The Boys & Me

Tonight we had our photo session with MJW Photography as our prize for winning the photo contest I wrote about here.  It was miserable hot and we all were sweating to the point of damp hair. After two hours in the heat I was hoping we got a few good shots without looking like sweaty messes. I trust her artist style and am excited to see what she was able to get from us. I snapped a couple pictures on my phone while we were on location. 

She brought a tire swing for the boys to play on which they thought was sooo cool.

She also took some cute pictures with the boys on their great, great grandmothers quilt.

Thirty minutes before we were scheduled to meet Mindy, Randy tells me he doesn't think the setting fits us. I chose a barn on top of a hill in the middle of a field for our location. We have done pictures at home, in a studio, in the fall leaves, at the waterfall, and at the lake so I wanted to try something different. Randy said we aren't country - we are city and should have went to the downtown area in front of brick buildings. I reminded him this is why I try to have dialogue with him so we make these decisions together and he should have spoken up before then.  I reminded him of our discussion on where to take the photos which he has no memory of. In the next room Dane is panicking over the need for spraying deep woods off on each other and says he does NOT want to get ticks all over him and asks why are we going to a barn anyway....we should be going to the mall and getting our picture taken outside the shops....and maybe outside the pet store. Huh? I don't know where the pet store idea came from but I started laughing because back in the day when I had disposable income we spent a lot of time at the Promenade Mall and it lends to the idea of us being city folk and not country folk. I have done my part! So, when we arrive I explain the Mindy that we don't want to appear hillbilly in the photos. She laughs and says not a problem. We ended up not getting the photo in front of the barn that I had imagined but that's okay.

I wanted to somehow represent Declan in the photos and had previously asked Mindy if she had done anything for families who had lost a member of the family. She gave me the idea of a memory quilt made from baby blankets, clothes, pictures, etc. but I can't part with any of his items in a way that will alter them.  About a week after the conversation via email I realized I had the perfect item to have in the photo to represent him.  I wore my marked by love necklace I wrote about here. I thought it was a classy way to have him be a part of our family photo that will never feel complete.