School Photos

Gabby recently had school photos, for her moyens (pre-kindergarten) class. She has had a great year and loves her teachers and friends! It is amazing to me to see how much she has grown since last year's photo.

In March, she had her school Spectacle (show). Her class performed a cute Romanian dance and seemed to have a lot of fun on the stage.

Claire is very excited to start preschool next year. In the meantime, she is content with the baguettes and croissants that the school sells every Friday.

Christmas Photos

My children refuse to willingly go anywhere near to Santa, so thus far, all of our photos with Santa from years past involve screams and tears or nose-picking defiance.  This year, I decided not to force my children.  Instead, we went to the exterior of Santa's little home and I took photos of the girls there.  This taught me an important lesson: I am not a photographer and I have no idea how to pose my children.  I thought I was being creative by bringing wrapped gifts for the photo, but those lasted for a couple of minutes and then I was out of ideas.  Jason was working that weekend, so I had no help in the way of ideas or distractions for the girls.

After struggling for about 15 minutes, I settled for the photos we had and we celebrated the beginning of the holiday season Seattle-style.

Boyer Pics

Two months ago, we had some pictures taken while the Boyers were all gathered for Preston's wedding.

The entire family.

It seems every time we get together there are a few more spouses or children.

Our little fam.

It is a bit in the past now, but since I just got some better wedding pics, I thought I might as well post them.

Introducing PJ & Whitney - the serious couple.

Inside Whitney's house at the reception.

All of the Boyer sisters-in-law.

Those Boyer boys.

Claire

When Claire turned one, we had her pictures taken.  In the past we have always been rushing last minute, so this time I made sure we got their early - too early.  Somehow we were there an hour early!  Don't ask me how - I am not used to everything like traffic all going in my favor.  For an adult, an hour would not be a big deal.  For a child who has about a twenty-minute zone of happiness without snacks, this is a problem.  And I certainly didn't want to give her snacks that would get her white shirt messy for her photos.  Not to mention once you start feeding this girl, there is no stopping.  We barely managed, with the period of cute happiness expiring right when it was time for photos, but all things considered, it could have been worse.  Here are the shots we got:

Gabby wanted to join in for a couple of pictures.  She forgot to smile and I was so busy trying to keep Claire in the frame, that I forgot to actually tell Gabby to smile.

I tried to be creative, but Claire (who insisted on wearing this hat for the first hour while we were waiting) would have no more of it.

But she did not complain when I handed her a real cupcake....

Thanks, sweet Claire, for always making us smile!

Family Photos

At the end of October, we had some family photos taken.  Okay, they were mostly of the girls because, let's be honest, who really wants to see pictures of Jason and I?  They were not as horrible as past experiences, but we could not get Gabby out of serious, expressionless, model mode.  Next year, we plan to avoid the studio and get into a more natural setting where (fingers crossed!) the girls should be more cooperative and expressive.

Jason does not like this last photo at all, but since it is the only one we have of all of us, I still included it on the back of our Christmas cards.  I mean, the kids may not be smiling, but how often do you get eye contact from a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old at the same time?  You've gotta use what you can get around here!

Failed Photo Shoot

Some of you may recall the drama that took place when we attempted to have family pictures taken last year. Not the easiest process. This year, when Claire was two weeks old, we decided to use another free photo shoot. I am not sure why I believed that although we cannot force one child to be photogenic, perhaps we can force two children simultaneously. Not an option. Basically, our 20-minute scheduled shoot turned into an hour of at least one child screaming at every moment before we finally gave up. These two pictures were the only ones we managed to capture. The reason Claire is making a funny face is because she just had a pacifier pulled out of her mouth and was a split-second away from her cry of disapproval. The question now is whether we should even attempt a family photo this year and add yet another person to the photo who doesn't like his picture taken....

Photo Madness Part 2

Our family photo retakes were today and unlike previously, everything went smoothly leading up to the photo shoot. The problem is, it turns out that Gabby does not like to pose with her parents. I do not know what she has against us. After the first picture, she was finished and she let us know. She began screaming and refused to even let us hold her. This is generally not a good thing for family pictures. The photographer brought in someone to try to get Gabby to smile and they put in an amazing effort, just not a very successful one. By some miracle, we managed to squeak a few shots out. They may not be magazine worthy, but we are not about to go through that again, no matter how free.

Of course, after we gave up and let her roam free, she was as happy as could be. How in the world will we manage when we have more than one child??

Photo Madness Part 1

With Gabby's first birthday behind us, we decided that it was time to get our first family photos taken (and when I say "we decided", I mean "I decided"). All was prepared - Gabby's cute outfit, a 10AM appointment so Gabby would be in a good mood, and of course, flawless visions of poses I would request, props included. Here is how things really happened:

• Friday, 11:00 PM: I choose outfits for Jason and I that work well together with Gabby's dress while he falls asleep, confused at why the colors and mood of our sweaters are so important to me. After much pondering, different but warm complimenting colors are selected and I go to sleep in peace.
• Saturday, 7:00 AM: Wake up on time. I get in the shower. Jason goes for a run.
• 7:10 AM: I get out of the shower to Gabby crying. Nervous for her big day, she woke up an hour earlier than she has in the last several months.
• 9:15 AM: Having recovered from Gabby's early rising, we are set to leave as scheduled in 5 minutes. Hooray!
• 9:16 AM: Jason starts to get dressed and informs me that his outfit will not work. (The dress shirt + sweater combo will not fit at the same time.) Since he only owns one sweater (he is a warm-blooded kind of guy), our outfit plans go out the window.
• 9:17 AM: I freak out trying to quickly come up with a new plan with limited resources.
• 9:40 AM: We leave 20 minutes late (each in uncoordinated outfits) and forgo the cupcake pickup. (One of my random plans was to get pictures of Gabby with a birthday cupcake.)
• 10:05 AM: Arrive at our appointment.
• 10:07 AM: They call us back. As Gabby is walking to the studio, she trips and bumps her head pretty hard on the metal part of a stool. The fall doesn't phase her, but leaves a nice red mark on her forehead. Fabulous.
• 10:08 AM: Gabby suddenly turns hyper as we enter the studio and will not stay in one place for any of her solo photos. My plans for poses and personal props are forgotten.
• 10:14 AM: The photographer takes only a few family shots before Gabby has had enough and exhibits uncharacteristic fussiness. And the shoot is over.

All in all, Gabby had some cute solo pictures, but we don't especially like any of our family shots, at least not enough to hang up as an 8x10 in our living room. So we get to go back and try again on the family shots (thanks to Picture People's 100% satisfaction garantee). Jason is ecstatic. He loves posing for photos.

Not that you wanted to know all of this information about how weird I am about pictures, but I have never been good at omitting details. Alas, here are some samples....

Removing the bow that did not make many photo appearances,

due to her need to hand us what was on her head.