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I still have a few families to catch up on for some blogging fun, and I wanted this week to feature this laid back Baltimore, MD family. I’ve had the pleasure of photographing them since the daughter was a year old and it’s been such a joy to watch her grow through my lens (and to then meet her little brother and see him grow!) The laughter and love between them is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?
It’s that time of the month again! The Life Story Series!
Ever see a photographer who starts out with a 365 day project, or even a 52 week project and never finishes? Yeah, me too. Well, I recently joined a group of a few other busy photographers who decided to commit to a 12 month project! If we fail this, we’ll be taking donations for a time management seminar. The best part is that it will be totally candid, lifestyle shots of each of our own families/lives. We don’t even have to dredge up random people or make our kids pose for us. We’re calling the series “The Story of ________” and we’ll each be filling in our own blanks. At the end of this post is a link to another photographer who participated and she’ll be linking to someone else. It’s a whole big circle of stories in pictures. Click through and enjoy!
This month, my story focuses on making cookies.
My kids, like most kids I’m sure, go nuts over making cookies. Well, not necessarily the making part (though they enjoy dumping flour into a bowl) — their true love lies in sprinkles, and making sure they coat every single surface available with said sprinkles.
I love to indulge this joy in January, when slice and bake cookies go on sale. All the leftover Christmas designs are marked down January first and the kids and I go nuts buying a ton of them and making them all week long. Some people have a ton of cookies around before Christmas, we have tons after. Slice and Bake is perfect for those grumpy days. All I have to do is pull some colored sugar out of the pantry and they immediately break into grins. And best yet, 10 minutes after they pile on the sprinkles, the cookies are ready to eat. Perfect for those little attention spans.
With Daddy helping out, aka standing guard against too much sprinkle flinging, we set to work.
The kids adapt their methods… instead of pouring the sprinkles on, they pile them in their palms to shake on. Whatever works!
When that becomes too chaotic, Daddy brings out a little cup and pours all the extra cast offs from the sides of the baking pan for reuse. More fun!
Bug’s “uh-oh” face when she realizes her hands are messy… and her solution to the problem.
Moose-man finally decides shaking from the cup is the most effective method. And then the traditional crowd-the-oven to watch.
It’s tradition! Each November I do the casual Christmas card portrait. Each December I do the formal portrait. Each January I do the Christmas PJs portrait.
I’m really having to think to make each year different from previous years. I don’t even know why it’s so important to change it up. The first year that I attempted Christmas portraits, I did the formal portrait on a white backdrop. Bug had just turned one and something wasn’t right… I realized after the fact that I’m just not a white backdrop kind of person for most things (except cake smashes. I do love a plain background for a cake smash). So the second year of the formal portrait attempt, I had Bug sit on the hearth of our fireplace. Last year was two kids in front of the Christmas Tree. This year I opted for something simple and used a wrapped gift as a chair and sat them in front of the window. I was toying with the idea of running with the Christmas Lights fad and stringing white lights behind the curtain, but in the end laziness– I mean, simplicity and preferring timeless looks to fads… yeah, that’s it– won out and we used the window as-is.
As is typical of an almost 2 year old, Moose was not interested in sitting on a box for his Mama. He is more interested in standing with me and looking at the pictures on the back of the camera. He actually wants to look at HIS pictures, but he won’t give me more than a millisecond to capture the image before he’s standing next to me in a flash demanding “SEE! SEE!” Bug, on the other hand, has finally passed that stage and now enjoys posing and hamming it up for me.
This was the quickest session I think we have ever attempted. I took a total of 10 frames before both kids were gone. Four of them had either blinks or weird expressions as I caught them talking. And this is what was left.
It makes me laugh, and I’m going to be glad to have these as the years fly by. I feel like they are already growing up in the blink of an eye. How is my moose man almost two already? I feel like he was my baby burrito just yesterday.
Now that my own Christmas cards are out, I’d love to share with you our November edition of the monthly portrait project– the holiday photos.
For my Christmas cards, I usually like to take the kids out to a field or other natural environment for a casual portrait of them together. I also do formal Christmas portraits in their holiday finery (as our December portrait) and in January I do a more casual portrait of them hanging out in their Christmas PJs (gotta get one more use out of them, right?)
Hey, look at that, after just over a year of catch-up blogging of my once-a-month portrait project of my kids, I am nearly up to date.
