Making our House a Home {Cumming GA Family Photographer}
It’s always a crazy busy time when you bring a newborn home. Especially crazy with it’s your fourth. Compound that with it being boy number four within five and a half years. Then add on the fact that you just moved into your home a matter of weeks before.
We moved to Cumming, GA just over a year ago when I was 32 weeks pregnant with my fourth son. It’s hard to believe how quickly that year went. During that time, we’ve explored the many parks around Forsyth County, my oldest lost his first tooth and started kindergarten, we started potty training #3, and my husband transitioned to a new position at his work. We’ve been plugging into the community, meeting other young families in Forsyth County through church and activities, and I’ve been getting to know my fellow business owners by joining the Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce. Needless to say, it has taken some time to settle in and get things set up the way we’d like at home.
After a year of busyness that naturally comes with raising four young boys, we finally took the time to update our family portraits as a family of six. I’m sure many of you parents out there can relate. Sometimes it can be a challenge to get around to looking into updating family portraits. I have worked with a number of families who haven’t had an updated family portrait in over 10 years! This is something that is obviously near and dear to my heart since I, as a family photographer, am passionate about delivering wall-worthy family portraits to my clients.
Naturally, a year after moving into our new home I felt it was definitely time to schedule a family portrait session with a photographer in the Cumming, GA area. There was a particular wall in our family room that I just knew would be the perfect spot for a family portrait gallery and I had a very specific design layout in mind. We scheduled our family portraits with the talented Holly Long Photography {The beautiful and dynamic family portrait of the six of us in the center of the gallery arrangement below was captured by her}.
The next evening, with my husband still at work, I took the boys out by myself because I was determined to get all my boys bundled up in the wedding quilt my mom made us. Any photographer would probably say the same: photographing your own kids is a serious challenge! Of course, the baby just wouldn't cooperate. And coordinating 4 boys ages 6 and under is not an easy task when you're alone! Despite having to break out my mom-voice numerous times, I was able to capture individual portraits of each of them, the four of them together, and also that treasured (and chaotic teary-eyed) portrait of them bundled up in the quilt together!
After that came the best part; making our house a home! Using my design software, I created a custom canvas gallery to fit perfectly on the wallspace in our family room. I chose this spot for our family portraits because it is a central place in our home that we constantly pass by and is within view of where spend the majority of our time through the day. I selected the colors of our wardrobe to coordinate with the colors that I use in the decor in that space.
These portraits were taken in November and were up on our walls before the end of December. By the time January rolled around, my oldest lost both of his top front teeth. Having these beautiful portraits up on my walls, it hit me just how quickly these little boys are growing and changing. I realized that in these fall family portraits, it was a sliver of time where all four of my sons still had their front baby teeth. It is a testimony to their closeness in age and I just love that. Every time I look at these images, I remember the mud my boys gravitated toward during our family session. I remember having to coax my littlest to smile by holding that little fluffy tuft of grass and having to corral all four boys on a vacant lot that had the evening sun hit the weeds just right. There are memories that are tied to these images that will always remind me of this time in our lives.
The age old adage says that home is where the heart is. And since these images live on the walls of this house, they truly make it our home.
{center family image by Holly Long Photography}
