Family Pictures.....A great way to torture your kids and yourself!

Well, we had our family picture taken last week. We were due, since our last family picture was 5 years ago. In the last family picture, Mike was 2 (awwww!) , Veruka was sitting on my lap and still didn't have her front teeth, and Charlie had a buzz cut! Yep, I'd say they've changed!

Getting a family picture taken isn't as easy as it sounds.

First, I had to break the "good" news to the kids. Nobody was too thrilled about it.

Then, there was the chore of deciding what to wear. This time nobody wanted to dress up, so we went with jeans. However, there still was the matter of coordinating everyone's shirts.

Then, I had to find a time where all 5 of us were available. (That alone was next to impossible!) We came up with one time that worked.....it was an early dismissal day for the kids.
(You can imagine how thrilled they were!)

The day of the picture came and I have to say, that the kids looked so nice. Well, I should clarify that...Veruka always looks nice...the boys were the ones who looked better than usual. When they were all dressed I told the kids, that "before I had kids" this is how I thought my kids would look all the time. I mean, they looked like a catalog ad! (I had no idea that in real life boys would want to wear shorts 95% of the year, with jerseys and sweatshirts. Who knew?)

So, we got the pictures taken, which was honestly much better than when they were younger. (They have learned that if they smile nicely, the torture will end sooner.)

The great thing was that we got to select and take home our pictures that same day. Great in that we got it all over with at once. Not so great, in that I had to figure out exactly which pictures we wanted while Brian and the kids stood around bored to death. We ended up not really liking any of the pictures of the 5 of us, so they even reshot them. (Yea, the kids were soooo happy about getting to do it again!) Thankfully, those came out much better. Brian took the kids to the pet store to hold some puppies while I made the selections. After about an hour with my list and calculator, we were done.

We got to leave the Mall, mentally exhausted, pictures in hand, with 3 kids whining, "Can we please, please, please get another dog???"

I am not posting the picture, because it is going to be our Christmas Card this year. (I should have had them print a caption on it that says, "This is how my kids never look.")
So when you get it, you can think of all of our hard work that went into it. :)

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Update....July 2008....I've added the picture, for your viewing pleasure! Of course, it was taken right before I got my sassy new haircut....it figures, doesn't it???