Jennifer Stocks Photography – The Blog

Day 2 of documenting the life of my family over the month of August. Stay tuned for a picture a day of my family just being themselves.

Captured – I hate to admit it, but this one wasn’t actually taken today. It was taken about a week ago, but today was a day of sick kiddos and zero natural light. It just didn’t work today. Luckily I love this image of Beau, and I am happy to be able to include it.

The Story – So, right now I have my sick boy on my lap – Dusty that is. We are going to write about Beau together. So, I will be the scribe while my beautiful big boy tells us all about his little brother Beau. This is what he has to say:

“Beau is my little boy brother. He sometimes mucks around but he is a really good boy. Sometimes he scares the cat. Sometimes he tries to do the big boy stuff that I can do. He is three years old and I know he gets up to tricks. I try to stop his tricks and mucking around. And also I really love him. And he’s the greatest brother, but sometimes he mucks around that crazy kid. Sometimes he wants to be on the funniest home videos. He’s a very cheeky kid. I would really love to make him go on a train ride, but really he would like to go on a tractor ride. He’s really great. He comes up with really great ideas. He likes to watch Little Einsteins and Mister Maker. He likes Bo on the Go and Brum. Also sometimes he likes to watch stuff with great characters and sometimes stuff with naughty characters. Beau likes to eat apples, rice bubbles and sometimes he likes to eat bananas. He likes to enjoy when we have pizza. He likes going to the chippy shop and the Beekeepers place and the racing car park. He likes to play with tractors, and he plays with Mitchell and sometimes he tries to put funny hats on him. He chooses books for us to read, and sometimes they are very funny books and we laugh about dogs together. He likes to play with the Geotrax, and his remote control train – Seaside Flyer. And I only have a geotrax train to push – it’s Stumpy. I like playing with Beau because he is a great friend to me. He helps me when I need to do something, like when I slip off the lounge he tries to pull me up again. We watch shows together and sometimes when Beau isn’t here it makes me very sad. He really likes to do some dances, like the funky muffin man dance on Shrek.”

Cute! That is 99% verbatim. I did jam it all together when typing, as the new sentences and paragraphing would have made this blog post a thesis. I did ask some questions from time to time if he was running out of things to say, but overall it’s a  true representation. It’s beautiful to me. It has to be. I’m his mummy. And this little guy pictured underneath is beautiful too. Beau, darling. You are a little ray of sunshine in our lives. You are such a good-natured little guy, with a zest for life, a wicked sense of humour and a cheeky smile. You could get away with almost anything, just by flashing that grin and those dimples of yours. Your charisma just oozes out. You are a wonderful helper with your little brother. You are so kind and are always thinking of other people. You always shout to your big brother when you see or hear ANY kind of reference to trains, “DUST – there’s a train on TV”, or “DUST – look at the train over there”, because you know how much he loves them. You are so good at packing away your toys. You are fiercely independent, and believe you can do anything. I know you can.

Your favourite thing to say to me is, “You’re so boootiful mummy”, and you know it works a charm – every time. I love you little guy. I always will. Every single day.

Introduction – Day 1 of documenting the life of my family over the month of August. Today is the very first day. This is a personal project I conducted over the month of January 2010 with some photography friends. I loved it so much, I’ve decided to do it again. It’s time to celebrate what our family is now.

You see, in January I was in the last month of pregnancy with our third little baby boy. Doing the project was the most amazing way to capture the last month of our lives as a family of four. Our little baby Mitchell Quinn Stocks arrived on the 3rd February. He just missed the boat on my January photo a day, but I am hoping to make up for it this month. The little baby stage is passing and I miss it already. I want to remember it so badly. I cannot forget what my little people are like right now. I must not.

You can take a picture and keep it forever. It brings back vivid memories. But take a picture and add some words about how you felt at that time and that moment, and it just escalates to be something so incredibly special to your family, and your life. So, for the next month I will do my best to photograph and write about the everyday happenings, the love, the mundane, the wonderfulness, the crap parts and the tangible things that are important to us right now. Some days I won’t say much ( if there’s something really good on tv that night), but mostly I will be on the ball.

So, here we go.

Day 1 of documenting the life of my family over the month of August. Stay tuned for a picture a day of my family just being themselves.

Captured as we went for a Sunday drive.

The story – Bathurst is hardly known for it’s tropical balmy winters, yet it’s not freezing here either. Australian’s just like to whinge a lot about the cold. Recently we were in Brisbane and at 24 degrees, the Brisbanites (you know who you are) were whinging about how cold it was. Seriously people…..that’s bikini weather for us Bathurstians.

When you live in a cold place, sometimes you have really got to force yourself to get amongst it. So, last night we decided we would get our crew of little people out the door for a Sunday drive. We headed up to Orange for no real reason, and along the way experienced a little honey tasting, and antiques viewing at the Bee Keepers Inn (which is a really lovely place that we would never have experienced if we weren’t on a granny style Sunday drive).

Our next stop was marked by a brunette manequinn in a red dress – Darcy’s Old Wares. It you haven’t been there, it’s one of those crazy ye olde shoppe’s where they would probably charge $120 for a barbie-doll with only one remaining limb, but…. despite that, i’ve always liked that old place. It’s got character, and the ever-changing manequinn out the front of the store always entices the curious at heart to venture in.

