Max turned 5 today. He wasn’t in a very good mood this morning. He didn’t want me to take his picture at all. That’s what I love about him though, one minute he’s screaming about putting his shoes and socks on, and the next we’re outside and he’s flashing that million dollar smile of his and playing with his hood.  He loves Star Wars, pretending to be various super heroes, mostly Superman, Peter Pan & Anakin Skywalker.  He loves to build “fun fests” in various places all over our house. Note: A fun fest is basically an obstacle course that involves him running and jumping all over stuff, and usually involves one or both of his sisters getting hurt.  But, when I think back to this time in Max’s life, I’ll always remember our daily snuggles on the couch while watching cartoons.  It saddens me that he’s almost too big to snuggle, in fact, we barely fit on the couch anymore, so I’m going to soak up as much snuggling as possible. Even if that means buying a bigger couch

I love you, buddy.

Ava turned 3 today. I think she’s adorable. I love her smile. I love her laugh. I love her mean face. I don’t really love when she’s whining, but I put up with it because she’s so darn cute. She knows she has me wrapped around her finger and uses it to her advantage. I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I don’t care how old she gets, she’ll always be my baby. I love her…A LOT.

About 8:30 am this morning, Jenny and I realized that today was going to be an absolutely beautiful day, and that we needed to go out with our kiddos and actually try and get some fun portraits of them.  Little did we know that our amazing friend and fellow studio mate, Kelley, would take some awesome family pics of us together .  NOTE: These are not them. I’m excited like an…(insert inappropriate reference here) to see them, but we’ll all have to wait

And a beautiful day it was.  I take a TON of pictures of my kids, in fact, I have over 10,000 pictures to go through dating back to June 2. You could say I’m just a tad behind. But, I’ve been trying to capture a certain image of each of my kids recently, and I think I finally captured them.  What follows is my kids, just being themselves. All the little things that I’ve come to know and love about each one can be seen in the images below.

Max. In a couple of weeks he’ll be 5. He is a total boy. Superman, Star Wars, major guy stuff. I love him dearly.

Ava. She’ll be 3 in a few weeks. She melts my heart. She’s independent, and she loves to do anything with Max she possibly can (hence the Batman t-shirt)

Lia. Not yet a year and a half. Gets cuter and cuter everyday. Loves to snuggle. Loves to make this ultra cheesy grin (this is the first instance caught with my camera)

The next set was taken this evening because the light was AMAZING. How can you not love this little boy? He’s even got my ears

Love that smile, she’s gonna be breaking hearts before we know it. Love the way her hair is blowing in the wind.

I just wish I could freeze time, or at least slow it down a little. I don’t want Lia (or any of my kids) to grow up. I’m not ready. Just look at that grin, the way she’s holding her shirt, I could eat her up.

I’m not trying to play favorites by adding an extra one of Max in here, but I wanted a certain look for this evening’s sunset pictures. Max would only oblige if I took a few shots of him with his Lego airplane. Of course, I obliged, I love the way he’s making the flying sounds with his mouth as he’s flying.  Another airplane note: He takes that thing apart and puts it together at least 3 times a day. He follows the directions step by step, and takes it EVERYWHERE.

Ok, now that we have older kids, Halloween is so much fun around the Solar house. Lots and lots of energy, sugar, parties, baking, energy, dress-up (a favorite year round), even more energy, etc. So, when our kids have fun, we take pictures. Here is a brief preview from yesterday.  Jenny will be putting the rest up on our personal family blog at some point in the near future. Hope everyone is enjoying life as much as we are

My favorite little Peter Pan fans.

It might not look like it from this picture, but I won. I definitely won this battle.

Gimme candy or I will cut you.

Max has recently become a huge fan of Legos. He’s been playing with all the sets I had while growing up. Yes, my mom is the type to save EVERY single toy I’ve ever owned.  So, we put together my old pirate ship, then we moved on to the airplanes, and now we’ve come to buying him some of his very own.  This Darth Vader (or as Max likes to call him “Dark Vader”) Tie Fighter set was given to him by Papa (my dad), and we sat down right away to put it together.  These are just a couple of my favorite images, and if you care to see more, check out our family blog here. Now go enjoy life and never grow up

Darth Vader stands watch as Max puts his ship together.

Finished! Such a proud & happy little boy.