Picture perfect anniversary

I have been totally preoccupied for the past week and a half. I've been running around like a maniac, sneaking here and there. I can't concentrate. It sounds like I'm having an affair, but the truth is that I've been working on a surprise for my husband.

As a special anniversary gift for my husband, I had professional photos taken of my kids and it wasn't an easy task.

On Thursday, April 10, my husband was supposed to have an early morning meeting at his office. His company usually has one early morning meeting a month and since the weather was supposed to be perfect that day, I arranged for Dan Creighton, a photographer from The Mercury, where I work, to come to my house to take some pictures. On Wednesday night, while giving the kids a bath, I asked Jon if his meeting was still on.

"No. It's been rescheduled to next Thursday," he said.

Panic struck me like lightening. It was 7:30 p.m. and I had to call Dan and make sure he didn't show up at my house the next morning. Immediately after the kids were in bed, I sent Jon to the grocery store so I could call and reschedule the photo session. Instead of wasting the beautiful day, we decided to meet at a park.

Jon got the kids dressed first thing Thursday morning. Neither were dressed picture perfect and I couldn't change them. I have a history of changing their outfits after my husband gets them dressed and a couple days before picture day, Jon finally had enough and asked me not to change them if he dresses them. My hands were tied and I had to find a way to pack and hide dress clothes for them so I could change them in the back of the minivan after we got to the park. (See, another reason to love the minivan.)

After Dan took the pictures, I still had to go to work. By now I'm really late for work, dripping in sweat with a handful of mulch down the front of my shirt.

Wiping away the mulch and sweat, I dropped them off at daycare dirty, tired and hungry. I didn't have time to change them back into their play clothes. I felt bad about it, but that's the price you pay for sneaking around. When I picked them up at the end of the day, I changed them back into their play clothes and headed home, hoping Sophia wouldn't remember Dan's name and repeat it.

The Saturday after the photo shoot, Jon and I took the kids to the park. Jon pulled the stroller out of the trunk of the van and mulch fell out all over the place.

"How did this get so dirty?" he asked.

"I don't know. It's the trunk. It's dirty back there."

I know he didn't buy it. I wouldn't have bought it, so I changed the subject and it was forgotten. I think.

It's been a long week and a half. I've had the pictures for days now and I love every single one of them. Dan did such a great job, I couldn't have asked for more perfect pictures. Sophia and Ryan look beautiful and it's taken a small army to keep me from telling Jon about the pictures.
But, the day is finally here and I am so excited to share the pictures. At the bottom of this page there is a slide show of some of the best pictures from that photo shoot.

***

To my husband: Today is our anniversary. We've had seven years filled with highs and lows that I wouldn't give back for the world because each of those events have brought us to where we are today. Never in a million years would I have ever imagined that we would be parents, let alone the parents of two of the most remarkable and beautiful individuals in the world. I'm looking forward to the next seven years and every year after that. Please accept my gift to you on this special day. It's the most special and precious gift I could think to give you … our children.

Baby love

Since my daughter was born, we have been fanatical about taking her picture. Every time she does anything, we take a picture.

When I got pregnant with Ryan, my mom warned that we probably wouldn't take as many pictures of Ryan as we did Sophia. Well, in his first 24 hours of life, we took more than 200 pictures of our new little guy. The only difference between having one and two children is that I don't have as much time to share as many pictures as often with my family.

Over the weekend, we got a new camera, so we took this opportunity to back up the photos on our computer. We have more than 3,000 pictures chronicling the lives of our children.

Our pictures range from playing at the park to "photo shoots" at the dinner table. If Ryan is playing on the floor looking particularly cute, we pull out the camera. Sophia has a cute outfit on or she lets me put barrettes in her hair, out pops the camera.

From the day Sophia was born , that is about 5 pictures per day … of the kids. Sophia runs up to the camera every time it comes out and says "Cheese." She loves the camera and is always performing for it. Ryan is still little, but we're working on him.

Every single morning, we dress Sophia and she models her outfit for her Daddy. Little boy clothes are not nearly as cute as little girl's, but we make sure Ryan knows that he looks super cute too.

Am I training my children to be vain and narcissistic, or just proud of how they look? We're going for proud.

I think my own parents have maybe 500 pictures of our entire family. My mom is always "mentioning" that we don't have any studio pictures of the kids. The only "professional" photo I have of Sophia is her school photo and it's cute, but not the best. She looks … concerned. When you take so many pictures, you are bound to get a really great picture. A picture, in my opinion, that's better than Sears or the Picture People could ever take.