Hoffman Girls

This morning I met up with my friend Lynn and her family to do a few pictures of her girls.  You've seen Penny on the blog before, but this is the first time for Ms. Charlotte.  Yep, Charlotte is like 6 months old and her Mom has never gotten her picture taken.  A crime I tell ya, poor second children (did that help your Mom guilt Lynn?).  Personally I think it was worth the wait.  Ms. Charlotte performed like the best of them even in the windy and cold weather.  She's a trooper, just like her big sister!  Welcome to the blog Charlotte, the camera loves you :)

A Weather Tease

We recently had nice weather for like a second.  But you better believe we escaped for that second and got ourselves some much needed Vitamin D.  Nolan is VERY excited about his upcoming T-Ball session and wanted to do some practicing.  You can see he is very serious about his new sport of choice.  Bennett continues to give me a heart attack by climbing anything he can get his hands/feet on.  I've always said he's going to land himself in the Emergency Room before he turns three…we are closing in on that target rather rapidly!  Here's hoping he's agile enough to avoid it!  Here's also hoping we get some more of this nice weather in the very near future!

Behind the Scenes

This latest photo session inspired me to share what "behind the scenes" looks like at a photo shoot involving young children.  Behind every great smile there is someone working very hard to make that smile happen.  Like I mentioned before I broke out the big guns this time and had my friend Jessie come up and serve as a rodeo clown (her words not mine).  She came with toys, treats, juice boxes, videos, mad peek-a-boo skills and a creepy laughing baby doll. The things we do for family pictures!  

Before Jessie got there we tried the old fashion way by trying to charm Ethan ourselves with our winning personalities and tickling fingers...

Nope, not happening.  Enter Jessie.  And sugar.

While I tried to get a picture of the kids with the Grandparents I heard a big commotion going on behind me.  I turned around to find this...

With all the attention on getting the kids to smile and people hootin' and hollarin' and jumping and singing, the adults themselves started to get loopy...

But sometimes, no matter how hard you try…the kids persevere through and hold out on those smiles.

So then you break out the videos...

And you stop a stranger with a dog and you have Uncle Alex magically appear from behind a tree and then you get it.  That magical smile.  And you celebrate, and hoot and hollar and sing and dance all over again.  This time not to get a reaction but to celebrate waiting that kiddo out…and winning!  

The Lunn Family

It's that time of year again…family picture time!  Although, we might have jumped the gun on this one a little bit and had quite the chilly morning on our hands!  We all survived though and hopefully the Lunn Family thinks it was worth it!  I have to say I was extra nervous about this shoot because Michelle (Mom of the two adorable babies) is a photographer.  And I'm talking a legit super talented artist…not a hobbyist like myself.  So needless to say I felt the need to pull out all the stops on this one and I brought in the big guns…their cousin Jessie.  Jessie is an incredible "assistant" and came up to jump around, provide snacks, grab blankets and hoot and hollar in order to get the kids attention (outtakes to follow).  I'll tell you what, she had her work cut out for her!  But after much persistence she finally broke out some smiles and all was well with the world!  Thank you Lunn Family for having me capture your family and thank you Jessie for providing priceless entertainment!

Artistic Differences

The other day Nolan was busy doing puzzles, and I was busy doing dishes…and singing.  If I remember correctly I was singing our new favorite song "Let it Go" from the movie Frozen.  And if I'm being totally honest…I rock at that song (at least the lyrics that I actually know of that song).  Anyway, apparently Nolan does not appreciate my singing like I thought he did and here is what he had to say about it...  

"Mom, stop singing because it's beautiful and I don't like beautiful.  I like cool."

-nolan

I'm not really sure how to take that comment? I mean we must just have artistic differences.  In the end he still thinks my singing is beautiful…right?