Valentine's Day Photo Shoot

It had been a couple years since we've done a family photo shoot.  I'm not sure why it's so difficult.  Why IS it so difficult?  Getting everyone dressed… making sure everyone has a decent hair cut… making sure the clothes are clean and not too wrinkled.

Posing is the hardest part for me.  I'm terrible at it.  I should have done some research about how to pose for family photos.  It's hard to get everyone in the picture and make it look natural.  I'd love suggestions if anyone has any.

First we tried the chalkboard.  But the room isn't very big and it was hard to fit all of us in the picture.

The boys were sort of cooperative.  But it's hard to get them to not be silly.  It's like they don't know what to do with themselves.

Then we tried the front door, but that outlet to the right of Nathan was bugging me.

This one is kind of cute, minus the wreath that is connecting my head to Chris's shoulder.

Taking pictures of just the boys seems to come just a bit easier.  

Graham {age 12}

Asher {age 10}

Samuel {age 9}

Joseph {age 7}

Nathan {age 5}

And last but not least… :)

We ended up using this one to as a Valentine to give to our friends at Classical Conversations.

We liked this one… 

But ultimately went with this one for our Valentine's Day card.

It looked like this.  My goal was to spend as little money as possible.  I had the paper.  I had free 4x6 prints at Costco.  I bought envelopes, stamps, and some washi tape.  

  

It's not my favorite picture in the world.  But I sent it out and it's done.  And I have a picture to look back on of our family, all of us together, in our street.  That's worth a lot to me.

A special thanks to my mom and dad who took these pictures for us, and were jumping up and down behind the camera to try to get some smiles!