Fake Family Pictures

Oh family pictures. Doesn't that just make you cringe? I remember them as a kid...stress, yelling, tears, "I don't WANT to WEAR THAT!!!, fake smiles. I especially remember my youngest brother, Tanner, smiling like such a goof. The photographer kept saying, "just smile like your laughting" he couldn't do it. Finally we were all so sick of his "fake smile" almost like we had planned it at the same time all 7 of his "parents" said, "Tanner stop it!" It made him feel so bad he cried. Then the rest of the pictures he was doing his best to smile through his red tear-stained face. Poor kid.

Now I'm the mom telling everyone they HAVE to wear what I pick. And although I was expecting a fit from Caleb who refuses to ever wear a shirt with buttons, the fit was from Paul, upset he had to wear a shirt that was slightly too small. And then there was Grace. Turning her back to the camera at every chance only because I told her to LOOK at the camera. And Jameson just wanted to drool, and pull my at my scarf. I bribed 'till I was blue in the face. Then I'm out of breath trying to get everyone to just look at the camera and stand still for ONE second that I can hardly smile or worry about my hair in the right place, or remember to suck in my post-partum stomach....taking pictures with kids is hard, but I need these pictures to remind me what my kids look like without chocolate covered faces, clean clothes and their hair combed. :)


Next time, we are doing candid pictures in the mud with white t-shirts. No joke.

Flirty and Married

I'm not so sure anyone reads this anymore but at any rate I'll post for my own journalism purposes.

Yesterday I came in from the garage after getting honked at. Caleb was sitting at the floor and we had this conversation:
Caleb- "Mom did someone honk?"
Me- "yeah, some handsome guy just honked at me. He thought I was pretty." I said this with a big smile on my face and some flirty body language. (FYI, it was Paul)
Caleb- with a smile on his face, "Was it the police?"
Me- "No, I don't know who it was. But the guy thought I was pretty so he honked. Isn't that fun?"
Caleb- no longer smiling. "Mom, I don't think that's ok."
Me- "Why not?"
Caleb- "Because you're married. He probably didn't know you were already married."
Me- "Probably not. What should I do?"
Caleb- "You should tell him your married to dad already."

I then told Caleb the REALLY handsome man that honked was his Dad. He was relieved and told me it was okay then.