J Cooper Photography

1.  I love.love.love that my girls truly are best friends.  I get asked a lot if they are always nice to each other.  And while I can’t claim “always”…it is pretty close.  The grace they offer each other amazes me…and I hope that they will always cling to each other for support.  We have a strict policy in this house that no mean spirited words are allowed towards siblings.  And I’m ridiculously strict about it (that includes teasing).  That’s one thing I remember from my childhood that has really stuck with me.  I’m glad the girls will grow up without the regrets of treating their siblings poorly.  I caught them a few days ago wrestling on my bed while I was changing the little dude.  Of course I had my camera handy on my bedroom dresser and started snapping away   Oh how I pray these two will always remain this close!

I particularly like them in black and white…but the color is kind of fun too

2.  I thought I was so clever.  I have had a stack of summer clothes for the little dude neatly placed in his closet awaiting summer weather.  Only once slight problem….I chose the wrong size

3.  Speaking of little dudes.  This one is LOVING playing outside.  Although getting his attention with my camera is a serious feat.  IF I can get him to look at me…I usually get him yelling “NO!” or giving me the “get it over with already lady look”.   Pretty pathetic huh?

Every now and then though I get lucky

3.  I would love a pocket camera.  Anyone have any good suggestions?  Just something I can throw in my purse that won’t weigh me down…

4.  I STILL have a zit the size of Mt. Rushmore.  What…am I 12?

5.  I have been on a cleaning/organizing/purging frenzy at my house.  So far I’ve done: under the kitchen sink, the pantry, the kitchen cupboards, the fridge, the master bath vanity (all eleven feet of it!), the linen closet, the master closet, the girls’ closet, the hall closet, the garage closet, and the kid book collection.  Tomorrow I will tackle the other 2 vanities that need organizing as well as J’s old closet.  Here’s my proof!

6.  Speaking of purging.  I will be participating in my bi-annual NAME BRAND GARAGE SALE this year again!  Several of you have asked for information about it already!  I’ll be selling LOTS of girls size 2-5.  The sale will be held the weekend of April 29th.  The preview night is Thursday, April 29th at 6:00pm.  It is a bit CRAZY so come a few minutes early and leave the kiddos at home for the best shopping The address for the sale is: 14530 Grant Lane, Overland Park, KS 66221.

7.  J and I had our weekly lunch out today and I wanted to just FREEZE TIME.  How did my littlest girl get big enough to be talking about Kindergarten Round-up?

8.  I’ve got a plan for the nursery and I am pretty pumped.  Can’t wait to share it with you!  How’s that for a teaser?? 

9.  Anyone in the KC area know a great company to stain our deck?

10.  I’m really struggling here.   Gonna wrap up this bad boy and hit the hay early tonight.  Those cabinets are calling my name tomorrow!

First off…just the quickest of sneak peaks!   A HUGE THANK YOU to the amazing families I had the opportunity to photograph yesterday.  I have 1100 images of Kansas City’s CUTEST KIDS.   I can hardly wait to plunge into processing all of these!

The day started out rocky when I realized that my van which was loaded FULL of furniture and other props WOULD NOT START!  But as soon as I got to the park (minus a few pieces) things started to look up!

Not only did I get to run around the park with some of my favorite kiddos and chat with my favorite grown ups….but I got to practice a few new things as well.  As I was shooting in a safe shady spot nearby one of the Dad’s mentioned that he had found the “perfect spot” not too far off down the path.  Of course it was getting late in the morning and the sun was high over head.  But I pushed forward, put their backs to the sun, and adjusted my settings.  I can’t wait to show them the results!  A few hours later when the sun hit it’s peak right around noon, I went back down the path to that little spot and caught these 3 lovely ladies…oh…SO MANY fun shots to share of these gorgeous families!

I’ll be digging through all of the images throughout the week and will try to come back and share each of the families with you!

And to answer a few random questions that have popped up in the last few posts:

1.  Yep.  13 years of wedded bliss.  And our kiddos are 7+5+1=13 too.  Those were both equations for the boy number (feeling fairly confident we will indeed get a little dude).  And a little birdie told me today we are UNOFFICIALLY #10!!

2.  The Easter dress is from the Banana Republic Outlet.  Love that store.  Loved it even more that it was 30% off and I used my Friends and Family coupon on top of that for another 40% off   It has been years since I’ve purchased a special Easter dress for myself (dare I say college?)

