Family of 7...

Shortly after Briggs was born my sister-in-law took some pictures of our new family of 7. They ended up getting lost in a sea of pictures and I'm just barely seeing them for the first time. I love them. Many capture the craziness that comes with 5 kids. Some capture the love everyone has for this little one and for each other. Others capture the personality each child has.

We took them at my sister-in-law's home so the kids were comfortable and relaxed. Although excited to be seeing their cousins. We weren't stressing over hair or clothing. It's just our family on a Sunday afternoon (which means they showered that morning and we indeed did their hair at some point that day!)

There's plenty more to sort through but here's a couple I'm loving so far.

Last day of school...

It's a bittersweet day and it is every year - the last day of school. The kids are excited to have endless days in the pool but are sad that they won't see their friends for 7 hours every day.

I know there's mothers out there that look forward to this day. They dream about this day and all the adventures that they can have with their kids. I am not that mom. Perhaps its the stage of my children - when they're older it might be a different story.

Either way, I'm hear to say that you can love your kids dearly and still dread all of them being home at the same time for any stretch of time. I enjoy the schedule that school provides for our family. I like that they don't expect screen time. I like that they fight less with each other. I like that they come home from school and know that they have chores that have to be completed. I like the school year. And even though being in the "trenches" of motherhood during the summer isn't grand - it does have some perks.

My favorite perk - absolutely no obligations. Without any obligations, I'm able to take our crew to Idaho for extended amounts of time which is my very favorite part of summer. In fact if you ask my kids, it's their favorite part of summer as well. We measure summer based on when we're going to Idaho. My other favorite part - no laundry! The kids live in swimsuits which makes laundry day a breeze!

Ready or not - summer is here!

Our annual first and last day of school pictures.

Behind the Scenes...

I get a lot of questions as to how I shoot my studio photos. This is where the magic happens. I shoot most of the photos in my office.

This is how it looks:


I have a Giottos backdrop stand that I set up against the wall.

I use Savage seamless paper rolls for my backgrounds, they last forever (most of mine are more than 7 years old). I have a couple 107 inch wide rolls but they're too big to fit in my small office space. Most of mine are 53".

I use two studio lights; an Alien Bee B800 and a B400. The B800 is used with an umbrella or a soft box and the B400 is used without an umbrella bounced off the wall (it just helps with the shadows.)

I set this up for the first day of school, Halloween, Thanksgiving, birthdays and any other special occasion that warrants a photo shoot (which I always take advantage of). Not to mention we always seem to get a couple visitors when the backdrop is set up - photo fun for all!

It all fits nicely in the office closet making it quick and easy to set up whenever the moment strikes - or weekly when I'm doing a photo project of my baby!

First day of school...

I'm not sure how summer came and went so fast, but here we are the first day of school yet again. Cannon and Bennett were up at 5:45, Hallie and Hunter were both awake by 6. School doesn't start until 8:20. There might have been some excitement bubbling throughout everyone this morning.

I experienced a photographer mom's worst nightmare - a dead camera battery. Can I tell you in all my years of shooting photos, not once have I ever had my battery go dead!? But today of all days was when it was going to happen. I had plugged my camera in last night to clear my memory card (my disc reader wasn't working) and I forgot to unplug it and turn it off.

I realized it 10 minutes before we were walking out the door to take the kids to school. I hurried and plugged in the battery, charged it for 5 minutes and then shot the two oldest photos for 5 minutes with a blinking battery light and then ran out the door. I think Hunter was relieved that his photo session was cut short - he had his two minutes of fame and was just fine calling it quits.







Hallie has gobs of girlfriends in her class this year and she's over the moon.

Hunter admitted that although he wasn't nearly as nervous as last year, he still had some nerves. However, seeing him with his friends in line and on the playground - the nerves seemed non-existent.

Bennett marched right into his class and took his seat, he's a veteran in the class and he knows it.

We shot his pictures once he came home and he was all sorts of funny and giggly.




The kids rode the bus home and were tired and sweaty walking in the door. They told of new playground equipment and nice teachers. Lunch with friends and new assignments. They were happy and excited for their classes. Every parent's hope. Hopefully day 2 goes just as well as day 1.

Senior Pictures...

This year we had three graduates in the family (four if you include Steve), the most we've had in a given year.

We had grand plans of getting all three of them together to take senior pictures but that didn't work out how we'd hoped. Instead, I shot 2 of the 3 seniors and my sister-in-law shot the third (her son). It's been a while since I've actually done photography for paying clients and I always warn friends/family that they get what they pay for and no one seems to mind.

Allie is beautiful and fun and her eyes sparkle. She is low-maintenance and was easy going as far as location and posing. She made my job easy.



Smith is the typical senior boy client who couldn't care less - he's there to please his mother and get one good shot for his graduation announcements. He's funny and sarcastic and gave all sorts of goofy looks - very similar to his brother two years ago!




Luckily in between the fun we got great shots for the announcements and to please his mother.



And oddly enough - without any planning or communication - we ran into my other graduating nephew on his senior photo shoot. Fun coincidence.

Last day of school...

Oh my, how they've grown. How is it already the end of school? There was so much excitement surrounding today. I laid in be last night next to Hunter, reminding him of the night before the first day of school. He was so nervous. What if he got lost on the bus? How will he know when its time to eat? Will he ever see Hallie? And three days into school and the nerves were gone and I saw confidence building each and every day. As we talked about it, he started asking about first grade and shared some concerns. This morning I overheard him asking Hallie, "What if I get the really mean teacher?"

So cute. So tender. And Hallie's coaching him through it was just about the sweetest thing.

We're looking forward to summer and we've got some fun things planned. Here's our annual first and last day of school photos. (Tutorial can be found here)

Weekly Photo Wrap Up...

A week ago Tuesday, I set up the studio lights for the last shoot of Cannon's weekly photos. Part of me was relieved that I didn't have to come up with another chalk drawing (some days when the creative juices weren't flowing it was really hard!) Part of me was surprised that I made it 52 weeks. And of course part of me was sad because he's one years old and we were done with this chapter. My Tuesdays are now looking surprisingly empty!

Check out the video of his weekly photos here.


I can't decide which is my favorite, I love them all for one reason or another. But I really like weeks 37-40 - perhaps just a fun stage he was in. What's your favorite?

Get a closer look at the weekly photos here.

Have your cake...

And eat it too...

Actually - there wasn't a whole lot of eating. His first go at sugar and he wasn't a big fan. The minute he got it on his hands, he cried and started flicking frosting everywhere.


And after he flicked frosting everywhere, he finally got some in his mouth and kinda liked it.




And then he was done and he turned over the plate to let us know he was done.


He didn't dive into it like the kids were hoping and cheering him on to do - and he left quite the mess which is all we expect out a first cake experience! I'm sure the next time he sees cake he'll put a little more in his mouth.


Check out Hunter's first cake and Bennett's first cake.