Weather wasn't our best friend for the Standridge's sessions but these guys are, "If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade" kind of people and it paid off!
For our first session, we decided to meet at the park because Annette thought it'd be cool to do some pictures of the kids in rain boots and just let them be themselves. I guess she figured that if Mother Nature thought it best to offer some rain, we were going to use it to it's fullest potential. It doesn't take very long of being around Annette to see that she doesn't get too bogged down in things. She has a sweet spirit and you immediately like her the minute that you start talking to her.
One of the reasons that I absolutely LOVE what we do is because we laugh until it hurts sometimes when we're doing these sessions. It drives me bonkers to get somewhere and find that the (well meaning!) parents have either threatened or bribed the kids to be well mannered. What a BORING way for a kid to spend a couple of hours!! Thankfully, Annette and Marty encourage their kids to have fun and it showed in their pictures!
I was pleasantly surprised when Marty tossed a big ole clump of mud over on Jay in her pretty little dress. It was easy to see that having fun came naturally to these guys because there wasn't a shred of shock on her face as the mud hit her and she immediately lobbed a big old clump back in retaliation!
There was no way that Ryan was missing out on this opportunity and
IT WAS ON! Mud was flying, water was splashing, wrestling ensued and that was all within the first 30 minutes!
We listened to the laughter and giggles and found out that Jay had her own "special" alarm clock to wake Ryan when he was younger. We learned that the whole bunch of them have a special smile that they all flash whenever Baby Fallon is around! We learned that Marty and Annette completely adore their children and that their children adore them!
We saw that this big, muscular guy turned into the world's biggest softy when he looks at Annette or the children. You just see a whole change come over him and they seem to instantly know that he's going to take care of them.
They all just seemed to be at their best when they are together. Pretty cool thing to be able to say about a family.
Part 2 of the Standridge session was more reserved as far as not involving mud but it was equally as nice spending time with these guys. The kids are funny and they just have the sweetest, most loving dispositions that you could ever think of. If you can be around them and not adore them, more power to you.
A few weeks ago, I ran into Annette and the kids in the grocery store and I got two of the sweetest hugs from Ryan and Jay. They weren't pushed into giving an obligatory hug or bribed to be nice. It just comes natural to them because they are good, sweet, nice people. It kinda seems weird when you get paid for spending time with people this nice. You go away from it all realizing that you were the lucky ones to get to hang with them!
We hope that they enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them. We think that these are pretty neat folks allllll the way around!
Thank you Annette, Marty, Jay, Ryan and Fallon! You guys are wonderful! :o)
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