Our Family Wall.

We keep framed (semi)current portraits of our 10 children on one wall in the living room.  Until recently, the frames were a mismatched hodge podge of whatever frames I had available. I've been saying for years that I'd like to replace them all at once with 10 matching frames, plus another frame for an 8x10 of the whole family.

This year, somebody finally listened. :)

Jeremy, Sarah's beau, presented us with an even dozen of matching picture frames for Christmas!  (I suspect the mismatched frames offended his perfectionist engineering sensibilities even more than they bothered me).

The week of Christmas was exhausting, and every day in the first week of January I wanted to tackle the frame replacement project, but I was too busy.  Then I decided that today, Saturday, January 10, it was going to happen.

I set them up in three rows:  the three youngest girls centered in the top row, all four boys centered in the middle row, and the three oldest girls centered in the bottom row.  It SEEMS as though all I have to do is lay out the top three pictures, measure the distance from Regina's picture-hanger to Noelle's, then make a level line and hang all three pictures a few inches from the ceiling.  Then do the same for the four boys and hang them, staggered below and between the top row's pictures.  Finally hang the remaining three bottom pictures directly below the top three.  It works on paper.

The first problem is that the wood stove was blazing, and there was all heat and no oxygen to breathe up by the ceiling.   The second problem is that the ceiling is uneven - DRAMATICALLY uneven.  Then there's those pieces of molding that cut the wall into uneven sections.  No matter how perfectly I measured, the optical illusions of unevenness created by the ceiling and the wall made it look crooked.

As an added bonus, I dropped every tool I touched every time I touched it, and Philip was on the loose so he kept going after all the framed pictures and every tool I set down.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I also have a cold and my stuffy head and runny nose just exacerbated the misery.

In the end, I ended up just eyeballing the whole thing and moving nail after nail after nail until they satisfied my aesthetic sensibilities.

It only took an hour-and-a-half, but it was the longest hour-and-a-half of my life.


There you go, Jeremy and Sarah.  I don't know whether to thank you or curse the days you were born!

Just kidding. It looks great.  I love you both.

But if either of you comes here and points out something that's a little bit off, I'm probably going to snap.

2014 Circle Picture

Portrait Time Again.

I bit the bullet and had the kids pose for wall pictures.  Actually my husband's mother is to blame thank, because she needed nice recent pictures of the twins for the newspaper's birthday page.  They ARE turning 7 next week, you know.

So I went for it.  Natalie was straightforward and simple.  Two shots and we were done, although she did have me take the prerequisite "posed"  shot.

"Take a picture of me reading!"

Final shot.

Regina, wild-haired child that she is, was also done in four shots or less.  The abrasion near her eye and the shadow at her hairline are evidence of her tumble down the stairs yesterday - or "lasterday," as she so eloquently phrases it.

Theresa was more challenging.    The phony smiles don't fly with me, so we had to try several different tacks before I was satisfied.  I still haven't chosen a favorite for the wall.    The hair flip was HER idea.

Philip just stared, dumbfounded, at the orange flash indicator light.  I had to take about two dozen pictures to get a few good ones.   I am partial to the middle shot on the right, although I love the dopey look he has bottom right!

Noelle was the real pill this time.  It was either a tilt of the head, or a fake smile, or half-closed eyes, or a blink...I am still waiting for a consensus before I choose a winner.

Noelle's "action" shot.

Group shot!

Theresa's Tenth

In honor of Theresa's tenth birthday, 

 which slipped by with nary a mention over a month ago, 

 I present this photo collage, starring... 

 T H E R E S A

BD.

Blossoms

Several times over the last few years, I've had portraits taken of the younger girls, but Sarah has always been excluded - partly because she's always off somewhere, partly because I just didn't think (and justifiably so!) that she'd be interested in participating. 

April 2009

September 2010

 But each time she's seen the results, she has protested, "Why am I not in this picture?!?!"

This landmark photo may be the first time we've gotten a picture of all of our daughters, together, at the same time.  Happy Mother's Day to me!

May 12, 2013

Sarah, 22 holding Regina, 2.  Clare, 11; Theresa, 9; Noelle & Natalie, 6.

Our Circle Picture Through the Years.

2009 - Sarah, 18; Scott, 16; Brian, 13; Conor, 11; Clare, 8; Theresa, 6; twins, 3.

2010 - Sarah, 19; Scott, 17; Brian, 14; Conor, 12; Clare, 9; Theresa, 7; twins, 4; Regina, newborn.

2011 - Sarah, 20; Scott, 18; Brian, 15; Conor, 13; Clare, 10; Theresa, 8; twins, 5; Regina, 1.

2012 - Sarah, 21; Scott, 19; Brian, 16; Conor, 14; Clare, 11; Theresa, 9; twins, 6; Regina, 2.

Looking Forward, Looking Back.

While listening to the fireworks marking the passing of another year, 

I looked back through the year of photos to pick out just a few of the innumerable moments for which I am thankful.

Unveiling the 2012 Circle Picture!

Courtesy of Sarah.  Happy Advent, Everyone!

