Hello there! As I mentioned in this post, we tried to take family photos a week or so ago. Now, our family is full of bankers and teachers, with one accountant (me!) thrown in. None of us are professional photographers. But we still drag out a tripod and at least attempt to get a few decent pictures each year. If anything, just one good enough for a Christmas card is all we're really looking for! This year we gathered at our new house to try to utilize the front steps and brick porch. The bricks have such a great texture! I'm not sure we used them as well as a real photographer would, but we tried. My mom likes to have a full family shot to use as her Christmas card so we all crammed onto the front steps to try to get a decent one. At first, I was clicking the button on the timer and then running to my spot, but that resulted in lots of pictures of me half straddling the steps trying to get into position. We learned after a couple takes that maybe someone from the front row should be in charge of pushing the button. (And maybe I should ask Santa for a remote control!)
In my opinion, this is the best group shot we got. Sure, Katie's crying and Ramer (the other baby) is looking over at her, but I figured if anyone was going to be looking off, it might as well be the babies.
We try not to be too matchy-matchy for our pictures. The general rule is to just wear solid shirts in fall colors. It's just a coincindence that we all showed up in mostly grey, navy, or purple.
With the group shot out of the way, the adults got out of the way so we could focus on just my parents' seven grandchildren.
Probably the best picture from the pose above would've been if I'd turned my camera around and snapped the seven other adults behind me singing and chanting and waving their arms around trying to get everyone to look and smile. If only I'd had another camera - couldn't risk missing the kids' smiles!
We broke out into our individual families next. Now usually I don't like to share the picture being used for the card until after cards have been sent out, but since I don't think there are many of my brothers' and parents' card recipients that read this blog, surely it'll be safe to share some of them.
First up is my oldest brother, Nick, and his family. His wife is Beth and they have two kids: Jett (7) and Bren (4).
Hopefully these pictures will print better than they're showing up on the ol' blog. I'm using very low-resolution files for this but the real files are bigger.
Jett-bo made me an aunt for the first time 7 and a half years ago. And Brennie was my very first niece.
Next in line is my other brother, Ben. He's married to Erin and they have two boys: Parker (4) and Ramer (1). Ramer refused to look at me and my camera!
Parker is just 8 days younger than Bren and they are bestest friends. I love listening in on their conversations. Ramer is a chunky monkey who loves his mama and just recently took his first steps!
Parker and his daddy were outfit twinkies. :)
With just two older brothers, that makes me the baby of the family. As you know, I'm married to Doc and we have Wyatt (12), Anna (11), and Katie Wynn (2 months).
Since a lot of you guys are on our Christmas Card list, I'll refrain from sharing the one we're using just yet. It's decent, but probably not the best picture ever. It's hard to photograph two tweens with a floppy newborn!
And, of course, my brothers and I all belong to these two, most commonly known as Mimi and Poppy these days.
This would probably be a more accurate portrayal of them: my dad doing something stupid while my mom laughs at him.
Usually on our family photo-op days we focus on the kiddos. This time, I made sure each set of adult couples also had their picture made.
Ben and Erin also took this one in front of the fall leaves. I like all the colors in it.
I had the good idea to get a "girl grandchildren" picture. Of course, by this time the football had come out so there was no way I could get the boys together for a "boy grandchildren" one.
Anna was in the mood to pose, so I got a few cute pictures of her.
I caught Jett between football plays. Darn Lolli for walking through the background!
I had to sneak in a quick one of Bren too. As soon as I took her picture she said, "Can I go play now?" I guess they had been tortured long enough. Also, next year I'll remember not to have red gatorade for them to drink! (I whitened her teeth in this but she still looks like she's wearing lipstick.)
I couldn't pull a smile out of ol' Parker.
Of course, I was hesitant to get too close to him. Have you ever seen such scary shoes?!
After lots of clapping and snapping and clucking and whistling, I actually managed to get a couple grins from sweet Ramer.
So besides Katie, I think Wyatt is the only other grandkid I didn't get an individual picture of. That sounds about right since he's the one who hides from my camera the most.
Speaking of Katie, family pictures wore her plum out!
Actually, I think they wore us all out. And made us hungry, too! With over 500 pictures on my camera, we called it a day and headed out for a dinner out. Be on the lookout - some of these pictures may show up in some of your mailboxes soon!