Pictorial onslaught

**Note...in my browser, a lot of these are getting chopped off at the side.  So if you really care to see the whole picture, you're probably going to have to click on it.  Sorry! 

I'm finally getting around to posting the color shots from our photo shoot a few weeks ago.  I must say, these create a real dilemma for me.  Almost all of the framed photos in our home (with the exception of one obscure out-of-the-way collage) are black and white.  But I love the color in these!  Especially since our home is a pretty colorful place, and I love how these just pop.  So...dilemma.

One of the things I was really hoping for in hiring a lifestyle photographer is for artistic interpretations of things that happen thousands of times in our home--the kind of thing that is beautiful to me, but maybe not to anyone else.  And I wanted it captured in a way that made it obviously beautiful to everyone else, and I feel like this shoot really did that.  The photo of Isaac and his trains (above) exemplifies just what I was going for.  I love the jumbled warm wood tones of all the trains, and those chubby little boy hands and feet so carefully putting together the tracks.

And speaking of chubby adorable hands...

 And I love the toes in this one, because this is how Isaac always crouches to play with his trains.  Love love love those little scrunchie toes.

 Also really like this one...

 And I love Abigail's face in this!

This one is in my top 10 favorites from the day.  I love love love the color!  And the darling chubby Luke ankles!

 

 And lots of shots of kidlets playing with their toys.

And eating their toys.

 Isaac is so intent.  Which, if you know him in real life, is just how his personality is.  He is so focused!  So intent!  So furrowed of brow!  (So adamant that you "wisten to me, wight now!  Your face is not wooking at me when I talk to you!")

 
 I would really love this picture if I didn't look sort of dorky and Abigail sort of "I've outgrown this whole thing."

But look...she's not too cool for stories.

 So remember forever ago when I was taking photos of my house for a house tour thingie?  I am so glad that Jessica took these photos, because they are so much better than I could do with my camera, and I do love my little kitchen.  And I think it looks so pretty here.  :-)  (And also, I'm still debating...do I paint over the red with a blah beige before we put it up for sale?  Would you buy it as-is?)

Okay, this is another top ten picture.  That Luke tippy-toes just melts my heart every single time.  Oh baby, please stop growing up so fast.  

 (He doesn't grow as quickly when we only feed him oven mitts.)



Another very characteristic Isaac shot...no matter where he is in the house, as soon as he hears the KitchenAid mixer turn on, he zooms in, climbs up on the counter, and asks "What are you making?  Can I help?  Can I have a little pinch to eat?"

 Divvying up the muffin cups...

 and again...

 and the chaos that is my kitchen with all six of us in it.  If only it looked this clean and pretty with all of us running around all the time.  For realism's sake, we really should have had a few half-finished craft projects strewn about...

 Another pair of shots of my oldest and my thirdest that I just love.  Personalities shining through.  Abigail kept disappearing to the couch with a book...there are a LOT of these photos.

 Love the sheer glee here!

So this sequence of photos is pretty cool.

 I am really torn on this one.  Neil is right that it's a great happy picture of all of us.  But when I look at it, all I can think is "why did I wear that shirt?!"  I really debated before the shoot, because I like the color and the shirt in general, but it has a weird drape, and if I pull it down over my hips, then it makes me look like I have no waist, and I always forget that I need to let the banded bottom of it hit higher (right over the belt) than I usually like to wear my long-waisted shirts.  So in this picture I feel like a dumpling.  I don't think it's going to make it onto our wall.  (Also, Luke was screaming his head off in rage because he wanted to be on the swings, but he looks happy.  Haha.)

 Bubbles!!

 I love this photo of Jules.  It makes her look like she's just two or three again.

 Also really like the contrast of Luke with the wood.  There's another one with a more pleasant expression, but unfortunately there was a sunspot on the fence.

 And back inside to the glossied-up kitchen chaos.

 Love love love this one of Neil and Juliet.

 And I really love the lighting on this one (if only Neil, Jules, and Luke were looking at the camera!)

 All in all, I'm really glad we opted for the lifestyle shoot.  I felt like we got some really great classic photos that captured our day-to-day life (albeit a tidied-up version thereof).  My only regret is that we didn't get a really standout shot of all six of us where we were all looking pleasantly at the camera, but then again, we didn't do very many posed shots, and it seems like with this many people, you have to take about 400 posed shots to get just a single frameable one!

But ultimately, when I look at these, it makes me think that my family is so darling and sweet that I want to go get them all out of their beds and snuggle them, and that's what a good photo shoot is all about.  (Preserving that illusion of cherubic little babies and forgetting the struggle that it was to get them all quiet and into bed in the first place!  P.S. Did you notice that Luke went through three shirts during the course of the shoot?  He was one crazy baby.)