The Knowles Family :)

Many of you probably know that my sister-in-law, Heather, is a photographer. We were blessed to get to do a photo-shoot with her while they were visiting. She did a post on her blog about it, but I just had to have my own post too :) When I print out my blog books, these are some photos I definitely don't want to miss out on. 

You'll soon find out that I loved ALL the photos and I can't possibly narrow it down to just a few. We've been trying to do a shoot with her for a while now, but one thing or another always interferes. What better place for us to get it done than on our very own beach? I'm always nervous thinking about what to wear and what to dress the boys in that will capture us in our 'natural' selves and still be something that will be pretty to look at. 

Of course, I had Heather digging through our closets trying to help me put something together. I'm SO happy with the 'look' we pulled off here. It's our everyday clothes and stuff you will see us all wearing on a regular basis... so I was really, really excited about that. The boys were being very good sports for the session. Partly because they knew instead of getting ready for bed (which they would normally be doing about this time), they were down having fun on the beach!

I have to point this out in the set below...On the first one on the left, Heather was having us all yell. Because usually you get the expression like Joss has on the next one to the right. Well, we play this game a lot when mommy needs to vent and just yell and I don't want to scare the boys. So we count and all yell together. If Emit isn't in the yelling mood, he'll let you know, and you can see on his poor little face he missed the cue for everyone to yell :( But he didn't stay stressed long as you can see in the adorable one of the two of them below!!

I just love these shots!!!!!

Of course, these little guys aren't going to just sit around posing for us, so we have to play and really get them going :) Darn it! Running around and playing on the beach means EVERYONE starts getting sandy.

 But it also means that EVERYONE is having a blast :)

My sweet little sandy dudes!

 For me it was so much fun. I'm always trying to get those really great and candid shots of these guys playing with me, but I can't really PLAY when I'm behind the camera....if only Heather could just be our play buddy all the time :)

 First we have the hugging brothers...then we have the running brothers. I'm pretty sure I've told you about how they play 'tag' on the beach. Joss runs up behind Emit and totally shoves him, face-first, in the sand. I really don't think he's trying to hurt him, but it does get pretty rough. Emit is laughing the whole time though. But Emit has also learned that Joss won't stop until he's laying in the sand (notice Emit's sandy belly in all these), so Emit has started just falling when Joss starts running toward him... smart little dude :) A few times this little move sent Joss sailing overhead.  They LOVE this game!

 Running together holding hands is a really fun game for them too. It is much safer out here on the beach than in the house where couches, chairs, door frames and cabinets always managed to smack Emit right in the face. After all the running around and getting sandy... why not let them take one last dip in the ocean to rinse off??

Heather, thank you SO much for these wonderful photos. They are ones we will cherish for many, many years to come! I just adore them all :)