one serious photo session

Our family was recently invited to be a part of a special surprise tribute honoring Dr. Tadvick, my OB/GYN who delivered all three of my little Bs. I accepted the invitation without hesitation. Dr. Tadvick has been such a blessing to my family, I am honored to get a chance to bring blessing to him. Part of the assignment for each family was to write a letter to Dr. Tadvick expressing our gratitude towards him. We were also assigned a time for our children to get their picture taken by a local photographer helping out with this project. All of the letters collected from each of the families participating, along with all of the pictures taken of the children, will be compiled into a book that will be presented to Dr. Tadvick in few weeks. (This is a big surprise, so those of you who are patients of his... don't spill the beans!)

Our scheduled photo session was last Saturday afternoon. We met the photographer at Jacob's Ladder on the ACU campus. (A very impressive sight by the way if you have not seen it.) It was an absolutely beautiful day. The sun was shining. It wasn't too cold. And the kids were all in terrific moods. The scenario couldn't have been better for a photo session... especially since this one was supposed to be pretty quick. After all, the photographer only needed one good picture of the kids. That wouldn't be too hard. Right?

We sat the kids down and got them ready for the picture. They were all smiles... that is until Brenner spotted the photographer. Immediately his smile turned to a face of concern. He began inspecting the situation he had been put in, studying this strange lady smiling at him.

Berkley and Beckham continued flashing their big smiles, while Brenner's face became more intense with each picture taken.

Matt and I were jumping up and down, playing peek-a-boo behind the photographer, making funny faces... nothing. Brenner would not crack a smile. He was so serious. I began to wonder what was going on inside that little mind of his.

Once the photographer realized we weren't going to get a smile out of Brenner, she moved on to individual shots. Berkley got to go first and loved every minute of it!

Beckham did a great job too. He actually kind of seemed to enjoy it.

Brenner's turn didn't go so well.

So... Matt tried his best to get him smiling again, instead of crying. He succeeded.

He even got him laughing!!!

Now we just had to keep him happy while the photographer captured it! However, he just didn't want anything to do with this poor photographer. This was the closest we got to a smiling picture of Brenner... in his daddy's arms!

We finished the photo session agreeing with the photographer that we did our best. She looked at a few pictures she had taken and felt that she could find one that would work. After finishing with her, I had a bright idea that I needed to have my own photo shoot with the kids. After all, they were all dressed nicely, the day was beautiful, and they were still in fairly good moods. I figured Brenner might be more willing to smile too since the strange woman had disappeared. I figured wrong.
The smiles finally came, however... once he was FREE!!!In the end, I think this picture pretty much sums up our photo session.
"FAIL NOT!" Our little man's stubbornness prevailed. He wasn't going to let a smile out for anything. Especially not for the strange lady with the camera in his face.

We are planning to take some more family pictures in a couple of weeks with another photographer. I'm really looking forward to that now! :)