The Young and the Restless

Family photo shoot. Oh joy.

Family pictures are one of life's necessary evils.  The fake smiles make it look so easy, but looks are deceiving.  Approximately 5 seconds before plastering the cheezy grin I am snapping at the kids to put their hands down, make a real smile, look at the camera and then we stuff Maddox's mouth with smarties.  Last year the 100 mph icy wind was our demise in our Utah photo shoot.  This year it was the street.  We did a photo swap with 2 other families.  The location was great for pictures, not so great for the 15 kids we had running around in the street.  I think by the end all us moms were a hot sweaty mess from chasing kids out of the road (maybe it was just me, but I'll pretend like it wasn't).  But despite all the behind the scenes chaos, I love having new pictures to look at for the rest of the year.  I love comparing how much the kids have grown and how much the family has changed.  It's crazy to think we'll have a 6 month old gracing the next family photo, and heaven knows how hard it is to keep a little baby happy and cooperative for pictures, so thankfully I have a whole other year to recuperate.  Atleast I had a smothered bean burrito at Rosa's and the temple lights with the family afterwards to put me back in the Christmas mood. After we manage to survive the photos it's time for the critique.  Jason and I can never decide on a favorite.  Of course I pick the ones that I look best in, because if mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.  This was my favorite because I thought my legs look kinda sexy, I'm just sayin...don't mind that Jason was accidentally flipping off the camera so I had to photoshop it out and now it looks like he had an accident with a chainsaw.  Don't mind that Maddox looks like he's about to cry.  Don't mind that Jayden looks...special.  Because darn it, my legs look good.  I tried to tell Jason it was the family pose I liked, but he saw straight through my facade.

After my legs lost out, I took one for the team and this was the second runner up...



but in the end we decided this was the winner.  After I get over the obvious fact that Jason had no idea where to put his feet and hands and that I wish Kylie and Jayden had swapped places to balance out the color (especially since I thought Jason's shirt was charcoal and not navy, uggg.), I like it. 

How did I luck out and get such cute kids???

This kid could do no wrong, seriously. (except maybe when he ripped off the entire front of the kitchen cabinet drawer today. Even then Jason questioned whether I disciplined him or not because he knows I'm such a softy when it comes to my Na-Na.)

Me, my honey and my baby bump