That time we tried to take family beach pictures with 3 toddlers

We just got back from a long weekend in Hilton Head and it was beautiful! I love it there! If we win the lottery off those lottery tickets we don't buy, I'm buying a house there or at least a large condo. 

Every year we go, we take family beach pictures. We had them professionally done one year and it was worth EVERY penny! This year, we thought we'd go with an aqua, white and orange theme and just have someone on the beach snap one or 17 of the 7 of us. That pipe dream ended before we left the condo when it was evident, the kids were NOT going to cooperate. 

Parker refused to wear "a shirt with buttons" (his white collared shirt) and would only wear his lego crocs.... which make for super classy looking pictures. Avery insisted on wearing red sandals that are a size too small with her orange capri's that fit like pants because when will my 2 1/2 year old be out of 12 months bottoms?!?! I realize I could have {forced} them to wear my preapproved outfits but no one looks good in pictures crying. Parker had a recovering busted lip and Avery's eyes were bright red from swimming with her eyes open... we were a vision.

We scrapped the whole beach picture idea when we realized my mom's dress was 10 sizes too big and she was going to wear a super cute but glaringly not beach picturish dress. Instead we headed to Harbortown for some ice cream and Greg Russell songs.... come to find out, he was on vacation that week but we did find some ice cream. 

May I present you the Wise Family 2013 Family beach Picture.....

 ...and Parker.

In his defense, he was not crying, he simply stated "I don't want to be in the picture" and posed himself in the bench next to us like this. By the end of this evening, I felt the same way, dude!

So in conclusion... hire a professional photographer, pack back up outfits and forget posing... just play!

We DID have a fun night regardless of the family picture bomb. Here are a few fun moments:

Hello beautiful blue eyes!

Ice cream fun! .... One day I'll learn to buy longer dresses or at least think about pulling it down.

I am the classiest ice cream eater

Pick your battles, right?!

This little lady was a big fan of the birthday cake ice cream!

We have a picture just like this (with me in the same dress) for the last 3 years in a row! Maybe next year we'll mix it up and I'll wear something different... but probably not. Why fix a good thing?

My parents are pretty cute... and I wanna steal that dress.

Excuse my look of exhaustion... 3 toddlers are STRESSFUL around water... but holy cuteness. Could Liam look any more adorable!?!

I could eat her up!

Blurry but smiley! He did a slide himself! Just last week, he screamed hysterically sliding!

Nana's boy!

Poppi's girl!

Stay tuned for more Hilton Head beach and pool pictures!

Summer Pictures - OUTAKES!

Yesterday, I posted about our fun, family photo session with Heather Marie Photography. We got some great, frame worthy photos! We also got some great candid shots of wardrobe malfunctions, toddler cracks, eyes being rolled and man parts being held. 

This post should be titled "true life: The Wise Family"

 This would have been the CUTEST picture of the 2 kids if Parker wasn't.... well.... you know.

This photo actually made the "great shot post" yesterday but... let's be honest... that's my butt. I obviously need to be more self aware!

Parker doing his best "Iron Man" while Avery is... well... my child. Clearly not the most lady like! 

I wish you could see Daniel's facial expression up close in this picture. It's the "this is cheesy... I am done. Can I have another Krispy Kreme?" face. 

Stopping to admire airplanes! 

Photobombed by the kids! 

Not only do I love Parker's look of bewilderment at this sister, I also love that he's holding the flower Avery attempted to pick.. and ended up uprooting the entire plant.

My 4 chins in this picture were enough to make me want to delete this photo from my hard drive but I saved it, just for your viewing pleasure. 

I'm not sure what exactly was going on here but my hair looks nice...

Apparently when I jump in the water, I look like a gazelle.... (side note... when I wrote "gazelle" I spelled it gisele because spelling is obviously my strong suit... or maybe I just wish I looked like "Gisele" when jumping in a lake! A girl can dream... while her eating Krispy Kreme) 

And last but not least, I present you.... 

