Say Cheese?!?!

With the holiday season upon us, we decided it was time to update our family picture (which we haven't done since Noah joined us) and get Grace's 2-year pictures made. The whole process reminded me why we don't do it very often!

First, there's the outfit planning for the family portrait. Fortunately, my mom had purchased something for all three kids to wear, but finding something appropriate for Aaron and I to wear that blended and looked somewhat festive proved challenging.

Then, there's the actual studio experience. I decided that if we ever do it again, we'll dress in our holiday outfits in July to avoid the crowds. I know that portrait studios are out to make a buck, but when you specialize in a business that thrives on people looking happy, making them wait in a 90 degree studio for any longer than 10 minutes or so just doesn't make good business sense. Kids get hot, they get tired, moms and dads get flustered and in a hurry and you just don't sell as many pictures as you would have if you scheduled fewer appointments for the day! The thing is, these pictures are around for like...ever...and nobody wants their great great grandchildren looking back and laughing about how stressed everyone looked. Yeah, my great great grandparents look VERY stressed in their pictures, but with much better reason than a photography studio that overscheduled appointments! They were raising 13 kids and working in fields with no deodorant, so I cut them a whole lot of slack! But I digress...

We finally got our pictures made. And when we got home that night, I fell asleep a couple of hours earlier than normal. It was work, but we got it done and managed to get a few good shots. Lots of you will be seeing some of these on forthcoming Christmas cards. Act surprised! :)