Just Look at Me and Smile!

How Holly Story Christmas Card

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Excuses, excuses....

OK- so I know I have been a bit of a posting slacker lately- but it is not laziness- but rather business. I went to Utah for my dear friend's wedding last weekend- and my sisters and sister-in-law and I got together and played a bit as well. Above is my family at my mom's house. (missing one sister...) You can see her microwave hood that I was saying not nice things about last week- but it's OK- I don't think she reads my blog. :)

Steve (my brother) was the chef and Jackie (my sister) and I were the sous chefs. He enjoyed treating us like that Hell's Kitchen dude treats his sous chefs. I don't doubt that we treated our little brother much worse when he was an annoying little ten year old.

Sous chefs at work...

So----- I'm not really sure what's up with my hair here??? It looked much better about 6 hours previous to this shot of my mom and I.

We saw Dear John over the weekend. I don't think there was enough to say about the interiors for a post on it. But it was a good movie. (I'm the over-dressed one in the skirt- as I was in-btween wedding things. The wedding was beautiful...)

Tubing at Soldier Hollow was the most fun of the weekend. It was such a strange feeling to be playing like this without my kids. I kept thinking- "Natalie would be LOVING this!." I need to find a place near Tahoe and take my family.

Anyway- I apologize for the lack of posting- but as you know- going out of town is one thing- but getting my work done, so I can go out of town seems to take even longer. Anyway- I'm back- and will start posting regularly again.

XOXO

Christine

Off Topic Sunday Post- the Familiy Photo

We spent Christmas in St. Thomas this year with Stephen's family. Family pictures- for me are a necessary evil. Sure- you need to do them. Of course. But when kids are young- it is absolutely a miserable process for me. Not to mention that the perfectionist in me is always terribly disappointed. My hair would do nothing but frizz on the island. Sidney's dress is not the right color- at all. (The large family picture had all shades of blues- I wasn't even thinking about our smaller family- nor did I have much of a choice in summer dresses in December.) Notice the lack of shoes and wet pant legs on the boys... Natalie and Lincoln are not looking at the camera- Ethan is scowling- and this was the best one...

Family Photo Time

My girls- Sidney- (dark hair) has a tooth hanging by a THREAD and she won't pull it out- can you tell?- the top front tooth.

I promised Lincoln a cracker and he was SOOOOO excited!!!

Ethan wasn't opening his eyes all the way- and when I told him to- he tried super hard to open them- and this is the look I got...

Nothing professional this year- just a snapshot for the Christmas card- should I go with the vertical one- or the horizontal one?????

Horizontal: I like the layout better- the girls look better
Vertical: Steve and I look better...
The boys look bad in both....
Feedback???

The Principles and Elements of Design and Photography

The same principles and elements of interior design are those used in photography. In fact, I shared many lower level design classes with photography students. On Easter, I insisted that we "coordinate" in our clothes. Coral and blue- those were my (our) colors. And I wanted a simple picture of us as a family. Nothing for the Christmas card- or the wall- just a nice photo to remember the day and how adorable my children looked. You cannot imagine the rebellion when I tired to break up the blue and coral. S1 did not want to sit by D1- he wanted to sit by D2- which he was not allowed to do- because he needed to sit by the "blue" not the "coral." Notice S2 winding up for the hit... D1 tries to help- as D2 smiles for the camera. Tears... Drama... Then I try a picture with mom and dad. S1 insists on sitting by D2. And S2 insists on sitting on DH's lap. My blue and coral is split in half rather than separated... This is not good design. I want to try again- but it only gets worse. No one seems to understnad why I am so upset by this.. (tell me you understand!!!) Now S1 wants to sit on my lap. That is all wrong! We are both wearing stripes! I tried to explain that to him- "you cannot sit on my lap- we are both wearing stripes!!!. and neither of us are wearing blue!" He did not seem to care. How horrible is this- all the blue is on the right- and we are in two vertical rows??? Bad design. Bad design. I have to give up. My mood is not making anyone smile. Next time I need to wear something that will allow S1 to sit on my lap- and next to D2. But he will no doubt he wants to sit by daddy and D1... The culprit...

DH and I

My Grandpa (our patient photographer) and I

D2

D1

S2