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Well, here we are, month #2 in the family photo project!

This month I completely stole Tara Whitney’s idea and decided to pile the whole family on our bed for our montly family photo.

I *thought* it was a PERFECT idea.

I *thought* everyone would be happy and smiley and eager to snuggle together.

I *thought* that my “happy” crew would be then be willing to sit for longer than 1.2 minutes so we can get a lot more family photos to choose from.

I thought wrong.

The husband was a bit annoyed. Caroline wasn’t too thrilled. And Kallie and Christina were just goofy as always. Oh well, I guess, even though the photo isn’t as perfect as I hoped, it  really does capture “us”!

So, what is going on since our last family photo?

Caroline had a procedure on her heel cords and now has casts on both feet. She will wear them for about 5 weeks.  They will be off in a few weeks.  Hopefully, after they are off, she will be more comfortable when standing and wearing her AFO’s. She really doesn’t seem to mind them much, although there have been more periods of unexplained fussiness. Other than that, she seems to be the same ole “usually” happy Caroline. 

Eric is in the midst of his final swim championships. This weekend was the district meet.  It went fairly well and he has four kids going on to the state meet in 2 weeks.  Not as many kids are going to states as some of his previous years, but more than expected so he is quite happy!  It was a long and tiring weekend.  So today he spent most of the day analyzing results and just relaxing.

Christina has a bit of a cold.  But other than that, she is doing well.  She, like most of us, is getting tired of the snow and cold and is looking forward to summer.  She is a busy little girl, constantly changing her clothes and creating new games for her and Kallie to play.  They play school, house, Barbies, store, etc etc etc.  She definitely is extremely creative.  She is also a party girl.  She would be happy if she could wake early every day and never stop and relax for second until she crashes in bed at the latest hour possible.   She never wants to stop, never wants to sleep and is always up for a good time.  She is also definitely NOT a homebody. 

Kallie-Wallie on the other hand IS a homebody and is always eager to just go home.  She is also as goofy as ever.  She seems like to like preschool more than ever lately, which is nice.  She is also going to swim lessons with her cousin.  She used to be a bit of a shy girl, but over the last month she seems to have come out of her shell a bit.  She talks to almost anyone and sometimes seems to play the part of a “class clown”.  In swim lessons her favorite thing to do is to jump in (during playtime) shouting “CANNONBALL” at the top of her lungs.  She definitely is not the quiet one any more.  Kallie is also very inquistive.  She asks lots of questions all day long.  This week we had a long conversation in the car about clouds – Why are there clouds?  Why is it sometimes all blue?  Why is it sometimes blue AND clouds?.  I love being home with her almost every day.  I can’t imagine missing these moments and these conversations.  It breaks my heart just to think of her not being my sidekick thoughout my day at home and during my daily errands.  I definitely will miss these times a LOT…….

And me – not much to report! I have recently been motivated to start de-cluttering.  It is almost shameful how much STUFF we have.  I look at my kids’ toys and think how awful it is that so much money was wasted on things that, while sometimes entertaining, are usually things just strewn across the floor.  I find my kids are much happier when their things are cleaned up and more organized.   And the only way to really continue to maintain the organization is to get rid of a TON of unnecessary STUFF. 

I have also been spending a lot of time thinking about if or what we should do for a family vacation this year.  We didn’t go anywhere last year and I really regretted that.   And since summer is really only THREE months away, I feel like I need to start really thinking and possibly start planning.  I don’t know where, when or what we are going to do, but we will do something, that is for SURE!

So that is our update this Sunday, March 7th, 2010!!

Until next time!!!

One of my favorite family photographers is Tara Whitney.  I love her style, her attitude, her photography.  She has a very casual attitude and believes photos should reflect the honest you, not always the dressed up, cleaned up, posed up, you.

Tara started a project in January where she plans on taking a photo of her family every month for a year.  She will post the photo on her blog, write a bit about what is going on in their lives and use all 12 photos to create a year end book.

I thought this sounded like an incredible project.  You see, last September, I told my husband that I wanted to get a photo of all of our family some beautiful fall evening.  I take a million photos, but I am rarely in the photos and I never get a photo of the entire crew. 

Well, it is February, and that family photo has yet to happen.  Until today.

When I read about Tara’s project I thought – This is the just the project I need to finally get that family photo.  But, not only that, I will get twelve family photos!

So here we all are!  The whole crew, freezing out on our snow covered back deck that I made my not-so-happy hubby shovel.  And, this is also a very honest photo.  My husband in his athetic pants, my 3 kids with hair that hasn’t been combed since Friday.  A typical Sunday at the Smith’s!  Oh, and as you can see, this photo was actually taken by Christina!  The kids weren’t too happy about the whole thing, until they realized they could take turns trying out the remote!

On the bottom of our family photo we have the youngest, 4 year old Kallie, or Kallie-Wallie as we call her.   She is the pickiest eater ever and either eats chicken nuggets or a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.  I am hoping she will eventually grow out of this.    She loves to play with her Noah’s Ark animals or her Nintendo DS.  She loves her big sister Christina most of all, and except for the occasional squabble, they are the best of friends. 

Then we have Christina, or Tina Wina as we call her.   Christina is 8 and too smart for her own good sometimes.  She does incredibly well at school.  She is finishing up her first year on our local Y’s swim team this week.   With a dad who not only was a swimmer, but has also been a swim coach for about 22 years, she was pretty much born with fins.  Next week is her last swim meet of the season.  She has some great coaches and has made some great friends.  It was a very good swim season.

Eric, aka the hubby, is in the middle of his swim season.  It has been a harder year for him.  After many years of coaching very successful teams, he is now facing a few years of “rebuilding” his team.  It is sometimes hard being on the very bottom after years on top, but he still loves coaching and I doubt he will ever quit.

Caroline, aka “baby sister”, is our special needs sweetie.  She is tube fed, non-mobile and non-verbal.  But, you can tell just by looking at her in the photo, that she is nothing like the “vegetable” those specialists predicted she would be.  She rolls around, she talks her own language, she knows much more than many people think.  Caroline is scheduled for some out-patient surgery at the end of the month.  I am a bit nervous about this, and just hope she will see some benefit after all the trauma they put her through.

And then there’s me, Irene.  It has been slower in January and Feburary with my photography.  But since my husband and my daughter have been so busy with swimming, I really don’t mind.  I have been working on my website, my blog, my pricing and I have been booking some new weddings for this year.  January and February are the months where I always get a bit stir crazy.  My husband is gone a lot, I am stuck home a lot, it is cold, snowy and the days are short.  And I always get the itch for a day away…ALONE.  Today was that day.  I set out for our local outlet mall and happily found quite a few amazing bargains!

So that’s us!  This 7th day of February 2010.  It was fun having our first family photo session.  Hopefully next time it will be a bit warmer so my kids won’t complain too much.  And next time maybe I will position my tripod a bit higher so I am not looking down and emphasizing my double chin!  Yuck!!!

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