reluctant photoshoot

Dan's birthday is coming up. He brought home a frame I gave him a few years ago to hang up at work, and requested some updated pictures for his birthday. He was like, No big deal, just take a few pics and put them in. You take pictures of the kids all the time. 

So of course I started stressing out immediately. For one thing, the kids are pretty much never wearing clothes these days. What's the point when it's 100 degrees and you live in the pool? So Sunday, I took advantage of the fact that the kids usually wear clothes to church... at least on the way in. I brought my super expensive camera with me that I begged Dan for and never use. That was like a birthday present in and of itself. He loves it when I take that baby out and get all paparazzi-like.

The big girls are definitely easier than the little ones. But they don't always cooperate like they should. If I can get all the kids in the morning when they are still in a good mood, chances are higher of actually getting some okay shots.

Mya is still learning how to smile for the camera. She immediately goes into deer caught in headlights mode. I always tell her to give me a natural smile and this is what I usually get. We're working on it. She's always very cooperative though which I really appreciate. 

Winter is a born model. She can so easily flash an effortless smile and it's totally frameable. I have tons of Winter pics to chose from. She's a feisty one, however, so sometimes she starts messing around and making horrible faces that are really not appreciated when I'm trying to take a nice pic for Dad. But usually I love it. 

Addie's 3 so she's bit bipolar so it's extremely hit or miss with her...

Pretty much all pictures I take of this guy end up like this... oh and he also HATES to be photographed. I tell you, he's like Dan in every way possible. 

But I actually got a few cute ones after taking pictures of them literally all day. And I forgot how much I love looking through the lens and feeling that satisfying click when I take the pictures. It really is kind of awesome. But I would make a horrible family photographer. I don't know what professionals do but I say fart a lot for the older ones and throw a couple of fart sounds in for the younger ones. Not sure how else to get them to smile. They find the most random things funny and are not amused by the normal funny things. So yeah, fun day.

I'll post the finished product after Monday since Dan looks at this blog and I want him to kind of be surprised even though he knows what's coming... and he knows what his kids look like. 

UPDATE: Here's what we went with. There were only 3 spots so I had to combine the older two.