Portrait Innovations

On the first week of school, I received home the note stating that school pictures would be taken that Friday.  You know, the day everyone is so exhausted they can hardly keep their eyes open but when they are still tan from summer and their new school clothes are still very much new.

I sat down and figured out how much it would cost for my four boys to get the photos taken....it would be 49 dollars a PIECE.  So, times four..... 

Two hundred dollars, people, to get the packages I needed for the boys.

That was when An told me to check out Portrait Innovations.  She had just been there and had a stack of pictures to show me.  Kelly, the girl who took her three boys photos, had caught him jumping in the air into a blue leather child's chair.

I gave them a call and scheduled an appointment for my boys with Kelly, and then asked if we could do family photos if my husband was available. They gushed that they'd love that.

When I called to make the appointment, they had openings that day, the next day....but I chose the next Sunday knowing we would be all home and should be rested.

You recall our last family photos.  I wasn't sure if Hubs would agree with getting a family picture.  But...HE DID.  Kelly, whom we requested, had no idea what she was up against.

Not knowing how long it would take us to get there, we arrived about 20 minutes early.  And they were ready for us.

Husband was already impressed.

She then proceeded to take the normal school photos......

 S3, as I rarely see him, all cleaned up and smiling brightly.  He immediately was taken with Kelly.

 S4.  Hello, would these NOT be the cutest ever pictures of him?  Missing all his front teeth, scar on his forehead....and Kelly caught his grins especially perfectly.

 Hubs and me.  Honestly, we had had a rough day that day - and that hardly ever happens - but Kelly was so great at pictures she actually just caught us being us.  I love the pictures she got of us!

This family photo????? Our absolute favorite!  It's in a 10 x 13 frame in our house right now.  We all love it!

Kelly did a great job catching our personalities...capturing the funny things that happened.  Like this....

 She caught the essence of the kids....

 Let them be themselves and knew just when to snap the camera.

 Even when S3 and S4 got the giggles...especially S3.  He had Kelly giggling by the end of the session!

 This here is one of my most favorite photos.  She caught my growing S1 just so perfectly.  This is allllllll S1 right here.  I'm floored how old he seems.

 She had the brilliant idea to line up the middle boys...

 And work around S3's giggles....

 And capture the preciousness of little boyhood.

 S4 was pretty sure he was going to get tickled in this photo....

 But Kelly became the BEST ever to S2 when she took pictures of him in his football jersey (that he has to give back at the end of the season) with an arena background.

 She caught pictures of him tossing the ball to his brother.

 Knew how to make him look ready to play.  Feel totally cool.

We were going to be a hard family to impress, but she won us completely over.

She knew just how to line up the photos to make them look the best when printed.  She had an eye to line up the right poses together.

And then she told us our photos would be ready to be picked up FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER.

All of them.

Including the disc, so I could share them here with all of you.

Out the door, all the photos we took home were $222 photos.  There are two "school" picture poses of the boys, poses of all four boys together,  family photos, pictures of Jake and I, football pictures and a few "special" arrangements.

We were bowled over impressed. I cannot rave enough about the GREAT TIME we had.  My husband, MY HUSBAND, loved the time and pictures.  People, that is IMPRESSIVE.

Look up Portrait Innovations.  They are all over the country.  I just punched in 50 mile radius to find the nearest one to us... but I knew I would be using Kelly because she had done such a great job with An's boys.

And if you were to wait...like the boys had to while we were checking what pictures to get...the waiting room is filled with comfy couches and chairs, toys, legos - the boys were not in any way ready to go.

They have no idea that I would blog about them, but they did such a great job it should be shared with every family everywhere. Check them out pronto!!!!