Family Pictures {Not on the Christmas Card}

I won't lie. At the beginning of October I was STRESSING about family pictures. Brooke has always taken pictures for us (when we lived in Michigan) and since she ditched us for Iowa...I was stuck. I started asking around and did some research, but every photographer I looked at was WAY too expensive. Tyson said it best one night when we were discussing how much it would cost. "Kady, we don't look good enough to spend that kind of money." I agreed. And I knew that with two toddlers - we'd have an hour - MAX - for their cooperation. A mortgage payment for an hour of photographs wasn't in the cards. So I started my research.

One night I stumbled upon Craigslist and looked through the "Creative" ads. And to my own surprise...I found a photographer that caught my eye! He had a website, too! So I started talking to him and we agreed on a price (and it was an AWESOME price). We set a date & time...I got outfits together...and candy to bribe my children. It was a GO!

As most of you know, Tyson and I have fallen in love with Detroit. Sure, we live in the suburbs...but we honestly LOVE what the city has to offer. Detroit gets a lot of bad press. We decided we wanted our pictures set in Detroit. Our first stop was Comerica Park.

I have a feeling - over the years - this kid will spend a lot of afternoons at this ballpark!

After Comerica, we headed to Belle Isle for a shot with the Detroit skyline. That huge building to the left of Tyson is the Renaissance Center where he works.

Our final stop was the Heidelberg Project in the heart of the city. It's a really amazing open air art project that has really united the city of Detroit.

Overall, I was SO happy with the way our pictures turned out! It was exactly what we wanted and more! As predicted, our children only lasted an hour. And getting Jack to stand still (at any point) was a HUGE challenge!

Thank you, Brian, for such amazing work! Make sure you check out his site!

Oh, and we will have more pictures...like these, but even better, on the Christmas card!