Family Pictures 2014

We had family pictures taken.  It's already been a year.   It was a crazy day.  The pictures were at 6pm.  I wanted to make a skirt for Chloe, so I decided to put that off until the last minute.  I spent a lot of the day sewing that.  It turned out ok, but I re-did it after the pictures.  It worked for the pictures, but the fit wasn't quite right.  After that I got the kids and myself ready and fed Seth before we left.  We got the main picture done and a few of the kids before Lance and Brady had to leave for a church activity.  The whole time I was thinking I should have had Seth's individual one done first, but I didn't.  By the time we got to him, he'd had it.  It was hot, kids were running.  I was trying not to be stressed and crazy, but I was probably both.  Plus, he was teething and ready to eat again since he thinks eating every 90 minutes is essential.   Most of the pictures turned out really good.  Having such cute kids makes that easy though.  The photographer was also fantastic.  You can see in the genuine smiles from my kids that they were having a great time.

We tried some different poses.  Of course having such a large family is a challenge, but I think it's also challenging since Brady is about the same size as we are, then there's all these little kids.  I really wanted to be next to Lance.  There's a picture of my family when I was a teenager that my dad always hated because my mom is in the front with all of the kids around her and he's shoved in the back.  He's right.  It looks weird.  It's too bad too since I really like my hair in that picture!  We went right after track practice and my hair had been back in a braid.  I didn't have time to shower, so I was just praying for some cooperation from my hair!  Anyway, this is not my favorite pose.  (My little sister thought Seth's face was hilarious in most of the pictures.) 

We tried to all fit on the couch, but that didn't work.  We can crop out the older three though and pretend we only have the four little boys.  I don't think they'd appreciate that much.  Well, maybe Brady wouldn't mind.

This is our favorite one.  Only Seth isn't quite smiling.  My kids love it because you can see the emergency Smarties sticking out of my pocket.  I only wish Isaac was up just a little higher.

Somehow, Brady grew up.  He's only 13!  He looks so much bigger though.  He has a tendency to clench his jaw when he smiles.  We kept bugging him about it and trying to get a real smile, which he would do, right until the camera came out, then he was clenching.  That's just Brady though.

Mia is a natural in front of the camera.  She always has been. She poses and smiles with no problem.

Chloe was all smiles for the group picture, but she would hardly crack a grin by herself.  I let them wear whichever shoes they wanted since I didn't want the shoes in the pictures anyway.  It's hard enough to get coordinating outfits, I just can't manage the shoes too.  She's wearing her "Hydee High Tops."  She loves these.  They have about a two inch heel inside the shoe.  She's one of the tallest in her class already, so she doesn't need them at all, but she loves them.  

Eventually, we got her to smile.

I let them choose their backgrounds.  Tyler specifically asked for the corner.  Funny boy.  He has such a cute smile.

Isaac totally surprised me.  He can be so reserved sometimes, but he loved the photographer.  She got quite a few good pictures of him.

He was very specific about his hair.  It's hard to see, but it's sticking up into a little curl in the front.  Look at that face!

Ahh Gabe.  

I can't decided which one I like better.  I like each for different reasons.  He has such a smile in his eyes in both of them so maybe that's why I go back and forth.

I forced Lance to have a couple of pictures of us taken.  In the first she told us to look at each other.  I'm sure she was expecting some lovey, dovey, engagement or newlywed photo, but she got weird uncertain looks from us instead.  Of course you can see my cell phone in my pocket and my hair tie on my wrist.  I was on the other side of Lance before she asked me to switch and I forgot to switch my stuff.  Grr.  Someday maybe I'll learn Photoshop.  I should keep a file of pictures I want to Photoshop.  

Cute little Seth.  He was so drooly and so done.  He wasn't sitting up by himself completely yet, so we needed something to prop him up a bit.  He was pretty jammed in that bucket with the pillow behind him.  On top of everything else, a happy picture just wasn't happening.  His sad face is pretty cute too.

         

 While I was doing a wardrobe change with Seth that didn't work out at all, the girls got together and got some super cute pictures taken together.  Most of the time they act like every other pair of sisters who fight about silly things.  But sometimes, they're best friends.  I hope they remember those times the most, because those moments are magical.

Mia had been asking for a picture with Seth before we even got to the studio.  By the time we were done and that hadn't happened yet, he was in full meltdown mode.  I really didn't think it was worth even trying.  If only you could see what's happening in the background.  Remember, I'm there with 6 kids by myself at this point, with a very unhappy baby, a two year old, and two other wild boys.  They were running amok and I was ready to pack up and take my chaos home for the night.  She was devastated.  I couldn't handle any more tears, so I made sure she understood Seth would not be smiling in the picture.  She was ok with that, so we got a quick picture of them together.  She really loves her baby brother.

I'm always glad I make the effort to get family pictures, but they sure are a lot of work!  It all starts with the clothes.  There's lots of ideas about coordinating outfits for family pictures, but I really need someone to start a website where you can pick your colors and ages and genders of your family and have outfits sent to you.  Or I just need a personal shopper.  Shopping is not one of my strong points.  Good thing I'm good at making cute babies. 

November 2014

Isaac had his birthday this month. Another blurry picture. At least I can say I didn't take this one. He really wanted a Dusty Crophopper Airplane from Planes, Fire and Rescue that shoots balls.  I thought it was crazy expensive for what it was, but Lance insisted he get it. So, he got it and he loved it. 

