Family Portraits

I mentioned that we did our family portraits a few weeks ago. It was super hot, super sticky, and about 110% humidity; I didn't have time to do my hair; and I didn't plan for JP and I to even be in the pictures until about 15 minutes before we were supposed to leave, so while I loved the kids outfits and they were in a GREAT mood that morning and we super cooperative, I was too sweaty and frizzy to have super high expectations for the final product. When I opened the gallery from the photographer last week, I was really just hoping to have an individual portrait of each kid and maybe ONE good picture of the three kids together.

And we got them. With a few extra besides.

(My little brother captioned the one above as "Cheese." "Cheeeeese." "I pooped!" and now that's all I can see when I look at it. But I still love it just the same. Or maybe even more.)

I haven't gotten individual portraits of the kids since 2012, so I was really happy to get a few individual shots of my babies at 7 and 4.

Lanman

Clairebear

And of course a few of our baby Cora. When I scheduled the session back in February I thought June would give us a Cora who could sit up and smile, but who wouldn't be mobile yet. Then she started crawling in April, so yeah, that didn't work out, but we still got some good shots! The bow she's wearing is the one I bought the week we found out we were having another girl (and that she's wearing in her newborn portraits) and I just love that.

I love this one- totally captures Cora's "of course I can do all the big kid things" attitude. So she's sure she can go over the ladder, she juuuust might need a sec to figure out how. Also, thigh rolls and wrist rolls and elbow rolls. Two thumbs up.

And we even got a good one of the family! As I said above, I only decided to add JP and I at the last minute, so I hate my hair here (I did not set my alarm to early "get myself pretty" o'clock, just the latest possible "get the kids dressed and out the door" time), but everyone else looks good.

We got several good ones of JP and Cora, but this is my favorite - long live the chins!

And one of me and my smiley smiley girl. Cora took her modeling very seriously, so these are the only big smiles we got on film. She does love to fly (and dance and twirl and do pretty much anything involvement movement, music, and/or her family people).

Another family shot. I'd given in to the humidity and pulled my hair back, and yet still, my now absent hair remains my least favorite part of this picture.

Claire asked to do a picture with sunglasses, and I, THRILLED by the idea that someone else in my house was excited about family pictures, readily agreed to add some sunglass shots at the end. As you can see, Claire was super excited about this. Cora was more "wtf" about it and Landon was just excited to be allowed to pick-up the baby. (Sweet aside: tonight he asked me for a small picture of Cora that he could put in a little frame to keep by his treasure box in his room "and then take with me when I move to my own house one day." It was a double emotional whammy. That kid...)

Cora was pretty over it, but Claire was in full model mode. Girl loooves her accessories.

I love all the pictures, but this is the one I put in the frame on my bedside table. You can't see their faces very well, but it just captures them so perfectly.

I have about 50 more on the CD and I really just couldn't be happier with what our photographer did with an hour on a super humid morning at our favorite local park. I've loved every year with the kids, and I expect to love every one in the future, but this first year as a family of five has been particularly magical- the big kids just love Cora so much and she adores them right back and I'm so glad I have some portraits that come close to capturing that.