Spring Family Photos

Well, it's been a few months since I put my family through the drama, trauma and torture of yet another round of forced family photos...so naturally, it was about time. My amazing (and super patient) friend Jessica of Emma Constance Photography was hosting spring mini sessions at the Jewel Box at Forest Park a few weekends ago, so I signed us up for a 20 minute slot. I figured that even if no one cooperated and everything went wrong, we'd have only wasted 20 minutes of our lives instead of a full hour. Plus, bribery with candy is my go to way to get the kids to pay attention, so the shorter the session, the less harsh the resulting post-session sugar crash. Turns out this was a good call, because 20 minutes was about 18 minutes longer than my children could concentrate or cooperate, so we gave Jessica a lot of extra time to prepare for the next family. Seriously, she snapped all these photos within just a few minutes, in between tantrums and meltdowns and they turned out better than I could have imagined. 

Thank you Jessica for making us actually look normal and that we all kinda like each other. 

I love them.

Anyone else planning for spring or summer family photos? 

What are your tips for getting kids to cooperate?

Throwback Thursday - Mac's First Trip To The Beach

In a few weeks, we'll be heading down to our favorite little island in the Gulf for our annual beach vacation. Every year we rent a house and stay on the same small island, visit the amazing local restaurants, enjoy the quiet empty white-sand beaches and spend a whole week indulging in freshly-caught oysters and well-shook margaritas. It's a quiet place, with not a lot of tourism or very much to do other than lay on the beach or lounge by the pool, but it's our little slice of paradise and we look forward to this trip all year round. 

I've blogged about our beach adventures a few times, including Mally's first trip to the beach, Ryan fishing on the beach, Sage's first trip to the beach, dogs playing on the beach and Mim's first trip to the beach, but looking through my archives it looks as though I completely missed Mac's very first trip to the beach back in 2013. He had just turned one (the week before) and I cannot get over just how adorable, pudgy and moody this child was back then. I mean, he's still moody/broody, but I don't think I got more than 3 photos of him smiling the entire week we were there. The wind was fierce that whole week, which made the sand blow hard and the surf really rough, so we didn't spend as much time on the beach as we usually do. I didn't get nearly the number of cute baby beach photos that I was hoping for, so maybe that's why I never posted these. Or maybe I was just too self-conscious about the 25 extra pounds I was carrying around a year later (whatever...little did I know most of those would become a permanent fixture). Either way, I'm over it, so I thought it was high-time to do a little Throwback Thursday to that trip. 

So, in the spirit of full-disclosure and in a totally lame effort to fully document my children's every move, milestone, achievement and vacation, may I present...McCarty Family Vacay 2013. And yes, these photos make me miss Mally so badly it hurts. I loved that dog so much and she loved the beach. We actually took her ashes to the beach with us last year and sprinkled them in the waves almost exactly where these beach photos were taken. I'm excited to visit her again soon and every time I'm here I will forever picture her happy face chasing the birds and watching Ryan fish. 

Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane. I pinky-swear that this year I'll take more (and much better) photos of both kids and not wait three years before posting them. Two will be my max, ok? 

Anyone else have a beach trip coming up?