Picture people

Bridger: 5 1/2--easiest to pose, hardest to get a true smile.

Asher: 3--enjoys being cute, but can't sit in one place for long

Eilidh: 16months--easiest to get candids, impossible to pose

I like pictures--I take a lot, I'm into photography, our walls are covered with this "art" featuring mostly our kids. I also took the idea of milestone pictures very seriously--3mo, 6mo, 1yr, 2yr--it seemed I was always traipsing to some photo studio in a department store. I couldn't really afford to go to a fabulous photographer, but somehow I just felt like the studio atmosphere would force my kids to at least get one good shot. The last two years have been the worst--trying to get three kids to smile together and separately is a nightmare. Ryan finally kicked some sense into me last fall after a particularly harrowing "studio" experience where he used up his entire day off to fight with the kids then walk the mall with them while I had to endure a hard-sell presentation to spend something like $500 on pictures that weren't all that good to begin with. He said, "why don't you just take their pictures?" and then, the key phrase, "I'll help you"

You see, usually picture day (notoriously Christmas card picture day) is when our marital strife is at its peak. In fact, Ryan is typically the hardest one to convince to even get the camera out so if he was willing to help...maybe this could work.

Ryan made good on his word and we took an evening this July to take some shots of the kids. It wasn't easy and I still don't have one of three of them together that I like, but overall it was a much nicer experience. And it yielded better pictures.