If I Could Turn Back Time- Part 4

Zachary - 11 years

Note that I do refer to him as Zachary for these older pictures.  We named him Zachary and called him Zachary until he decided that he would be known as Zach or Bonecrusher.  Both stuck and even I call him Zach now though I think I was the last hold out on that one.

Savannah - 10 years

I remember this session well.  You might notice that the boys are typically dressed for cooler weather while the girls are dressed for warmer weather.  The girls have spring and summer birthdays while the boys have fall and winter birthdays, and we always scheduled the sessions around their birthdays. For this one, however, we scheduled the session at least a month early.  Savannah was preparing to cut off all of her hair for Locks of Love.  She seriously considered shaving it in honor of her friend Dana who is a two-time cancer survivor.  I think Dana talked her out of it :)  Anyway, we wanted the pictures before the hair was gone, and in the end Savannah got an adorable haircut and donated 10 inches of hair to Locks of Love.  I did like that she was dressed for another season as well.  We tried really hard to wait for her braces to come off before doing 16 year old pictures.  As it turned out she received a free session with a talented photographer after her braces were removed.  Savannah loved that she wore fall clothes for that session, and she is so anxious to see the results.

Zachary - 12 years

This is one of my all-time favorites of Zach.  I remember distinctly that I had it on display at home, and one of his friends loved it.  My all-time favorite will not make the blog for some time as it is not in digital format, but I do hope to someday remedy that.

Julia - 3 years

Zachary - 10 years

Savannah - 9 years

photos courtesy of Darwin's Photography

If I Could Turn Back Time - Part 3

Savannah - 14 years

I almost uploaded Savannah's 12 year old session next, but the computer says the discs are blank.  There is quite a difference between 12 year old Savannah and 14 year old Savannah.  Hopefully, I can open those on another computer.

Wyatt- 7 years

Zach - 14 years

Savannah - 11 years

Zachary- 13 years

Julia - 4 years

photos courtesy of Darwin's Photography

If I Could Turn Back Time...Part 2

Julia-one year

I have to confess that my plan was to just share one or two favorites from each session, but this one was really tough, so I am sharing more.

Cake smash!!  I am anxious to see Kinsley's cake smash photos, so how appropriate is this that Julia's one year session happened to be the next envelope in the bag?!

The Itsy Bitsy spider.  Remember that we had known Julia all of one month when we went for this session.  We taught Julia some simple sign language starting the day we met her in China.  This picture reminds me that she never got "Thank you."  She always scratched the back of her head for that one :)

We borrowed the dress. To this day I am sick that we could not find the one I bought in China for her.  We later found it, but this was done.  Darwin's Photography actually helped us with this.  They had another customer bring in her dresses, and we chose one of them for this session.

It was weeks after we met Julia before we finally experienced the joy of her belly laugh - truly the best sound in the world.

This picture became a family tradition.  It started with Zach during his one year session.  To this day we have this same pose of each of the kids hanging in the dining room - even Wyatt at five because that is when we met him.

Typically, the mother-baby session happened at six months.  Since we did not have Julia then, we made it up with this session, so I guess we can count this as two sessions and I can claim that I did not go overboard in sharing these, right?  I do not yet know if I have the one-year sessions for Zach and Savannah.  They would have been on film, and I certainly hope I have the negatives so that I can eventually have them converted.  Those sessions are such fun.

Wyatt was looking over my shoulder as I posted these and said, "Wow Mom, you look so young in these pictures."  I told him I had some help with Angie's talent with Photoshop.  His response, "you look like you were in your early thirties."  Okay Wyatt, I was in my early thirties.  Thank you.

 On the older sessions, I have to convert the files to jpeg in order to load them on Snapfish, so they take awhile.  I think it will be several weeks before I get through all of these.

Zachary-10 years, Savannah 7 years, and Julia -1 year

I had almost forgotten these.  I took advantage of having clothes for a wedding and had these made, literally within a week of Julia's arrival home.

I can't be sure, but I am guessing Julia had just put a Cheerio in her mouth.  Cheerios and having Mom or Dad in view were very necessary comforts at that time.

I am bummed right now that Zachary's 8 year old session won't open.  It was one of my favorites.  I am hoping to have better success on another computer.

Savannah - 7 years

Some of my favorite photos of kids include those where they are missing their two front teeth.  Savannah is only missing one here, but that's pretty cute too.

The American Girl doll changed Christmases and birthdays for our family.  They are great dolls. They are sturdy and you have support if anything goes wrong.  The arm fell off of one of Savannah's dolls.  We shipped her back to the company for repair, and she was returned with her arm attached and wearing a hospital gown.  Anyway, back to why they changed Christmases and birthdays for us.  Savannah really wanted one of these dolls, and to this day they cost more than we spend per child on all of Christmas.  At the time my five siblings and parents were buying small gifts for each of the kids.  When you added what they were spending together, the amount came to the price of one of these dolls.  It was a win-win.  Savannah could get what she wanted, and I didn't have a house full of little pieces of toys everywhere.  Shopping was made easy for most of the family. To this day, we pitch in together for the grandkids so that they can get the bigger ticket items when they really want them.  

A year ago Julia started pining for one of these dolls.  She enjoyed playing with them at friends' houses.  She was already so close to outgrowing the doll phase that we didn't grant that request.  Julia has never played with a doll in her life. In fact, she seemed scared of them when we first introduced her to dolls.  I found that I missed having a girl who plays with dolls.  It was such fun watching Savannah mother her dolls.

Savannah-6 years

These pictures sure do bring up memories.  That cat Savannah holds in this picture is from Build a Bear.  I remember how badly Savannah wanted to visit Build a Bear and make her own animal. Being the not -so-affluent parents that we are, a big ticket item like that could only come for Christmas or a birthday.  We very rarely bought our kids toys just because and certainly not expensive toys.  We started an allowance for them when they were pre-schoolers, one of the best things we ever did.  When we visited stores and heard "I want," we responded with, "you have an allowance for that."  At six years old Savannah's allowance was probably $0.50 per week which would mean months of saving to afford a Build 'a' Bear - a really long time for a five/six year old. She diligently saved, and I think she may have gotten some help close to her birthday.  I know she couldn't afford clothes for her animal which is part of the fun, so her Granny provided the clothes pictured as a birthday gift. We may have helped her out with an outfit at the store the day she finally reached her goal, but I honestly don't remember.

Savannah learned her lesson.  To this day, she is a saver.  She saves much more of her earnings than she spends, and it can be discouraging.  Right now, Savannah is saving for a car, but after four months of work, she is not even 1/4 of the way to her goal, so patience is necessary.  Savannah was really disappointed when the demands of school left her no choice but to drop one of her shifts. Zach, on the other hand, spends his money as fast as he gets it.  I think this is one reason he is likely to return home next year and pursue school closer to home.  Being a broke college student is not such fun.

Zachary - 7 years

I certainly have more photos from this session that I would like to include, but I cannot open the files.  I have three sessions at this point that I cannot open.  We use a Mac for most of our home computer stuff.  I am hoping that when I can access a PC, I will be able to open those files.  I have discovered that the film files are included, so I will have to find a place to get those converted. That will likely be months or years from now as I have no budget for that, but I will do my best to keep them safe in the meantime.

All photos courtesy of Darwin's Photography