Granted, this is a bit cheesier than my norm with the fake pumpkin props, but this is a yearly tradition that I am glad to capture, and will continue to capture in the years to come.
My little bug is getting so BIG!
She’s such a ham and I love it.
Silly faces and all, I love them.
The Big Man.
He was not feeling especially cooperative that day, but I do love his sullen little expression. A glimpse of teenage years, I’m sure.
How Moose really felt about having another portrait day.
And just for fun, a comparison of the pumpkin shots through the years:
I look forward to seeing this handsome guy every year. He has a great personality, which you will see below, he is one of the most well behaved kids I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and he’s pretty darn cute! We met down at one of my favorite Baltimore County fields right at sunset to make some beautiful portraits for their holiday cards.
Love this light! Isn’t he a total sweetheart?
He is always one of my best dressed clients each year.
The bond between a mother and son is so beautiful.
Look at the way they love each other!
Mr. GQ.
And a taste of his real personality shining through. I love the silly!
With Bug’s fourth birthday rapidly approaching and her obsession with all things Disney’s Tangled, we settled on a Rapunzel birthday party. Which means a Rapunzel themed birthday session for images for her invitation and thank you notes!
Bug could not have been happier. She loves her Rapunzel dress (brand new, as she wore the old one out, so we upgraded her to the nicer one as it was also to be her Halloween costume). It took some coaxing to get her to NOT flip out when I removed the broach with Rapunzel’s face on it (something I’ve never understood. Why would all the Disney princesses have their face on their dresses? Do they get really confused and put on other people’s clothes by mistake?) with the promise of turning it into jewelry.
We headed out to my favorite field in Bel Air, MD (may it rest in peace, as it is now in the process of becoming a store).
It’s taken me all year, but I am finally almost caught up in sharing my monthly portrait endeavors with my own kids!
This week has us in September. With Bug starting preschool, we decided to opt for a “back to school” theme and go for something a little different than the fields and trees I typically seek out for locations.
The Bug, showing off her backpack. Can you tell she’s a proud girl? Awww….
The Moose, with his coincidentally favorite current toy– the school bus. He drives that thing everywhere and it is second only to Thomas the Tank Engine.
This is what Bug does if you ask her to pose like a model. I think it’s based on mannequin poses in the mall. She does this pose consistently, and it cracks me up each time I see it.
Someone isn’t sure if she wants to cooperate, despite the rapidly fading light.
This. This is what embodies all portrait sessions with my kids. Every time I look at it, I can’t help but laugh– it’s so THEM. It takes a lot of bribery to get anything other than this sort of monkeying around each month, and I was lucky enough to capture them goofing off at the same time here (they typically take turns behaving and goofing off). I knew as soon as I took this photograph that it was a keeper. I’m smiling now just talking about it. My kids crack me up.
My handsome Moose. He’s trying to show off his Star Wars shirt, here. And, like any year-and-a-half year old, accomplishes the exact opposite.
Sweet Bug and the school bus.
I am lucky. My kids really do adore each other. I hope it lasts.
Belly Buttons! Does anyone else have kids obsessed with them?
Love my Moose man.
A few weekends ago, I had the pleasure of working with this fabulous family from Hunt Valley, MD for their fall family portraits. Talk about having a blast– these kids were all smiles and giggles the entire time. Even when an acorn fell right out of the sky on the little guy’s head, he jumped right back in the game with a smile on his face. Mom and Dad, you are going to have a trio of heartbreakers on your hands.
Does it get any better than this? Laughing in the sun is a great way to start your family portraits.
Some girl time. I love Moms and Daughters– they share a special bond that you just don’t see anywhere else.
And of course, we can’t leave out the boys in a typical father-son roughhousing moment. Do they look alike or what?
I am always sure to get a few minutes with just Mom and Dad for a couples portrait. And it helps to have my 3 new assistants trying to get their parents to smile for the camera!
Aren’t these some gorgeous kids?
Sibling snuggles. I love seeing relationships in how the kids decide to cuddle up.
A headshot of each. These three were some of the best behaved kids, and with a great sense of humor. They had me laughing the whole time.
Each of these family portraits needs to stand alone. I can’t decide which of these three I like better. Snuggled and laughing…
…the family playing…
…or the family cuddled up and smiling together.
Which is your favorite?