One year photos

My little tiny newborn Noey bear baby is turning a year old on Saturday. I'm not sure how this happened, surely I didn't give him permission to grow up so fast. But alas, he is growing anyway and this Saturday we're going to celebrate! Before our big celebration this weekend I wanted to get his first birthday pictures taken. With Anthony we took him down to a photo place in the mall to get his pictures done thinking it would be fun to do it professionally. The pictures ultimately turned out cute but were not near the level I was expecting, especially for the money we paid. So for Noah I decided since i'm in the process of learning my DSLR camera better and I just got an awesome new lens for it, that I would just do the pictures myself. I spent some time on pinterest (of course!) getting a few ideas for props and poses then loaded up and headed out to the park where his party is going to be.

The pictures really turned out well, and I'm really glad I did it myself. But anyone that has tried to shoot a one year old knows, its not easy. AT ALL. They're squiggly and squirmy, they get bored easily, they get distracted easily and any 'poses' you have in mind you may as well kiss goodbye. I saw a really adorable picture of a little baby who was sitting holding a solitary balloon. I LOVED it! The balloon popped within 5 minutes. I'm not sure why, but every single balloon we brought with us popped.

lol right after the balloon popped. You can even see a chunk of balloon falling in front of his feet

We had a lot of these, when the balloons were still intact at least. He didn't want to take pictures, he just wanted to chase balloons.

We had a few of these. Eating grass.

And a lot of these, not paying attention. I mean, a LOT of these.

But somewhere within the 400 pictures I took I found quite a few good ones.

I love this little man so, so much. Even though he's only been around a year, I can't quite imagine my life without him. Our life makes so much sense with him in it, we feel complete now. He's the perfect contrast to his brother, and his favorite playmate. I can't wait for the years to come. Happy early birthday my Nonos.