Monday, December 04, 2006

The Quest (to take pictures with a 20 month old)

This was a great idea, but who knew that on such a cloudy day, the sun would seem SO BRIGHT!!! We could hardly keep our eyes open. Whitney would have nothing to do with laying down so we just let her try to look up at the camera. . .not working.


Now Whitney is actually smiling, but at someone over there. Look at how hard I'm trying to keep my eyes open. . .look at that muscle flex on the side of my face!!!

Good thing we always have Jordan there with Tiff to help return Whitney to us during takes.
We did one like this that was practically perfect when Molly was this age. . .Whitney is done.


OK, let me back up here. . . .


Every year I have a plan. Colors/outfits-check, haircuts-check, no major scratches/blemishes-check, teeth whitened-check. Ok, the Christmas card picture quest may now begin, and pray for good weather.

Thank heaven for Tiff. Matt's sis is a photographer and we take full advantage of this whenever she's in town. She does an amazing job of catching everyone at their best moment, or at least being brilliant enough at Photoshop to fix all the problems! Last year, she even moved Molly's face from a different photo to make things just right. She whitens teeth, removes bags under eyes, takes moles off, slims your waist. . .I mean seriously, she has everyone looking a lot better than they really do. This year our pictures were a little late getting taken, so she just sent off the photos without doing her hours and hours of adjustments (so NO looking too close!!)

I have dreams of fabulous photos since every once in a while it happens, but seriously, just look what it takes to get maybe one good shot. We did get a few good ones, that you'll see on our christmas card. . .but that was from about 300 shots! (Thanks, Tiff!)

It all looks so sweet and innocent at the beginning. .

No, honey, your sisters aren't pinning you there. . .The smile is fading and she's figuring things out fast. Look at how well Madison and Molly are keeping up good smiles and faces for the camera as Whitney realizes the torment that is occuring. . ."They're totally squishing me!!! Make them stop!!""Must. . . . . . . .get . . . . . . . out. . . . . . ."I have no idea why I need to be making that face. . .I'm sure I was in mid sentance saying something to Whitney to make her happy. . .

This is when an airplane was going by. . .see Whitney's airplane arm? And look at that face from me now! I look like I've had a few too many, and that I have a big upper denture!!!

Happy Holiday Picture Taking!!

10 comments:

Christy said...

I don't know what we're going to do about pictures. I've decided to send out just some of the kids so I don't have to worry about looking good myself. I'll just try and get them to smile and not beat each other up.

Yours always look really great!

And I totally copped out and bought a fake cheap-o wreath that I'm going to try to make and look presentable. Apparently it's a lot of money to make Martha's wreath and Carl would kill me.

Bek said...

Wendy,

YOur pictures are always FABULUOUS! I am so jealous of them. I have never been able to get a good one of our family...because I am the only photographer I know.....

Whitney is at that tricky age when they don't want to cooperate. Yikes, that is hard...

QueenScarlett said...

...I love the outfits and hello - fun... so cute and entertaining. You guys have personality! Love it.

Anonymous said...

If I hadn't known that Whitney was doing the airplane arm, I would have thought she was saying... "We're number 1!"

Lisa said...

Oh family pictures! You're so brave! Those pictures are instant classics, fer sure!

wendysue said...

Hey, Maybe next year we can all do "reality" christmas pictures. . .you know. .

kids with dirty, jellied faces and stained clothes, wrestling and biting each other, or at least all in tears.

Mothers looking exhausted and half asleep screaming "you'll smile and you'll LIKE it!!"

Husbands busy on the computer or playing their playstation, or are they even home?

Sister Pottymouth said...

Whitney's facial expressions are hilarious! I have tears running down my cheeks from laughing so hard. "Must....get....out....." nearly did me in.

Your family is beautiful. What awesome pictures!

Anonymous said...

The pictures are great. I like the idea of reality family pictures. I think Madison and Molly did GREAT in the pictures. They were always looking at the camera with big smiles on. My kids would have been trying to help the little one.

Anonymous said...

Your pictures are great! My sister-in-law did our picture last year. Our family picture that we have up is actually three heads from different pictures. She would let me pick the heads I liked from all the pictures she took and made one awesome family portrait.

Now days I don't believe the pictures where everyone is smiling and looking prefect with the technology today! She even whitened my teeth for me and took a few pounds off of Ryan's face! We love photo shop!

Carina said...

I love when people send out pictures of their kids screaming--makes them seem real! We all know kids scream, seeing that reality is awesome.

That being said, you chose some good ones.