My Favorite Four Year Old

So forget the fact that I said I wasn't posting again until at least Monday! And while you are at it, forget the fact that I also said I was going to paint this weekend! The weather is far too P*E*R*F*E*C*T not to enjoy, so I charged my camera battery and took off with my favorite little man this afternoon for his four year photos.

Since it was just the two of us and Daddy and sis were home snoozing, we took our time and drove over half an hour to reach our top secret location! Okay, so it isn't really top secret, but the landscaping around here leaves a lot to be desired so we had to drive around until I found what I wanted!! Huntler quietly watched Thomas (go figure) in the back while I drove along and enjoyed the pure cloudiness!! Did I mention that I am LOVIN' this weather today?!!

Anyway, since it was just a whopping 80 degrees, I was able to style my young model in some FALL FASHIONS!! I bought these for his birthday but honestly wasn't expecting him to be able to wear them for at least another six weeks or so! And chances are, after this weekend, it will warm back up and he won't wear them again until mid-November. But for today, they were perfect! (By the way, I bought the red shirt and vest from Pumpkin Patch...that is my new all time favorite place to buy boy clothes these days! They have darling girl clothes too!!)

So...stop number one was out in the middle of the desert. We pulled off at some cattle guards, parked our car and started trekking around...all the while keeping watch for snakes and scorpions!! I am not exactly a "nature loving" kind of girl, but seriously, that type of scenery makes for some great photos!

I have to be honest with you here in that I took over 400 photos and there are MANY that just plain stink, but I did get a few stand outs!! One of these days it will click for me (I hope anyway!!) and I'll start getting oodles of great ones! But for now, I am happy with what I can get! And they are far more fun than boring studio shots!!

I seem to have a habit of getting off the topic! This first shot is from our first stop. I tried to pose Huntler around a cactus, but it just wasn't working at all, so we wandered off and found a tree and a little group of cacti. Most of my shots here were hideous, but I managed to salvage this one!!

After leaving this lovely locale, we loaded up and headed down the road not even five minutes to hit this fence I saw on our way to the first stop! The fence is actually just a segment of wooden slats that is placed on the outside of a chain link fence for some reason? It is rickety and tattered, but that is the look I love!! It is basically at this little run down restaurant/stop and I am sure everyone coming and going was wondering what in the world I was doing there! Especially those who saw us when I had "the chair" out!! 

This picture is not that great, but I just wanted to share it and ask if anyone else thinks it is crazy that I hauled it out?! Chris is absolutely appalled and wants nothing to do with helping me when we take Gentry and her polka dot chair out!! I tried explaining to him that I have seen TONS of shots on photographers blogs where they haul their HUGE living room couch around! This is just a tiny little kid chair!!

(Huntler was "reading" Tip and Mitten...this was my dad's book when he was a child and I took it along because I wanted a vintage book for this shoot!! Don't worry Mom...they don't get to play with this book...it was just out for this special occasion today!!)

And I am going to toot my own horn for a mintute...this next one just looks so professional to me!! I am so happy with it!!

I had to bribe my favorite four year old with McDonald's to get some eye contact, but it was worth it!! I was hungry anyway, so making an extra stop was fine with me!!

This last one I took at the little greenbelt area we took the kids to a couple of weeks ago. I LOVE that area for picture taking!! For these we pulled out the hat! I think he looks so darn cute in hats and lucky for me, he loves them! Both of the kids do!! YAY!!

I still have a couple of hundred to sort through, but here are a few that caught my eye right off the bat! And now I am going to get!! I believe we are having "Family Movie Night" tonight and I need to figure out snacks...and a movie too!!

I am hoping it is cloudy and cool again tomorrow like the forecast calls for! You better believe the munchkins and I will be BACK out enjoying it again!!