There’s been an old phone booth out front of the store forever. Today it became the place where Dusty and Mitch sat for a photo.  Beau didn’t want to get off his dad’s shoulders to hop in, so today is all about Dusty and Mitch. There is something so remarkable about the way the older boys are with their little brother. I’m proud to see the way they treat him.

So, that was half our day. The remainder of the day was spent driving around. Pizza for lunch. Little Einsteins. Lamb cutlets with veges. Cleaning. Reading at bedtime. Chatting with Dusty about what stuff I got for my birthday when I was a kid (not sleepy after falling asleep in car this arvo). We also discussed ways he could make a film. Now it’s time for bed.

I look forward to tomorrow. How could I not? I’ll wake to the sound of a crying baby, but I know when he sees me i’ll get an enormous, dimpled smile.

Day 31 of documenting the life of my family over the month of January. Today is the very last day!

Captured as we went for an evening stroll.

The story - Well, today is the last day of my January Challenge. It has been the most wonderful thing to do for our family, and I have enjoyed documenting our lives. It was kind of hard today knowing this would be the last day, but hey, there is always the option to continue if I really feel the burning desire! I was kind of hoping our baby would make its entrance into the world before the end of the month, but alas, bubs is still warm and safe inside my belly right this minute. I am however, hoping this will change very soon!

We had a super day today. It was my dads birthday so we headed out to mum & dad’s place for a yummy relaxed lunch. The boys played with the dogs and we took them to the park down the road. We headed back home for a relaxed afternoon, before the boys and I ventured out for an afternoon/evening walk. We went to collect the eggs, but realised we didn’t have any egg cartons so we went to borrow some from Hayden (who works for us and lives on the place too).

When we got down there we discovered the chooks were having a blast digging up his yard. The boys then proceeded to try and hunt them out the gate. Dusty was all about the chase, while Beau was a little more subtle in his approach with the occasional “shoo, shoo chickens”. Then Damien stopped by, and for the sake of todays photo they collected a chicken each for Dusty and Beau to check out (no – it’s not really normal everyday life for our family to pick up chickens and pat them – I just thought it would make a cool shot).

I have really enjoyed this project. It is such a great legacy to leave for your family, and I would encourage everyone to do something like it. I am so keen to carry this on into February (or at least until the babe joins our clan), but am undecided as to whether I will. Stay tuned… you just never know!

Day 30 of documenting the life of my family over the month of January. Stay tuned for a picture a day of my family just being themselves.

Captured as we shared a lovely cafe breakfast together this morning.

The Story – With the arrival of our new bundle any day now, Damien thought it would be nice to head into town and share a yummy breakfast. So, that’s exactly what we did. I decided to take along my camera because you just never know what situation will present itself for this project.

Well, the light inside the cafe was superb so a cafe shot became our image/s of the day. It’s so lovely taking the boys out for a nice breakfast, lunch or dinner. Mostly because I remember just how HARD it was when they were younger. We avoided these situations like the plague! But now, honestly – the kids are so fantastic. Sure, they still up-end the salt and pepper shakers, shred their napkins, and blow bubbles in their milk-shakes but overall they are little legends. It helps that there are so many cafes and restaurants in Bathurst making an effort to have kiddie friendly activities like pencils, books, etc so the experience is enjoyable for everyone. But age is the biggest thing. Three was a massive turning point for Dusty, and as Beau fast approaches his third birthday life is becoming quite easy!

Soon however, we will be back to prams and highchairs and sterilisers and rattles and bonds suits and booties and smooshed-up apples and bottles and breast-pumps and cots and wraps and rolling and crawling and walking and climbing…. The list goes on.

Even though Beau is not even three, he is such a grown-up little man. He has done everything so quickly, and matured at an astounding pace. It’s going to be strange (but wonderful) having a baby in our house again. I’m told having another baby is like riding a bike – if you’ve done it once it’s easy to get back on and pedal again.

So, here is an image of my family for today. It’s got me thinking about what we are now, and what we are going to be in a very short time. It’s scary and exhilarating at the same time, but I am looking forward to the ride.

Day 29 of documenting the life of my family over the month of January. Stay tuned for a picture a day of my family just being themselves.

Captured as we hung about outside this afternoon.

The story – As the day cooled down a little, the boys and I ventured outside for an afternoon play. Dusty and Beau love to dress up in random outfits, so today I decided to take out our dress-up basket and my camera to see if they boys would pull off some snazzy dress-up combinations for our photo a day. So, today was scripted in a sense. I also pegged up some bunting party decorations i’ve had sitting around for a while, encouraged the boys to have a dress up and and hoped for the best. Well, what did they do? Hmmm. Dusty put the peg basket on his head instead of the dress-up clothes, and they both took off for the sand-pit. Hmmm…. Well, that certainly worked a charm!

So, I just waited them out. I sat. I waited. I waited some more. And then some more. And then…. eventually they decided to venture over my way again. Dressing up and being cool for mum was not on the agenda, but what I did manage to grab in the end was FAR better. The boys just being themselves. Doing what they do, and not conforming to any of my creative ideas. Just being them. I love these photos. I love the colours and the pure childishness.