3.  About using a flash indoors.  I use a speedlight 900 (sometimes…when I don’t think there is enough natural light).  I ALWAYS bounce it.  Usually off of our white ceilings or a window.  Sometimes I even flash it behind me as fill light.  I don’t change my settings to accommodate the flash although I do lower my ISO to a reasonable level for clarity.  I never, never, never use the on board flash.  All this keeping in mind that I’m no flash expert by any means…

4.  And on the photography note.  I’ve been getting requests for mentorships over the past few months…and while I am ridiculously flattered…I’m also a bit shocked and can’t seem to stop laughing hysterically any time I think about the possibility of actually hosting a mentoring session.  So for now…I think I’ll just stick with happily answering email questions and questions posted here on the blog.  I’ve got so much to learn myself.  I’d be happy to answer questions that I know the answers to though (can’t make any promises that there are very many of those)…so don’t hesitate to email me   If I can’t help you I’ll try to point you toward someone who can!

Hope you enjoyed the weekend as much as we did!  SUNSHINE in the forecast!!

We have a winner!

EMAIL ME BECKY….you got it right!

We are now officially #13 (maybe even as low as #11) on the BOYS LIST!  Yeah for movement this month!

I’ll be back with more to share soon!  I’ve been on a cleaning frenzy this weekend.  So far I’ve done under the kitchen sink, the pantry, the kitchen cupboards, the master bath vanity, the linen closet, the storage unit in the garage, the hall closet, the girl’s closet, and the master bedroom closet!  Hello Goodwill!

Also…I’ve got 1135 images to sort through from my day of Matilda Jane mini sessions.  And I’m totally not joking.  The weather was GORGEOUS…and the kids were even cuter.  Hang tight cause I’ll have lots of sharing to do!

Is the number of years I’ve been married to this cute guy

{photo courtesy of Sara Farrar Photography…just a quick plug for my pal…she rocks!}

And…our new number is…our OLDEST + our MIDDLEST + our YOUNGEST

Can you guess??  First one to GUESS IT RIGHT gets a $15 gift certificate to MY SHOP! You only have to get the BOY NUMBER correct…BUT…if you guess both correctly I’ll give you $20 to my shop!

1.  Miss J would like the world to know that she is now sporting pigtails.  Never mind that there is actually a substantial chunk of hair in the back that doesn’t actually fit into those piggies…she doesn’t care.  I miss my girls’ easy-to-maintain bobs.  I’m a big fan of the bob.  The bob makes my mornings so much easier.   The bob and I are friends.  The girls…well you know the drill…they are growing it to their rumps.  Lovely, eh?

(I must admit grudgingly that she does look darn tootin’ cute in her “ballerinatard” on her way out the door to dance class….piggies and all)

2.  As we were walking into church a couple of weeks ago J whispered to me, “Do you think everyone is talking about how cute my pig tails are??”  “Um…no.  Not so much darling.  I think they are talking about God.”  Do you think I crushed her spirit?

3.  Gearing up for a fun round of MINI SESSIONS on Saturday!  I have just a couple of openings due to a few small holes in my schedule.  If you’d like to jump in on the fun email me.  Sessions will be 30 minutes long and will take place THIS Saturday (looks like a great day is forcasted) at an area park.  I’m offering some SWEET DEALS to the participants too!

4.  Still lots of fun goodies in my ETSY SHOP!  Hopefully you aren’t getting tired of my blatant self promotion.  If you are…don’t tell me   For those who ordered last week and through the weekend…your orders went out today!

5.  Anyone have any fun ideas for a MONSTER CAKE or MONSTER CUPCAKES?  I’m starting to plan a little someone’s party (GASP).   I’ve been putting away a bunch of fun monster party favors throughout the year.  Now I need to brainstorm some ideas for a cake.  Oh.  And did I mention I don’t really cook….or bake?  Yeah…hence the dump truck cake last year   Betty Crocker and a plastic toy truck to the rescue!

6.  On the idea of potty training.  I wasn’t planning to even consider working with my little man until this summer.  But over the weekend he took a liking to Mimi’s toilet and got quite proficient at producing both #1 and #2 on command.  (sorry if the poopy talk is TMI…but hey…we are mostly moms).  He was so proud of himself and was willingly heading straight into the bathroom to do his business.  My girls were both potty trained by 2.  But to be honest…I’m feeling a bit lazy.  We are taking our annual beach trip in June and  having a potty trained 2 year old during the drive to North Carolina doesn’t sound like a blast.  Advice from any potty training gurus?

7.  I love carrot cake to the depths of my soul.   But if I eat ONE.MORE.PIECE I am going to permanently damage my stomach.  It is SO not on the approved diet list…but I can’t help myself.  I don’t eat the frosting…if that is any consolation (hey, it was worth a shot).

8.  I’m having nursery decorating dilemmas.  I’m feeling the urge to decorate “all boy” as I’m pretty sure we will get to the end of the boy’s list MUCH sooner than the girls.  I bought THIS set at Target for $37 on clearance.

