Family Pictures

I had been debating getting family pictures taken, now that we are a family of four.  My favorite photographer friend was going to be in town for a couple weeks, and looking at my calendar there was only one day that would work for us to get together.  I emailed her thinking it probably won't happen and I might be okay with that.  Amazingly the one day worked for her, then onto the second obstacle...what should we all wear!  Of course I wracked my brain, looked through our existing clothes, made a very quick mall run (it's hard to shop nowadays), and put together some outfits I thought looked good.  Location was also a dilemma, finding a good central location to meet at, with good lighting, easy to get to, etc.  Then came the question of, will the kids actually cooperate?  I had family pictures on the brain for the week that led up to pictures, I can definitely stress myself out with worrying if we would get any good pictures.  But then the day finally came...arrive early, dress the kids (definitely don't dress them ahead of time), feed the baby, snacks for the toddler, bribery to get toddler to smile, changes of clothes in case of spills, spit up, etc.  Whew.  But I have to say, it was totally worth it!!!  My friend Kali Leenstra is an amazing family photographer, she was so patient and good with the kids.  She spent so much time with us, changing up the poses if something wasn't working, focusing on one of the kids if the other wasn't cooperating.  She posted some pictures on her website here, and recently I received the CD in the mail with all the pictures.  So here are some of my favorites that didn't make it to her blog...

 

 

Love, love, love them, I will seriously treasure these pictures forever.  I can't wait to make prints and hang them in our house.  I don't think we will be doing family pictures again any time soon though, maybe when we become a family of five?  If you haven't gotten family pictures taken in a while, do it!  You will be glad you did :)