I miss doing the monthly portrait sessions of Dorothy. Sure, it was hard coming up with new ideas, and sometimes frustrating when things didn’t work out the way I wanted them to… but mostly, I liked having a reason to get out and take pictures of my children as they’re growing. Jack especially is in this age where he’s kind of “over” me taking pictures of him, so that actually means we have to try MORE often to get a decent shot!

The other night, on a total whim, I decided after dinner that I wanted to take some pictures of the kids at sunset at my grandparents’ place. This did NOT work like I had it planned in my head. We were out there for all of 15 minutes before everyone was too hot, too gripey, too tired of the wind… and Dorothy kept running away from us. Word to the wise, get all the pictures you can of your kids BEFORE they can run away from you!

I was convinced the entire portrait session was a bust. But once I looked through them on the computer later, I found some gems I didn’t know I had captured. Sometimes, the feeling of disappointment when a shoot isn’t *exactly* what I had in mind can cloud my overall opinion of it, and make me forget the good. As it turns out, in this 15 minutes of craziness, I caught some beautiful pictures of our beautiful children.

You’ll notice some of these are edited a little differently than normal… I was in a playful mood, and went a little more “fanciful” than I usually do. I asked Mack if he thought it was ok, and he reminded me, “It’s our blog, we can post whatever we want!” Love that. 🙂

Isn’t this boy handsome? He’s really growing up this summer… I know I have to soak up all his little boy energy, because he won’t be a little boy much longer!

When we first put Dorothy in the chair, all she was concerned with was getting out of it….

The stuffed animal she’s squeezing in this next picture is actually mine from when I was her age… it’s a parachute-material yellow bunny named Snoopy!

Girlfriend can POUT with the best of them! She also has rather unruly hair, as you can see when the bow comes out.

Not bad for 15 minutes, huh?

Speaking of kids, and families, and … well, anything worth “celebrating” :), we’ve got a huge announcement and CONTEST to announce on the blog tomorrow morning. Be sure you come check it out bright & early!!