An attempt at Easter pictures....

So, some kids are easier than others at taking the Easter Sunday picture. I tried to do a nice set of pictures outside of each kid individually after we got all ready for church before John came home from his Sunday morning meetings. I got everyone ready, Easter baskets looked through, breakfast eaten with plenty of time for pictures. Those are important to everyone who knows me so you gotta leave plenty of time. Now, to get to that point we'll start out with it's super lucky that my boys are old enough to pretty much do everything for themselves along with tying their own ties, or we'd never have pulled it off! Thanks boys! You are amazing! Then we move onto Rachel's hair. I'll start by saying most days of the week she almost looks homeless, as pathetic as it is to admit, I don't know that I can say that her hair gets brushed everyday without fail before school. I know, I know, how embarrassing, but it's true. So one of my goals this year has been to really take time to make her hair look great on Sundays. It's a day for the Lord and I'm trying hard to show my respect by having her look her best. So that being said, it's Easter Sunday and I wanted something a little more than just what I do every week. We've done braids, pony's, pig tails, curled, strait, down, clipped, so many things, so what to do to make it look more amazing. That's when I get the brilliant flash to do it like you do when going to a prom or something. You know, a fancy updo french twist thing with curls hanging all over. So we set out curl all her hair with one of those tiny curling irons. Then we twist and bobby pin the heck out the hair, with the need to go back in and touch up curl hair in several spots. This entire ordeal took well over an hour, okay, so it took well over an hour and a half, but that's all I'll admit too! So my patient daughter sat through it all to be beautiful for pictures and church. Then we take a few minutes to curl Ellies hair for the first time. That was fun let me tell you! Finally everyone is ready and we set out to take pictures. I get a few of each of the older kids out in the front of our house. Then I move onto Ellie, it's a matter of chasing and running, trying to snap a picture and she moves in and out of range of what I'm trying to get. I never did get what I wanted from her. But knowing it was the best I could hope for I moved on. Now to what I expected to be easier but was I mistaken, a picture of all the kids. This should be easier since any of the kids could now hold Ellie so she can't run away from the picture. Oh was I mistaken. That girl was a bear! She would cry and arch her back to try to get out of the pictures. After getting NOTHING outside I gave up and came inside. Sitting my other kids up on the corner of the ottaman I tried to get her to let the kids hold her or just get her to sit by them on it long enough for a picture. We tried several attempts. At one point I had the kids sit and tickle her to get her to at least laugh in the picture. As you can see, getting camera angle and such on that shot I was not prepared for. Then when I tried to have her just sit there she'd squirm up closer to me. I got a couple cool shots where they are slighly blurred in the background. Yes that's intentional. My friend Sarah Goodman of Sarahgoodmanphotography.com taught me that shot and I've been wanting to try it. She does it amazing. So when I found she wouldn't sit with the rest of the kids I decided it was as good a time as any to try it. It didn't turn out nearly as amazing as Sarah's does but not bad for a first try with a difficult kid. Finally I gave up and finished getting myself ready, letting them move on to hunting for the eggs the Easter bunny hid around the house. Rachel then started to complain she didn't feel very well. She hadn't wanted to eat any of her candy, which should have been my first clue something was wrong! But it also gave no excuse other than the flu to her puking twice just as John walks in the door for his meetings. So we decide she has to stay home. John graciously offers to stay with her since the boys were singing so I could hear them. They did great by the way, made me cry! Anyway, I then made her pretend to feel good while we went outside to take a family picture. I set up the tripod and the timer and took 2 pictures. Amazingly both turned out not too bad. Then Rachel went back into bed and the rest of us went off to church! It was really hard to leave her home, and for her to be left home. She didn't want to skip the matching family with her amazing hair day at church. We all promised to wear the same things next week and fix the hair the same way. What a sweet girl! On a couple other notes, thanks mom for the amazing ties you found for 5.00 each! They were great! And thanks John to being willing to wear a light blue tie without batting an eye just becuase you love me. Talk about a man who is comfortable in his manhood. Last year a pink tie, this year a baby blue tie---maybe we should do purple next year. But that was my fun morning. So needless to say, some kids are easier to photograph than others!!!

Matthew is totally into that "cheese" smile which drives me NUTS!!!

Harrison can relax and not pay attention to the camera.

Rachel loves to pose, but actually does it pretty well so most of the time I don't mind.

But Ellie, Oh that girl!!! She is all over the place! She doesn't like to stand still, unless of course you are trying to get somewhere.