Priceless

  I am sure that by now you might have noticed that I have a new picture of my babies to head the blog.  Eternal gratitude to my very talented friend Katheryn for taking it, which brings me to the subject of this post.

  When the cousins arrived in town, Kendra and I didn’t want to miss the chance to get a picture of all of them together.  We should have known that the photo shoot was not going to go well after the shopping trip to pick out the wardrobe.  (Kendra and I had taken Jake, Owen, Grady and Gretchen to Target.  We were chasing at least one boy through the store at all times.  Kendra called it a success because the authorities were not called in.)

  Even though we have identical cameras, Katheryn is a master behind the lens.  She manages to capture personalities as well as great smiles.  If  Mandi (another talented friend) ever opens her wedding planning business, Katheryn needs to take the pictures.

  The girls were perfect subjects:

                               

The boys, not so much:

                      

    Then we tried to take them outside and get a group shot.  Either Grady was whining, Owen crying, or Jake refusing to look at the camera.  I actually love the shots that she got, because I laugh every time I look at them.  This is one of my favorites – just look at Jake’s frown!

             

Then he decided he didn’t want anyone to see him, but just look at him peeking out to make sure we were all still paying attention…

              

Once it became obvious that the boys had had enough, Katheryn started taking individual portraits.  Once again, the girls were ready to go, but our sons just wanted to play.  No matter – she captured all of them perfectly!

  

  

 

But out of all of them, this is my very favorite:

               

The sweetest part?  Emma wasn’t posing.  This is a cropped portion of one of the pictures where none of the kids were paying attention…

One dress, five shirts, and three headbands: $50.

Photographer: $4 (payment in the form of homemade baked goods)

Capturing all the smiles, frowns,  love and beauty of family:  Priceless.

(Thanks Katheryn.)