But I am having quilt issues.  As in…each of my children MUST have a quilt.  I have this unexplainable NEED for each of my children to have their baby quilt tucked neatly inside their special box of baby treasures.  And since the first 3 all have their own quilts, #4 MUST have a quilt as well.  So my options are:

1.  Buy a set with a quilt

2.  Make a quilt to match this set

3.  Give up the quilt idea and roll with the comforter

I actually took the above set to a great quilt shop in Nebraska and found a few prints that coordinated pretty nicely.  But then I got to thinking about my $37 set.  I’m not a fan of the comforter and probably won’t use it.  It is likely that our baby will be too old to really utilize the bumper.  Which leaves me with a $37 fitted sheet.  And suddenly my great deal was feeling not so great.

So I started looking around again (someone please tell me about some amazing online source for great bedding that I don’t know about!) and found very little that I liked.  But I REALLY REALLY do NOT want to make an entire nursery full of bedding.  Been there.  Done that.  Twice.

So this is kind of cute, right?  (minus the turtles which I think are completely dorky)

I really don’t want the room to have a theme.  Although I do really like THIS MOBILE!  For those of you with boys…HELP!

9.  It is storming out right now and I can’t wait to crawl into bed in the darkness and just sleep the night away.  Does anyone else get the post vacation blues?  We had such a fantastic weekend…it is always SO hard to come home.

10.  Long live the bob!

You may not be craving this many details from our Easter celebrations…but I had to document them for posterity

Another fun trip to the Children’s Museum…always a big hit with my littles.  I debated taking my camera but I’m glad I at least got a few snapshots of them having a ball!

Every year we have an EGG HUNT in the backyard.  This year some of the eggs had quarters and others had coupons to the “Hip Hop Bunny Shop”…the race was ON!

We let the kids run wild, everyone whips out their Nikon or Canon, and the Easter baskets get filled up quickly!  Once all the eggs have been found we run inside to take turns picking out items from the shop.  Everyone {mostly} behaves…although the little kids always seem to gravitate towards the perfume and make-up and the big girls squeal over the sparkly pencils…we’ll never figure that one out!

I have hundreds of pictures from the weekend and not enough time to load each and every one…but here are a few more I love from our weekend

I love Easter…the promise of spring…time with my family…and the knowledge that my Lord has Risen!  What a perfect weekend

We just rolled in from Nebraska…had a wonderful time escaping from our every day lives and enjoying our family!  There’s a huge pile of laundry, suit cases to unpack, and new trinkets to put away…but I wanted to say “HAPPY EASTER”!  I hope your weekend was full of promise, renewal, and wonderful time with those you love!

We took a couple of moments this morning to snap some photos of the kids in their Easter outfits.  We ran out of time before church so our quick little photo session had to be pushed back after church, after brunch out…and before a promised trip to the park to play!  I plan to take them out here in Kansas City for a full session this spring but couldn’t resist a few quick ones today   I even got lucky and got them all looking in the same direction…without bribery or grouchiness…amazing what a little extra candy in their systems can do!  We didn’t get too creative in location…but I love this little spot in the backyard on the walking trail.

I have lots of images to share from our weekend together…the Children’s Museum, the “Hip Hoppy Bunny Shop”, cousin time, etc.  But those will have to wait a day or two!

I could just die over my little man in his tie   We took pictures at this same spot in my parent’s backyard last year…I need to dig those out for a comparison!  He is such a big boy this year (he even decided to start potty training this weekend and had some serious success at my parents house…crazy little dude…more on that to come!)

Thanks, Dad for the family picture!  These are few and far between it seems and I’m so grateful for one of all of us together!

Thank you for the sweet emails about my rotten day!  Hopefully you all realized that post was {mostly} tongue and cheek and that I was really able to laugh about most of the mishaps (minus the pen and car upholstery).  And THANKS to my sweet friend who whisked me away last night for a bit of crafting and Chai tea latte….you knew JUST what I needed

The good news is that the rubbing alcohol DID work (thanks for the suggestions!) and Ms. Middle had a date with Daddy and they scrubbed the car from top to bottom together.  It is looking much better!

We are heading to “Mimi and Baboo’s” house…the kids are beyond excited for the HIP HOP BUNNY SHOP that my mom puts on every year.

What’s this little guy most excited about?  His new hat of course!

I’ve been wanting to replace the pink plastic cowgirl hat he insists on wearing around our house and found this little one on the Old Navy clearance rack.  He races to it first thing in the morning and has been wearing it non-stop ever since.  I think he’s in love

Could he be any more smiley??  This is such a hard age to get a great photo of…he is always on the run and is usually way to busy for pictures.  But I managed to snag a few this morning on our front steps (can you see my silhouette in his eyes waving my arms wildly??)

I hope the sun is shining brightly for your Easter celebrations!