My Kids

I realized recently that it had been a long while since I had taken portrait-style images of my own kids.  I get out my camera for the big events and milestones—and thank goodness for Instagram for the daily stuff now—but, I rarely do a study of these beautiful, ever-maturing faces.  On this particular lovely fall evening, we scouted a new location I’d been wondering about for client sessions, we shot a few pictures with Gator for our holiday card (he’s 10 this year, had a really rough year, and is, of course, very important to us so we wanted to include him on our card for the first time in years), the kids were very cooperative for a little photo session, and then we enjoyed a nice walk around the park.  These are a few of my favorites from our family session.  And, please excuse the watermarks—I had already set up the images for posting on my professional blog, so I’m going with these in the interest of time.  Love these faces…

Jack’s Changing Smile

In mid-September Jack lost his first tooth naturally (the other two teeth he’s lost were pulled by the dentist).  Jack ran home from the bus stop after school, tooth in hand, to show me his brand-new smile.  Losing teeth the natural way is so exciting around this house—it’s, of course, always exciting when there’s an impending tooth fairy visit, but it’s also awesome to avoid the multiple appointments (yes, multiple—when Jack’s bottom front permanent teeth were coming in behind his baby teeth he had a dentist appointment to say, “Yes, you do need to have those baby teeth pulled” and then a second appointment to actually pull them) and the several hundred dollar bill associated with them.  Anyways, back to Jack’s new smile—he finally lost an upper baby tooth!  We’ve been anxious for this change—him especially—because, frankly, his baby teeth seem like tiny little nubs now that he’s grown so much and he thinks they make him look a lot younger than his friends.  This is a big year for Jack’s smile—lots of changes in store!
Side note: I captured these images on one of Jack, Gator, and my Tuesday evening walks, a new favorite activity we’ve enjoyed this fall.  Ella takes tennis lessons on Tuesdays at a local park with an abundance of wooded trails, so Jack and I take Gator for a walk during her lesson.  I love it.  Gator loves it.  Jack, well, let’s just say he accompanies us.  Most days, Jack is a good sport about our walks (he’s never been a huge fan of walking just for the sake of walking)—like this night in particular—and I thoroughly enjoy this time with my two little boys. 





{it won’t be long until you see the inverse of this smile—where there’s a missing tooth here there will be a big permanent tooth and four more upper baby tooth (there’s an extra baby tooth in there) will be gone.}

First Day of School

Ella and Jack headed back to school on August 26th.  Ella started fourth grade (the big leagues—she can now join school clubs and the schoolwork is definitely more challenging) while Jack is now in second grade.  We’re thrilled with the teachers we were assigned for both kids and we’re all excited for this new school year.

Instagrammin’ in September

Back to the grind of the school year—lots of activities and a routine, which to me is wonderful.  The weather in September was just gorgeous so we spent a lot of it outdoors.
enjoying our beautiful new patio. | while ella plays tennis each tuesday, my boys and i enjoy a walk on the nature trails. | back to soccer—this boy’s a natural. | his first tooth lost naturally! #hehadtwopulled | a saturday morning workout with ella turned in to a workout with jack and the neighborhood kids, too. | a hat trick game for jack. #threegoals | still enjoying the pool. | orthodontist mug shot. | a morning bike ride on the trails. #mykindofdate | ready for his 5k! #21:08 #allgasnobrakes | another game, another goal. | learning about harvesting organic sweet potatoes. #knowyourfarmstour | we weren’t kidding when we told the kids we were going to a broccoli farm this time. #familyinsidejoke | chickens! #knowyourfarmstour | hayride around the bountiful fields of barbee farms. #knowyourfarmstour | jack’s ready to take one home while ella’s ready for some sausage. #gratefulgrowers #knowyourfarmstour | a cattle farm. #knowyourfarmstour | having fun at the fruit farm. #knowyourfarmstour | last stop. #knowyourfarmstour | beautiful evening for our tuesday evening nature hike. | now you see them. #teenytinybabyteeth #byebyeextrababyteeth | know you don’t. #hadfourfrontteethpulled #twostitches #bravekiddo | we enjoyed a lunch date, too, before his dentist appointment. | looking cool at brother’s soccer game. | she’s so excited to be taking art classes each week with the big kids now that she’s old enough for the 9-14 class. | date night to celebrate our 12-year anniversary. | perfect night—gorgeous fall weather, a walk in a park, us.

Jack’s Birthday Party

In mid-August, after we had returned from our trip to Florida, Jack had a little birthday party with his best friends.  Noah and Jackson came over for a sleepover and the three boys pretty much just played to their hearts’ content.  Year after year, for as long as we can remember, Jack has considered these two boys his steadfast favorite friends.  His only request for his birthday: a sleepover with his best buds.  We’re so thankful they both could make it to help Jack celebrate.  Eight is great!  Happy birthday, Jack!

{pool time and showers came before the ice cream sundaes and ‘happy birthday’ song.}

Florida in August – Scalloping

This day in August is one we will never forget.  If you know me well, you know that while I may have once been a morning person (I swear!), these days I would love nothing more than to sleep in past 8:00 each morning.  For this day trip, I was up by 4am and had the kids in the car by 4:45am.  So.worth.it.  We left my parent’s house before sunrise to drive up to Crystal River (southwest of Gainesville) so we could meet Jacqui and Randy for a day of scalloping, a trip they had planned for us.  We chartered our very own speed boat (the kids loved that we were the fastest out there as most scallopers were on pontoon boats) and Captain Cletus drove us a few miles out into the Gulf of Mexico to gather scallops on the most temperate, dry (as in not stiflingly humid), gorgeous day I have ever experienced in August in Florida.  This part of the Gulf was a sandbar of about 4-feet deep for as far as you could see (boats of scallopers were scattered for about as far as you could see, too) and covered in tall grasses.  Only the adults could stand in the water and, as there was a little surge, the kids swam with a buddy.  Jack was my buddy most of the day while Ella took turns swimming with Jacqui, Randy, and Randy’s mom.  The method that worked best for Jack and me was for us to snorkel along the top of the water holding hands both scanning the bottom for scallops and then when one of us would spot one we’d point at it, he’d take a deep breath, and then I’d give him a little push to help him swim down to retrieve it.  The scallops were pretty well camouflaged, but we got the hang of it quickly and scored big on a few of our stops (we took the boat to several different spots).  While snorkeling around looking for scallops, we also saw several different types of fish, an eel, several starfish, and coral.  After a few hours, we had met the quota for our boat (each vessel can only legally gather 10 gallons of scallops per day) so we headed back to the marina, dropped off our scallops with Cletus’s family which runs a shucking business, and then headed off for the second part of our fun day—swimming in the natural springs.  While the water was warm and shallow out on the sandbar of the Gulf of Mexico, the natural springs of Crystal River are very, very deep and are at a constant temperature of 72 degrees (sounds nice for air temp, but for water temp it’s a bit, well, refreshing).  Ella and Jack LOVED it—we had to put a limit on how many times they could climb up into the boat and jump in the springs…some of us were ready for a nap by that point… Once we picked up our shucked bay scallops from the marina and dried off, we headed to Jacqui and Randy’s house in Orlando.  Randy cooked up a delicious—and fresh—scallop dinner that night.  Such a fun, exciting day full of so many firsts.  I truly hope we make this trip if not every year, at least every other year—and hopefully with Jonathan next time!