Meet The Rest of My Family...

I had a goal over the holiday season and it was simple — to get photos of BOTH sides of our families since I knew that ALL members of both families would be together! This may seem simple for some, but we do not all live near each other, so there is usually someone missing when I want to get a nice group picture taken. Not this time, though! I was on a mission and it was finally achieved!

First up...Thanksgiving at my sister and brother-in-law's house! Mark, myself, our three kiddos and my parents spent Thanksgiving at Amber and Steve's this past year and it was so much fun! It was nice that we were all together and able to pull it off!  So...while Amber was cooking up a storm in the kitchen, I began to set-up my "photo shoot" in their formal living room and then I realized that I had forgotten my tripod. Have no fear, though....I made one...out of aluminum foil!! I rigged the foil up like a tripod and steadied my camera on their stair's hand railing! I quickly called everyone in and 'summoned' them to their places — while the kids whined and complained about it! Mark and I 'nicely' explained..."that they better sit there and smile with the biggest grins on their face...or else!" Haha! It worked — besides having to drag Grady into it at the last minute before the shutter went off because he refused to have his picture taken! We even managed to get Steve & Amber's dog, Bruno in the picture! The only problem we have now is that my sister is pregnant with their first baby, so this picture is only good until April when we have to do this all over again with the newest member of our family (who will bring on a whole new level of difficulty)! I cannot wait!!

Here it is! My family...

Front (L-R): Eden, Bruno & Brynlie  Back (L-R): Mark, Me, Grady, My Dad (Garth), My Mom (Nancy), My Sister (Amber - With My 1st Niece or Nephew in Her Tummy), & My Brother-in-Law (Steve)     

Next up...Mark's family! Okay...so now it is Christmas and I was still on my mission of getting pictures of both sides of the family! We traveled to Mark's parent's Christmas Eve and then they were coming to our house Christmas day — along with his brothers, Ed and Ryan. I made sure I warned all of them the day before of my 'pursuit' and told them that they were going to have to sit through one of my 'photo shoots', too! Everyone was excited about it (I think) and once they got to our house on Christmas and we opened presents and ate, we did the pictures. Things definitely shouldn't have been done in that order, but can you imagine if we made the kids sit through pictures with all of the presents staring at them — just waiting to be opened?!! I still wished we would have did it sooner because the girls had already had their tights ripped off and Grady was unraveled at that point and you can tell by looking at him! Haha! He had a cute little matching tie and tore it off when I was trying to get him in the picture...haha! He has been an extremely difficult 'picture taker' for us over the past few months, so if we are lucky enough to have him anywhere near where you want him, you need to take what you can get and roll with it!

It ended-up turning out really nice! By the way...I just noticed that the girls have switched places in this picture and Mark and I are on the opposite end this time! Haha! That was not intentional, but it will look neat on the wall :) Here it is...Mark's family...

Front (L-R): Brynlie & Eden    Back (L-R): Mark's Brothers...Ed, Ryan...My Father-in-Law (Ed), My Mother-in-Law (Carolyn), Me, Grady & Mark