I'm still in a constant state of sleep exhaustion with 6 month old Seth.  He does ok at sleeping, but he's not sleeping through the night.  He's still sleeping in the bassinet next to our bed.  He touches his head and his feet, but he's still happy in it.  I still wrap him up in his blanket too since he doesn't roll over yet. I really enjoy my time with only these three boys at home during the day.  

Mia is a great big sister still.  She loves her baby brother Seth.  He doesn't have any teeth yet, which is rare for our kids.  Usually they are early teethers. I'm not complaining though!

I feel like I'm constantly buying socks for someone in my family. If it's not holes in the socks, it's lost socks since they take them off all over the place. 

I'm not sure why Mia is posing like this, but she is.  She's full of interesting poses.

This is the first time Seth got to ride in the shopping cart all buckled up.  We were on our way to Costco in case you can't tell by the giant cart!  He loved being able to look around more.  He also liked to be able to bug Gabe.  

This is Chloe's letter to Santa. She is such a sweetheart. She's always thinking of others. 

I think this chair is a kid magnet.  Any time we sit down, we end up with a lap full of kids.

I made some pies for Thanksgiving. Gabe made sure the pumpkin pie tasted good.

Mia and Tyler helped peel potatoes.

And Mia helped some more by getting Seth up from his nap. Somehow, I decided to have Thanksgiving at our house.  We had lots of people here, mostly my family. The food turned out good. Nobody complained, and nobody got sick, so I'd say that's success. 

Halloween

Gabe got a head start on Halloween by trying on Chloe's costume from last year.  One of the fun things about having older sisters is all of the dresses to choose from.  They're also more than willing to help you try them on.

This year everybody got to dress up twice.  Once for the ward Halloween party and again on Halloween. It's nice that they get to use their costumes more than once, but I'm not too excited to do face paint more than once. I'm definitely not a skilled artist. 

 

Chloe decided to be a skateboarder this year.  She's really been wanting a skateboard.  She figured out if she was a skateboarder, she'd need a skateboard.  That skateboard was a big pain though.  I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg so I looked for one online about 4 weeks before Halloween.  Wal Mart had one on clearance for less than $15 so I ordered it.  It was supposed to be shipped to the store a week before Halloween.  It never came.  I kept tracking it and it left the warehouse to go to the store, but never showed up.  Three days before Halloween, the day before the ward Halloween party, I got an email saying the skateboard was lost!  Arrgh. So I had to go buy one after all.  I ended up spending twice as much for a skateboard I didn't like as much.  I was pretty irritated.  She was happy to get her skateboard though.  She looked pretty cute.

Tyler decided to be Zurg.  There is no reasonably priced kids Zurg costume, in case you're wondering.  I was really hoping to not have to make any costumes since Seth demands so much attention.  After checking pinterest for ideas, I dove in and kind of made up his costume as I went along.  I tried to discourage him by making sure he realized it's mostly just a purple dress.  That didn't deter him at all though.  I think it turned out pretty good.  Tyler was happy with it and I'm pretty sure you could tell who he was if you knew the movie.

Mia wanted to be Heath Ledger's Joker.  It's pretty creepy, but she was happy.

Isaac wanted to be a dragon.  Not just any dragon, an orange dragon.  Orange is his favorite color.  Most dragon costumes out there are green, not orange.  I wasn't sure how I was going to work that out.  Then I found a dragon costume that was from How to Train Your Dragon.  Of course that costume was no longer being sold in stores.  I found one on ebay but I didn't want to pay what they were asking.  I checked KSL kind of on a whim so I was pretty shocked when there was actually a listing for the costume I wanted, in his size, for only $5.  It was in Salt Lake, so I asked Lance if he could pick it up on his way home from the airport after he got back from a business trip.  His flight got delayed though, so I ended up going to get it.  It's a good thing I did.  She had two dragon costumes.  The other one was Night Fury.  She tried to give me that one first.  Had it been Lance, he wouldn't have known it wasn't the right one.  Isaac was thrilled with it.  The wings were a bit annoying though.  They were supposed to fit into some pockets in the back, but they just didn't stay in very well.

Gabe got to wear the lion costume that I got from The Gap on an after season clearance for less than $10.  All of my kids have worn it at one time or another.  It has been a favorite dress up costume at different times. He never holds still, so he's always blurry in pictures.  

On Friday, the school had their annual costume parade.  It's kind of fun to go see all of the kids in their costumes.  They go by pretty quickly though. 

I usually help out at one party per kid per year.  Their parties are all at the same time, so I can only be in one place at a time.  Tyler chose the Halloween party for him. They made little tombstone/graveyard pudding cups.  A lot of the kids didn't even eat them.  Tyler only ate a couple of bites.  They must have been all sugared out already.

Later that night we went trick-or-treating with my brother's family.  I wasn't sure how Gabe was going to do.  Once he got it figured out, he loved it!  I think he would have gone for another hour.

Isaac, on the other hand, wasn't too into it.  He wanted me to go to the doors and get him candy.  I told him no way.  He had to go get his own candy.  So he just sat in the stroller a lot of the time.

Tyler's costume was a bit too restrictive for all of the walking, so he ended up taking the "dress" part off.  It was a little harder to tell who he was supposed to be without it, but he didn't care.

Chloe never really carried her skateboard while trick-or-treating either.  They were all sufficiently exhausted by the time we were done.  They had lots of candy too.  I got smart this year and tied ribbons on the handles of their bags so we knew who's bag was who's instead of the constant "Is this my bag?  This isn't my bag," game we usually play. 

 

Brady didn't dress up at all.  He said I could just buy him some candy and he'd be fine.

Here's everybody's haul of candy. It's amazing how much a little tiny screen hides how out of focus a picture is.