August Family Pictures

Last year we accidently ended up taking family pictures on our anniversary. We liked it so much we went ahead and did again this year. I found a few pictures to fill in some of the gaps. It's funny to see how much we've changed in the last five years.

2010

  

One and One (Eharmony - August 17th)

We did not have a family picture in 2010, but we do have two pictures that are important in our family history; our eharmony profiles. We were first matched on August 17th. Ben took his profile picture in his townhouse with a self-timer and a tripod.  Wendy's profile was taken at a the Living Planet Aquarium while on an excursion with siblings. 

Ben's Eharmony profile picture

Wendy's Eharmony profile picture

2011

Two (Married! August 1st)

This might be the most plentiful year for our "family pictures." Between the multiple engagement shoots, the wedding shots, and the reception shots we have many nice pictures of the two of us. 

At the Salt Lake City Temple

2012

Three (Andrew's Blessing - September 2nd)

Andrew joined us 11 months after the wedding. Unlike the previous year we did not take many family pictures during August.  We have a metric ton pictures of Andrew, a lot of pictures of Wendy, and a fair number of pictures of myself.  Few pictures contain all three of us.  This picture is from Andrew's blessing. 

With Andrew right after his blessing at the Brookshire Ward

2013

Three (August 17th)

Surprisingly, 2013 was even worse than 2012 for family pictures. The only full family picture in August was a random picture taken outside of my work. Yes, that is me with scrubs and an earpiece in our family picture. Less than ideal.

Work pictures are so...flattering

2014

Four (Accidental photo - August 1st)

Cameron  joined in the family picture fun this year. On a whim we visited the site of our reception (there are only so many places you can take a two month old!). Thanks to lot of trial and error using a tripod and a 10 second timer, for the first time in three years of marriage, we finally had a formalized family picture.

2015

Four ("Stuart Photography" - August 1st)

For 2015 we decided to forgo the self-timer and have someone else behind the camera. The Stuart parents and Debbie accompanied us up to Jordanelle. We tried bribing my father by paying for a hamburger joint; instead he payed for us. I am not proficient at bribing. We spent the night before giving all of the boys in the family a matching buzz cut. It was Cameron's first real haircut. I hardly recognized the little boy as my Cameron he looked so different sans curls.

Bonus timer picture

2016

Four will be Five

We plan to continue the tradition of taking our pictures at Jordanelle Reservoir next year.  Excitingly, another member of the family will join us for that photo shoot. The storks pictured below are two months into their nine month flight to bring us our new little one.

Estimated Date of Arrival: March 18, 2016

Thumbs Up...from the future baby Stuart

On January 14th a day that Wendy has been breathlessly waiting for finally arrived. She is now into her twentieth week of her pregnancy. This means she can finally have the gender revealing ultrasound. (When we got the order from the nurse midwife Wendy called for the soonest appointment.)

As this ultrasound can also find indications of genetic abnormalities, the little baby understood that it's parents were slightly anxious. So the baby made sure the first thing that the parents saw was a thumbs up.

Everything's okay here, Mom!

The little one appears to be a gymnast. Baby was rolling and moving throughout the entire ultrasound session. The technician actually had trouble getting a fair number of the pictures she needed because baby kept moving.

Classic profile of baby's face

Squished

Oh I almost forget...

It is a boy. YEAH!!!!
(Wendy is SO outnumbered!)

Ultrasound Pictures.

We went to our official ultrasound appointment on March 8th. The technician was very excited and animated throughout the entire process. One mannerism that we both found interesting was that once she discovered the physiological indication of "boyhood" she proceeded to use the most widely varied range of euphemisms to refer to it.

More importantly we got to really see our baby for the first time.  It appears that ultrasound have come a long way in the past decade or so. We get to have ultrasound pictures of our baby in 3D now. All I can say is COOL!

He's looking at us.

Yep. He's a boy.

Growing is hard work.

Really hard work.

He has an arm. 3D imaging cut off at that point.

First Look at Baby

We've been shopping around for a nurse midwife for Wendy. During a visit to the latest one they offered to do a quick ultrasound to look at the baby and to hear the heartbeat. I am definitely a fan of hearing the heartbeat; makes everything seem so much more and concrete.

 

It also appears that our little baby wanted to show off for us. Appears that the baby decided to be in just the right position to make it so we could see certain anatomical characteristics.

Can you find it?

There it is.