Photos for Great Grandad – Wordless Wednesday

Sunday afternoon. Five happy children are scattered throughout the garden. Playing, exploring, enjoying the moment, celebrating the small things in life. Living their childhood. This will be a part of the collage of memories they reflect on as they grow older.

Mummy wanders around with her camera, capturing the little moments, a moment in time becomes still, forever a point of reflection and joy. She is thinking of her grandfather as she snaps. He is sick in bed, the unfortunate victim of a stroke and his days are fading. His great grand children brighten his long days, he loves them dearly. Photos of the children are tacked opposite his bed, it brightens his day.

I snap away. These photos are not quite right. Grandad is old school when it comes to photos. They should be looking straight at the camera. “What a shame,” he has said to me “they glanced away at the wrong time.” Back in his day photos were not taken for artistic interpretation. He doesn’t understand why we capture so many moments. He doesn’t think in the way of the digital camera where you can snap in gay abandon. “The old box brownie took a good photo” he tells me. “It’s around here somewhere in my boxes.”

Later that evening I choose photos for his wall. My five children, joining the other 6 great grandchildren on the wall. They are part of his present and are part of his legacy. In the meantime, their innocent smiles enjoying childhood cheer his tired spirit lacking in energy but never bereft of love.

Linking with
My Little Drummer Boys
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Wordless Wednesday – 40th Birthday Party

I haven’t shared many photos of my husband’s 40th birthday party, so I thought it would be a good chance to this Wordless Wednesday. If you want to read a few details on how and what we did, head to my post about Planning a Milestone Birthday Party. But here is the night in pictorial detail.

Immy’s grand entrance
The Birthday boy and the whopping big gawdy badge my sister put on him. I wasn’t very impressed at all when I  turned around and saw him wearing that. I’m already finding something incredibly tacky for her to wear on her 40th in several years time. Except I wouldn’t be that nasty.

The room.
The triplets were ready to eat the bonbonneires (giant freckles) well before dinner was on the table.

Hanging out with my family. Mum, Dad and little sis. (I’m sure she would like me to clarify that she was not the badge giving sister.)

Alex with his family and Toby. His Mum, Dad and sister.

How boys keep themselves amused at parties in the iPad age.

Toby and Imogen packing up at the end of the evening.

Oh yeah, she knows how to work a camera!

Immy had her entrance, Toby had his exit. At the end of the night, he stood at the automatic doors and giggled hysterically at them opening and closing.

My beloved and I at the end of a lovely evening.

Linking up at these lovely places:

My Little Drummer Boys

My Little Drummer Boys

Twinkle in the Eye

Twinkle In The Eye
Ms Mystery Case
5 Minutes

for Mom

Mama to 5 Blessings

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Photography Giveaway!

A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you.
Zara from Zara Jane Photography recently took some family photos for us. I have already shared some of these lovely images of the triplets and our family.

At the moment I’m living in the buzz that happens before you are about to embark on a project. You know that sweet feeling of anticipation before you’ve started the work and before you regret how ambitious you have been? I’ve been collecting black and white frames and in a little while, I’m going to rearrange the pictures on my wall and make an awesome picture wall. I’ve been flicking through some my other favourite photos that Zara took and trying to decide which pictures to include on my wall. Because seriously, her work needs to be framed.

I’ve already chosen a lovely photo of all 7 of us, but I also wanted to include some more candid snaps. Here’s some of my options:

The Five Children

Autumn Chook

Mummy and T-Star

Daddy piggy backs J Boy
Mummy and Daddy

J Boy

The boys

Aren’t they lovely? I love photos which just capture natural moments in time. And Zara has done some funky things with the lighting during some of those moments.

If you were looking at these images and wishing you had some similar images of your own family – today is your lucky day!

Drum roll please – dum, dum, da! It’s my first ever giveaway!

Zara Jane Photography is giving away an hour long photo session and 20 photos on a disc. (Worth $150) How awesome is that? Anyone is free to enter – but the catch is that Zara is based in Toowoomba, so you need to be prepared to come to Toowoomba to claim your prize or pay for her to come to you.  But Toowoombians (and surrounds) – don’t hesitate, enter right now! Imagine the beautiful photos that she could take of your family. (Or with friends, pets, chocolate … whatever!)

Here’s how.
1. Head over to Zara Jane Photography’s facebook page and “like” it.
2. Enter a comment below telling me which photo you think I should hang on my wall AND why would you like a Zara Jane photography session?

The winner will be judged by The Accountant and announced on this blog, Tuesday the 7th of August. I will remove the names while he judges, that way he will be unbiased – so friends and family, you may enter! One entry per person please. Make sure you check if you are the winner, because you will need to give my your contact details if you are.

Say Cheese and Good luck!

