Family Pictures 2009

I have been wanting to get professional family pictures taken ever since Emily got off the oxygen but I kept putting it off, or something would come up. And by the time I realized it, fall weather was here! Which is fine, because I love pictures with fall colors and the different shades of the changing leaves. I actually scheduled pictures with a photographer from Blackfoot last week, and I was so excited.-! But when I glanced outside that morning, lo and behold snow was gently falling and the wind was blowing making it the coldest day yet. Great, I thought... Snowing, below freezing temperatures, 20-30 mile per hour winds, outside for an hour or longer taking pictures with little (tired) kids, and with no coats (cuz like, big colorful coats would look really cool in family pictures...). Defeated, I canceled our pictures and decided to wait to do them in May or June next year. It's hard enough to get my girls to smile, let alone add all those miserable things* to the mix!

Yet, I really wanted some pictures of all of us together. Emily has been home for almost 3 months and we have yet to get a picture of all of us together! The weather was beautiful on Halloween day so I asked my sister, April and my sister-in-law Genn to take pictures of us before we went trick or treating.


However, right from the start Avery was not too thrilled with the idea like I was...
Just minutes after arriving at the park, I was feeling VERY frustrated. Why is it so hard for kids to sit nicely, look at a camera and smile for 2 seconds?? Is that really too much to ask?!

Guess so.

We were finally able to calm Avery down enough to take pictures, but don't expect a smile from her, that would be asking too much remember.

In the end, the pictures actually turned out pretty good, I think. Except we all tend to be looking at different cameras. Ha ha!

Thank you so much April and Genn for doing that for us!

So here are the ones I liked the most...

As you can see...Avery was still not happy and Emily decided to barf on herself right when this picture was taken. Lovely. Avery would not smile no matter what crazy, goofy faces my sisters and brothers were making behind the camera. (Thanks for trying April, Josh, Adam and Genn!)

Trying to have fun or at least trying to show Avery how much fun pictures can be.
I don't think she cared.

These were some of the last family pictures and by then we were bribing Avery that if she smiled she could have candy! Why didn't we try that in the first 30 pictures taken! (We're slow learners, ok?) This one is probably my favorite because we are ALL looking somewhat in the same direction and mostly smiling. One out of thirty or so... not bad. :)

Madi was a natural poser. I just love these pictures of her! Thanks Genn for taking these!

Avery's half smile as she was thinking about the candy she was going to get.

We even got a little smile out of Emily.

For some reason we didn't get any of Ryan and Madi alone. :( Or any with just Ryan and I. I just didn't even think about it! Sad.

Love all these of Avery and Ryan!

Madi's face cracks me up in this one! So funny!

*Avery not shown due to a melt down...most likely.

THE END