February was a rough one for us.
It started out with a major back issue that had me immobile for about two weeks. Then my camera died. Then I got bronchitis. So, since I spent a lot of time in bed in February, I thought it was only fitting to take our family shot there.
I love our room.
I love our bed.
It is a complete and total respite from the world for me. We have had our quilt for so long that it is ripping and ragged, but I can’t bare the thought of getting rid of it. So our feet just poke through the holes. I took it on a photo shoot once, and I am still pulling sticks out from that. I don’t mind. That shoot is a good memory.
Jeff was assigned to a major project at work. While it was really good for him to be asked, it is taking a lot of his time and energy. Away from us.
Nathan is getting over a cold – I can tell in his eyes that he doesn’t feel great.
Mckenna is in her splint, or gizmo, as the Dr calls it. The splint that everyone hates for her sake, but her most of all. It is so hard for me to ask her to put it on, knowing how much she hates it. She is meant to wear it as much as possible every day to keep the skin in her armpit stretched as it heals.
Jeff got a haircut today – and immediately came home and took a shower to get rid of “itchy neck syndrome”. This picture was last minute, taken literally seconds before it became fully dark outside. So, he didn’t have time to do his hair. It looks hilarious, and I am fine with it. I love his crazy stand up rooster hair. You should see it in the morning.
A neighborhood boy came over with his Nintendo DS one day earlier this month, in the middle of a game. He wanted Drew or Nate to help him get through the end of the level.
Anna came into our room one evening, with her finger above her lip (as a mustache and disguise), and dropped off a piece of paper. On the paper was written: “Mom and Dad, I ran away with Silce (silkie is her cherished blanket) and pilow pet. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox Anna. Mom, don’t tell Dad that I’m still here. Act it aot(out). Ha Ha Ha.” I don’t think I have laughed that hard in a long time. We did indeed act out our sadness at finding her gone, and our excitement in finding her again.
Nathan got an A+ on his science test and was so, so proud and excited to show us.
Jeff recorded Black Beauty for Anna, and she watched, transfixed. I love that he thinks of all of us and is always searching for things to record that we might like.
Mckenna turned fourteen. She asked for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Spirals. We got her three boxes, clothes, and an old iPod shuffle. She was more excited about the Mac & Cheese.
A friend loaned Drew and Nathan a Lord of the Rings video game. One night Jeff played with them and started telling them all about the characters and the story. Drew remembered that he had The Hobbit in his closet, and started reading it. That lead to us starting a LOTR marathon one Saturday.
We are all still so happy about the weather we have this time of year. Perfect.
Oddly, we didn’t go out as an entire family unit at all this month.
I had a ton of fun on Valentine’s day…doing special things for the kids. They woke up to treat bags filled with goodies in their top dresser drawer and personal heart shaped chocolate cakes for breakfast.
Mckenna loves, and when I say loves, I mean LOVES, to get the mail after the bus drops her off everyday. One afternoon the mailman was there, putting mail away. She ran up to the truck and said, “Hey mailman! What’s up?!” We got the mail and I told him about how much she loved it. As he drove off, she shouted, “OSA MISA MAILMAN!” I was like, huh? Took me a second to figure it out-but I finally did-she meant to say, “HASTA LA VISTA MAILMAN!”
This shot was actually taken on March 1, but I am going to pretend that since February is such a short month, that doesn’t matter. I propped my camera on our laundry basket, two pillows, and an eyeshadow compact. I called everyone into my room and they piled on the bed. No one REALLY wanted to do it, so I took three self timer shots in about a minute and this one was my favorite. I couldn’t decide in color or bw, so I decided: BOTH.
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If you joined in, feel free to post a link in the comments. I would love to see.
xo
Tara
Okay, you totally put me to shame, again with the notes. I did not make notes. I will try to add some notes tomorrow.
Jeff looks 14
always with the inspiration… reminding me to love better. to BE better. to notice more. to capture it so i never forget. thank you.
The spirals are also totally my favorite. :)
joined in??? what did i miss:(((
i LOVE joining in…i am a bit of a keener/loser that way;)…depending if you appreciate my enthusiasm or not. it kinda goes both ways in my house…
this is awesome, 6 different ways;)
oh, i adore. i hope that mailman knows what a lucky dude he is! im glad that youre counting 3.1.10 as February because otherwise id be out of the game already…
i love your family.
So glad you have your camera back and that you are feeling better:) Beautiful family:)
Cute pic T! I reminds me of the ones you took of my family last year. I love the personal touch that taking a picture in your own, very personal space, brings to a photo. I took the challenge. There is a current pic, from February, up on my blog, http://www.katrinaelizabeth.com/blog . My belly is growing! Thanks for the kick in the butt to photograph my own family all together (including myself ;o)
I love how much you love your family… I feel the same way about mine. :)
Love it. All of it. The quilt… the stories… the “dogpile” of family members. So awesome.
My birthday dinner request for the last 30 plus years has always been mac and cheese.
recently discovered your blog. LOVE it! So sad I didn’t start this project in Jan. Is it too late to start in March? Oh, and we’ve always been “shells” here, but my youngest is now asking for spirals too. :)
My party of 5 in February http://flic.kr/p/7GKDX8
Great minds ;-)
Great minds…. my version with five. Determined not to wait until the end of the month in March.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelav/4399317929/
sigh…. i love how you capture your family through your lens and words. i do my best but to be honest, i can barely remember what happened an hour ago sometimes. thanks for sharing yourself with us. here are my boys who are my world http://tokileephoto.blogspot.com/2010/02/after-rain.html
perfect family portrait!!
