Family Picture Day

Need I say more? I think the words "Family Picture Day" just speaks for themselves. 

I'm not sure there are many things in life that keep me awake at night quite like family picture day with Hallie. It's always been interesting...right from the get go. The day she pooped on Mandy's newborn posing blanket I knew we were in for some interesting years of family photo days. We had scheduled an outdoor session with our beloved Mandy in mid May. Lord bless Mandy's sweet soul....Hallie showed up with a 'tude and some serious tears for our session a couple months ago in OKC. I sometimes sit and wonder why I'm the only one in the family who looks forward to picture day. And then it happens and I remember. Oh yeah....now it's clear...my child turns into a creature from the black lagoon and my husband decides that the only face he's able to make is an annoyed, forced half smile. Fantastic. 

But before I recount the events of our less than wonderful morning let me share the parts that I did enjoy with you.........

 I thought I'd found a way to decrease the stress that is family picture day. We drove down to OKC the evening prior. Naturally we practiced our big smiles on our way there.....

so. ready.

After grabbing some din din we made ourselves comfy once we got to the hotel that night. Hal munched on her leftovers while we settled in to watch Identity Thief....

We had one last chat about getting plenty of rest and being ready to go in the morning before my zombie fell asleep....

She was so excited to have her own big bed right next to us....

The night flew by. I did my best to cover up the dark circles under my eyes that morning while Hallie took a record long bath to wake up. I had to literally drag her out of the bed. I did so quite loudly to wake up Riley who looked like he had no intention of waking anytime soon. I figured another bath that morning wouldn't hurt. Her hair would look shiny and fresh and it would surely give her that zip she needed to get the day started on the right foot. Ummmm.....not so much. She didn't want to get out. Ever. 

I waited until the last possible second to put my mommy foot down and force her out of the tub and Riley out of the bed. Once we were finally dressed, ready and packed up we headed downstairs to find that it was drizzling rain. Fabulous. Stupendous. Awesome. Did I mention that the humidity was 1000%? I was pretty close to fashioning a voodoo doll of the local meteorologist. I could go on. But I won't. You get it. We drove in that lovely rain stuff as I prayed for it to go away. But it didn't. We started shooting down in the Paseo district which was an amazing location to shoot at. We started out pretty strong. Hal smiled. And looked at the camera. For three minutes. My excitement was trampled on by the moisture that was making my baby grumpy, my husband perturbed and my hair a hot mess. It was also difficult to shoot outdoors at that point because of water getting on the lens of the camera. After trying out hardest for about twenty minutes we retreated back to Mandy's studio down the street. I may or may not have cried at that point. Hallie was ticked off and I could tell that the sobs coming from the backseat were not even close to stopping. She wanted back in that comfy hotel room in that warm bathtub. As did I. When we arrived at the studio there was another family waiting for their session that morning. I almost immediately decided that we weren't in any way, shape or form ready to keep taking pictures. My hair was in shambles, Hallie had tear-stained eyes and a runny nose, Riley was just super thrilled. Fun times. I suppose this is a good time to mention that my daughter chose a new family. She wanted to be a part of the family waiting at the studio. I kid you not. Here's pictoral proof of my daughter's love for her new red-headed mother. She can be seen relaxing on her new mommy's lap on the couch in the background....

The one funny moment of the morning came when Riley said "Mandy! Quick! Get some shots of Hallie smiling with her new family!" In the end we decided to shoot for another day (no pun intended) three weeks later. Hal's new family shared a vegan cupcake with her. It was covered in sprinkles and huge! Even the treat couldn't cheer her up when we told her we were leaving the studio. Mortified isn't quite the word. Emotionally drained isn't it either. We won't call it anything. K? We'll just let this picture do the talking.....

Here she is riding naked on the way home. This made the screaming stop. Don't judge. ;0

Well looky here follks. Why it's none other than my precious little darling all dolled up "ready for pictures" before her nap that afternoon when we returned home. My my, what impeccable timing.....

Maybe she didn't like her outfit this morning??? Perhaps I should've packed this number for her???

If at first you don't succeed, go home and try again in three weeks. That's the saying, right? That's what we did. Mandy was planning on meeting us to finish what we'd started...but in Enid this time. Instead of sticking with the same outfits we had picked out for our first go round, I chose to obsess over changing combos and colors the night before. This is what things looked like.....

I thought Riley was going to burn this pile if I came in one more time with a new outfit on. Our favorite guy had one job to do....put on his one outfit. And smile. Ok, that makes two jobs but his gig was pretty simple. She had her job down great once we pulled up to meet Mandy that Sunday morning....

We did some bug searching while we waited for our sesh to start....

Look who came to help us that hot morning.....

Had we not had Aunt B willing to chase Hal around so that we could avoid the whole sweaty hot mess look I am afraid things would've turned bad fairly quickly. Hal was on a goofy streak for the first hour and did a lot of running and squealing....and SOME smiling too. Bailey took some "behind the scenes" shots while she waited to take off sprinting after the little runt....

We went to three different locations to shoot and by the third we had a tired munchkin on our hands. Luckily Mandy had already got plenty of great shots to choose from so we finally threw in the towel once the tears started to fall. Mandy was going to try to the bitter end until I finally decided to put everyone out of their hot, sweaty misery. The minute I let her run free she was a new child again. Happy and free. I was so relieved to have gotten PLENTY of awesome shots for Hallie's three year photos AND some family shots that I'm just about dying to see! I'm not sure any other photographer would've put as much effort into getting the perfect shots for us. She always does!!! We love that Mandy girl!

Note to self: with our next child just skip the three year photos. Just skip it. For the love of everything that is good and right in this world....JUST SKIP IT. ;)