The Held Family Happenings: Family Pictures

Last Sunday, we had our family pictures taken. I made the appointment weeks ago with Rose Alene Photography. We used her for Mason's newborn pictures and I was pleased with the way those had turned out. I wanted to get pictures of the kids, us as a family and some of Mason doing a smash cake for his upcoming first birthday. When we originally scheduled the appointment, I wasn't quite sure of the location of where I wanted to do the shoot. At first I thought I could have her come to our house (boring) or go to the Riverwalk in Naperville. We had already done family pictures at the River Walk so I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it there again. She suggested going to Hidden Lakes in Bolingbrook, since it would be close for us. She had said she had done a fall shoot there and said it was great.

Prior to the shoot day, we went to Hidden Lakes to check it out. I didn't fall in love with it and was having second thoughts about doing them there. I am sure it would be perfect in the fall, but in the summer, their was goose poop EVERYWHERE, along with tons of geese, it was muggy and dusty and just not what I had pictured (I had gone there several times as a kid, but haven't been back in forever). I had envisioned my kids not wearing any shoes, and that definitely would not work with all of the dirt paths. Don't get me wrong, it was very pretty with all of the trees, water and grass, but I could just see my son picking up a goose turd and you know what would happen next. After visiting the site, I didn't know what we were going to do for a location, but then a thought popped into my mind. We just moved into a new building at work and directly behind our office is paths, with a pond, trees, flowers and just beautiful scenary. It actually backs up to the Morton Arboretum. One day during lunch, I decided to walk the path with my coworker to check it out. It is very pretty out there. I decided that is where we would come for the pictures. Rose had no problem changing the location at the last minute.

On the morining of the pictures, the weather indicated it was going to be a hot one! We had our appointment early in the morning in the hopes it wouldn't be too warm and my kids would be a little more cooperative (since it was before nap time). It was a little toasty, but not too bad. It was pretty peaceful in the morning, as there was absolutely no one there. Mason did great and was laid back most of the time. My only complaint was the mosquitos and bugs. Leah is a F.R.E.A.K. about bugs and is a little over the top when she sees one. She had several melt downs during our session and she can be hard to calm. In between smiles for the camera, were several tears. We all got bit by mosquitos which was annoying. Besides that, everyone was pretty cooperative and I was extremely pleased with the results. Rose posted a few sneak peeks on Facebook that were so cute. I received the rest of the pics today and of course I had to share. These aren't all of them (I received a ton of images). At first I was hesitant to spend the money, but it was well worth the investment.