Celebrating 12 years

Because Wyatt's birthday falls so close to Christmas, we do try to celebrate early.  We celebrated tonight.

I got no photos of Wyatt blowing out his candles because they were completely blurred which makes me very concerned about my camera since I had it on automatic mode.

His wrapping paper was a hoot.  It reads "Hooray you were born" all over it.  We knew that if we just wrapped his gift he would easily guess it by the package size, so we wrapped it three times in different sized boxes.  I think everyone got a kick out of his reaction to that.  "LOL, you all are such tricksters!" he exclaimed about finding the second box within the first one.

Wyatt was very happy tonight.

 

Wyatt with Aunt Tiffany and Austin and Logan

Wyatt with Uncle Jonathan and Ira and Isaac. Danielle and Regan didn't make it because Regan was sick.  Ira loved the star on our Christmas tree and talked about how he wants a star on his Christmas tree.  I think I will see about a star ornament for that boy.

Wyatt with Aunt Tessa, Uncle John and Kinsley

Wyatt with Grandpa, Aunt Tara, and Uncle Josh

Wyatt with Granny.

Team Captain

Andy and I missed Julia's first game last week, so we saw our first game of the season this afternoon. She was team captain and did well.

I think I will be taking my camera along for a few games.  They also had picture day today, and I would like to get a good shot of her in the gym since it's her last year, and I buy very few of the pro pics because they are so expensive.  The down side is that my camera is acting up, so hopefully it will  behave for one really great shot.

Holiday stress getting to you?

Julia has some advice...

Julia joined her school's Spilled Ink Society late.  After seeing her writing, the librarian tagged her and wanted her badly enough to work with us on pick up which is a challenge for me with getting the others off the bus.  They held their Christmas party and the teachers provided these plates to decorate.  Julia's ...well, that's just so Julia.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We sought out our tree at the local Home Depot yesterday.  A few years ago, we opted to go live with our Christmas trees.  This year as I worked for hours on the lights, I often sneezed and found my eyes to be itchy.  I fear I may be allergic to the live tree.  Yikes!

We added this ornament this year.  I bought it right after the new year started, and it recaps our 2013 year.  I plan to make this a tradition.

Instagram has some cool options for playing with photos.

The room is all aglow with an 800 ISO on manual mode.

More white to the room with a 1600 ISO.

I am slowly making the preparations for Christmas this year, but my heart is so far from prepared.  Instead of praying, I am worrying.  It is amazing how much you are nickeled and dimed at this time of year.  I am finding that much more frustrating than usual.  I cannot put my hands on the wonderful advent books we used last year to help prepare our hearts and am feeling pulled in many directions despite my efforts to really simplify things this year.

If I Could Turn Back Time - Part 6

Julia - 8 years

Yes she did climb that tree in flat, slick sandals.  No, she was not prompted by any of the responsible adults present. In fact, I think she kind of freaked a couple of us out.  That was Julia then...athletic and daring.  She's still athletic, just not so daring. I am not sure how I feel about that.  Her first love is tumbling and gymnastics...a sport where fear can result in injury.

Julia - 5 years

I rarely dressed the kids up very much for their portraits.  I wanted the final product to be classy and to reflect them.  I never wanted clothes to be a distraction.  However, I did choose a session for each of the girls to go all out with a professional hairdo (courtesy of my sister, Tiffany) and a fancy dress.  Both did this at five.  The black and white photo pictured above became the 11X14 we used for Julia. I went into the session hoping for something to coordinate with Savannah's gold-framed portrait, but Julia's ended up being a very different look despite the fact that it was the same photographer, and their hair and dresses were very similar.  Julia's picture hangs in a simple black frame while Savannah's looked best in an ornate gold one. Regardless, I love them both.

Wyatt- 9 years

Yep, we still see a lot of this.  However, that 3DS has been worn out.  Wyatt is hoping for a new one for his upcoming birthday and Christmas.  Zach and Savannah were not allowed video games until they were in late elementary school.  Neither is much of a gamer now.  Wyatt is another story.  He spends many hours engrossed in video games...the benefits (or not) of having older siblings.

Julia - 9 years

That's all for now.  It appears that the discs from Julia's last session are damaged as neither will open. I have a few more discs that I need to try and open on another computer.  I also have negatives.  I found a reasonably priced local place to have the negatives converted, but even a reasonable price is not financially feasible right now, so it will be a while on those.  Thus ends this trip down memory lane as it will be weeks, months, maybe years before I get to the other files.

all photos courtesy of Darwin's Photography

I interrupt these flashback posts....

I don't often see a resemblance between my mom and Savannah, but sometimes it just seems to be there somewhere - like when I pulled up this photo of Savannah.  I immediately thought of the photo of Mom above.  I see it most when Savannah's eyelashes are highlighted.  Mom had such insanely long eyelashes, and Savannah has them too. Mom's were darker and therefore more easy to see.

As I am typing this, Wyatt asks if the picture of Mom is me.  Julia asks if it is Tara.  When I ask Julia if she thinks Mom looks like Savannah, Julia's response is "Tara -it's the eyes."  The irony in Julia's statement is that my friend, Phyllis, insists that Tara and Savannah look alike.  Within the family, we have a harder time seeing that though I do think they are built very much alike.

After closer inspection, I think Savannah and Mom share a similar jawline.  They both have high foreheads, high cheekbones and big, light colored eyes (though Mom's were unmistakably blue and Savannah's are green) and the same eye structure, but their mouths and noses are completely different.

I will let you be the judge - here's Tara!  To be fair to Mom's picture and Savannah's, I converted these to black and white.

One significant difference between Tara and Mom and Savannah is that Tara's eyes are darker-- sapphire blue, like my Dad's.  

Remember that you can click on any picture to see it bigger.

If I Could Turn Back Time- Part 5

Wyatt - 6 years

This session was Wyatt's first one with the photographer.  He had been home for about six months and grasped just enough English to take instruction for pictures.  I remember how anxious Wyatt was to have his pictures on the walls of our home.  That meant he belonged.  While we awaited this session, I filled frames with snapshots.  However, Darwin is a master photographer (really, he has this rare credential), and I could never capture my kids the way he does.

This photo is similar to one I shared earlier of Julia.  Each of the kids has one of these on our dining room wall.  Other than Wyatt, they all had these taken at a year old.

Zach-16 years

This was Zach's last session before his senior pictures.  Our plan was to see this through for each of the kids until their 16th birthday and then return for senior pictures.  However, we have not recovered from the sluggish economy and extras like this had to be removed.  When we received the price list for senior pictures, we opted to take Zach in for tux pictures only.  We then had a friend take the rest of the pictures on location, and they were great, so we have no regrets other than not being able to complete the albums we started for the rest of the kids. We were members of the baby club, so we always got our sessions and photos at a discount, part of that included buying a special album. We received eight proofs from each session that had to go in the album.

Zachary - 9 years

Just look at that sweet face!!

Savannah - 15 years

The photo above is Savannah's all-time favorite photo of herself.  She says it makes her feel pretty.

This session was Savannah's last one at Darwin's.

 

Wyatt-10 years

This is Wyatt's last session, and possibly my favorite.  How GQ is this?  The photo above remains my favorite, and I only purchased one 10X14 per child out of all of these sessions.  This is the one I purchased for Wyatt.

 

Angie's hand written note on the file says, "too funny."  She said Wyatt talked constantly during his sessions.  He's a pretty funny kid, and I can only imagine.

More to come... 

All photos courtesy of Darwin's Photography