Portraits

Uggghhhh, I always hated family photos when I was a kid. My mom did my hair, picked out my clothes, made me look ridiculous, and then hung the photo in the hall where all my friends could see. Seriously, there was one in the 8th grade where I had these awful, huge, pink and white tortoise shell plastic glasses (that I'd probably love now!). She dressed me in this horrid black babydoll dress that buttoned all the way up and had gigantic yellow sunflowers all over it. Oh, I looked terrible, and then she rolled my short hair on hot rollers and sprayed the heck out of it. My hair doesn't hold curl and hairspray just creates this nasty glue when exposed to humidity. We lived in Biloxi, MS at the time, so of course there was about 110% humidity. Then, to top it all off the picture is of just my head with a big feather boa wrapped around me and my eyes are half closed. Seriously, did they offer this one to my mom at a discounted rate? I used to take that thing down every time a friend would come over. Then, my lovely friend, Andrea, would make sure to find it and show it to any boy that I may have liked. She even videotaped it once when we were trying our hand at film making. I believe this was at the same time that we were making our "Gold Rush" video for social studies!

All of this meandering is to say that family photos still stink. This is the third time I've tried this since Addie was born, the first time was horrible at JCPenney and they lost half our photos, the good half! Then we had Meagan Jackson take some, and the only sad part about that is that I'd never be able to afford all I wanted. Oh, Addie did break out it in a crazy rash that day after using hypoallergenic sunblock on her, so the sweet photographer had to photoshop it out for us. Tonight we went back to JCPenney for a "Holiday Photo," and I think it turned out okay. I was 15 minutes later for our appointment, Addie's tights were still wet and I was putting them, her shoes, and her jacket on in the parking lot before we went in. Freddy started throwing a fit about something before we even got to the portrait studio. He refused to smile or take pictures and then after getting two or three decent shots, he completely melted down and I told him to get up so Addie could take some more. On our way out of the picture taking room he said that he did, in fact, want a treat and was willing to take pictures. It was too late, then the fit, the drool, the crying, the end of the world ensued. I was able to get him calmed down and I picked out some sweet pictures of them to give to the family as Christmas gifts. Then I got home and received my email to view them online and realized that the last several frames of photos, I never saw. There were a bunch of them sitting together on the ground opening "gifts" and playing with ornaments. The dude showed some to me and they were adorable, but in the hustle and fit throwing, and baby girl sucking on my cheeks (these are kisses), I forgot all about them and didn't think to ask why they weren't on the screen. Now I feel sick to my stomach!

Whew, meltdown, huh? The point is though, that despite all this terror and agony I've been through, I put hairspray in both of the kids' hair! Traditions die hard! Merry Christmas!

P.S. Could have used a heads up that houndstooth would create a sickening vertigo crazy pattern in photos! Try to be still as you look!