*Disclosure: I have not received anything for this promotion. Zara offered to take some photos of the triplets for their first birthday (stay tuned) so I thought it might be nice to promote her wonderful work on my blog to say thank you. The competition just goes to show how nice she is! So if you are looking for a great photographer, make sure you consi

der Zara Jane Photography!

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6 Month Old Triplets Portraits

I so appreciated those who left encouraging comments on this blog and on facebook when I admitted I was a little stressed out in my last blog. Thank you.

After that, I thought I would end the week on a pleasant note. I’ve so many photos I can share with you. I’ll backtrack and show you some more photos taken by the wonderful Zara Jane. We had a few sessions. (It’s easier to break it up over a few days if you have multiples and a flexible and obliging photographer.) We took studio photos of the babies and some family photos at a local park. Look here some photos of the whole family in the park.

Here’s some super sweet studio photos. (Excuse me for not having them centred on the page. I’ve got limited computer skills, and I concluded it was better to have a good look at a larger photo then to have this post looking pretty. Is that OK?)

To start with, if you’ve been following my weekly updates when I was pregnant, you will be familiar with me referring to the babies as T1, T2 and T3, according to where they were in the womb. (The top letter is their initial of their name.) So here they are.

And again. See any similarities now compared to the Week 19 ultrasound pictures?

My motivation for having the photos taken was so that my parents could hang a six month picture on their wall. It’s a bit of a family tradition. So these are the three new pictures for Grandad and Grandma’s wall.

Of course Joey and Chook always like hanging out together.

And our pretty little lady always brings a smile to our face.

 This was so adorable. As soon as they got in the suitcase, the triplets started chewing it. Made for such a cute picture!

So, you agree? Super sweet? Which photo is your favourite?

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Family Photos with 7 Month Triplets

I recently shared some family pictures back when the triplets were newborns. (See here) We’ve had some more photos taken more recently by Zara-Jane Photography. Here we all are in the triplet’s 7th month.

I love the way J Boy is looking at us here. I think it give a kid a certain sense of security to see obvious examples that his (or her) parents are still in love.

The other day a lady paid us the nicest compliments anyone has told me since the triplets were born. She said she was watching us during church one day. I was doing my usual walk in/walk out to the mother’s room routine. I would get back, sit down, grab nappy bag, get a spew cloth, and wipe up spew, then another one would poo, and off I’d go. Come back, fish around for sultana’s for T-Star. Another baby would insist it was starving, off I’d go again. etc, etc. Church is not about what we get out of it at the moment, it’s about establishing a routine for our family. We want our children to always know that we prioritise a weekly time where we go and worship as a family with our church family.

Anyway, this lady, who has known me since I was a girl, was watching our shenanigans and feeling exhausted by the performance. “I was wondering how on earth you cope,” she told me, “You must be tired as well, and you just never stop. And then I just saw you and Alex look at each other, it was like time paused, even though you were both still doing things. All of a sudden I knew, you were all right. Your marriage was getting stronger throughout everything. The way you looked at each other was the type of look you see a husband and wife looking at one another on their wedding day.”

Isn’t that sweet? And it’s true. My goodness I love this man. I have married a good man. A Godly man. And he is an excellent father.

(It’s also an excellent example that you never know when people are watching you and that your actions tell the world a story about your life.)

This is Alex’s Mum with our family. She’s been such a great support since the triplet’s have been born. Providing meals, staying overnight to help, buying goodies for the babies, and helping out on Saturday afternoons so Alex has time to do special things like bike rides or yard work with the big boys. (Although occassionally I utilise the opportunity to flee the house myself!) I know the big boys enjoy seeing her regularly as well.

I am so proud of my family. God is good. He has given me far beyond what I ever could have dreamed or imagined.
As you can see, I’m a bit of a fan of photography. I love to freeze in time some moments. Do you get family photos taken regularly or are they rare occassions? Have you ever been paid a compliment that makes your heart warm inside?
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Newborn Triplet Photos – The Family

So, I’m a bit all over the place at the moment with my posting, but it’s just a case of doing a post when I have time, and I just don’t have the time to post methodically at the moment.

Today, I thought I’d continue sharing some of the professional photos by Salt Studios when the triplets were newborns. Already I’ve shared some of the triplets together. (See here)

Now I thought I should share some family pictures back when the triplets were 5 weeks old. I love J Boy’s expressions – so cute. When T-Star has his cheeky little grins. Also so cute. And our teeny tiny triplets. So cute. Of course.

We have every reason to be the proud parents!

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Triplets Monthly Photo Project – Months 4,5,6.

Can you remember that my friend Linda and I were doing a monthly photo project? I was inspired by John and Sherry’s photos of their beautiful daughter over at Young House Life. So when I was preggers with the bubs, I made the call out to my friends who knew more about photography than moi, and hey presto, Linda took up the challenge.

