Elsa's Newborn and One Year Portraits

On Monday, I took my daughter to JCP for some one year portraits. 

We were there exactly a year ago for some not awesome, but not terrible pictures of our fresh baby.

She was only ten days old at the time!

I don't think I ever posted them on here, and I think it was because they didn't turn out nearly as well as DHH's, though we paid a less than half for them. I should have expected they wouldn't have been as awesome, but at that time I was still aiming for magazine quality memories. 

I think I am a little more of a realist these days.

See? Not so good!

The poor darling was uncomfortable, not simply unphotogenic.

Or maybe she's always had a serious look about her.  

We have this photo in gallery wrap, large, on our living room wall, next to the one of her brother at 10 days in a ball glove.

This is my favorite photo of her as a baby.

This in color is pretty good, too.

See? Just not awesome photography.  Its even worse in color.  They are FINE.

BUT.

I take (and took) better photos myself.

I just didn't have the proper lighting or confidence in my camera or myself, I guess.

Next time.

That's is what she looked like THEN.

When I see those photos, I think OF COURSE ITS BEEN A YEAR.

But when I think back to how fast she's grown, it doesn't seem like 365 days.  Maybe 250 days.

Anyway.

The photos were originally scheduled for Friday, but she was at her Nanny's house, and I was burying her brother. (First and last sad moment of this post, okay?) 

I reschedule for Monday because I knew I'd need a big push to get out of the door and onto the rest of my life.  This helped! We had donuts at HyVee and then went to the mall for these photos.

 I brought along two dresses, a lady bug dress she wore on her first birthday (to the pediatrician!) and the dress she wore at Easter.  I also bought a bunch of balloons in the same colors as her Easter dress for a prop.  

I chose JCP because I cannot afford a blogger-type photographer that has photos I love.  I am just learning to deal with this fact of life.  These photos are prefectly fine.  They aren't photoshop-awesome, and they are an awful lot like the ones I was in 30 years ago!

Another tip is that JCP often has these deals that are six sheets for $20, with an additional sheet at $4 each.  That's so much less than those package deals they offer, and I think I get more bang for my buck this way.  I get the variety of facial expressions, and I don't pay more than $30.  Of course, they had a 16x20 matted frame for clearance at $7, and I bought that for a wedding photo frame, so I did spend more than I set to, but not by much, and I'll use this for something fun in the future, I hope.

DHH was graciously taken by a friend for some mall play time.  We had a 45 minute wait, and I know he couldn't have handled it, but the train table at Barnes and Noble was a much more appropriate place!

EK was fussy because we'd missed a nap and she was hungry.  If you look closely, she's got those Gerber cheese puffs in her hands in most of the ladybug dress pictures.

  She also doesn't like balloons, but you cannot see that from these photos!

I do love this smile!

I don't like this one, but you can see she's a confident stander here.

She does often hold her feet and always keeps one leg off the ground when she sits on uncomfortable surfaces.

My favorite for this dress - even with the Cheeto!

 I will never buy a collage like this. I don't know who uses these or how.  The photographer can never edit the photos in them enough to have the faces line up or be at similar angles, and it always looks like third grade work to me.

I love this one!! She never looks like this, so I didn't buy it.

She also never looks like this, so I didn't buy it.

She looks like this quite a bit.

She didn't like being in this box, and this is not a smile!

I love this school-like photo.  She looks like this most of the time when she's smiling at her dad or a cat.

 This is my overall favorite from the day.  Its the same crooked smile her brother does and the same one I do, too.  

Isn't this a GREAT dress?  I got it last year after Easter sales, and I am glad I didn't buy it in her current size then - 0-3 month girls really cannot pull this look off!

I hate wicker furniture, but I LOVE this picture.

I hope she always lets me buy her cardigans.

What a great photo mess up!  Why isn't it parallel to the ground? Why is the edge of the photo wrong? Why couldn't they photo shop it perfect???

She's not happy in this photo either, but you can't really tell! She was yelling at the photographer to give her the doll she was tempting her with.

 Again, I don't buy these computer generated collages - but I do like this one for something like a Trapper Keeper cover or a fridge magnet.

Here's a classic Disappointed Elsa face.  Its just before an I'm so angry meltdown.  She didn't like these balloons in her way. 

Another perfect baby photo!

There's too much going on here I think, and I didn't order it.  But I like her expression and the camera angle.

And another view of the Money Shot.  I'd have paid $30 for this one perfect shot of my daughter, happy, at age one.

There you have it! An extraordinarily long post of my daughter in photos.  I think she's lovely, if you didn't realize it.