Family Pictures 2009!!!

WooHoo!! Family pictures are over and done for another year! I always love to get pictures but I absolutely hate the coordinating outfits, doing hair just perfect, getting everyone to the photo shoot with their hair and clothes still in one piece, looking at the camera, and everyone with some sort of smile on their faces. This year was no exception. We were all ranting, raving, crying, screaming and having just a lovely time the morning of pictures. I honestly think it is mostly my fault! I get so uptight trying to get everyone ready!! I was sooo relieved when it was over and done. But, that being said, look what a cute family I have. These are my greatest blessings in all of the world. When I see them there all beautiful and smiling it makes the crazy morning (and some days the crazy life we live) all worth it. I love my family!! I am so grateful for each and every one of them. I am living my dream. All I ever wanted to do my entire life was have a family, and be a "stay at home mom". I used to ask the boys that I dated if they wanted their wives to work outside of the home. It was kind of a trick question. If they said"yes", I was a whole lot more un-interested!! Chris must have answered my question correctly!! He has been wonderful to let me stay at home and do my thing while he provides wonderfully for our family! Thanks honey!


If you look close you can see that they all have red noses and cheeks. That's because it was so freezing cold outside. We really wanted an outside picture but we were a little late in the season. We decided to go for it anyway. We had the pictures taken the morning after Thanksgiving (yes, black Friday) we sacrificed our shopping for family pictures!! The cold gave everyone a little added color to their faces. What a bunch of cute kids!! This was the last picture taken and I can see a look of "I'm going to kill you if you take one more picture of me" seeping out of a couple of faces!! Can't say that I blame them though.

Chris got this cute picture of Quincy and Brinley. We went to the backyard of the photographers mothers' home. It was more like a park. It was beautiful. It had a large pond and this fun swing in the tree. The girls loved the swing.

The whole Hadley clan - 24 in all!!

The whole reason we scheduled family pictures was to get a family group of my whole family. It has been over 20 years since we have had a family picture!! My sister had the great idea to give my parents family pictures for Christmas this year. So we did. We hired the photographer, set the date, coordinated everyone's clothing, and paid for the sitting fee and a print for my parents wall! My mom was thrilled to say the least. It was an absolute miracle that we could all be off work, in town and able to all be in one place with such short notice before Christmas.

My mom just had to have a picture of her five children! So here we are. My mom was looking over the pictures when we got the CD back and she was commenting on what a beautiful sight her 5 children were. My dad walked in and took a look at the picture and said "that looks like a mess to me"!! That is my dad! We know he really loves us! We have to have someone in the family to keep us laughing!