we heart those carolina panthers | charlotte child and family photographer

We are a football family – plain and simple.  I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, so football is and always will be in my blood.  The Pittsburgh Steelers {ahem, the only NFL team with six super bowl wins in its history} will always be in my heart, but now that I live in Charlotte, NC raising two very sports minded boys, the Carolina Panthers come in a very close second.

Now, for those of you who may not be familiar with the Steelers playing style, they are well known for winning games at the v-e-r-y last minute creating many nail biter conclusions.  Because of this, I am a very superstitious football fan.  I will proudly admit that my husband is as well.  So, naturally, we are raising our boys to be superstitious fans just the same.  😉

My boys are at really sweet ages for all that goes into having great pride in your home team, so the excitement in our house has been building and building with each week of this winning season.  Each week, we watched the games as a family.  As the Panthers continued to win, {and as superstitions would have it} we would certainly celebrate their amazing feat and athletic ability, but we also felt that what we were wearing/eating that day/and from where we watched the game had a tiny bit to do with the extra number in the W column as well.

The boys got to visit the Panther training facility shortly before Christmas and were lucky enough to score some awesome autographs from some of their absolute favorites.  We are so grateful that this is a team made up of some truly amazing role models for our boys to admire.

Once the Panthers made it into the playoffs, things took a little notch upward.  We started to include an airhorn in our celebrations.  Gray was our ‘horn man’, and would run out onto the porch to blow the air horn each time the Panthers scored a touchdown.

I have done my best to capture our celebrations throughout the season, but I was afraid to share until after the Super Bowl as I did not want to jinx the team {because, superstitiously, that seemed to make complete sense}.  So, at long last, I am thrilled to finally be able to share a little bit of what it has looked like in our house this past season while rooting for our Carolina Panthers.  We are so proud of the season that they had even though they did not get the final win in the Super Bowl.  The team has pulled this city together and has made some really sweet lifelong fans.  Our family has created some of the best memories together throughout this season, and it has become a time in our lives that we will cherish for years to come.  We couldn’t be more proud to call ourselves Panther fans.