Every year we take an evening (or two (or three in this case)) to get a new family picture for our Christmas card. I wouldn't say that I particularly enjoy these outings... really they're quite stressful to think about, plan, and execute, but when I come back with a camera full of beautiful pictures of my favorite people on the planet, my heart sings and I'm so, so glad we did it.
Let's talk about the experience this year from oldest to youngest, shall we?
Isn't she lovely? I took my brand new reflector with us this time and used it for the first time. I'll admit that I had no idea what I was doing, and I also had no idea how to edit some of the pictures when I got them back, but I think the colors in this one above turned out absolutely beautifully. And her beautiful face makes me all choked up inside.
She is such a happy person and it is a delight to take pictures of her. She has finally grown out of her I-Can't-Figure-Out-How-To-Give-You-A-Real-Smile-Because-This-Fake-One-Looks-So-Good phase (remember when she decided the best way to smile for pictures was to curl her top lip and rest them on top of her braces because "that way I don't even have to smile and it still looks like I'm smiling!"?) She is comfortable in front of the camera now, cooperative, obedient, and sweet. Such a beautiful person.
Carson, however, has not grown out of that phase yet and is a little trickier.
It's a good thing he's so handsome anyway. You almost don't even realize that the smiles aren't real. And anyway, he's just so helpful the whole time we're taking pictures that I can't help but feel like I'm staring at an angel every time I see his face. He is such a good kid.
Miles, for some reason, has never gone through an awkward picture phase. He has a camera sense about him and intuitively knows how to hold the muscles in his face and be relaxed and fun. Even when his smiles aren't 'real' his face still looks so 'real'. He is a delight to photograph and always has been. It will be interesting to see if he goes through an awkward phase coming up here in the next couple of years like the older two have...
Timothy is a cheeser.
He can't give me a real smile on demand. Ever. So we play a ton with silly faces until we get a real laugh in there.
The trick with the real laugh is getting the laugh with the eyes open. Tricky. But eventually we come away with something that is passable, and I absolutely love the way the lighting turned out in these pictures below. Such a handsome kid.
Eliza. There's no tricking her into smiling when she doesn't want to sit on the sand.
So we lose.
But thankfully we can try another day and come back with a blanket so the offending sand doesn't have to touch any of her precious skin.
And we win.
Also, I'd like for you all to meet our new daughter: Daniela. She has come to live with us for the rest of the school year as our new foreign exchange daughter! Oh how we love her already. She is caring and kind, soft spoken and gentle, smart and brave... we can't wait to get to know her more over the next six months.
It must be so difficult to come to the United States without knowing a soul and trust that you will land in a home with a family who loves and cares for you. She came here three months ago and that was not her story. So she came to us feeling broken and homesick and we hope to help turn her experience around and send her back home to Colombia feeling that her time in the United States was wonderful. She was such a good sport to jump into the pictures. Unfortunately we'd already taken the family picture the week before we found out she was coming to live with us, so she wasn't in that one, but she came with me and the kids to get the individual shots and to jump into the kids picture, and that was a blessing for all of us. Even though Miles is kind of stealing her thunder...
Whew. Another family picture session in the books. Good job, team!
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