the gift of memories

A few weeks ago we go some family photos taken by Kristin Harris Photography. She was such sweet lady and I love how the photos turned out! We've never had family photos done before and I really didn't want studio photos, they always look so stiff to me. Kristin met us at a local park and she was so relaxed and fun that it was easy and comfortable to do a photo shoot with her. Normally we are a shy family and I was afraid she wouldn't be able to capture the "real" us. I was so excited when I received the disk and realized that indeed she did, and wonderfully. {I have permission to print the pictures, so I'm assuming posting is okay too, I hope.} Seventeen years and counting. And I'm still madly in love, with extra stress on the madly part. :)

I wasn't sure if I liked this one or not, but when my husband saw it he really liked it. He said, "it's my beautiful girls". So now I think of that every time I see this picture and it warms my heart.

This is one of my favorites. Sometimes I can hardly believe we have four beautiful little kids. We were together for so long before kids and then it seems like we blinked and there they all were. We are still amazed and often shake our head in wonder as our eyes met, often over the chaos of our children. If we do nothing else big with our lives, except raise these wonderful children, I will still feel truly blessed. I look forward to the day we are old together and are surrounded by our grown children, and their children. Ryder has told me many times that from the beginning he envisioned us old together sitting on a porch swing holding hands, and that's how he knew I was the one. When I think about our future I see that very thing as well.

Beautiful, this girl of mine.

This is another favorite of mine, just because of the reality of it. Not a single one of us is looking straight at the camera, we are all caught up in each other, love that.

I never feel like we are a big family, but looking at the pictures I realize that we are definitely not a small one either, so I'll go with some where in the middle. :)

I LOVE this one.

So sweet, all of them holding hands. Team Rivers!

Love Atty's smile in this one. Another great shot of the family as well.

A daddy and his boys.

... and a mommy and her girl... :)

A great shot of my littlest boy, isn't he so handsome and couldn't you just fall into those big blue eyes!

That smile just takes over his face and lights up his eyes! And those curls, and red hair... oh my!

The sweetness of this boy just shines though this picture. My oldest, wise little man.

Love the smiles on every ones face {except Lala, she was woken from a nap and didn't warm to picture taking readily} but frankly she's cute smiling or not.

Brothers.

Absolutely love.

Atticus brought his favorite birds as a distraction. He doesn't always do well in these sorts of situations, but he ended up surprising us all. At first I was wishing that he didn't have his birds in all the photos, but when I got the pictures I changed my mind. I love this photo, it shows his love of birds and his personality and it will be a favorite of mine for all time.

So there you go, amazing photos from an amazing photographer. And the whole thing was a gift from a wonderfully sweet daycare mom. An absolutely thoughtful gift, that I will treasure forever.