Family Pictures

I have never been good at documenting things on film. Our pictorial history is spotty at best. At times we didn't have a camera. Other times I never developed the film. Mostly, though, I was too busy living the moment to take myself out of it to take the picture. Some would remedy this by having pro portraits made, but scheduling professional shots was often out of the question because of financial constraints.

The digital world has been easier on me. I don't have to remember to go get the film developed. I just shoot the pics directly from my camera to Shutterfly and they deliver them to my home. I don't even have to put on makeup or get out of my house shoes.

When our family was small, I could always rely on a shot of all of us at any family gathering. Some brother or sister would snap a picture of the 3 or 4 of us together; sometimes posed, sometimes not. Well as we grew those opportunities didn't just seem to happen anymore. They required concerted effort.

After God carried me through nursing school and I worked for a while, our pocketbooks would allow for the luxury of a professional portrait. We learned our fourth child was on the way. We decided to wait for the little one so that our family would be complete in the picture.

Our fourth child, baby Jack, was stillborn. A few months after he has born, we were supposed to have our pictures made. I couldn't do it. I felt like any picture made of all of us would be a lie. He wouldn't be there. The big gaping hole in our lives would show up on my face. How could we ever have them made now?

Thankfully, even what we can't imagine one day, is possible on another day. After a few years of healing and God's wonderful grace, it was time to make that memory. The same way God revealed Himself so many times through those years, He made His presence known with our family pictures.

I love the work of Brandy Jaggers Photography. A few months ago, she ran a contest on her blog. She asked "How long has it been since you had your family pictures made? Why has it been so long?" She said that she wanted to give a new family portrait to a one that really needed it. I entered my comment. It told a little bit of the story that I have just told you. Well, we won! We were the recipients of a portrait session and a 16X20 print. You can read more here and also see my comment.

I had read about including something of your loved one in your pictures. We brought a Teddy bear that was baby Jack's to the photo shoot.  Even if someone else doesn't know what it means, we do. We were thinking of him and he is a part of our family.

This is the 16X20 that we chose. This is really all we do now (chase Dinah), so I thought it appropriate for capturing the times we now live in.
The pictures were gorgeous and I'm so happy we have them. But, I'm happier to be a part of the family that is in them.

Tess's Birthday Fun

I told you when I posted M&M Night that Tess had some fun coming. She didn't know about it though. Tess recently turned 10. I brought cupcakes to her class and when we were done sipping Capri Suns and licking icing off our fingers, we left for home, or so she thought. Haley, her best friend was waiting in the car. Tess said, "Something weird is going on here." But, she just laughed and was glad to have Haley along.

She already knew that Haley couldn't spend the night and I found out from her comments that she thought we were just taking Haley home. As we drove South and went past the turn off to Haley's house, Tess said, "Momma, Haley lives back there."

I said, "I know." Haley and I just smiled.

Tess began to squeal and ask excitedly, "Where are we going?"

We both said, "You'll know when you get there."

When we turned off at the mall, she started rapid-fire guessing, "Chucky Cheese? T.J. Maxx? Oooo, Toys-R-Us? The Mall, the Mall, the Mall!!!! I guess this is something that I am going to have to get used to. She doesn't seem to care what kind of mall, how big it is, where it is, as long as we are going there. I've never been much of a shopper so the hyperventilation upon approaching "the Mall!" is new to me.

She was still guessing as we walked into the food court entrance of the Barnes Crossing Mall. We went straight to Build-a-Bear.

This was a first for Tess and I, so Haley had to orient us.

The girls chose their rabbits. (Which without their stuffing were kind of creepy to me.) They chose identical bunnies with identical outfits.

Meet Justine, Tess's bunny, and Shine, Haley's bunny. They are best friends just like Tess and Haley.

After leaving Build-a-Bear we headed over to Bath and Body Works and proceeded to smell each and every fragrance available. After our purchase of matching hand sanitizers (these are germ conscious girls), we headed out to find some more fun. We passes a photo booth and the girls were wild to have their pictures made in it. Despite my perfume euphoria, I was still sensible enough (or cheap whichever way you want to look at it) not to want to spend $3 when I already had a camera on hand. Sooooooo......

They were good sports and didn't fuss. I know it isn't the same but, I think they'll live. I had to save our money. We were headed to the movie theatre!

We had a great time watching the latest "Spy Kids", complete with scratch and sniff cards. The movie was really good. After the movie, we headed to Sam's Club to pick up supplies for Daddy.



The bunnys' first trip with their moms' to Sam's. It is the first place I took my newborn children, why not theirs? (I'm just kidding. Don't get worried.)

We wanted to go to Chik-fil-A but apparently everyone else in a 100 mile radius did too. There were no parking places, and the drive thru was back up almost to the bypass. Their second choice was Wendy's. So we ended our night out in Tupelo with Family Game Night toys in our kids meals.

It was a good night. Happy Birthday, sweetheart!

School Begins

Well, another year, another first day picture.

Tess was super excited to go to school so that she could catch up with all of her friends.

Amelia was beyond thrilled to be a first grader.

Ty was, well, let's say he had a grin-and-bare-it attitude. It broke my heart.  Becoming a sixth grader is hard for a fella who doesn't want to grow up.

This is how Dinah felt about her daddy and her siblings going back to school:

I tried to distract her with the camera. She loves to play with electronic devices usually off limits to small ones. She wasn't buyin' what I was sellin'.

She finally got a little happier.

That's my girl. We'll all be back together again at 3 pm.

Mommy and Dinah survived and were ready to hear all about the first day. Amelia says, "First grade is AWESOME!" Tess says, "School is boring," but then can't help but talk excitedly about every detail of the day. Ty fared better than he thought he would and figured out that sixth grade isn't that much different than fifth grade at BES. Same teachers, just different home room. Dad liked high school just as much as he has the last 20 years.