the STEAK project | family portrait

So I first discovered this idea on the fabulous Miss Tara Whitney’s blog and immediately wanted to play, too. Alas, the birthdays of offspring, travel, crazy schedules in general and basic daily functioning had other plans for me. I was supposed to start the project in January (eep!) but figure, hey. It’s only March. Still plenty of time, right? Thanks. I knew I could count on your guys. Now for a little catch up:

The plan is to take a family portrait every month for a year and blog a bit about what is going on with each member or the fam in general during that time. Then, at the end of 2010, I will create a little book and will include all the images and words from these posts. A couple of my other friends have decided to join in the fun, too, so check them out if you’re hungry for more: Ellen and Dana.

Since I’m behind already and have 27 bajillion other things to do at the moment, I am not going to write much about us yet. My brain hurts already and that would only cause further damage. However, I WAS able to dig up a couple of family shots from AROUND the times needed. Please know that they were not intended for this project and are just regular ol’ point-and-shoot snapshots. That will have to do for now, friends. I promise to have fabulous and inspiring (ok, maybe just adequate) things to share for March. I still have, what…23 more days to work on something grand? Prepare to be dazzled! Or at least, mildly entertained for 2 minutes or so.

Oh…and why, you may ask, is this called the STEAK project? Well, we figured out long ago that we can arrange the first letters of our five names (Tara, Kevin, Avery, Eliza and Simon) into a few different words (stake, skate, kates) and use those words sometimes for our own family amusement. Dorky, perhaps. But also highly entertaining for us.

And now, on with the show! Also, if you have started your own family portrait project and would like to link it here, please include it with your comment. I would really love to see it!

♥ t.

JANUARY: (technically Christmas Eve right before church, but it was the closest I had)

There are actually just a couple of things I’d like to say about this shot.

Ever since she was very small, Avery has insisted on dressing for the occasion, theme-wise, and this day was no exception. Love that she was rockin’ the red/green combo from head to toe.

Eliza was very upset that her glam new Crewcuts dress was hidden by her little brother in this picture. She is not showing her teeth very much these days due to the braces.

Simon is smiling his cheesiest 4-year-old smile. Cracks me up how he’s rocking on his feet a bit, decked out in his red cords and Wolverine shirt.

Also have to mention the frames on the wall behind us? Y’know…those empty ones? Yeah, so they’ve been that way for like a year now. First saw the idea for their display on TW’s blog and purchased 9 of them at IKEA immediately (that is, as soon as I could make the 2 1/2 drive there). Sat under the bed for several months because I couldn’t decide what images to use for them. Hubby finally decided to put them on the wall to inspire/force me to take action. Upon taking them out from their storage place and dusting them off, realized 2 of them were cracked. So what you see in this shot is 6 frames (because 7 would look weird) waiting for some love. (Don’t tell Kevin, but FedEx dropped 6 prints off today! At my very door! Serious fun shocking that man.)

My dad took this photo and I am so very grateful he could be with us to celebrate the holidays. Love you, Daddy-o!

FEBRUARY: The first day of our Disneyworld vacation, still fresh and thrilled with life. Will be blogging much more on this soon!