Advice to anyone who wants to take better photos of their kids...

 Disclaimer: I am not trying to be offensive or bash new, budding, photographers.  I think it is great when people latch on to a hobby that they truly enjoy and I fully encourage anyone who wants to try photography to take a class or two and see if it is for you.  :)

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Advice to anyone who wants to take better photos of their kids....hire a professional.  And, this is why:

You get a shiny new $800 dollar DSLR camera for Christmas because you think, "It is silly to pay someone so much money to take the kids pictures when I can just do it myself."

Off to the park you go with your family for your first photo session. 1000s of pictures and several hours/days later, you have about 15-20 pictures that are "okay" and you are frustrated because they still don't look like the pros.  You think, "maybe I need better editing software." 

You run out to Best Buy and grab the latest edition of Photoshop.  Photoshop is uploaded and you are excited to finally get the photos you want of you kiddos to show off to friends.  You even think, "hey, I should start taking pictures of other people's kids too and maybe advertise myself as a photographer!"  You upload your first photo to the program and see that you have no idea how to use the program or even how to crop the image.  Ugh.  Bummer.  Now, you spend several days/weeks playing around with photoshop until you figure out how to oversaturate/overexpose/overcontrast images and make them look "artsy."  There is still something missing though.  They still don't have the quality you want.  What's next?

You head off to the local camera shop and buy some new fancy, schmancy, lenses that you read about online.  Now it's time for another photo session with the kids and off to the park you go with your camera fully ready to go in Auto Mode.  1000s of pictures and hours/days later, you have about 15-20 images that are "okay."  Bummer.  Looks like you will have to spend more money and go to a class now to learn how to use your new camera, new editing software, and new lenses.  Christmas is right around the corner and you need photos to send out to family, so you run over to Picture People to get a few portraits (dropping about $200-400 on a few prints).

Total Investment: ~$2000-3000 for a handful of "okay" pictures and hours of stress. 

My advice: Hire a photographer if you want good portraits of your kids.  It will save you so much stress and money in the long run.  If you want a nice camera for reliability when taking everyday photos, I think that is a wonderful idea.  Just don't think that you will never need a professional photographer again.  Great pictures on high quality paper are something that will be cherished for years to come.  Take advantage of that when you can.  :)