Spring Photo Shoot

The title in of this season of our family life is "The Spring that Daddy Disappeared" because Danny has been gone a lot!  He has had numerous work conferences, mostly related to the new national learning standards (the Common Core State Standards) and has also been to Sacrament twice to work on the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam...the test that all high school students must pass in order to be eligible to graduate from high school).  I will say my heart goes out to all single mothers and to those whose spouses are gone a lot for work, although I will say that absence does make the heart grow fonder!

Danny happened to be gone during Carter's spring break and during that week I used a Groupon coupon to get photos taken of the kids at The Picture people. So, one morning I gathered strength and attemped to round up the kiddos and in order to get the new pics snapped.  Unfrotunately, things didn't go so smoothly.  William insisted on wearing his Thomas shirt (an act that is accompanied by incessantly shouting "Choo choo!") and jeans rather than the new khakis I wanted him to sport.  I improvised and decided we would go with outfits that worked with jeans and I also decided to wait until we got there to coerce him out of the Thomas shirt.  The gentleman who helped us was really great but for some reason William was petrified of him.

We did get this photo right off the bat:

At least we got two good photos in that pose. Unforutnately as soon as we tried to have them sit down, we ended up with this:

And this:

Yes, that is Thomas in William's hand.  There was no way to remove it without inducing absolute hysterics from him.

Next we changed to individual shots to give William some time to relax and warm up to the idea of a "professional photo shoot" (that phrase makes it sound as if we were in a swanky boutique...it wouldn't have mattered either way).

I love all of these photos of Carter.  His toothless smile will always remind me of this moment in our lives. The blue shark shirt wasn't my first choice, but as I mentioned earlier, this morning unfolded in it's own special way. 

We did a costume change hoping to get William in the other outfit I brought and got a few more.  Yellow is my favorite color and it looks great on Carter!

Sweet Claire Bear's individual photos (although I wish the photographer would have switched up the background colors...I didn't think of it myself until later...at least she looks angelic, if not a bit washed out):

I love her cherubic little face!

Then we tried to get William to join in but he refused so we got these photos of the "big kids."

(Above...one of my favs)

(Another fav--they drive each other crazy at times but you can see they really love each other!)

I am the person Groupon's clients love because I went in with a coupon and spent much more than just the package I pre-purchased!  I couldn't help it though because pictures truly capture a moment in time and I wish time would stop passing so quickly!

Before Daniel left for San Diego tonight he shared the following poem "Love That Boy" by Walter Dean Myers with me and talked about the spontaneous love he feels for our children.

Love that boy,

like a rabbit loves to run

I said I love that boy

like a rabbit loves to run

Love to call him in the morning

love to call him

"Hey there, son!"

We talked about how the overwhelming love we have for our children is as natural as a rabbit running. There is no class we took to learn how to love our children, it just is. These three little people add a meaning and depth to our lives that we never could have comprehended before they arrived. This unique and overwhelming love gets us through the moments of frustration that naturally accompany sounds a two year old makes that resemble that of a broken record or the strange and unnerving moodiness of a seven year old who becomes enraged and upset at the slightest perceived injustice. Those moments, however, are fleeting and pale compared to the lessons of love that we learn from one another in our family unit. As was stated recently, we learn so much more from our children than from our parents.

So, as this season comes to an end, we look back with fondness on the good times and the hard times and recognize that they are both needed for us to learn the lessons we are here in this world to learn. Bring on summer and all it will entail and before long fall will be upon us!