Senior Pictures

A few weeks ago the girls and I took a drive to Gruene (pronounced green) . I had purchased a Groupon for a session with a photographer many, many moons ago (it had actually expired but Nicole was gracious enough to honor it anyway) and chose to use it for Katie's senior pictures.

When I was in high school our senior portraits were slightly amped up versions of the school pictures we had been having taken for the last 12 years. Professional photographers were for weddings. I admit when I noticed, about 10 years ago, the trend was for seniors to have a professional sitting like a bride, I thought it was overkill. I've changed my mind.

I've been blessed over the last almost 18 years to have beautiful pictures of my children taken by my uncle, who was a professional photographer for many years. I have dozens of gorgeous shots of Katie growing up. Not one is a standard JC Penney portrait. Over the years Bruce has been able to capture moments that are "Katie" (or Jack, or Ian, or Grace etc....) expressions, stances, actions....frozen moments in time. I was wondering if a photographer who had never met Katie before, didn't know her at all would be able to capture what I was looking for. My beautiful daughter who is turning into a beautiful young woman. My Katie.
She did. Nicole did an amazing job. I can't wait to see all the pictures!

Nicole's Blog

I just love, love, love the first picture. Like Nicole, I am a sucker for black and white.

A little note: Along with being a talented photographer, Nicole is a military wife and mom. She is also expecting her second child, a little boy, next month. Her husband, Dane, is deployed in Afghanistan in a forward unit. To top it all off she is working for a VBAC. If y'all could send up a prayer for this amazing woman who, when most women in her situation are turning inwards and saying 'why me?', is able to look outwards and see so much beauty and capture it for us all.

{pretty,funny,happy, real}

In keeping with the floral theme of this linky. Blooms on one of our oleanders. Hard to believe something so beautiful is so deadly.



Real. It isn't always fun being the baby. Sometimes you get left behind.





Happy. Mom decides to take Max out to join in the chaos playing under the hose. Sibs are happy to introduce him to a typical summer activity at our home.



Funny. A little too much cold water.

Max Walks!

Pardon the mess in the background. I was cleaning off bookcases.

The resolution in the video is poor because I converted it to make it use a lot less bandwidth and easier to load.

University of Dallas it is!

This coming August our family will load up the van and drive to Irving and say goodbye to our dear Katie. May she have 4 faith-filled, book-filled, fun-filled years at UD.
Congratulations sweetheart, you earned it!

16 Texans

The Mom over at Shoved to Them came by today with her 6 Mom-lings as they are here in S. Texas on Spring Break. We also had a spare 11 year old, Cassidy, who is Grace's BFF and spending her spring break at our house. Of course, my nine Texans were here too. That makes two mommy bloggers and 16 children between the ages of 17 and 9 months. I think we had a good time. Lots of food, drinks and dirt were involved. Some cinnamon and a pony figured in to the day too.

About Japan

My friend Sharon wrote about her time in Japan on her blog. It is a heartfelt 'real' post about her experiences. A very different image of Japan than one gets through books, movies and the news.

Sharon's Japan

Video editing

By Jack: