Family Portraits

Tonight we took our family portraits for the church directory. It went surprisingly well....I know I have blogged before about how I am really trying to "chill" when it comes to taking pictures. And I think that approach actually helped the situation tonight. I went into it not expecting anything....I just asked the kids to smile and stand still long enough for the guy to snap one or two pics and they did great.

It did get a little interesting when it was time to take the enitre Walls family portrait. I think there were like 16 of us (eight of those kids)....All I know is that I got my hair pulled two or three times and my necklace was almost ripped off my neck a couple times. It was funny because the guy snapped a pic and then said, "Well, that may have worked but the baby in the back had a handful of the lady in the middle's hair." And, at one point, Matt said, "What is this wet stuff all over my arms??".....I was like, "Who knows....Kassidy probably spit on you." A few minutes later, we came to the conclusion that she had went pee-pee on Matt during the photo shoot. I am glad he did not realize it until after the pics were done...he may have been too grossed out to keep smiling!!

What really stands out in my mind from the whole experience, is that by the time we left, the photographer knew Brody by his first name. You can probably figure out why. He kept hearing us say...."No, Brody, stand up straight...Put your hands by your side, Brody....Get your finger out of your nose, Brody" After about 3 minutes, the photographer just starting addressing Brody on a first name basis - he just took it upon himself to start trying to keep Brody focused and smiling. But, in the end, the pics were better than expected and I was actually impressed with how good Brody (and all the other kids) did tonight. But, I still hate taking "portraits" and I plan to continue to avoid picture studios for as long as I possibly can!