to be at school and watch Katie Wynn and her classmates.  They hunted for eggs and then we cracked more confetti eggs.  Many of the kids had never done them before so they were a big hit.

Finally, it was the day to celebrate Jesus's resurrection!  My mom made the kids' Easter outfits for church and they looked absolutely precious in them.  Matt warned me that it was probably Thomas's last year for a frou-frou outfit so I had to take extra pictures of him in it.

Another egg hunt at church during Sunday School and our two were the first out of the gate!

If you've read one of my Easter posts before then you know immediately following church, we head over to my parents' house for lunch.  But first, we take pictures.  No one, and I mean no one, is allowed to change clothes or even so much as loosen a tie or roll up sleeves before we take about 292 pictures.  Every family, every couple, every set of kids, kids and grandparents, yadda yadda yadda.  It's like torture for every kid and male in the family.  Meanwhile, we hope that my Dad remembered to turn on the pre-set ovens before leaving church so that the food is cooking and almost ready.  (He's only forgotten once.)

Lilli Greer is the baby of the family and poor thing just wasn't feeling pictures that day.  Every kid gets a turn to boycott them and this was her year, I guess.

Charlie is probably my parents' favorite "kid."  Look how well he smiled for their family picture.  :)

Memaw with almost all of her great grandchildren.

After we've had lunch and the kids are good and hyped up on sugar from chocolate eggs and marshmallow bunnies, we have a big egg hunt.  I always love this.  My parents spend the night before stuffing around 200 eggs with goodies and us parents get to hide them.  Now that some of the kids are getting big, Mom has had to start putting tickets in the eggs for bigger prizes.  They are no longer amused with stickers and erasers.

Is there anything more fun than dumping out your basket and going through all the loot you just scored?  

Just when everyone's winding down and starting to get tired and thinking about maybe chilling out for a while, you know what happens, right?  Aunt Laura breaks out the 6 dozen confetti eggs!  And man, this year, it got dirty.  People went down.  No one was off limits.  Not even Memaw.  Because nothing says Christ is Risen quite like shoving a cracked confetti egg down the back of a family member's shirt.  

Look at all my favorite Mint Tulip models playing on the playset!  That's a cute nest of bunnies right there.

Synchronized swinging!

Easter is my favorite holiday.  There are so many parts to enjoy!  I love the church service; I love the reason we celebrate; I love the pretty outfits; I love the yummy food; I love the egg hunt and the confetti fight.  And also?  I love the nap at the end of the afternoon.  When everyone in the house konks out, that's when you know it's been a really good day.

2016 Family Pictures

Since our Christmas Cards have already gone out in the mail, I guess it's safe to post the pictures from our latest family photoshoot.  I didn't want to ruin the surprise of any of the pics before we used them on our cards.

Like last year, we hired our friend Kristen Catt to take the pictures of us.  I've learned that some family members...ahem, the men...take direction better when it's coming from a paid photographer than from me.  :)

We started with the full family picture since it's always the hardest.  So many kids to try to make look in the same direction!

I love this one of my parents with all the grandkids on the fence.  

We got several decent shots of our family even though Katie Wynn and Thomas hadn't really warmed up yet.  What is it with them hating photographers?!

Here is a side by side comparison between this year and last year.  I liked this picture below, but thought it was too similar to last year's winning picture to use for the Christmas Card.

So we used the one below to switch things up a little bit.  KW and T were NOT happy about having to stand on their own.  The nerve we had in not holding them!

We also included a picture of just the four kids and it is one of my favorites.  Love all four of these grins!

On the back of our card I put an individual picture of each of the kids.

Wyatt, 16

Anna, 15

Katie Wynn, 4

Thomas, 2

I could've filled the back with just pictures of Thomas, because his bright blue eyes just flirted with the camera.

Katie Wynn had some really cute ones too.  Where am I going to hang all of these in my house?

We ordered some really cute canvases for my Mom for Christmas that have an individual shot of each of the grands on them.  We got good shots of all of them!  These three belong to my brother Ben and his wife Erin.

Parker, 8

Ramer, 5

Lilli Greer, 1

And these two belong to the oldest brother, Nick, and his wife Beth.

Jett, 11

Bren, 8

Here's another shot of my parents with the kids.  I don't know why but it cracks me up.

I love this one of my mom and dad.

And finally, this last picture of my crew is kinda silly.  I wanted a picture of us holding hands so that I can order an ornament of our silhouettes from Le Papier Studio.  I think we may be too spread out though, I'm not sure.  I told them they didn't have to smile since I just wanted our silhouettes but I wish they had because I really like the background!

If we keep doing this every year I'm just going to have to wallpaper my walls in family pictures.  I have the hardest time choosing which ones to display!  At least I'll have them all stored here. 

More on the rest of our November soon.

Sunflower Pictures

In the middle of July, I signed our family up for a mini photoshoot in a sunflower field.  And, bonus, the big kids were able to join us for it!  I'll leave it to you to guess from the pictures whether it was hot outside or not...

Thomas was the main grumpster during the shoot.  Usually Katie Wynn is too but we were able to get her to smile a little bit.  Him?  Not so much.  

Kristen Catt was our photographer and she did a good job of being patient with the little kids.  And I love that she took an individual picture of each one of them!  It's going to be hard deciding which ones to frame.

Our pretty girls...

And our handsome boys!

And then there's us...Mom and Dad.

I love doing these mini photoshoots throughout the year!  But, if we don't manage to squeeze in another one before December, act surprised when you see one of these on our Christmas card, ok?  :)