Family Portraits

It has been 3 years since our last family portrait, so it was high time we remedied that!  My favorite portrait studio closed a few years ago, and ever since then, I have struggled to have portraits made on a more regular basis.  The place we went to was affordable, and they took AWESOME pictures!  I have yet to find another studio that is THAT good AND affordable. 

The family picture was to be for our Christmas cards.
Anyway, I decided to beg my sister for the use of her Nikon D60 for the afternoon (she's really quite protective of it :D ) and take some outdoor portraits of the family by myself!  I took photography in college, but am still quite an amateur.  I know what I like, but executing what is in my head can be a challenge.  I also do not have good interior lighting or backdrops so shooting outside was a must for professional looking results.  Well, as professional as I could get them, anyway!

Remember...........amateur.

It turns out, the very best family portrait turned out to be the FIRST shot I took!  It's certainly not perfect--the posing could be a little better, someone could have smiled a little less cheesy, but I was happy with it!

Yep, for Christmas cards, that'll do!

Evan is all boy. Well, so is Levi. Did you notice their dirty knees in the family shot above? Yep. Kept them clean all through church and lunch, then it took me two minutes to set up the tripod and they managed to find mud.

Here are some random shots.

What a good lookin' bunch of kiddos.

That shot was a good pose with a nice background, but obviously, the lighting was not perfect.  So, we moved on.

Well, we moved on after some little boys got their fill of hanging from the chain.

And one right-side-up.  For good measure.

We had lots of cheesy smiles.  At least they smiled, right?  Stinker.

Ava's glasses are Transitions so I had her remove them so I could see her beautiful, blue eyes!

There they are!

Me and my sweet girl.  I'm so happy to have a girl! 

     Ava loves to read, read, READ!  This girl can polish off a dozen books in just a few days.  And I don't mean Amelia Bedelia, either.  I'm talking about books like, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Guardians of Ga'Hoole. 

     She also loves to cook and make crafty things.  She's becoming quite good at cooking.  I tell her she's on her way to becoming an amazing wife and mother!  Her children will say, "Mmmmm..........."  when she sets food in front of them.  I also tell her that she might not think so now, but one day, hearing her kids say, "Mmmm....." will make her very happy!

Levi is very photogenic. The kid hardly knows how to take a bad picture.

He is brilliant with numbers.  Really.  This little dude has been multiplying numbers since he was about 4.  He is also the kind of kid you find taking stuff apart to see how it works, and tying things up to see what will happen when you hang from them.  We think engineering of some kind may be in his future!

See what I mean?  Seriously.  Is that boy not handsome?

This one, too.  Handsome little fella.

If I could use one word to sum up Evan's personality, it would be LOUD.  Now, I mean that in the dearest way :)  He might be the youngest, but he has never tolerated being left out of any.thing.  He makes his presence known.  We joke that he will become a preacher someday, lol!

Ok, so this one was pretty good, but I couldn't stop there.  Nooooooo, I just had to keep going. See the progression for yourself.

Oh, all right.  We're done, ok?

After pictures were over, we let them play and had a great time.  This park is beautiful and we've been going there for years for pictures and just for fun.

I just love those kiddos.

Looking back, it was a really fun day.  I hope they remember it :)