Family Shots 2014

My girl, Shari, somehow found some time in her short stint home (amid all of her travelling adventures) to take our family photos for us.  Even though she doesn’t take family photos (much) anymore, she is super patient and has a wonderful eye.

We took the photos at the Frog Pond, which is part of Fleming park off Purcells Cove Road.  It was a beautiful, mild fall afternoon so we took a few photos, then wandered along the trail that goes around the frog pond.  I got beautiful family pictures and the super sweet bonus of hanging with Shari while she was home… win win for me.

These are my faves from the shoot…

This one smells like a Christmas card.

The cutest three kids ever.

Emery was a little shy to smile but to be honest, this little smile is very true to his personality.  It’s perfect.  

There’s a bigger one!   We were doing everything from whistling to singing to joking to talking about poop (come on … they’re boys.  Nothing is funnier than poop!) to get Emery to smile.   Oliver was (a bit surprisingly) very cooperative in the picture-taking process.  He did everything Shari asked of him, played with Eleanor, and even tried to get Emery to smile with us.

How is it possible he is this big?!  At least once I week I just stop and watch him doing whatever he’s doing and am dumbfounded by his size, his smarts, his maturity, and who he is in general.   My sweet girl!  She didn’t want to sit still long, of course, but that’s okay.  These pics are definitely capturing her and her sweet self.  

Thank you, Shari, for once again capturing our family for us!  We love you!

(Plug for Shari:  https://www.facebook.com/ShariTuckerPhotoAndAdventures?ref=br_tf.  She is traveling all over the world, here and there, and documenting lots of cool things on her blog).  I miss her.

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Frosty

On Sunday we woke up to a beautiful frosty morning.  Hubby says that type of spiky frost deposit is called hoarfrost.  All I know is that it made for a fantastic winter scene and for neat photo ops.  

Family pics 2013

Earlier in the fall my friend Shari came for a visit and offered to take photos of our family (lucky us!).  I’m slow to get them to the blog just because … well, these days I’m slow doing just about everything.

I love them all but here are a few of my favorites.  Even the non-smiling photo of Emery captures his personality just perfectly.

Family of … five!  

The little ones.

Sigh… he looks so grown up.  

The guys.  

The guys horsing around.  

The girls.  

A few garden shots

These are just a few garden pics from around home.  I don’t get a chance to play with the camera as much as I’d like to, but I did manage to snap a few the other day.

We decided to downsize our vegetable garden this year because we thought we were selling our house and wanted to be able to move our garden if we had to.  Plus we have two toddlers and a new baby due in the middle of it all and are somehow finding less time to spend on things like weeding and watering.

This was one of the more unique planters, an experiment of sorts… a pallet planted with lettuce up top and spinach on the bottom.  It was tricky to water at first but the soil is staying put better now that there are roots to help hold the dirt in place.

I know this is technically overexposed but I still like it.  I have a lot of these on my doorstep this year.   
I’m not sure any rose will ever top this old-fashioned variety.  I like how the background kind of looks like watercolor.   Just a weed by the road.  

 

Emery at (almost) 11 months

Emery is almost 11 months old and I wonder where the time has gone.  I know it’s terribly cliche but when you start measuring time by the growth and development of your young child, it somehow starts flying by at an unthinkable speed (and with no regard to mommy at all!).

Emery’s personality shines a little bit more every day.  He loves to make us laugh, to try everything his brother does, and to throw himself on anything soft (like the dog bed, cushions, etc).

Right now he seems to love these little nylon buckets.  I think he saw Oliver put one on his head once so now, several times a day, he will pull one clear over his head and then peek out of it with a big ole smile on his face.  I’ve even caught him bending over at the waist to put his head in one sitting on the floor.  What a clown.

Earlier tonight Oliver was doing somersaults on the floor.  He moved onto something else quickly (as Oliver tends to do) but a minute later Emery was bent over with his head on the floor and pushing forward like his was trying to roll over.  He’s constantly amazing me with what he takes in.  I guess I still think of him as my little baby and not yet as the little sponge he is.

He walks all around the house clapping and also loves to high-five.  At dinner he’ll throw his arms in the air just because he knows we’ll do it too (because who can resist playing baby games, especially when Oliver is laughing wildly at him and telling us to play along?!).  Ya, we all look like dorks but I can’t help but pause in those moments and think of how special they are.

So now we have this eleven-month-old who is extremely friendly, easy going, and just slightly tired of being pushed around by his big brother.  He’s a little more of a momma’s boy than Oliver is (this momma’s not complaining, by the way).  He is active to the point where I wonder if he’ll be even more active than Oliver was/is/continues to be.  It is hilarious to watch him toddle around the house on his little bowlegged legs.

I love this little face so much.

Emery at 10 months

I’m a little late getting these pictures posted.  Emery is just over 10 months here so they’re a couple of weeks old.

We were hanging outside, just the two of us.  I had my clippers in hand to cut down my flower beds but Emery kept bolting for the stairs so I grabbed my camera instead.

Family Photos by Shari

I have been slow to get these up for no other reason than life is busy.

A few weeks ago my good friend Shari came for a visit.  She is an amazing photographer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Seriously, check out her photos at www.sharitucker.com.  She has a brilliant eye for settings and lighting and does the most amazing wedding photos I have ever seen.  Though she doesn’t usually do family shoots anymore, I asked her to try and capture the four of us as  a favor.  We have never had professional photos before because we both consider ourselves hobby photographers but with one of us behind the camera a shot of all of us is difficult at best.  She kindly agreed in exchange for a meal… done deal!

She got a few of the boys that morning when we were hiking the Shikatehawk trail and throwing rocks in the water.

This one cracks me up!  Oliver crouched down to pick up a rock and got his bum all wet… priceless!

We took the family shots later on.  Oliver wasn’t terribly cooperative due to the time of day but I think Shari managed to get a few really great ones!  It’s so nice to finally have a family photo to frame!

I love the easy going feeling of this one…

This is Oliver’s I’m-smiling-because-you’re-telling-me-to smile.  Kind of scary, huh?

That’s better.

Okay, I think we’re done!  Let’s eat!