ARG! Family pictures

I love family pictures.  I love having a picture of all my favorite people, and having them all sorts of places I can see them, from over the fireplace in our family room to the background of all my electronic devices.  And ever since Jasmine was born it has bothered me that she wasn't in our last one.  Well, technically she's there in the large belly I was sporting, but I'd rather see her smiling face.  She's part of our "flamily" too (as Kaitlyn used to call us).

And ever since we bought our cabin, I have dreamed of getting family pictures up at this meadow.  Unfortunately, picking this remote location meant I couldn't just call in a small favor and ask someone to meet us at a park to press the shutter, like I did last time.  My goal was to get up at the crack of dawn (hence avoiding the harsh light) and I was worried we'd have to take a four-wheeler up there, so I thought we could just take care of it by ourselves.

Wrong.

The baby woke up nice and happy at the right time, so I frantically tried to get all of my makeup done and get the older kids ready.  Only Tyler woke up CRANKY.  As in, sobbing on the floor and kicking anyone who came near him.  By the time we had him under control, the baby was cranky, and then quickly down for a nap.  So at that point, I let her sleep for a bit, debating on when to drag her up because now everyone else was dressed and ready and the longer we waited, the higher and harsher the sun was in the sky.

Apparently, I waited just long enough to get both harsh sunlight that no one would look into AND a cranky baby.

This is the best it got.  Tyler never looked at the camera once that day.  And the baby just cried and looked down into my lap.  And Daddy kept saying "just take another round, because I don't want to have to do this again." And Tyler said "CHEESE!" while looking at his shoes. Ugh.

We got some better pictures once we split it up so someone was behind the camera, and hung out in the shade at our place.

Oh, and I had to get my 3-month shot.

 
Only I can't find Tyler's picture now.  Just Kaitlyn's.

My babies always look at the camera with a "why is she doing this to me?" expression, and that's part of the fun.

We'll see if I can talk Christopher into trying again anytime soon.  In the meantime, I'll just pretend that I like the picture where 3 out of the 5 are looking at the camera.