3 months already! Wow! I’m sure I’ll say this every month, but bear with me. It’s going by much too fast. Can I tell them to slow down? Think they’ll listen? The boys are doing great. They’re growing fast and are really waking up to the world around them. Griffin wakes up every morning with huge smiles and has even giggled a few times. Kian is a bit more reserved, and hits his happy time in the afternoon. They are so sweet and really add so much to our family. When we first found out we’d have 5 kids, I was a bit scared since it seemed like such a huge number. But now it feels so right – like we all just fit together. I can’t imagine life without any of them. It’s definitely strange to think that the boys started out as a single being, and that if everything had happened any other way that there would be only one of them (but there would really have still been both of them – just in one body – strange, right?)

So now onto what you really want – the pictures.

Here’s their “official” 3 month shot (since I’ve been trying to keep the pictures all very similar in backdrop and tone so that at the end of the year we can see how much they’ve changed from month to month.)

This one made me laugh – Griffin was definitely wondering why I was torturing them! And Kian was fascinated with his hand.

Kian

Griffin

I took this today as a quick snap before they all jumped in the lake. It’s such a typical scene for our house (except for CJ, who was visiting from LI!) Teagan’s in PJs (she adores her princess pajamas and loves to wear them), Meg’s trying to ignore Teagan (who was probably bossing her around and telling her to smile or some such thing), Colin’s making faces and being silly and CJ was disgusted because the dogs just came out of the lake and shook water all over him. Love it!

I have a sneak peek ready to post for my brother-in-law and his family, but I’ll give them their own post!

Kian @ 8 weeks

The boys are getting more and more alert every day and more of their personalities are coming out! So far Kian is a night owl and Griffin happily goes to sleep at 8pm. They are both loving their siblings and spend a lot of time just staring at the silly things the older kids do to keep them entertained. I keep telling them not to grow up too fast, but they certainly aren’t listening!

There’s nothing sweeter than a father snuggling with his baby. I haven’t gotten Drew to do pictures with the babies yet (it’s on my to-do list) but I thought this was a really cute image that I took last night.

I have a feeling the boys’ first year is going to fly by! I’m trying very hard to commemorate each month and so far am loving working with tiny babies! So many people call for sessions at 3 months or beyond, but those first few weeks are so precious – that’s what you really should be capturing! You know, those days when they sleep a lot, are so snuggly and have that squishy newborn look? Even now I’m amazed at how much the boys have changed and how much of that newborn look they have lost. Sure, they still are little and still love to snuggle, but now stick out their legs instead of curling them up, wake up when they are moved and are awake for a lot longer.

Here’s a few pictures from their first few days…

And their 1 month pictures…

You can see how much more awake and alert they are in the individual 1 month pictures than the newborn shots (taken at 5 days old). I absolutely love the picture of the boys with their umbilical stumps still on because they look fresh from the hospital (which they were!) That’s the beauty of a custom photographer over a studio – I come to you! I know those first few weeks can be tough enough to get through without worrying about traveling to get pictures done. So this way you can capture those precious first few days of life without leaving the house! All I need is a good source of light (a patio door or large window works great!)

We also found out that the boys are identical! What are the odds of that? The girls are fraternal (and VERY much fraternal – they look so different) so we were really shocked to get the results of the twin DNA test (they swab the inside of their cheeks and compare them.)

I have to admit, since I got the “new” 5d markII, my “old” 5d has been sitting sadly in it’s bag. I do feel bad for it – after all, it was there with me through the start of my business and has never let me down. But the features on the 5dii are so nice, that I just haven’t felt compelled to pick up the 5d. But then I come across pictures like this (this one was taken in December 2008) and I remember why I love it…

I took this image with the 5d, 135L combo. What is it about full frame that just makes the image so dreamy? Yumm… So while my 5dii is my camera of choice atm (and I promise – reviews coming soon!) I can’t forget how amazing the 5d is.

Meg couldn’t get enough of her lollipop!

The kids actually sat down together!!! *shock* Not the best spot for a pic, but hey, I was just happy to have them still for a second! And see the bruise/cut on Meg’s nose? That’s courtesy of Colin. The other day when we had all the snow the kids were having snowball fights and Colin threw a snowball at Meg that had ice in the middle (he had no idea). Needless to say it hit her square in the face and she’s been sporting a nice bruise and some cuts. Poor little girl!

Eating cupcakes at his halloween party

Meggie loved the masks! This mask is for Kourtnie’s party tonight!

Colin’s mean pirate face

The girls finally got to play with the pirate ship – Meg even got to wear the hat!

Kissing Cousins!

Colin’s pirate cake (I made it myself!)

And finally everyone got to take home a carmel apple. We went apple picking Friday so that we’d have fresh apples for the favors!

It really is true what they say – that once you have kids the time just flies by. Our son is turing 4 today – actually, not technically until tonight. 6:29pm. 4 years old! He’s brought so much joy to our lives and we’re very blessed to have been entrusted to raise him. Ok – that’s all I’m going to say before I get really sappy!

Colin’s 4 year pictures (this took some major bribing, but we got a few that I love!)

And my favorite! There’s a story behind the scooter. When we were up in Maine vacationing we went into a toy store. Colin found this scooter and fell in love with it. As soon as we left the store he said “Did you see that scooter, Mom? Wow – that was the coolest scooter ever! It’s beautiful! And it rides great!” He spent the rest of the vacation going on and on about it. So as soon as we got home we ordered it and hid it in the garage. Or so we thought. Last week Colin went in the garage to get his fishing pole and came out saying “What’s in the box, Mom? The box with my scooter in it?” I told him it was for someone else and he didn’t mention it again for a while. Then an hour later he asked if we were ever going to let him open his scooter since he saw it in the garage. So we called Daddy at work to ask him if it was ok to open the scooter (I wasn’t sure if he wanted to be there to see his reaction). When Drew said Yes, it was ok, Colin ran into the garage and came back staggering under the weight of the box. He was SO excited! Little sneak!!