Threes Company: Easter

The kids first Easter was a lot of fun! Sat. Katie and I set up our two "photo ops" to take pics of the kids in their Easter outfits. The first set was an attempt to get all three together on a bench. Katie and I got them dressed and ready to go. She took an antique white bench from the foyer outside next to our garage and set it up against the brick. Katie knew the kids sitting on the bench with the brick background in a black and white photo would look really good. Of course, as always, she was right. We had some really great photos as well as some really funny ones. What we didn't take into consideration however was how hard it was going to be to keep the kids ON the bench. Its not like there were snap buckles similar to ones in the nap Nanny's or dinner table to lock them in place. In fact, At one point I literally caught Kade falling head first off the bench. I'm not kidding. Without warning the kid took a nose dive like a sniper got him and thanks to my cat like reflexes(HA yeah right) I caught him about a foot off the ground. (I was actually right next to the bench for that very reason but the story doesn't sound as good if I told it that way now does it)You see, the kids can now sit up but their balance is still very, how should I say, um, unsteady. (imagine standing on stilts for the first time right after downing 3 shots of tequila and you might be in the ballpark :) In other words, Its not that great. Not to mention, it is extremely tough at this age to get all three of the kids to look in the same direction at the same time and smile. What is not shown in the picture, is that while Katie is snapping away in Sport Mode (because we really needed the super fast shudder action to take about a bazillion photos as fast as possible to get at least one that turned out good) I am just off to the side dancing around like a buffoon while making noises and faces that if it were not for the eternal good of our family i would never make in a million years. Luckily for me, 8 month old children's attention span is about 20 seconds so I was only embarrassing myself in front of my neighborhood for a total of about 1 min. So, after Katie and I deemed it to dangerous to leave the kids on the bench any longer in our ill guided attempt to capture Easter glory we decided to proceed to our second photo op location.

So, let me just tell you guys about "site 2" as I'll call it. I'll start at the beginning. Earlier in the week I decided to stop by WalMart during a break between meetings and pick up some Easter gifts for the kids. I realize that 8 month old children have absolutely no idea what anything is so I figured I could pick up a basket, card, some candy (that Katie and I would eat) and a few toys on the cheap. I was very excited about the opportunity to do this for our kids first Easter. As a young boy I can always remember the excitement I felt when i came downstairs to find my Easter Basket filled with Candy and goodies and want our kids to feel the same way. Well, as part of this whole wonderful family vision I decided I wanted to take pictures of the kids in their Easter best with their first Easter Baskets. Guys, I bet I spent an hour if I spent a minute trying to set up this picture to be perfect. I first laid out their bumbo chairs for them to sit in. (didn't want any snipers getting the kids in MY photo shoot) Next I carefully put their baskets together. Each one has some colorful grass, a card, some candy and a toy. After the baskets were done I walked the baskets outside and spent the next 15-20 mins deciding on just how I was going to position them in front of the chairs so that the light would be perfect and in 20 years the kids could look back and say, "Wow Brother and Sister look, Dad and Mom got us a bag of Reese's pieces shaped like a carrot for our first Easter". After careful consideration about the layout of the seats and baskets I then began to develop my idea for a background. You see, I decided to take the pictures on our back deck in order to capture the best unfiltered sunlight I could find. However, I did not really like the look of the deck rail spindles in the background. So, what did I do??? Well, as Katie was very lovingly feeding the kids, I was going through the house picking up every fake plant or standing decoration I could find and bringing it outside to see if it made the background any better. I bet I tried 50 different combinations of backgrounds. Plant, flower, Plant, candle holder, plant... or plant, vase, plant, candle holder, plant... or Flower, plant, antique lantern, plant, flower ect ect...you get the point. Anyway, after I had my Picasso background painted I returned to Katie and helped her finish feeding the kids and getting them dressed. You see, after they eat their morning fruit and oatmeal we only have a 10-15 min window until someone is crying for their bottle. Therefore, we had to make this picture session quick. So, now that we have completed photo session one we are now moving to photo session 2. We quickly move the kids from the side of the garage to the deck and place them in their seats. As soon as they are down, I grab the camera from Katie and tell her to start dancing :) Daddy needs these kiddos entertained so he can capture some lifelong treasures. But...... Houston we have a problem. All that crap that I had decided would probably be good filler for the background, The plants and candle holders ect..., well, they weren't. Kade thought the flower was a delicious treat just for him and went after it the moment he sat down. Maggie and Larkin looked around at all this stuff in amazement rolled their eyes and gave me a look of, "OMG, you are ridiculous. Can we please exchange you for a more normal model" :) Needless to say, putting an Easter basket full of color and interesting looking things within 6 inches from 8 month old kids was the flaw in my theory. Not to mention that Larkin's seat was about a foot away from Maggie and Kade's so it looked like he was the smelly kid in school that no one wanted to sit next to. As a result, my pics didn't quite turn out as I would have hoped. Regardless, it was a fun day trying and I hope you guys enjoy them as much as I know we will.

Happy Easter

R&K

Sniper Just Got Him. I am running to catch him at this point

I have no idea what Larkin is doing here

Better

Yeah, good catch Daddy!!!

So Fresh and So Clean

This is what all the effort was for! Great Pic Mommy

Our Supermodel

See what I mean, Distractions

Look guys! Its a bird, its a plane, its..its.. Mommy trying to entertain about 2 feet higher than she should be and now it appears that we are staring aimlessly at the sky :)