Tanner Life

Pictures at Target

Let me start this by saying, things that may seem so mundane and normal to you.... are so huge and exciting to me. Keep in mind I've been watching friends (and strangers alike) take their little one for pictures for 10 years with jealous eyes. So... to have last night arrive and take our own Little Toot for pictures was quite the landmark event in the Tanner house.

I am mad at myself for not going when he was tiny, but what can I do now? I take SO many pictures DAILY (bless his heart) that I hate to spend money getting 'em done too often. Plus, my best friend since childhood, shout out Amy, is a professional photographer. She has been trying to bring her studio to our house for weeks, but life (lives an hour away, surgery, 3 kids and travel) have made it impossible so far. I was lucky she got to visit and meet him the week he arrived. I finally made the decision to get on it and make an appointment before he turned 6 weeks old, which happens tomorrow. Where does time go???? (I've been a Mommy for 6 weeks, Holy Moly)

Anyway... there are dozens of places to get 'em done, as you know. For me it ended up being all about being close and easy to get too after Andy got home from work. So off to my favorite Target we went. I was very pleased. They offered tons more options than I went for. Cole being a little guy and not able to "pose" too much, she had many ideas. I opted to skip the traditional newborn "mushy" shots. I can't stand (no offense to those who have them, they are just SO NOT us) those pics with parents staring lovingly at baby, baby on naked shoulders, yadda yadda. They are sweet, but so not us. So... we didn't take a ton.

I really liked the lady who took them, she seemed to have a creative spirit (wether or not she was following the script) and she was very friendly. She was great with Cole and I enjoyed her. Target offered tons of options for printing, tons. She showed me how to work her computer to edit the pics how I wanted, make my own layouts and price the entire thing as I went. Was nice to have control. However I could have spent HOURS playing with them and Cole was finished shopping with Daddy. ---- He was WONDERFUL for the pics, played right along. What can I say, he's getting use to it. Then he & Daddy went to look at golf stuff, match box cars and bought an icee... then they took another stroll b/c I was still playing....then they come back DONE. I wanted to edit more and ran outta time. I think it could have been Andy done more than Cole..anyway, I digress.

The prices are about average to what other studios offer, it does take a week instead of printing on site. You can view them online, I had an email by the time I got home with the link. They are little low resolution view shots, but that's great to see what they did. Plus you can order more from online and they even hand you a sample sheet. It's not pics per say, but just printed like a screen shot on regular paper. Again, nice to look at and at least see what you ordered b/c you forget.

Now... I would have loved a professional session away from a "box store", but again.... I want them done often and can't afford that. So.... eventually... for now I'm happy.

Who can talk so much about pictures other than me?

I also didn't want him in a pastel blue or white baby outfit. It's so not him. He's a little tough guy and doesn't even own a "baby boy" outfit like that. So I chose this little green & white outfit that fits him well and I thought would work just fine.

I'll stop rambling and show ya a few favorites.








Ok, more rambling-
I also wanted at least one picture of us together. I didn't really want a "formal"ish portrait of any sort. I wanted it to be kinda fun and playful. So... I went with a football plan and am SOOO glad we did that. I think it's adorable. The little jersey was from a lady Andy works with and if we wouldn't have put it on yesterday, he never would have. It's already really too small (didn't think I'd ever get it back off, oops) He is growing so fast! Again, we didn't need a huge variety and I sure didn't need more options to have to choose from. So we only took a couple. I think they are a pretty perfect representation of us though! (only thing better would have been a Disney picture and don't think we didn't talk about it, but we're going in a few months....so I resisted)





So... enjoy our Little Toot and newest baby Bulldog!