The Importance of Family Portraits

YOU DON’T CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY- THEY ARE GOD'S GIFT TO YOU, AS YOU ARE TO THEM By Desmon TuTu.

This particular post is about the importance of a Family Portrait and not as much about hair. 

For my husband I, a family portrait is one of the most important things you can have in your home.  It's like a reminder of your family at a specific time in your lives.

Family members' schedules can be so difficult to coordinate, and it's easy to put off the portrait for another time when is more convenient.  

The important thing to remember is that the best time to take a family portrait is always NOW.  We all know, life is very unpredictable and we don't have control over certain things.  However, what we do have control of is the decision of taking family portraits and capturing as many special moments as you can.  

Families go through constant changes; they may expand, they may shrink, and they always age.  Our kids will not be kids forever and we all are constantly going through physical changes.

Below is our 2008 Family Picture, Lil B was almost two years and I was about five months pregnant with Ms. Bree. 

Remember how I mentioned before that "Families may expand", below you will see our 2009 Family Picture.  In this picture we wanted the grandparents to be included because THEY ARE part of our family and they play a big role in our lives. 

In this picture Lil B was three years old and Ms. Bree was almost eight months old.  Our family expanded by one little package!

You don't have to spend a large amount of money on professional pictures, several photo studios including Walmart, JC Penney and/or Sears offer different packages at low prices. 

But you can easily have someone take it for you while you are at a gathering of some sort or do what we did during the years 2010 and 2011, use the timer in your camera and take your own picture! 

In 2010, due to our busy schedules, we never made it to the studio BUT we still managed to take a nice photograph together and called it 2010 Family Photo.

In the picture above, you can clearly see the physical change in Ms. Bree who was 20 months old and Lil B was 4 years old.

I have lots of pictures plastered all over my family room walls and various size picture frames on my coffee and foyer tables.  I also have baby scrapbooks, which I made especially for each of my children. 

Now days I find it very difficult to do scrapbooks and I have opted on making photo albums through Walgreens Photo Store Online.  Upload the pictures, pick a book and done! You can pick the book up or have it delivered to your door. 

In 2011, I kept trying to find the perfect time to take family photos but never found it.  So again, we never made it to a photo studio.

This is our 2011 Family Photo:

While you can't see much change in Ms. Bree you can clearly see the change in Lil B. who was 5 years old while Ms. Bree wa  s 33 months.  

I'm thankful that my husband always reminds me that it's time to do our family portraits otherwise it would never get done and I'm more than sure that one day our children will thank their father too.

Come and share you family photos with us! 

Here are more of our photos

 

Where Are The Curlz?!

Yes, her hair is straight! and NO, I did not relaxed her hair.  

I know many parents have concerns or are afraid of using flat irons or blow dryers on their children's hair.  

I am going to share the one thing my Husband said to me almost two years ago:  "Buying cheap things will give you poor results".  Investing in a good quality tool will probably due less damage than an inexpensive hair tool.  

After a long discussion my husband convinced me to buy a good quality flat iron.  Yes, I did pay a good amount  of money for it but to be honest it was totally worth it.  

  

I believe this is the third time I flat iron my daughter's hair and I believe that the process has not damaged her hair because of the following reasons:

1.  I don't do it often; Ms. Bree is about to turn four and I've flat iron her hair maybe a total of three times in the last three years.  

2.  I make sure I wash, condition, moisturize and stretch her hair before flat ironing it.   I don't use the blow dryer to dry her hair.  I rather band Ms. Bree's hair in order to stretch her curl pattern.

    *Why do this? If you stretch the hair before you flat iron it then you will spend less time going over the curls repeatedly.   (See What is Banding? Post)

3.  Once the hair is stretched, I apply a heat protector.  I personally use Paul Mitchell Smoothing Gloss Drops.  

4.  I DO NOT let the flat iron sit on one spot for a long time.  In fact, I recommend you divide the hair into small sections, and gently flat iron the hair.   Smaller sections are easy to do and will prevent you from having to go over the sections repeatedly.

5.  My flat iron has different settings: 240, 280, 320, 350 and 400.
I use the 320 setting to do Ms. Bree's hair since her hair is more delicate. 

  

The important thing to remember is to prep the hair before you flat iron it, to moisturize the hair, and then follow with a protective style.   

I will be doing cornrows on Ms. Bree's hair as the next protective style.

  

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Paul Mitchell Express Ion Smooth 1.25 Hair Straightener Flat Iron, 1-1/4 Inch

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UHN0NG/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B001UHN0NG&link_code=as3&tag=carcurswi-20