Saturday morning the boys were all up fairly early, with the exception of Drew, who slept in to make up for all the talking he tried to do the night before with Cam and Zach sleeping in his room. Anders fell in love with two of our toys in particular- Drew's microphone and the little guitar we have that plays songs like Love Shack and Message in a Bottle. He'd sing with both things and show us his rockstar moves. It was pretty cute, and I'm bummed I didn't get any pictures of that. All the toys were put to good use, though. Drew stepped away long enough to allow Anders and Myles to play with Thomas AND Percy (Drew's pretty particular about being in charge of Thomas, if you can believe it).
Cam and Zach were right back into playing Star Wars, so while Myles slept in the basement and Becky showered in the basement and Sandy showered upstairs, I got a little time with Anders, Drew, and Jake. Both Anders and Drew wanted to hold Jake, so I decided they could do it together.
Here's a little video of Anders, Drew, and Jake.
A little later Anders and Drew decided to check out Jake's activity gym with him. Notice the microphone right next to Anders.
After all the boys had naps, we got them ready for their big photo shoot. We decided that since this is the first time all the cousins have been together since Jake was born, we had to take advantage of the opportunity and do our best to get a good photo. We went to a picture place that does an ok job- not outstanding, but they're also not super expensive. Since we knew the chances of getting all 6 boys to smile was slim, we didn't want to go somewhere where we'd pay a fortune for pictures.
We started off with some pictures of the whole group. So, from left to right, we have Drew (almost age 3), Zach (5 1/2), Jake (11 weeks), Cam (almost 5), Myles (17 months), and Anders (2 1/2). And split by mothers, it goes my 3 kids on the left, Becky's 2 kids in the middle, and Sandy's son on the right.
These first two are the best group photos we got. Myles is just at that age where he has some stranger-danger issues and being away from home made him not want to be away from his mom much, so he was not interested in sitting down for these pictures.
Myles got progressively more upset, so we decided to give him a little breather and break the boys up for some other pictures. I was very pleased with this picture of my boys. I can't believe Zach and Drew both smiled decently at the same time! Too bad Jake had a little drool on his chin.
Zach and Drew did well for this picture, too. I honestly wasn't sure how they'd do with pictures, but really I was very pleased with their smiles.
My big boy Zach. Man, he's looking so old!
And Drew is looking old, too! I can't believe he'll be 3 in a couple of days.
And finally little Jake, who is quickly losing that newborn look!
And finally little Jake, who is quickly losing that newborn look!
Then the photographer got some pictures of my adorable nephews. First was Anders, who was all smiles. I can't decide who I think Anders looks more like in this picture- my sister Sandy or my brother-in-law Will.
Then it was Cam's turn. Cam definitely looks like his mom with those big eyes! In this photo he reminds me of a picture of my sister Becky when she was about Cam's age.
Myles got his picture taken later in the photo shoot, when he was slightly more in the mood, but I'm putting it up here to go with the other individual photos. He looks more like his dad than his brother Cam does, what with his lighter complexion. Such a cutie- this is a cute picture, but it doesn't even do him justice because you can see he's still a little upset.
Myles got his picture taken later in the photo shoot, when he was slightly more in the mood, but I'm putting it up here to go with the other individual photos. He looks more like his dad than his brother Cam does, what with his lighter complexion. Such a cutie- this is a cute picture, but it doesn't even do him justice because you can see he's still a little upset.
We asked the photographer to take a couple of other pictures, like this one of Zach and Cam. Boy, do those two love each other. I hope they are always close friends like they are right now. I was always the youngest cousin on both sides of my family by many years, so I just think it's so cool that these boys have each other.
The same goes for Anders and Drew. They're still a little young to be great friends, but my hope is that since they live a bit closer they'll see each other a little more often and develop that strong friendship that Cam and Zach have.
We also tried letting Myles sit in the little rocking chair, and while he stayed put, he still wasn't very happy to be there.
This next picture cracks me up because Myles is so upset (someday you'll laugh at this photo, Myles), and Cam's just sort of taking it all in stride, still being Mr. Photogenic.
The photo place allows you one outfit change, so we decided to keep it easy and just take off the colored shirts we had the boys in to go with the classic white shirt and jeans look. By this point the boys were all getting a little less into it and were less photogenic than before, but they still did ok.
This next picture is very funny to me. We were really falling apart by this point. Anders appears to be saying he wants to hold Jake, and Cam is trying to hold Myles in place, despite the many times we told him not to. Each time Cam would put his hands on Myles, Myles would get madder and madder, and we'd tell Cam to not touch Myles, but he just really wanted to help keep Myles in place. Cam looks like he's going to cry in this picture, but he didn't. Either way, it's just a funny picture.
This picture is pretty cute. Zach definitely loved being the one to hold Jake in the majority of the pictures.
And I don't know what was going on in this picture, but it's pretty cute, too. Maybe Anders was playing peek-a-boo?
Once the photo shoot was over, we moms sat to see the proofs while our kids ran around like wild children in the photo place. It's a good thing it was a Saturday night at dinner time and the photo place was pretty dead. Then we headed to the mall for some Panera for dinner. Somehow I ended up with 4 kids (my own 3 plus Cam), parked way, way out in the parking lot (Panera is by the movie theater, other restaurants, and food court, so a very busy parking area), while Sandy and Becky were each just responsible for one kid. How did that work out?! Actually, the boys did great. If you're going to be stuck with 4 of the 6 kids, it helps to have the 3 oldest and the one who is strapped into an infant carrier. I felt like mother duck with her line of ducklings walking into the mall, though.
So once dinner was done, we headed home and got all the boys in bed pretty quickly, and it didn't take long for them all to cash out for the night. Then my sisters and I ate some peanut M&Ms and watched Brokeback Mountain, a movie we all agreed beforehand that our husbands would never be interested in seeing, though Mike caught the tail-end of it when he got back from the airport. It was an interesting movie. I'll never look at Jake Gyllenhaal the same.
And that was day 2 of the big weekend. (Wow, that sounds like a conclusion sentence I never would have let my 5th grade students get away with!)
1 comment:
I love all the pictures and esp the singing video.
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