Week 193

Nov 7-13

This week we finally got family photos taken.  When I say finally I actually mean for the first time ever.
Sad but true.  I enlisted the help of a fabulous local photographer, my friend Rachel from Willa Eve Photography.

Photo C/O Willa Eve Photography

Here is a link to her website:  www.willaevephotography.com

Of course I fretted over what to wear.  Other peoples family pictures always look so cute, but you don't really appreciate all the effort that goes into it until you do it.  Coordinating four people is not easy.  I didn't want anything too matchy-matchy but I also didn't want some hideous color combo that was going to be outdated.  I went for a traditional nice/casual look, I figured that would make a lasting portrait for our living room.

Photo C/O Willa Eve Photography

Kids clothes can be a challenge so I started off in the boys closets.  I lucked out because I happened to have some decent choices.  Ed and I had decided on jeans long ago since it is classic and comfortable, and we all have them.  He really wanted to be comfortable and at first I resisted the jeans, thinking for our first family portrait we should be all fancy and decked out.  After awhile I decided it was a happy medium since you can dress jeans up.  I'm glad I listened to Ed because the boys were much more comfortable wearing their regular clothes.  Of course they had to wear their chuckies since those are my favorite kid shoes of all time.  They happened to have matching red ones.  We got Ed a navy button down polo shirt (definitely reusable--score!) and for myself a red sweater with a white shirt underneath.

Photo C/O Willa Eve Photography

Photo C/O Willa Eve Photography

Here are some of our previews.  Didn't they turn out amazing?  Rachel is the best!  These were shot in an abandoned field and you would never know.  I love the subtle fall colors.  I was very pleased with the results I got.  If you ever need a photographer in the Sumter/Columbia area she is the best!

I just placed my order today and I can't wait to hang these in the living room!

Week 192

Oct 31-Nov 6

Happy Halloween!  :)

We did our usual festive traditions.  This year per Jack's request we carved a happy face pumpkin and not a scary one.  I also let the kids paint a small pumpkin since we missed the opportunity to buy big pumpkins.  Apparently unless you get them more than a week before Halloween you are out of luck around here.  Either that or pay like $30-$40/pumpkin and that wasn't happening.  The kids really didn't mind.  After Jack was satisfied with Ed's sketch of the jack-o-lantern face, Ed got to work carving it out.  This was Abel's second Halloween, but really the first year he could participate in anything.  Last year as you all remember he was 6 weeks old so he really didn't have a clue what was going on.  Here are some pictures of us working on our masterpieces.

The morning of Halloween Jack had festivities at school.  All the kids wore their costumes and went on a big wagon caravan around downtown Sumter to a bunch of different businesses for trick-or-treating.  Jack of course rode with his BFFL Clark.  They loved it!  We had quite the parade of little preschoolers.  After the trick-or-treating we came back to the class and set up the Halloween Party.  Parents are asked to sign up for one party a year and this was the one we chose to do.  The kids went out on the playground and we prepped the classroom for their little party.  I think everything turned out very cute and the kids really seemed to have a great time.  I even made a handprint craft for them to do. I figured years from now they would be cute decorations and would also be a great way to reminisce about how small they were.  These are little ghost door hangers with their names on them.

Of course after all the fun the kids were exhausted.  We came home for lunch and they had a nice long quiet time.  I was glad because I knew trick-or-treating was going to wear them out and they needed to be refreshed after the bustling morning.  Ed and I laid our their costumes and fed them dinner.  Jack was so excited to get candy he could hardly stand to take pictures beforehand.  After all of Ed's hard work I really wanted to get some good shots of them in their costumes.  As you all know this is nearly impossible, but this is what I came up with.  Grandma and Harvin stopped by to see them in their full costumes.  Afterwards we were off on our trick-or-treating adventure.  Jack definitely had the hang of it after all of his practice that morning.  Abel was a little more difficult to direct so we just put him in the stroller.  He couldn't really handle the distance walking and he kept wandering off in random directions.  Jack was on a mission.  After all was said and done we had TONS OF CANDY.  We even had leftover from the candy we bought to pass out.  All in all it was a successful Halloween Holiday!  :)