Monday, November 24, 2008

Family Pictures Fiasco

I love pictures of my family. Everyone scrubbed clean in new clothes, hair just perfect, pretty little smiles. I love fun pictures all over the house that remind us what a cute happy family we are. However, I don't always love the road that it takes to GET family pictures. Figuring out what everyone will wear, going to a million stores to find just the right outfits, doing the girls hair in a pretty soft hairdo and then stressing about them not ruining that pretty soft hair before the photographer even takes the first picture. In my life there is always a baby in the picture...which means an inevitable runny nose and lots of effort to get said baby to look reasonably happy and to stay in one place without crawling off (or walking off, or running off). There is always a grumpy toddler (and sometimes a grumpy husband!). There is always bribes of candy, fun, McDonalds, Saturday afternoon football (for Mr.Wonderful of course)...whatever it takes to get the joys of my life looking joyful at the same time. There is a litany of NO's on the drive over....no fits, no fights, no crying, no fussing, no whining. So I finally got all of my ducks in a row. The outfits, the hair, a fun new photographer. My bribes were in place, and my happy little campers came through in the end. The girls were great (ok, one pouty face picture from little Miss.Drama hardly counts right?). Mr.Wonderful came through wonderfully. Linc was our little bump in the road but we managed to get a few shots of him smiling whilst running away from the camera (what else would make a little boy so happy?). A big thanks to our awesome photographer Steve Watson who I highly recommend...a man with 4 children of his own and plenty of patience to deal with my crew. Also a huge thanks to my darling husband who puts up with my high-strung personality and perfectionism at picture time every year...he was a gem (and he even got to watch his Saturday afternoon football!). Enjoy the pics...there are more at stevewatson.smugmug.com.

Cute little stinker

Blondie being sweet

My favorite family pic...love the corn!!

The Princesses

Very Vintage

Isn't he handsome??

How did I get so lucky with those 3?

Anna is great at posing for the camera...

And last but not least...Miss.Drama decides to pout! But not to worry, with a promise of candy she snapped right out of it on the next shot (I am a shameless briber on picture day).

14 comments:

Susan said...

Very cute! Love the blue of your shirts and the family photo in front of the corn is great! Anna's pouty face/head is priceless. :)

the landreths said...

Steve's good! Very great pics. Your hair is getting so long--i love it!

Machelle said...

Amber, I hope you dont mind I found your blog. We miss you all and especially since seeing Anna in that last picture. Those are fantastic.
Machelle

tessa said...

Well, I'm a little biased on the photographer but those are some SENSATIONAL pics:) Seriously, you guys are so photogenic. I love the pouty picture and all things considered Linc really did do a great job:)

Brianne said...

Great pics!! I totally know what you mean because we just had our pics done TODAY at that very same park actually! :) ha, ha. Anyways I love all the pics, even the one of the pouty face because it is them in their true form (at times hee, hee)!

Meghan said...

I love the pictures! He did a great job. How do you know this guy, and is he expensive? I want to get ours done, and I have actually looking for someone....

The Higgins Family said...

Amen, sistah--- the irony of family portrait time is hilarious-- gradually raising voices, "smile... smile!... SMILE!"
Way to go, Steve! Beautiful family pictures.
Before knowing he was starting his business, I committed to do a shoot with my neighbor friend setting up her own studio. We just missed you at good old Sahauro Park--- we went in the afternoon. ;)

kim said...

I love the pictures. Everyone looks wonderful, and great choice on colors and clothes. And shots of our kids not being perfect, well that's life and lets face it, it's perfect.

The Lee Clan said...

I just love Family Picture time! In our last family pics we couldn't get Jodi happy for anything. She actually looks like a grumpy linebacker.

Harrison and Christine said...

Awh, they're so adorable!! the pictures turned out great :)

Krista said...

AMBER!!! The pictures turned out great!!!!! You have some of the CUTEST little kids!! LOVE THEM!!! You know... our family photo's could be photo shopped together... because we're basically wearing the same colors and it was taken at the same location!! Gotta love it!!!!!
p.s. the picture of you and your hubby is soooooooooo CUTE!! You look beautiful!!

Autumn said...

Adorable pictures, i must say this family has good looking kids :)

Liz said...

Those look great! Sounds like a LOT of fun putting that whole picture fiasco together!!! You are my hero..........

Families are Forever said...

I just looked at all your pictures on Steve's blog. Very, very cute. In one picture of you and Randy and Linc, your eyes look really pretty. They really pop out.

We just had our family pics taken last weekend. Hopefully they'll turn out as nice as yours.

About Me

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Phoenix, Arizona
I am a stay at home mom of 4 beautiful, energetic children. Anna is 6, Hallie is 5, Linc is 3 and Port is our newest addition. Randy and I have been married for 8 years and love every minute that we get together.