a birthday photo shoot

It's not as easy as it used to be to find time to take pictures of my older kids. They are busy with school and extra curricular activities and I am usually holding at least one baby on my hip. But a few weeks after her birthday, the stars aligned and Natalie and I were able to escape to the back yard for a few pictures. 

11 Months!

Charlotte is 11 months! We have a "sweet spot" in our dining room where the lighting is just right. I have taken photos of cakes, cupcakes, and of course, my kids, in that little corner! 

for a friend

A friend of mine asked me to take pictures of her cute family and I was so excited to do it! They are a beautiful family inside and out, and honestly, I don't know how they pulled it together so well only a few months after welcoming a third little chica to their clan.

a teenager!

We have a lot of birthdays in the fall and winter in our family, which means lots of birthday photo shoots! Yesterday I took our almost TEENager(!) to Murray's parents' farm for some pictures. It was so much fun to spend some one-on-one time with this boy of mine. He makes me a proud and happy Mom. He is a hard worker, a good leader in our family, talented (I LOVE hearing him play the piano and watching him play soccer), a good friend, and tries his best to do what is right. We really lucked out to have him be our first born because he eased us into this parenting thing. I love Kasen with all my heart and am privileged to be his mother.

Enough with the sappiness! I took SOOO many photos and I love them all, so brace yourselves!

 

 

 No, Kasen didn't turn into a horse mid-way through his photo shoot :-) This is Blue, the pony. He is the most patient and mild tempered animal on the planet.

 

our october birthdays!

A yearly birthday photo shoot is now a tradition! I kick-started this idea last year in October when these two boys had their birthdays' and here we are on year two! 

A friend of mine asked me to take their family photos at Murray's parents' farm this year and I decided I would "practice" with my own kids. We made an afternoon of it. I packed a picnic, my camera, a change of clothes, and a comb and we headed to Gradma's straight away after I picked up Corbin from preschool. The weather was GORGEOUS. The boys had a ball playing outside, having our picnic, and saying hi to gradma. I changed their clothes, freshened up their hair, and took pictures one handed while holding baby Charlotte :-) You have to do what you have to do, right?! I imagined getting more of the scenery in the background, but the boys were wanting to stand by this tree trunk so that is what we did! I absolutely love these. And I LOVE my BIG "little" boys.

I am planning on playing around with different scenery options when I do Kasen's THIRTEEN (!) year old photo shoot hopefully this weekend. And we can do it when the lighting is more ideal (right before sunset). 

I have to say, even though we took these photos during the worst possible time of day for lighting (mid-day), I really think they turned out great!

Pierce is 2 year old photos:

Corbin's 4 year old photos: