J Cooper Photography

These sweet kiddos are no stranger to my camera.  They piled out of the car, greeted me with warm “hellos” and posed themselves under a grouping of trees.  This was the 3rd image in my camera from that night! Oh HELLO perfect little children….how I adore you!  Usually I have to wave around like an injured monkey or make gross bodily noises in order to get this many little ones looking in my direction.  But not this crew.  They made my job so ridiculously easy.  Hey guys…maybe you could give my own kiddos the 411 on this whole picture taking thing!

I think this might have been image #4.

We scheduled this session for Little Miss Red as she is celebrating her ONE year birthday!  But the olders literally begged to have their mugs taken as well.  It was so cute…their mom kept saying “Miss Jenn doesn’t have time to take your pictures…let’s let Baby C get her picture taken now”.  But I quickly laid her fears to rest.  If they ask…I TAKE it and run with it.  Willing kids are a God-send and I NEVER turn them away

Meet Oldest Sister!  Sweet, cooperative, and stunningly beautiful.  My friend and I met with noses pressed to the glass of the ballet studio window.  We bonded while our little girls dances the afternoon away together.

Meet Older Sister.  She has the most adorable old fashioned name that just suits her to perfection.  And those eyes…Good Lord…those eyes!

Meet Big Brother.  He nearly shares a birthday with our Big Brother.  But he likes the camera WAY more.  Plus that shock of red hair + the dreamy brown eyes = watch out ladies!

Little Miss Red loved my camera for about 15 minutes.  And then in typical one year old fashion…she was totally done with me.  Fortunately, she knew how to bat those adorable eyes and we got a ton of cute images lickity split!

I think purple is her color…what do you think?

We have tried to incorporate the vintage buggy in all of her sessions to document her size!  Here she is snuggled in tight at her NEWBORN SESSION.  Then this fall we did the BABY IS LOST IN THE WOODS shot.  She was barely small enough to fit!  This time she was eager to PUSH the buggy and was just tall enough to peer over the side to see…much to her great dismay…there wasn’t actually a baby inside.

Later we changed her clothes into the cutest flowered bum bloomers just as the light turned golden.

I always like to incorporate detail shots in my baby sessions…those sweet little piggies…a wisp of hair.  I don’t think I’ve ever photographed a baby’s cute little bottom though!  But how could I NOT?  I mean look at those thighs…

Little Red you are spunky and sweet and your family loves you so much!  Happy Birthday Baby!

I have to admit…my wardrobe the past few weeks has been completely lame.  It’s summer.  I’m busy trekking kids across town to summer camp.  It’s 136 degrees outside.  You get the point.  I really have nothing to show you as I just haven’t had it in me to take daily pictures of my rolled up shorts and tees

When I arrived at my sister’s house over the weekend though I received a fun little wardrobe boost!  My niece had tired of a little knit skirt and passed it on to me as a hand-me-down.  Or maybe that’s more of hand-me-up?  Either way…totally cute skirt…polka dots + navy blue = I’m totally in love.

{please ignore the fact that I about blew off my head with the flash…and what the heck am I looking at anyways??}

So that’s my “cute outfit” for the week.  A hand-me-up skirt and a grey tank.  Call me wild and crazy.  Just don’t call me late for dinner.

I have had my eye out for a cute summer bag for quite awhile and always find myself having serious sticker shock at the price of bags.  I wanted something big enough to conceal a diaper, wipes, and a tonka truck or two…but that didn’t scream “I’M A DIAPER BAG!!”   On a jaunt through World Market this week I spied this little number and it was love at first sight.  The ruffles had me at hello.  I’m a ruffle lover.  The grey.  The muted blue.  The avacado.  YUM.  But despite all those cute little ruffles the bag was missing something to me.  So I added a bit of pizzaz (that makes me think of “jazz hands”…I am almost breaking into a box step here from my old show choir days).  A little ruffled flower in a favorite print was the perfect addition.  Cute purse.  Maybe a bit more fallish then I was hoping for.  But fall will come at some point won’t it?

We have had some major things happening in our lives.  Things that have my brain busy on overdrive .  And when that happens I busy myself with the most likely activities….like decorating   One thing I love about our house is that the way I decorate encourages my friends to give me their junk.  I am the neighborhood junk lady.  Come on…you know you are jealous   A few months ago my neighbor across the street rang my doorbell and said she had a cast off dresser she needed to get rid of.  Did I want it?  Did I want to come see?  “YES!” and “NOT necessary!”  You say “FREE dresser” and I run.  So this is what she brought over to my garage and I was just thrilled!  It is in desperate need of a new coat of paint (I think I’ll paint right over the hardware).  Right now it is in our little guest room.  Anyone have advice on colors?

Then a few months later another friend showed me a wicker couch she needed to get rid of.  I was happy to take it off her hands for her.  It is a yummy shade of not-quite-aqua and fits PERFECTLY in the little loft space at the top of our stairs for a comfy reading spot.  I threw on a few yellow pillows I had sitting in my store room.  I’m not sold on them but until I make a trip to the fabric warehouse they are doing a good job of keeping this little gem company.  We are contemplating continuing our hardwood floors upstairs on the landing and down the hall.  Then I could add a cute little patterned rug to this area!

I’ve been moving all the furniture around in our basement in anticipation of building in some bookshelves.  This couch looks kind of cute under my alphabet wall! (check out my cute little Ethiopian pillows!)

Even the family room is getting spruced up with some pillows and pops of aqua. I would love to get some new couches so I don’t have to work around the greenish/greyish/olivish hue.  One end of our couch is actually broken.  I spent too much time on bed rest with my big pregnant tush and actually broke the spring….oops!  But couches aren’t in the budget right now so that’s going to have to remain a dream for awhile!

Have you been doing anything to spruce up your house this summer?  We just got our new roof a few weeks ago and the siding and stone are going in next!  We finally decided on a darkish grey siding,  grey stacked stone, white trim, black shutters, and a mustard door.  Can’t wait to share!  THANK YOU hail damage

Or maybe you’ve been better at getting dressed this week…DO SHARE!!!

I can’t think of 10 clever things to talk about tonight….so I’m going to share a fun craft project we did last week.  But before I start.  Please keep in mind that I did NOT come up with this idea.  I love LOVE to get my craft on but I am a big fat copycat.  I love to browse crafty blogs and re-create things I find that inspire me.  So don’t give me any credit!  I first saw this project on Meg’s blog and thought it looked fun and manageable.  Check out the original source for even more inspiration.  I didn’t stray far from the original idea but there are limitless possibilities!  My girls love love LOVE to craft and would do it everyday.  But I get SO TIRED of all the random projects cluttering up my house.  This summer I wanted to do “crafts with purpose” and this one definitely fit that category!

Here’s the finished project!  Adorable 1212 canvases perfect for any little girl’s room!

Here’s what you will need:

blank canvases (ours were from the clearance section at Michaels)

acrylic paint

foam brushes

watercolor paper (this is essential..splurge on real paper meant for watercolors)

watercolor paints and brush

butterfly punch (Martha Stewart from Michaels…use your 40% off coupon!)

hot glue gun or glue dots

The girls had a playdate the day I chose to do this craft.  I sent them to the play room to play while I set everything up on the kitchen table.  I use old plastic party tablecloths and paper plates for all of our painting projects.  Each girl chose the color of their canvas.  I knew what their friend’s room looked like so I guided her towards a color that would work in her room.  I personally think a more BOLD color for the background would be AWESOME but I wanted the finished project to coordinate in their rooms so we rolled with pastels.  I set a large pool of acrylic paint, a foam brush, and a blank canvas at each girls’ spot.  They covered the canvas in paint.  I went back after they were done and touched up a few bare spots for them.  Then (because I am SO IMPATIENT) I blew them dry with a hair dryer!

We set the canvases aside and started painting our sheets of water color paper.  Water color paper is THICKER and more textured then regular paper.  You REALLY want to use the real stuff as it make the butterflies more stiff and this type of paper soaks up the paints better than traditional drawing paper or construction paper.  I let the girls do their own things on this part of the project.

Their pictures were so cute!  I dried these with a hair dryer as well and had to blot off some “excess” paint.

Once they the water color pictures were dry we set to work punching out the butterflies.  I purchased the largest size punch that could be used all over the page (not just around the edges).  I had intended to have the girls punch their own butterflies but my punch was very hard to push down and they were way too wimpy   So they ran off to play while I punched out a fun little pile for each girl!

We folded them in half and then hot glued them randomly all over the canvas.  I tried to coach them to NOT line them up or try to create a pattern (they wanted to put the butterflies in a heart pattern) so they would fill the entire canvas.  Our friend’s turned out the cutest because her butterflies are all facing different directions…a bit more realistic and random!

I loved that Miss Middle’s even had a few butterflies upside down (hers is the pink one).  One fell off after we were done.  It was one of the upside down butterflies and I caught myself gluing it back on the “right” way…but I stopped myself.  I want to remember those perfect “imperfections” that show that she did this all on her own!  Can’t buy THAT at Home Goods!

When we were completely done…I re-arranged a few things and added the canvases to the girls collages over their beds…SUPER CUTE!

{it is driving me NUTS that that picture is crooked…gotta go fix that!}

If you have tiny ones at home I would recommend splitting the project up over several days!  My girls were losing interest by the end and were ready to get back to playing.  I can tell you though…their friend’s Mom was THRILLED to have her come home with such a cute, usable project!

Beats shrinky dinks anyday, huh??

A girl can only take so much.  So I loaded up the littles in the swagger wagon and headed to small town Kansas for reinforcements.  I figured I could pack within the hour and be out right after lunch.  It didn’t happen in real life quite as easily as it did in my noggin but we got there no worse the wear.

I have many reasons to be thankful for where I live.  But I must say…there is something really appealing about living in a smaller town.  Or living closer to family.  Or maybe having my husband be a plumber so he didn’t have to travel overseas leaving me to this craziness

There were just a few kids in the house.  18, 15, 15, 8, 6, 6, 3, and 1.  And The Librarian and her hubby of course (he may be the biggest kid of them all!)  We grabbed some early morning donuts the first day.  You have got to love the hole in the wall donut shop downtown that serves their oj in little plastic cups with foil lids.  They didn’t take credit cards so “my treat” ended up being “on the house”.  The kids stuffed themselves full of grease and had faces full of cinnamon and sugar to prove it.

I had a cinnamon roll bigger than my head.  Danny had yogurt and flirted with the teenage girls next to us.

The Librarian and her hubby…almost a decent shot on my crummy phone Can you believe they were brave enough to put up with all of us?  After we ate…her hubby won “brother-in-law of the year” by taking the little girls back to the house.  He sat in the blow up pool in their backyard and let them repeatedly dump water on his head while we drove around town looking for garage sales.  I think he deserved an extra donut, don’t you think?

Most of the garage sales were a bust.  At the very end we drove by a warehouse behind one of the antique stores.  There were a group of people hosting a sale back there.  It was interesting to say the least.  Lots of tattoo.  No front teeth.  Questionable sobriety.  We did, however, hit the mega jackpot.  We spent less then $5.00 total for:

like new marble run (several sets combined)

like new mega blocks set

Mr. Potato heads set

Wooden circus blocks set

Animal block set

Brand new huge tinker toy set

15+ children’s books

and a vintage dish

So although we were somewhat afraid for our lives…it was definitely worth the stop.  We came home and set up big tubs of soapy water in the kitchen and washed all the toys thoroughly.  They really weren’t that dirty but after what we had just seen we thought it was best to be safe.  Heck.  I almost jumped in that sudsy water after what we had seen!

We bought the goods for smores and crafting.  But the little people wore us out so much that we ended up on the couch watching a special on Big Foot.  Good times had by all!

Now we are home.  The unpacking was easier than the packing.  Who wants us next?

these two walk hand in hand their whole lives long.

Taking a few days to re-group and unwind.  See you on the other side of the weekend!  What are you doing for fun?

Every year we take family photos on the beach.  And every year I wonder why we allow ourselves to endure the torture   Usually I meticulously plan out all the shots I want to get but this year there were 13 of us and things were just too wild to worry about anything overly formal or rehearsed.  Add in gale force winds, spraying sand, and sun drunk children and…well let’s just say…my kids weren’t at their best.  I was mostly worried about Super Sam as he had had a rough day of whining and “beach hate”.  While getting dressed in the condo I accidentally let it slip that we were heading down to the beach for photos to which he screamed “I DON’T WANT THE BEACH!!!!”  But surprisingly he was the least of my concerns.  Once we got down there and I said…”No one get wet!” he was totally game   Danny was way too enthralled with the sand to even look at the camera.  And the girls were way too enthralled with their cousins to really give me the time of day.  So we just ran with it…and I grabbed what I could.  And you know what?  I love these shots just the same!!

I’m pretty sure we picked the MOST windy night of the entire trip to try these photos!  The next night we headed to Kill Devil Hills for some kite flying and there wasn’t even the slightest breeze to get our kites off the ground…go figure!   The kids’ hair was flying ALL over the place.  Some of the out takes are downright hilarious (will have to save those for another post).  Just imagine how your hair would swirl on the inside of the “Flobee” and you’ll have the perfect mental image of some of Sam’s hair issues that night

{family love}

{melt my heart}

{they really are the best of friends}

{mr. pukes a lot}

{daddy’s day with his newest son}

{someone REALLY liked the sand}

{someone else REALLY likes brother.  double melt.}

{hey look.  the happy couple.  my kids would say “that’s rommmaaaantic!”}

{all the kids}

{i wonder how long they’ll let me dress them like this?}

{a few snuggles}

One of these years I will get that PERFECT mantel shot.  And then…you know what?  I won’t really care.  Because these pictures show the REAL us.  Life is messy with kids.  The beach is A LOT of work with kids.  Getting everyone dressed, clean, and DRY is hard with kids.  But it is all SO WORTH it to have these memories etched forever in my mind.

I always look forward to seeing this little one.  She came running towards me from her car yelling “I HAVE A PRESENT FOR YOU BABY!”  Her parents and I chatted and then they did the most amazing thing.  They went and sat down on a park bench and just let us play.  They didn’t dote on her…or try to coerce her into smiling.  They didn’t primp and pose her.  They just TRUSTED me.  Of course this isn’t the first time I’ve photographed Miss B.  We’ve done sessions at her HOME, at the PARK, and with her FAMILY. She and I are fast friends and did just fine on our own   Have I mentioned how fortunate I am to have clients that have turned into friends?

As we roamed around the park talking about Tangled we were constantly getting stopped by people.  This park is usually full of photographers on a pretty summer night and that night was no exception.  Everyone was gasping at Miss B’s beauty.  She would be stunning in a paper sack…but of course…Mom has some serious style and she is always dressed to the hilt.

She’s turning into quite the little lady and I feel so blessed every time her parents trust me to spend an evening with her.  I painstakingly put up her gallery this afternoon.  There were too many good images and the narrowing down process proved pretty hard for me.  I chose my 37 favorites…and as you can see….she delivered in EVERY one of them!

Spend a night with this little girl and you will see why her parents are completely smitten.

Thank you for trusting me to capture her beauty.  Your support and friendship has meant so much to me!

Oh, vacation.  Where have you gone?

Vacation for me is always a constant mental tug-of-war between “living in the moment” and “capturing every moment”.  I struggle with toting my camera around with me at all times in order to catch every little detail.  I really felt like I did a better job this year of just sitting back and soaking it in.  I mean…really.  I {only} took 744 pictures last week.  I was a regular couch potato…or beach potato…whatever.

I can pretty easily sum up the beach experience for each of my little people this year.  The girls were covered head to foot in sand.  They adored the beach with all the love their little hearts could hold.

Danny was a beach lover too.  Happy and content to sit in the sand and watch the world go by. {Or to just pass out on the nearest blanket}

Super Sam was disgusted with the very thought of the beach or anything water related.  He whined obnoxiously but was easily consoled with a bag full of crackers and his beach tent.

I have so many memories to share.  But let’s start out with a personal favorite from the trip.

After the first day of wild cousin play on the beach the girls were covered in sand.  My niece went back to her condo for a bit of lunch midway through the girls’ giant beach hole digging adventure.  While telling her Dad a story she got overly animated and started jumping up and down….at which point a large clump of “formed” sand fell from between her cheeks.  Pretty funny stuff.

The next day my other niece topped her sister’s story by retelling about her shower experience where she literally found a sea shell stuck between her butt cheeks.  REALLY funny stuff.  {Although my kids think any story with the word “butt” in it is a riot as they consider it a “bad” word in our house}.

The next day the beach digging adventure continued.  The crotch of the girls’ suits were nearly dragging on the ground with the insane amount of sand they had “collected” there.  They had it in their hair, ears, eyes, and plenty of other places!  That afternoon I had the girls undress in the shower and dump out their suits.  The Brainiac shimmied out of her bikini bottoms and out fell a big chunk of sand.  We laughed.  HA!  Those crazy sand clumps!  Then I noticed that that particular sand clump was actually MOVING.  My sweet little gal was harboring a sea creature (we never did figure out what it was officially…but think the size of a small hermit crab) between her pockets.  I was completely weirded out.  But that didn’t stop me from putting that little sea creature into a ziploc baggie so my daughter could run around the condo complex showing off her “butt trophy”.  I know.  Strange.  But in the moment….REALLY REALLY funny.

