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Second Time's the Charm

With the newest addition to our family finally here, I thought it would be a great idea to get some family portraits taken. This is such a special time in our life and I wanted to freeze these moments in time before the boys got any bigger. So I meticulously planned what everyone would wear, how we would do our hair, and researched different poses we could put ourselves in (the best ones looking like we weren't posed at all, of course). I prepared Benjamin ahead of time, letting him know that we were going to take some pictures at "Miss Cindy's" house, and I packed a bag full of treats, hair gel, alternate clothing, blankies, lint roller, lipstick, lotion, and a million other items, just in case. I got us all to the site, in tact, and spent the next two and a half hours trying to cajole Benjamin into sitting and smiling for the camera and keeping Brayden from crying for the camera.

I could share all the details with you, but I'm afraid I will break into hives if I even think about that morning for too long. Let it suffice to say that it was not very much fun. When we were through, Nathan and I were absolutely exhausted. We both were thinking the same thing: him, "Why did I let my wife talk me into this?" and me, "Why did I make ourselves do this?" I even said to Nathan, "If I ever suggest taking family pictures again, please remind me of this day." Neither one of us knew just how soon he would have to live up to that promise.

You see, that night our photographer called. She had bad news. When she started to download all of our photos something malfunctioned with her equipment, she explained, and well, you see...all of our pictures were gone. So could we come back tomorrow and redo the shoot?

I wanted to cry. Then I wanted to throw up. Then I wanted to throw something. Then I thought about having to tell Nathan and I wanted to throw up again. Was I really going to make us all go through that h-e-double hockey sticks again? You bet your tushie I was! I rescheduled it for the end of the week, thinking we needed a few days to recover from the first shoot before we did it a second time.

I am happy to say the second shoot went better than the first. Benjamin knew what he was supposed to do and behaved much better. (It helped that I bribed him with the promise of a movie when we were done.) Brayden was also in a better mood and we knew what kind of shots we wanted now, so it went much faster. We ended up with some really sweet pictures of our family, which is all I wanted. However, if I suggest doing more family portraits anytime in the next few years, please direct me to this post. And if I still insist on trying it again, shoot me.
















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