Rosemary on the Beach

Henry on the Beach

Piper on the Beach

Thirty Little Toes Touch the Sand for the First Time

For Thanksgiving we made the trip down to Pensacola to visit Gary's parents, sister, brother-in-law, nephews, and a few other relatives, and we made it back home tonight. We had a good time, and this morning we took the babies out to see the beach for the first time. The babies absolutely loved the beach and thought that the sand was delicious!! More than once, Gary had to catch Henry from running straight into the water. The kids were pretty upset with us when we finally dragged them off the beach.

This was the first time that I took pictures on the beach since I began shooting in manual. The biggest lesson that I have learned is that next time I really need to pay attention to where the shadows are falling. Shadows aren't a huge deal on grass, but they really make a difference on sand. Since I took the pictures later on in the morning, I also got a few harsh shadows on the kids' faces. I think I'm going to invest in a reflector to eliminate those shadows the next time, at least for a few of the more important shots. I had not bought one because I usually have control over what time and in what weather I take pictures, but as I learned this morning, sometimes you just have to take the pictures when you can take the pictures! That being said, I am happy with the way the pictures turned out.

I took a zillion pictures, and once I went through and decided which ones I want to post, I quickly decided that I have way too many for one post. So, as I did with the pumpkin patch pictures, today I am posting some pictures of the babies together. Over the next 3 days, I'll make a post for Piper, Henry, and Rosemary individually.

First Haircuts!!

Last weekend as we were driving to my parents' house for the family reunion, I looked in the rearview mirror and got a glimpse of Piper. Her hair was all over the place. She clearly needed a haircut. I told Gary then that we had to get the babies' hair cut THIS WEEK before I attempt to take Christmas pictures. . . .

So, I started gathering information from my friends with kids as to the right place to go for the first haircut. I ended up with three good recommendations, and I presented those to Gary. To my complete and utter shock, he chose this place:

He decided that by the time Henry figured out that he was getting his hair cut at a "spa" for "girls" that Gary would start taking Henry to the barber shop. In the end, we thought that going to a place that specialized in kids' haircuts was the way to go.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the "right" way to go about this. A lot of that time was spent on deciding which baby would go first. That depended on how each baby would react to the haircut. As I had told a friend, I expected that Rosemary would love it, Henry would be scared, and Piper would turn violent. So, we thought it was best to let Piper go first so that she was in new location shock when it started, then Rosemary, then Henry after he was used to everything.

I will go ahead and apologize for the captions on the photos. I usually try to avoid captions on photos, but it was more than I could handle this time. . . .

"Hey hey hey, watch the scissors in the back."

"Really, you may have taken a little too much off the back."

But the end result was fabulous!

Next was Rosemary, who does love to be pampered. . . .

"Let's see . . . I think I just want a few layers in the back. . . ."

"That's it. Nice work!"

And the end result for Rosemary:



Next up was Henry:

"This scalp massage thing is the best."

"Hold up, that kind of tickles."

"Watch the curls there. The ladies love the curls."

And the final result on Henry:



Honestly, I knew Henry had some crazy hair issues as Gary pointed out in a recent blog post, but I was shocked at how much hair was cut! That poor child really needed his hair cut.

All in all, I was most impressed at how well the babies behaved. The only problem we had was when we tried to put a cape on Piper, but we quickly decided to skip that part and just lintroll her sweater after the haircut. And the kids' hair looks so much better! Not a bad afternoon trip at all!