This year’s vacation included our {little} family of 6, my Mom and Dad (who make the trip annually with us), and The Writer’s family of 5.  It was a bit louder and more wild this year and I had my teen nieces to help with the boys!  The Librarian and family couldn’t come as they are mid adoption #2 and they were sorely missed!  We did the usually lounging on the beach, the aquarium, kite flying, and beach picture taking (somewhat disastrous for my little family).   All in all it was a crazy, exhausting, memory filled trip!

Super Sam decided on the last day that the sand was “safe”.  So maybe there’s hope for next year

I’ve got {just a few} more pictures to share

But they’ll have to wait for another day!!

I have tried to be very diligent this spring/summer to not commit to a lot of photography sessions.  Right now it is just so important to me to just “be a Mom” to my kiddos.  So I’ve made the effort to painstakingly not introduce new clients into my schedule (even though it is SO hard to say no!)  But my current clients have kept me fairly busy

I know I have said it several times here on my blog…but I get to work with the most wonderful people!  That is one of the reasons I look forward to picking up my camera.  The connections and friendships I have made along the way have meant so much to me.  I have watched this adorable family grow over the past few years and I always look forward to our sessions together.  This was session number four I think…and now it is just like meeting up with old friends.  We chat and laugh and I snap away taking pictures of their sweet baby girls.  Could life get much sweeter?

Sweet Baby N was on the GO!  Since my little man refuses to move…I sometimes forget how FAST a crawling baby can get away from you!  Good thing I grabbed a chair on the way out the door!

I LOVE.LOVE.LOVE sibling shots.  We worked pretty hard to get both of these little ladies sitting still for a few seconds.  But the result…melt.

She was so full of adorable expressions.  Love her wispy strawberry hair!

I can never resist the piggies.

I have a number of sessions that I just have to share here on the blog.  I will try to mix up some vacation posts as well this week!

Baby N….you are the sweetest baby girl ever.  Let’s meet again soon!

We are home.  And despite the mounds of laundry and sand everywhere…it feels great!

I took hundreds of pictures during our week at the beach…and have even more images etched into my mind.  I am not gonna lie.  Vacation with 4 little people is a whole lot of work.  Throw in a sick child (or two) during the travel and it was just about enough to send me over the edge.  But we were determined to make these memories for our kids.  And although we are exhausted, we are SO grateful for the opportunity to spend time with them as a family!

I promise to be back soon with many more pictures as I have time to sit down to look at them!  THANK YOU for all the prayers as we were heading out!  Super Sam came down with a stomach bug 48 hours before we left.  He lost 2 lbs. in 24 hours and had me pretty scared.  He wasn’t keeping anything down and was fading FAST!  I took him to the doctor to rule out any serious concerns…grabbed some Pedialite at the pharmacy…and we threw him in the car anyways.  I fed him Pedialite through a syringe every 5 minutes the entire drive to Nebraska.  We threw the kids in bed and had them up and dressed by 4am to meet our outgoing flight.  Sam was touch and go as we traveled.  Lots and LOTS of whining.  He was BEGGING for pizza, or mac and cheese, or anything greasy!  But he still wasn’t keeping down solids so instead the whole airport got to hear him whine   We had a scare on our first flight when Danny Boy threw up his ENTIRE bottle on my lap!!  I was sure his brother had “lovingly” passed on his little bug.  But after that incident, things calmed down and I’m now quite certain he just had a case of air sickness.  Once we actually arrived at the beach…things were really looking up!!

I can’t wait to share about our adventures.  But just one image for tonight.  Last year my Dad took an amazing silhouette of our family on Kill Devil Hills.  I LOVED that image with my whole heart but never printed it.  We were SO close to receiving our referral and I just felt like a piece of our little family was missing.  This year I was bound and determined to GET THAT SAME SHOT!   We were losing light FAST and there were a hundred people in the way…I handed my camera off to my Mom who just looked at me like I had lost my mind.  She may have been nervous…but did she ROCK IT OR WHAT???  Can’t wait to print this out!

So much to do!  The girls start camp in the morning so I better get their clothes washed quick!  AHHH….feels good to be home!