Family Portraits

Well since everyone was home for a short time I had to break down and get a family portrait taken. What is it about the family portrait that makes me insane. Is it the clothing and color coordination? Is it coordinating schedules, making sure everyone is happy, well fed, had enough sleep and in a good mood all at the same time? Is it the fear of the last minute near the scalp self hair cut by the four year old- (Bridget)? Or oops someone dropped the baby on the heating vent and scraped up her face?- (Bridget again, she was the baby) Or, "Sorry Mom I was playing capture the flag (or some other outside, run around in the middle of the night game) and didn't see that black mailbox which attacked my face" (Dallin this time). Or is it that I want to vomit when I see myself in photos? Something always has to happen. Although we have had the kids portrait taken a little more often, It has been 13 years since we all were in the picture. Mostly because I don't want to be in the picture. We have all the kids portraits on the wall except poor Eli. He is over three and he is still not represented on the portrait wall. But then Lydia is five and her picture is of her as an infant. What can I say? It stresses me out. The older ones can always be threatened but the little ones must be bribed. Dairy Queen in our case. I know, I know you are thinking parent of the year nomination. By the end of the shoot Eli was seeing visions of Dairy Queen all over the college campus we were on. He kept pointing it out to us all over the place. He was a real trooper and smiled on cue every time. And every time he would say, "Okay Dairy Queen now?" Hey whatever works. Lydia, of course, was a little more shy. She didn't want her picture taken and wouldn't smile for about the first half of the shoot. Suddenly she switched and she turned into a little model. It was a hot day and I was melting but the background was beautiful. I thought the photographer did a good job considering what she had to work with. See what you think. Okay this seems like a lot but I'm choosing from 122 pictures. Samantha doesn't like this one but I think it is okay.
I know Lydia's shirt stands out but after a huge effort to color coordinate I just gave up. Now she is the star of the family.
I like this one except it looks like I am laughing.
Eli is making a funny face in this one. Otherwise okay.
I'm not sure where Eli thinks the camera is.

I like this one because it shows all the height differences.

I love this picture of the boys.I like how different each girl in our family looks.I loved all the pictures of the older girls.

Samantha calls this Garrett's "smoldering" look

You can't even see the big scrapes on his face from the mailbox attack. I put some make up on them but don't tell him I told you. He doesn't want anyone to know.

It's hard not to smile when you see these.

When a friend of mine looked at these photos. She said, "Can you believe you did this." I had those same thoughts when I first saw them. It's been so long since I saw a picture of us all together like this it was kinda surprising. So I have been doing something with myself these past twenty years.