Cousin Candids

For a while, we have wanted to get a picture of all of the cousins from Lucas' side together. It isn't like we are incredibly far apart, but somehow it has never worked out. But now one cousin is moving to Texas (insert big sob here), and it became one of those "we-will-do-whatever-we-have-to-do-to-make-this-happen." kind of things. Thankfully, Lucas' sister & Baby Handsome were up for a few days and it ended up not being too difficult to make it work!

Since having kids I have discovered that I kind of hate the perfect, studio pictures of kids. The process of photographing kids can be crazy and frustrating. It is always entertaining. While it is nice to have some of those perfect, beautiful pictures, I enjoy clicking away and capturing (and sharing) some of the not so perfect moments. I've shared them before, and here are some more! The fabulous outtakes from our photo shoot with the cousins this weekend :)

Heading out to the van to go to the park. I couldn't get them to walk in a straight line...the twins just sort of dragged H along...

"We're going to get our pictures taken!"

I thought it would be really cool to climb to the top of the play structure to get a picture of all of the cousins lying down and looking up. It started out ok...

...and then we added in the youngest cousins...still going ok...

...and then it all fell apart. There wasn't a single decent photo from this angle! Fail!

We decided to try a park bench. Once again, we put the oldest 3 on first (since they did the best job of sitting still while we situated the other 2). This time, Ry-guy was not happy to be waiting...

I love Allie's "Blue Steal" look in this picture!

Then we thought the stair steps on the play structure would be a fun place for a picture.

Setting up the picture...

Yay! We're all having SO MUCH FUN!!!

Aaaaaand we're gone!

After a weekend of 90 degree temperatures (which Mindy & I sweated out having a joint garage sale!), it ended up being 54 degrees the morning of the photo shoot. We were pulling out warm clothing, jackets (to cover the warm clothing we had carefully selected), and blankets to keep Baby Handsome warm! Craziness.

We wanted a picture of the boys together. I got a dozen pictures of Ryan face down or covering Hugsy...but I deleted them! So not like me...so here is one of the actually decent pictures of the boys (but not the one I thought was THE best, since that would be so contrary to the character of this post)!

And then one of the girls. We actually wanted them in the middle of the bridge facing out at us...they wanted to be by the edge. So then we thought they could stand with their backs to the edge, and I would get pictures from the other side. Nope. They wanted to play peek-a-boo over the edge. So we went with it!

Come back Baby D!

When she says, "Look over here!" where exactly do you think "here" is?

I wanted to get a picture of the kids on the bridge. Of course, it had to be a running photo. That's all my kids will do! I love how Allie is practically dragging Ryan down the bridge. That's sisterly love...

We did get some great pictures. Frame-able ones even! An impressive feat considering all 5 are 2 & under! The cousins had fun together (we let them play on the slides in between pictures), and we were relieved to get picture of the Fab 5 before 1 moves far, far away (insert another giant sob). I just love having these fun memories on film (or in digital files on the computer...). The smiles, the tears, the craziness, the candid cousins :)