Spring Portraits

I had hopes that I would be able to meet with an old friend this weekend to shoot some candid shots of the girls.  She's an old pro with a camera, whereas I can't even seem to keep my camera battery charged.  If I didn't have my cell phone, none of you would know what my kids look like.

Sadly, circumstances prevented her from keeping our appointment until June.  WHAT?!?!  I am far too impatient to wait.  I had the twins with me for almost two hours at a beautiful location; it would have been a travesty to waste such an opportunity.  I figured out how to charge the battery, threw their dresses in a bag, and foom!  We were off and running.

We got off to a fairly good start; there was a flowering dogwood with low branches that looked promising.  Noelle, as usual, wasn't very camera shy and was fairly cooperative.

Then we got some really good ones.

Natalie, on the other hand, couldn't seem to muster up a pleasant face.  

I had specifically chosen a shady spot and faced them east, away from the sun, which is what usually causes them to squint and frown.  

But this watery, worried, half-smile was the best she could manage.

That's a little better.

This one is nice.  Too bad I cut off the top of your head.

Of course, she smiled when she said, " I want to marry a banana."

And naturally, they were both happy as can be when I gave them the green light to climb the tree.

To be continued...

Our twins turn 2 today!!

Natalie & Noelle


Watching Veggietales 3 inches from the screen again...
I can't believe it, but Natalie's almost 2 inches taller than Noelle.



Sampling the frosting, which was amazazing. So light and fluffy and easy to spread, and it didn't pick up any crumbs when I was spreading it. That was important because there were crumbly, cut edges on the cake from cutting out the shapes. It tasted exactly like marshmallow fluff. I just couldn't believe how easy it was.
Recipe is here.




A close-up of the cakes.



A shot of the carnage that ensued...


Check out Natalie's face as Brian shows her a birthday card...



It was also a baby doll heaven. They received matching sets of baby dolls three separate times. Good thing they're crazy about babies right now. They also received a play baby stroller for Christmas, so they load up with as many babies as they can manage.



I don't even remember when this video was taken and I don't know where else to stick it, but it's a wonderful glimpse of what the babies are like as they're turning two. They do this kind of thing every day, and I'm so privileged to be a witness to it.

And finally, a photo montage of the twins' first two years. I had so much fun (and spent too much time) making this! I especially love the first song, "Easy Livin," the lyrics for which are below the video. Don't feel like you have to watch the whole thing. It's LONG. I couldn't stop myself - I kept finding 'just one more' picture to include. It's mainly for us and the grandparents, anyway.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Living for you is easy living
It's easy to live when you're in love
And I'm so in love
There is nothing in life but you

I never regret the days I'm giving
They're easy to give when you're in love
I'm happy to do whatever I do for you

For you maybe I'm a fool
But it's fun
People say you rule me with one wave of your hand
Darling, it's grand
They just don't understand

Living for you is easy living
It's easy to live when you're in love
And I'm so in love
There's nothing in life but you

Annual Christmas Portrait Misery

One way or another, Christmas Picture Day always turns out to be one of the worst days of the year. The only ones who are genuinely smiling in this picture are Sarah & Clare.

Scott just had a fight with his girlfriend. And no, he's not standing on a box, he's just getting that tall.
Brian and Conor were fighting.
Theresa hates all formal portraits, and started crying the second we told her it was picture day.
The babies only cooperated because we gave them candy canes.
Andy is disgusted with the house and family in general.
I just got finished crying because today I managed to screw up everything I touched.

I guess we're all getting much better at just sucking it up and smiling for the lousy camera, because we don't look like we all hate each other. Boy, the outtakes are something, though. Merry Christmas, one and all!

The Twins' 2 Year Portraits

A few weeks back I posted about my negative experiences at the portrait studio. I am sorry to say that against my instincts, last month I took the babies to have theirs done. There is only one studio within driving distance (starts with 'S' and rhymes with 'beers', which is what I needed after it was over), so my choices were limited. And the results were predictable:

* the same miserable woman was working there (and she was still miserable)
* they made me wait an interminable amount of time
* they wouldn't honor the coupon for both babies
* the pricing tiers were so high that I could only afford portraits for us and the grandparents. Couldn't even afford wallet sizes.

I was concerned with getting inferior results at home, but I just don't care anymore. I'm going to do it at home from now on. It wasn't like she could get them to smile, anyway.

Noelle (refused to smile at all - this feeble half-grin was all she would give us)

Natalie (couldn't wait for her turn, and smiled enough for both of them)

Police lineup practice

How on earth do they stay in business??? They prey upon overly-sentimental parents who just can't bear to part with any image of their precious child. I know, because I used to be one of them. I had many experiences of "Awww, look at her face in this one...and ooooh, I just love this one, and awww, we HAVE to get this one...Let's get the 164 photo package. And all the proofs. And don't forget the keychains. And the photo cd!"

Then time after time we were left with envelopes filled with enough leftover pictures to wallpaper our bathroom. 164 pictures? I don't even have that many friends and family.

Am I the only one this happens to?