This is us...basic, happy, and in our own home

By the time our reno was done I was kind of done with everything and didn't really want to get family photos done this year, but knew that if I didn't I would regret it. We'd missed the good weather window for outdoor photos and I didn't want to fight with a toddler in a dress outside, so I asked Jenn if she would just come to our house and take the photos here. I've always loved our stairwell and have taken thousands of photos of my kids on it, but I love it 100x more now that the ugly terrible blue carpet is gone! I also love our new kitchen and wanted to show it off a little bit too. Keep in mind the tile backsplash and a few other finishing touches aren't done yet, but you get the basic idea :)

So, here are our family photos for 2018. I've decided to share them on here because I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do Christmas cards this year or not!

My goodness Jordie looks so grown up in this photo! 

This one is kinda cute and my favorite of this pose for sure!

I had high hopes for this pose...but our daughter was having none of anymore photos by this point!

Now some more showing off our awesome new kitchen!

Hahahahahaha.......Jordie and Kennedy kill me in this photo!

Notice anything different about this photo of Jim?

Now for the individuals of the kids!

Hehehehehehe....I've got to get a video of her doing this face! It's too funny!

He's looking so grown up these days!

This guy was a total photo rockstar for this shoot! Such a handsome big boy that he's turning into!

Gonna be a heart breaker!

Now some parent/kid combo photos! 

My daughter was having none of these photos with me

BUT of course she smiled with her daddy!

Now for some with the boys too!

Wow, this kid looks like me!

And wow this kid looks like his Daddy!

My two Jimmy's

And last but not least we'll finish off the post with just one of me and Jimmy! Another year of photos done and you'd never know that every time I look at these I see Jim's missing glasses, his socked feet and my backwards sweater :) Hahahahaha...memories to last a lifetime!

Thanks once again go to the very talented Jenn Parkin Photography for another amazing job well done! These photos turned out exactly as I hoped they would. Easy, comfortable and just so very us.

2018 has been a rough year but I am so thankful for it too

I am sad to see that I haven't blogged since August, but also can admit in my heart that I just haven't had the time or energy to do it either. I want to make it a goal of mine in 2019 to get back into it and I'm hoping that once my holidays come in December that I will be able to at least get in a couple of year in review type posts to share some of the THOUSANDS of photos I've taken over this year.

Even if I haven't shared much since the summer, we have been go, go, go since school started in September. Hockey for both boys, karate for James, swimming lessons for Jordie, slime classes for both, before and after school childcare for friends kids, a crazy toddler, a huge home reno that had us working non stop for 4 full weeks (and away from home as well), just to name a few things!

And just because no post is really complete without a photo...here is a regular attempt at a photo in my world. No one is smiling normally and after 10 shots we abandoned the mission and went to school. Such is life and my goal of the perfect picture just never happens anymore...and I'm more than okay with that! I feel like this photo actually super describes my crazy life. James is fake smiling at me, Jordie is making a face and Kennedy is just trying her best to escape from us all! Hahahahaha