You may have thought we had given up since there has been nothing posted since Month 3, but no sirree, we have not. It’s just that Linda has been an ultra busy lady given that it’s been Easter, and she is one of the key ingredients in organising a huge event in our city called Easterfest.

Despite her busyness, Linda has been dropping in and clicking off some rounds of the trio and then going back to work, work, work. Now that Easter is over and she’s (kind of) recovered, she’s been able to edit the pictures in bulk.

So without further ado, let me show you exactly how much my adorables have grown.

To look closer at the last 3 months. Firstly there was Month Four. Since it was January, the babies are on a fabric featuring an Aboriginal print to celebrate Australia Day. We were pretty chuffed that they all simultaneously looked at the camera for the first time.

Month Five arrived and the babies were puking with renewed energy. Normally I take the bibs off at the last moment to photograph. (I’m so looking forward to when we can ditch the bibs forever.) It just wasn’t happening this month, so in the end, as a reminder of what the month was like, the babies are photographed in their appropriate coloured bib. To make up for being puke machines, the bubs all razzle dazzled us with beaming smiles. It was only appropriate that Linda was the first one to capture all three smiles on film at the one time.

And then there was last month. Month Six. Aren’t they growing ever so much? And look with their extra maturity, they look so very organised neatly in a row! The babies have a bit of an owl theme going on in their nursery, so the fabric in the last two months feature owls. For this month, they triplets are sporting very fetching owl body suits that their great aunts lovingly had screen printed for them and given to us at my baby shower.
So, what do you think? Cute, eh?
Keep hanging around the next few days, because as a part of the project we also photographed them in my leather tub chair. I can’t wait to share these pictures with you also, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to upload them soon. (Update: Click here to see.)
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Triplet Newborn Portraits

So. Now I shall skip right to a non-writing post.

In fact, I can’t believe I hadn’t done this earlier. Back when I got these photos done in November ’11, I really wanted to share them with you all. However I also wanted to give them as Christmas presents, so I decided not to share publicly so that the gift recipients would be the first to see them.

Now that Christmas is well and truly over, I’d love to share my tiny babies with you. Here they are, 5 weeks old. At the time, Missy was 2.9kg (2.1kg born), Chook was 2.7kg (2.2kg born) and Joey was 2.5kg (1.8kg born).

I’ve got lots of different photos to share, but I will share them gradually over a few posts putting them into categories. Here’s the first installment: The trio together.

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Triplets Monthly Photo Project – Month 3

The title of today’s January Photo Challenge is “Someone you love”. I thought I’d post again the trio of ‘someones’ that I love, because I haven’t yet shown you the 2nd and 3rd month of the triplet’s monthly photo project. I didn’t take the photos. The wonderful Linda did. Go and check out her newest photos at 100 Days of Living and Giving  as she’s also participating in the January Photo Challenge. I’m loving her perspectives.

The triplets hit the three month mark in the holiday season. This photograph was actually on New Years Day, however I thought it was close enough to Christmas to justify the Christmas fabric!

Do you know how incredibly hard it can be to get three babies photographed without crying? Not easy let me tell you. Chook is chucking a wobbly here in the tub chair. He cheered up after a bit, but someone else started crying…

And here they are hitting 2 months. Somehow I got the order mixed up compared to the first month. Don’t know how. I had the picture there, studied it, double checked, and then put the babies down in the wrong spots. I’ve decided to keep them in this order, so I can remember that the boys are in chronoligical age either side of Missy. So that’s Joey on the left and Chook on the right.

And as for the tub chair. It wasn’t a happy moment. They are actually all crying here – really loudly. You can’t really tell except for Joey. But hey. It reflects what month two was like for us. Lots and lots and lots of crying from the reflux and colic. (Did I say lots?)

And here’s a flashback to the first month. I don’t know if this fully reflects just how tiny they were…

And they were remarkably well behaved the first time in the tub. 

I’ll look forward to sharing more with you as the year progresses. Which pic is your fav thus far?

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Jan Photo A Day: "Sweet"

OK. So I’ve missed a week. It’s a shame, there were some topics I was looking forward to. Perhaps I will still… However, I had to do the right thing for my family and that meant sleeping instead of posting so that I was fresher the next day.

But for today ‘sweet’ is tonight’s dessert we made. Pineapple and Passionfruit Self Saucing Pudding. We needed yo use up excess passionfruit from our vine. Mission accomplished.

I made the cake. The nanny made the sauce. The boys ‘helped’. The triplets interfered.

‘Twas yum.

(Excuse placemat. I thought it was an odd choice when I received it as a gift in the ’90’s. The kids love them though.)
Get the recipe here

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