FAMILY SESSION: Thriving!!!

Can I just put it out there that parenting is hard?  marriaging is hard?  good grief, ADULTING is hard!

Our children are our hearts with legs that run in 5 million different directions...seasons ebb and flow and then they feel like a roller coaster that never ends...

Busy is definitely an understatement...

Each child in a family bring a different dynamic...everyone's needs are different and can feel demanding...

as parents, we're attempting to guide and nurture and love and organize and manage and at the same time, generously give of ourselves to our spouses, to our extended family members and our friends...

I often feel pulled in so many directions...

I thought people were crazy when they told me that life got BUSIER when kids got older...

I naively thought, "no way...these toddlers and sleepless nights are killing me...life will be so much slower and easily managed when they are older." 

I apologize to moms of toddlers right now...because, I was wrong...so, so wrong...

I might have "felt" out of control back then, but I didn't realize just how much more control I had then versus now...

and yet, the benefits from it all...far, far outweigh the stress or exhaustion...

and then there are those that make it look effortless...

They've got FOUR kids...different ages, different schools, different activities...jobs, marriage, friends...and yet they arrived at our session joking, goofing around like it was no big deal to come to a park in the middle the evening to take pictures as a family...

They've got a handle on something...let me tell you! 

I took their eldest's senior pictures awhile back and it wasn't hard to imagine the type of atmosphere is present in their household...

there are typical sibling issues, yes...but as a unit...as a family team...

these guys ROCK! 

I had such fun...and I appreciated not only their banter, but their willingness to relax and have fun!

They've got this "family" stuff down!  They aren't just surviving the "teenage years"...they are thriving!