{Sneak Peek} My Family - holiday portraits

One of the most difficult jobs I get each & every year is taking our family portraits. It's not that I couldn't give that job to someone else and I'm sure eventually I will, but I really love this challenge. It takes a little planning and an extra dose of patience, but in the end it's totally worth it.

This year I started the 'plan' with a little inspiration from Pinterst for our clothing. Out of the previous 6 Christmas card photos we wore black/red and/or some variation of the colors, with the only exception being the year we announced Grace's *girl* status, which we wore pink/black/grey for. We ended up going with an earthy, neutral sort of 'John Deere' color scheme (which if you know me well or have been to my house, you know that I've got a small collection, so it's not all that surprising).

 

Once I had all my clients images caught up and ordered, I decided I better get going to get our photos taken.  About a week before Christmas I said, 'Today is the day', and without an actual shooting place in mind we set out to make some other deliveries & just happened to be going the 'back way' and when we drove past a place I'd been wanting to shoot forever and the lighting was perfection, I knew we had found our place. 30-45 minutes later, we ended up with these, mostly taken on the tripod with the camera timer, as my remote has decided to malfunction outdoors, the couple of me with the munchkins were taken by the hubby.

I must say these are probably my most favorite family photos to date. I love how they came together and even with shooting via the tripod, for the most part, everyone, is paying attention.

{Sneak Peek} The Jones Brothers

These little cuties get to come visit every couple of months, partly because I'm Auntie, but also because we like to torture them with photos.  This session is probably went the smoothest of any and all it took was a little semi-bribery.  I simply told Little B he could cooperate, even though he hates pictures, or we could make it take, all.day.long.  He quickly obliged & was so cute, hamming it up with his baby brother. I think he really does like to have his photo made. 
I also did a something a little different than my 'normal' style of shooting all outdoors, on-location.  I set up my little portable studio in the kitchen (which, made me decide my house, is just 2-sizes too small).

Anyways, here's a few (okay, more than normal) of my favorites.

{Real Life} Kiddos PJ Party

One of the things we do with our kids for the month of December, well, not even a whole month, but from the 1st until Christmas is a countdown calendar, with a special activity each day.  Some days we make projects, some days we bake cookies, some days we 'relax' & have slumber parties by the lit up Christmas tree.  On this day, we had a couple friends over & had a pajama party!!! 
I blew up the air mattress, stuck it in front of the tree & the kids had a free for all jump fest.  We took a few photos & then they watched a short Christmas movie while eating popcorn, chocolate covered pretzels & an assortment of other things thrown in a bowl.
I'm pretty sure it was one of the funnest things we've done this December and hope that next year we can do it on a little bigger scale, with lots more room!!! 

I love these shots and the best part was the fun for everyone.

  Normally I wouldn't keep the blurrs, but it really sums up the afternoon. Pretty sure that all the kids were beyond ecstatic that they were allowed to jump on the 'bed', especially because they could jump from couch to bed without any trouble at all! ;)

 Thanks to our friends M&E (of course their mommy too) for joining us.
 

{Sneak Peek} Lots of Family

So the other day I blogged about being behind the lens & in front of it when we did family portraits with my dad.  Well the next day, it happened again!!! I know right!?!  Go from not having pictures, to twice in one weekend, it was crazy.  Although this session wasn't quite as smooth, warm, or sunny, we made it work & got some really great images.

My most favorite by far, is this one of this kiddos all together.

 And here are the rest of my favorites from the day.

 Pretty sure my little brother is the master at all things funny facial expression:

 I've heard it time & time again, this one's gonna be trouble...but here's what most don't know....this one right here, is already trouble!!! Full of attitude & drama!

 Not to be out drama-ed or attitude-d by her sister though, she just knows how to look a little more innocent!