Taking Family Photos

I love having our yearly family photos printed and up on the wall. I even love picking out the clothes and finding fun accessories to tie the look all together. I like picking locations and scouting out good spots for photos - maybe I should be a family photo consultant, or finally learn to use my nice camera. However, the actual process of having the photos taken makes me feel a little sweaty.

Get the kids ready too early, they destroy their outfits. This time, Henry found some Clorox bathroom cleaner while I was upstairs getting myself ready. He sprayed it all over his grey pants and who knows where else. The pants were turning into a nice yellowish acid wash look - had to throw them away and hope I didn't need to call poison control...  Luckily I had another pair of grey pants that were technically too big but worked in a pinch.

On the flip side, you wait too long to get ready and then you are rushing to get out the door so you don't miss the good light and the window of good behavior all kids have when forced to have their pictures taken. In the rush to leave, I told Miles he was in charge of his own hair... there could be worse things. I had taken him for a hair cut earlier that day and he had a major meltdown over going so I had to cancel the appointment and settle for shaggy hair. He's still cute. All the photographer had to do to get Miles to laugh was say "poop." She spoke his love language.

By the end, Henry was DONE. The kids are basically dragging him along here. I also love Penelope's walk in this shot.

Are we done yet? 

All that lovely dirt waiting to be kicked and stomped in - it was that really fine, soft dirt that I knew would coat every bit of their shoes and clothes if they walked over there. But they stayed out of it and we did manage to get several really cute photos - all you really need is one, right?