I have never been very photogenic, in fact most pictures of me have turned out more or less like this;

Most of the time I avoided standing in front of the camera. Yet the journey towards being a family is often a photographic one. And my poor smile, stiff posture, and general unease did not get me off the hook from being photographed. I would like to share with you some of that journey.

Where then should our sorry begin?

Like most families ours began with a boy meeting a girl. I wish I could say it was love at first sight yet it was anything but. My first impression of my darling wife was that she was scary, mean, and a little bit ummm…lets call it ‘witchy’. That’s ok though, if I understand my wifes side of the story I had to overcome her friends impression of me as the ‘creepy sociology guy.’

Despite first impressions we become a couple;

We quickly became a normal university couple, doing normal university couple things, at normal university events. Events much like this one;

Thankfully we quickly become a more respectable engaged couple;

As the old children’s song goes first comes love and then comes marriage. On May 17th 2008 I was blessed to marry a wonderful lady, on a very rainy and cold day,

This was a day of wonder filled with smiles,

If I remember correctly after love, and marriage then comes….the baby carriage. And the baby carriage came very quickly. Meghan and I were married for a little more than a month when we discovered we were expecting our first child.

Meghan tells me the advice her mother gave her about sex when she was a teen was, ‘Greenwood’s (Meghan’s mother’s maiden name) get pregnant very easily.’ Meghan always assumed this was meant to scare her, which it did, but not that it was actually true, which as it turns out it was.

On February 23rd 2009 we welcomed to the world our first child Simeon,

Our little boy grew quickly, and whether he knew it or not as he was celebrating his second birthday a new addition to the family was well on her way.

Shortly after Simeon turned two his sister Ariella joined the family. Like many fathers with daughters this little girl has just stolen my heart. I can scarcely remember her not being part of my world. Part of our family.

One boy, one girl, clearly we had everything we ‘needed’. We had our million dollar family. Once people asked about Ariella’s baby stats the very next question always was, ‘Do you now have your family?’ Meaning, are you done having children?

When I first got married my answer would have been an emphatic yes. Two children would be enough children, maybe even more than enough.

Actually all through Meghan’s first two pregnancies I would have given an emphatic yes, two children would complete my family. I feel I could have been right about that, we did after all make a good looking family of four.

Something over the course of Ariella’s first year changed my mind. I can’t really tell you what it was or even why, but I knew I wanted to have a third child. So two years and one day after Ariella was born, our second son Asher entered the world.

There you have it my family, and the short photo journey that got us here.When Meghan and I met in 2006 I did not expect to be caught up is such a whirlwind. That in 7 short years I would go from a single undergraduate student to a married man with three children. Three very good looking children if I do say so myself;

Since Meghan and I met, we have had a lot more occasions to have our picture taken. And I think I have learned to smile more, and loosen up some. Maybe it has to do with being surrounded with so many people that make me smile.

As I end I want to share one more picture. The journey towards my family didn’t really begin with meeting Meghan. It really began much earlier with my family of origin. Because of that I thought I should pay a little homage to the real beginnings of the journey as well.