I love this — your six people twelve times. It’s a very cool thing to do, and it’s absolutely perfect that sometimes none of them really want to do it but you ask and they do because you’re the mom and it’s important to you. Someday they’ll look back at all of these and be so glad you did it. I also think it’s so appropriate that you took it on your bed considering you were connected to it a lot this month. (Man, that sounds like a rough go. Hope you’re feeling better.) It was fun reading the little notes about things that happened with your family this month because even though I don’t know you, I kind of feel like I do via your blog. :) You have a beautiful family, and it’s awesome to document all the little things that make you guys you. Loving the project! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the inspiration to photograph the six in my family. Better get it while we can or they might just grow up and leave too soon. Too soon.
so sweet and so you!
Beautiful. I love your notes on all of the month’s goings-on. We’ve been doing a self-portrait every Sunday (we started Feb7): http://paulysrachie.typepad.com/complicated_simplicity/2010/03/every-sunday.html
I LOVE it!!! What sweet moments and picture. :) I capture and write about every moment that I can!!
love you… love your family xoxoxo
I like you. Your family is beautiful. I am inspired times infinity-billion.
I LOVE this Tara <3
I tried to do something similar last year, on Mothers Day… it wasn't nearly as success full as yours! (http://vimeo.com/4573227)… Maybe I will try again… but show them all your version first… so they know that stacks-on and head-locks are not necessary!! LOL!
I scraped it in on the last day of the month, phew!
I am so thankful for your inspiration and the reminders
My photo and post http://skruijver.blogspot.com/2010/03/they-crack-me-up.html
THANK YOU :)
this is so incredible. i must have missed the first one, but i will search through your blog and find it. i love that it’s a sliver in time…that you will always remember. you wrote out the details perfectly. when i first started scrapbooking, i was all about the writing and photos, and less about the decorations on the pages. this is perfect.
I love this!! My husband has been in Afghanistan for six months and when he gets home in a few weeks, I am going to start the once-a-month family pic project. Thank you so much for inspiring me to do this!!
Love it!!!
Thanks for the idea. I am excited to look back at the end of the year and see each month.
Love your cute lil family. You guys are awesome!
I have a husband with awesome rooster hair too :)
Love this Tara!!
I am doing it too….I am happy that I actually got 2 pics in 2 months!!! Thanks for the great idea!
Mine is up ;) Jeff looks like a teenager and we call it Kraft Dinner in Canada ;)I wish my kids would be happy with getting KD for their birthday presents!! http://shortandsweetphotography.ca/2010/03/personal-project/
Awww, I think this might be one of my favorite posts you have ever written. I loooove it and it makes me looooove your family!!! Thank you for sharing this awesome-ness. :)
I haven’t done mine yet!
I did do a self timer shot of Michael & I having coffee
yesterday morning though and I love it!!!
I plan to do a family one this month though!
Last month was our bed shot!
I LOVE YOURS!!!!! SO SUPER CUTE!!!!!!
and how in the world did Mckenna turn 14 ?!
sooooo sad! they get old way too FAST!!!
love love love this project tara!
way to go! tara pp
I love yours…esp. the notes!!! Ours is up on the blog, and hopefully, next month we can choose a spot other than the kitchen counter! :)
Love the idea of your project, and specially love what you write abot each month below.
You have a beautiful family !!!! I will see if I start in march with this project with my
husband and my three kids.
love it! and just my point of view, but I love the b+w best!!
oh, and I’m stealing your idea to do with my own family! thanks for the inspiration!
i love the little snippets of your family. It has been so fun watching them grow and change! I totally love this idea – I don’t think it will have quite the same impact with just my husband and me…but it might be worth a try! Thanks for your continued sharing.
I love this idea – guess I can always start 2 months late. We never take family photos and I regret a bit that my kids won’t have memories of us as a group – but that we have so many of them.
this was a lovely post that made me tear up and remember the little things, not just the ones that seem so neat.
okay i’m being brave… i love to visit your blog, so very inspiring but this is my first time to leave a comment. back in january i read about this project and lOved the idea. i took some notes and finally uploaded my photo. i’m already behind but hope to catch up soon. thank you for ‘the push’.
All I can say is, I just love you and how your share your life with us – you inspire me over and over – my goal is to come back and post a link to my family picture that I will somehow take today. . .:)
I am doing it! But I should add memories from the month, too. Thanks for the inspiration. <3 Thank you for sharing your family, too.
I haven,t joined in yet but I am gonna make this happen. I love this idea
wishing you all a much better march! loved reading the post…and even though your feb. was crappy, you can still hear all the love you have for your family in this post. the picture is fantastic (as usual). love the idea of a photo a month of the family. it is so hard to get all five of us together, especially for a photo!
XOXO
In the beginning of this post you said February wasn’t so hot a month for you guys – looks like March hasn’t gotton any better? Your tweet said it looks like (one of your boys’ arm’s) it’s broken. Well, you can always shoot for April!!!!
Capture the simple
Capture the bliss
you do both so well……
Here’s to March and renewal
and to getting well??? and hopefully no more mishaps….
PS good going Drew Boy. Mimi gets to sign your cast!!
oxox
Awh but I love it!! Hoping for a better March for ya!!
Awww crap. Forgot to do this! I LOVE LOOOOVE these images. They are perfect, real & just perfect. Gonna have to pile my 6 on our bed sometime soon. Thanks for the constant inspiration Tara!
Ours is all the way down at the bottom of this post: http://www.kukyideas.com/journal/2010/02/monthly-family-picture-2.html. Past the dolls. :)
what a great project! I am sure they will all thank you for it when they are grown! you guys are just adorable. I would love to see some shots of you and Jeff as kids some day to see who the kids look like! I see a lot of you/your family in anna these days :)