Our Family - 2014

Let's just start by saying I have a love/hate relationship with family pictures.  I love having them.  I hate the process of doing them.  It is really hard to coordinate the clothing of 8 people, especially 8 people with opinions.  When they were younger, I just picked the clothes out and told them to wear them.  Now, they have to like the clothes.  That really complicates things.

They say, "a picture says a thousand words," that is true in this case.  The stories behind these pictures are way more than what you see.  Thankfully, we got some good shots for all of our effort.

Here is the process we go through.
~It has taken us six months to settle on a date that works for us.  Our schedule has been so crazy with sports, we just have not had any time where we are all free.  Of course we have to match that with our photographer's schedule.

~Next, is the clothing shopping.  I tried to begin in our closets.  I was able to take care of Rick, Abby, Sam, Isaiah and Laila with clothing we already had.  I had to shop for Cody, Lauren, and me.  That involved several purchases of possible options, trying clothing on, laying it all out to see if it coordinated, and returning what we didn't use.

~Finally, the day of the pics arrived.  We scheduled them in the late afternoon in order to get the best lighting.  About the time we started getting ready, the wind started picking up outside, clouds started moving in, and I started freaking out.  I knew that if we did not do the pictures on that day, it would be September before we could try again.  I really wanted to do summer pics this year.

~About 1/2 hour before the shoot, our photographer called and asked what we wanted to do.  I told her we were all dressed and ready, that was an accomplishment on its own.  If she was up for it, let's give it a try.  As we headed out the door, we discovered that Sam was missing his shoes.  I looked everywhere!  In a last ditch effort, I ran downstairs to look in a box of shoes, and there they were!!

~On the way there, everyone was so grumpy.  I am praying the whole time that the weather will hold off.  I even texted friends and asked them to pray.  Then, Sam gets a nosebleed!  I told him he better not get any blood on his clothes!  Ugh!!

~Finally, we arrived.  It was a bit windy at times, but the rain held off.  The overcast skies made for the perfect lighting.  I am glad to have the pics and to know that I have at least a year before I have to go through all of this again.

You have seen a few decorating my blog.  Here are the best of the pics from our photo shoot!  There were lots of good ones and so hard to choose.

I will give you one guess at who was the ham during the photo shoot and ended up with the most pics! Since they are about to have bdays, in the next month, I am listing their ages as their upcoming age.

Abby - 12 years old

 Cody - 16 years old

 Isaiah - 7 years old

 Laila - 6 years old

 Sam - 10 years old

 Lauren - 14 years old

 The Men

 The Ladies

 Love this man!!

Summer Time

As you can see, I updated my blog with some of our new pics.  I will do a whole post soon with the pics from our family photos.  I just want to get my blog updated first.  June feels like a blur.  We have several celebrations in June that I will blog individually.  These are some of the other activities we did this month.

Our church had a Family BBQ to fundraise for the missions' trips this summer

 The set up was great

 The weather, not so much!

 It was a cold windy day, 

 but it was still a great opportunity for the team to raise money for our trip and serve the church

 We celebrated Sam's spiritual bday

 with a dinner of smoked sausage, Pioneer Woman mac n' cheese, green beans and crescent rolls

 Sam got a journal as his gift,

This boy has a sensitivity to the things of God that is well beyond his years.  We pray that as he grows in his walk with the Lord, He will continue to seek Him with all his heart!!

 and of course, we had ice cream sundaes!!

 Ms. Julie was in town for a visit.  We got to spend several hours with her one afternoon!

 Isaiah did soccer camp again this year

 It is always fun to be with friends

 Mrs. Mandy teaches them about soccer

 and God.  Lauren was a helper again

 We love Mrs. Mandy!!

 The Whole Crew

 Our church had a work day.  Isaiah helped me pull weeds

 Laila helped, too

 Rick doing the weed eater

 covered in grass

 Cody and Abby are pulling weeds, too.  Lauren helped, too, but she escaped the pictures.

 Ms. Holly took a skirt I bought in Swaziland and made it into a dress for Laila.  It turned out great!!  I love it that Laila has some clothing in fabrics from Swaziland.  Thank you, Holly!!  I decided a long time ago that I was not going to learn to sew.  I am thankful that I have friends who do!!

 These 3 did VBS at church last week. 

The theme was Weird Animals

 I got Sam a neck pillow for our Africa trip.  He called me into his room and said, "Look, Mom, I am a toilet seat!"  That boy!

I celebrated my 42nd bday on June 12.  We woke up that morning to really yucky weather.  It was chilly and rainy all day.  Rick got me the cake I was wanting, Chocolate Mousse Cake!

 Look at that yumminess!

 The kids decorated and gave me some fabulous gifts!

Rick took me out for a date night!  We went to a movie and out for Mexican food for dinner!!