Family Pictures

I have been feeling quite guilty lately because I feel like I have neglected my children when it comes to pictures. Not just snap shots at home. Thanks to digital cameras, I have millions of those. But nice professional pictures... not so much. Except Eli that is. It seems that we were able to get professional pictures taken of him at 8 weeks, 5 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 2 years! Well, if you were to walk in and look at my mantle and see the professional pictures that have been taken of Eli and Lucy, you would see a recent picture of Eli in March on one side and a picture of a baby that looks quite similar to Lily, but it's not...it's Lucy at 8 weeks old! I know, horrible mother, right? So each time I walk in my living room, you can imagine just how guilty I have been feeling. I had a beautiful picture taken at eight weeks with both Eli and Lucy. I couldn't add more to my guilty complex so I had to be sure to get the same picture of Lily. So I call JC Penny's portrait studio to make an appointment. They are closed the week that Lily is eight weeks but they can do it the next week and they will give me free pictures if I am willing to be a guinea pig for them as they switch systems. OF COURSE!!! So we all get in the car (grammy and poppy too!) and head to Pineville to get some pictures of the girls. When we get there, they are of course running behind. (I haven't had the best of luck with JC Penny but that is another blog for another time.) So, in true Lucy fashion, she has already pulled her adorable hair out. She of course can't stand when we try to do anything to her hair and throws a fit when we start to try. The only thing that will keep her from screaming is my bright orange cell phone. Grammy has disappeared somehwere in the mall to buy new hair ribbons (as Lucy's snapped and broke in the hair struggle) Eli has been whisked away with Poppy somewhere in the mall. I have both girls by myself. Everyone gets back and they finally call us back to take our pictures, they are very disorganized and it is apparent that they don't exactly know what they are doing. We decide to not make Lucy wait any longer so we have her go first. Now, you all know that Lucy is 17 months old, right? They have a little red light on a spot on a light colored background and told her to stand there by that light. Are you kidding??? You can't tell a 17 month old stand on a red dot and think you're going to get some good pictures. At least not a 17 month old of mine! Lucy was all over the place still holding that orange phone. Finally, I asked if they had any props that we could distract her with. They didn't really have anything. Finally, there was a little white stool in the corner. I asked can we use that stool? So we dragged that stool to the little red light. Lucy climbed all over that little stool. We got some really cute shots! So then it was Lily's turn. While Lucy was having her picture taken, Lily was busy filling her little diaper with a big poopy surprise, So grammy took her to change her diaper. Guess who forgot the wipes? The big guilty feeling mommy! While we get Lily changed to have her pictures taken, Lucy begins to scream and throw a fit. Poppy has now taken Eli somewhere because we couldn't contain him either. We finally get the pictures done (minus two poses I wanted that included an outfit change for all of them....HAHA!, but wasn't even going to attempt.) We shuffle Lucy out with Aaron and my purse and phone! How am I supposed to pay? We call Aaron and get my purse back. Aaron and Poppy decide they are going to walk all the way to REI with all three kids while Grammy and I choose poses. From there it got better (I guess because we were the ones without the kids). We got some great poses of the girls and got a really good deal because we were the guinea pigs. Ultimately it was still worth it. I got pictures of Lucy and Lilyand we got to eat out! It had become crystal clear why we did not have any other pictures since Lucy was 8 weeks. CRYSTAL CLEAR..I wish you could have seen us trying to get 4 adults, and 3 children get an umbrella stroller, a double stroller into the van plus all of our stuff. Then manage to get all three kids buckled in a car seat and then get in ourselves! Hysterical! The best part was making it home (without hitting any race traffic) and then putting everyone to bed! I now have a plan for pictures in the future. Eli and Lucy will have pictures taken at preschool and I will take Lily by herself to get pictures until she makes it to preschool! That...or just wait until each of their high school graduations. :-)