My favorite part of this photo is Parker "swimming" in the background. He looks like he's sneaking up behind her to pounce! 

I cherish these photos so much! They aren't perfect or frame worthy but they're mine. It's my crazy, fun, wonderfully blessed life that I'm so glad I live and have photos to remember these moments by!

Summer Family Photos

If you've read the blog for a while, you know I LOVE having family photos taken! It's about the only way to get all 4 of us in the same picture. I seem to be the only member of our family who enjoys having family photos taken but twice a year (sometimes 3 times) I subject my family to 45 minute of torture to satisfy my need to have pretty pictures.

Daniel is usually easily bribed to smile, Avery typically chips up when made to laugh and then there's Parker.... Parker HATES family photos. So much so that he refused to wear his puffer vest for our Christmas pictures last year that really made him look like I picked him up off the street and threw him in our family photos. He didn't coordinate one bit. It got to the point where he'd cry when he saw the photographer because he knew it was picture day. As much as we love her, we actually had to find a different photographer so he wouldn't bust into tears the second we pulled into the picture location.

I get professional photo anxiety because I want a pretty, framable family photo SO badly but Parker is either pouting, Avery is running in the opposite direction, Daniel is rolling his eyes or looking off into space and I'm usually fake smiling as if I don't notice the chaos unfolding around me. For this photoshoot, I decided to go in a completely different direction. Instead of posing and smiling, let's just play! I hired Heather with Heather Marie Photography to capture lifestyle shots with pretty light.  As a mom of 3 beautiful, rambunctious boys, I figured she'd be most likely to crack a smile out of Parker! Would you believe, he was the cheesiest of us all!

The results speak for themselves! We met her about 50 minutes from our house at 7am (yikes!) with the kids in PJs, Starbucks in hand and fresh Krispy Kremes! We sugared the kids up, changed their clothes and started playing. We had a blast! I had a hard time deciding which to frame! Thank you Heather for these special treasures!

Get excited... Heather also included some out takes for me that I'll share next!

Christmas Pictures Reveal!

Last night I spent hours going through our pictures from the "Old Navy photoshoot"  with Alicia Sutton Photography to create the 2012 Wise Family Christmas Card. I finally finished around 1:30am and I am feeling that late night this morning!

You'll have to remember that Parker was so misbehaved that day that I spent most of the photoshoot close to tears.... so all things considered I am pleased with the outcome. I wish Parker had worn his vest I scoured the city for but it just wasn't gonna happen! 

We got a great shot of the kids individually and a nice family picture to adorn the Christmas card with. I'm saving posting those until after everyone has received their cards but I'm happy to share the rest.

I brought a football for Parker and Daniel to play around with. I had visions of boyish actions shots dancing in my head but little Miss was much more interested in the deflated football than her brother was.

Daniel eventually grabbed Parker, the football and announced "here is your football shot..." It turned out surprisingly cute!

The light was so pretty with Avery's bright coat and grey/blue eyes

We got a canvas worthy picture of Parker and I was elated! It's on the Christmas card so I can't show it yet but here are two others of the most handsome little boy who hates having his picture made!

See the tree above? Climbing it in was the only way to keep Parker still and smiling so the majority of our Christmas card worthy photos are in the tree. The only problem is it looks like 2 legs spread open and we're all coming out of it. I giggle at the thought of being worried about our Christmas card looking like an Old Navy ad because now I've renamed it something infinitely worse.... "The Happy Vagina Tree Christmas Card" which I realize is totally inappropriate but when you see the full uncropped picture, you'll know why!

Avery got in on the tree climbing as well.

After a quick change in the parking lot, the kids were ready for Christmas! Well.... Avery was... Parker was ready for time out and a nap.

Now that I've got these photos back, I was able to finish up a lot of Christmas presents. Thank you Shutterfly! I'm feeling good about where I am on my Christmas list, cards are ordered and the Christmas decorations are beckoning me from the shed. Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas in the Wise household!