Moms Make the Best Photographers

This isn't bragging about my photography skills, but rather in how I feel about the pictures I take of my kids versus professional photos. We took family pictures back in September and I requested specifically to get vertical portrait pictures of my kids. I have a photo wall of 8x10 frames for my kids, and it hasn't been updated in well over a year. But guess what? Aside from the cost to print the pictures taken by said photographer (it would've been $100 for the 4 8x10s I wanted), I just didn't like any of them. They weren't my kids. They were staged, unnaturally posed, and fake smiles--probably because Katie was uncomfortable with her arm twisted in that position. This photographer also failed to capture any of Thora's smiles because she (the photographer) was looking at the images any time Thora finally did break a smile for us. Long story short, I didn't print any pictures whatsoever, and lament the $75 I wasted on the session.

SO THEN--to still get my photo wall updated, I did my own mini session last month. I got the kids dressed in clothes that look nice (except Thora who is irresistibly cute and cuddly in her pajamas), cleaned their faces, combed and fixed their hair. And then gave them each props that they love, provoking genuine smiles. Here are the winners that will be printed for the wall:

Tommy, with his lightsaber, doing his random karate/kung fu moves.

Katie, and her art desk. I asked her to draw me a unicorn fart.

Sundance, with her pink church bag and her Coconut Blankie.

Thora with her books, namely, A, You're Adorable, while I sang the song to her.

Here are runner-ups, which will make their way into photo albums.

Big smiles for her favorite book.

Tea party!

Big cheese.

Lego creations.

Hahahaha! This girl just climbed herself up there and helped herself.

This is when she told me she's not going to show me the progress of her drawing again. I have to wait until it's finished.

Showing Dad her unicorn fart picture. If you look closely at it, you'll see that the unicorn has a yellow leg at the back of his body. "He" is the correct pronoun because she explained to me that the blue appendage near the middle of the body is the unicorn's penis. She thought it was so funny to draw that!