Family Photo Shoot with "the" photos....

We woke the day after Christmas and did NOT want to take a family photo. We knew, however, that the boys would begin work again on the 27th and we may not get a family photo at all if we didn't do it NOW......We talked about how we didn't want to spend the day doing this, we wanted fun memories....then reality set it. We are a military family. The children are INSISTING on graduating and they don't want to keep moving with us from assignment to assignment. We NEEDED to take advantage of this rare opportunity.

We set up the projector screen. We found photos to project of scenery (and then decided to go with plain). We had ladders, new queen size sheets for backdrops....::snort:: No children were harmed in the making of these images (though a couple of adults pulled a few muscles). We used a Nikon D70, a tripod, and lots of leg energy.

We ended up making a lot of family memories. It turned out to be fun (in a rather twisted, go to the dentist, sort of way)! I don't think there is one photo were EVERYONE is smiling and looking the right way - but we have the same results with less fun in a studio. ::snort::






We've scarred her for life....



We had no "wall" photos of Stacia so took about 35 of her. These are the two best ones. One of these will replace her ultra sound photo in her frame in the hallway. Yes, we have a hall of fame and I switch photos out every so often.



Then we went for group photos - egads!

All the kids

Our whole family

Our family with G'ma and G'pa

Mike with kids



De'Etta with kids









A 3 generation photo

Mike & De'Etta


I began to goof around which resulted in THIS

I thought it might be a good shot to post when new staffs begin to check us out before our next assignment. ::snort::
Or this:

This was my first experience with photo shop and I'm sure the experts will want to do a few more things to these before we send them out. I'm happy. I got rid of the split in the screen, red eye and 1/2 an inch of thyroid thighs in one photo. ::snort::

Family Friday

2:42 a.m. and I'm UP - blogging - I'm seriously deranged? No, I'm not feeling well, fell asleep early, and was later awaken. ::snort::

Early Friday a.m. Mike and Dad drove my Mom to Midland to catch a flight out to surprise her 83 yo brother in LA. I WISH I could be there to see their reunion. I love my Uncle Jim and Aunt Clara. One of my favorite family memories is exploring New Orleans with them. They lost their home in Katrina. Aunta Clara is now battling Altzheimers.... Their family celebrates Christmas on the 29th and Mom will be there to surprise Uncle Jim and Aunt Clara.

Other events of day? Produce co-op, MORE grocery shopping, more laundry, more games, more fun....we capped the evening off by watching Victor Borge from Netlfix.

Jamin was awarded a .75 cent raise! Yippee!

Sights of the day:

Baby Elisha only has eyes for Mom

Bre is the master of Phase 10 - I even learned

Stacia THINKS she's hit the motherlode with the pizza sauce

HOW did she manage to open a tea bag with us all sitting there playing Phase 10?

Beatrix is SO patient with the littles - and a bit blind and deaf as well

Thursday –

I drove Bre to the optometrist today and then we went out to lunch. It was fun to have some one on time with her.

While I did that, Mike took the trailer without the heater back to the base. That leaves only ONE trailer in our driveway. ::snort::

Deja called to let me know that our local health food store had everything at 45% off. They’ll be closing on Saturday. Krista, Arielle, Stacia and I headed over. We bought a lot of organic convenience food that I wouldn’t usually buy. We stopped by Sam’s Club on the way home. It wasn’t “one on one” but it was nearly one on one time with Krista. Stephanie, right after we saw you, the sample lady asked if my GRANDAUGHTER would like a sample. That happed all day – folks thought Stacia was Krista’s.

Josiah and Jamin are back at work. Jared is feeling sick. I'm not feeling great - but I'm not giving in just yet.

After dinner we headed out to see the city’s Christmas light display one last time for the year. It is nearly impossible to get a photo of the entire nativity, but we tried.

Thought this new fountain was pretty...

Family Photo Shoot

We took over 150 photos.....I have more to share...but we are busily photo shopping them and planned to only share the finished photo....but how could you miss this one....

or this one...

At this point this is the family one we settled on....not sure which effect we'll stick with. ::snort::

Seriously, I think we like the grey background

Or the sponge background....

Christmas Clean-up

I couldn’t take it a minute longer. I suggested several times throughout Christmas afternoon that we take the tree down. They thought I was joking. The walls were closing in.

We always leave the decorations up until New Year's Day or later. We have a LOT of people here. I was claustrophobic. I had an idea for arranging the furniture.....In the evening, while some played yet another round of Monopoly, Mike, Krista, Stacia and I took the tree apart.


When we moved in I wanted "intimate seating arrangements" in the living room and made an L of the couches. NOW, I realize that in a house this size, with a large family there are "intimate seating areas" all over the home. I want SPACE in the living room - the barn effect. I now have the couches on OPPOSITE sides of the room - lots of floor space.

We dusted and vacuumed every corner of the room - move all furniture and year round trees etc.


Mike hung my new sign and re-hung the quilt above the opposite couch as he noted I'd used "12 inch spikes" to hang it. ::snort::

It was good we did this on Tuesday night....because Wednesday we needed ALL the space in the living room for the annual ginormous family photo shoot. Entry to follow.