Apparently I Enjoy Self Inflicted Pain

Because I continue to schedule family photos each year.  It is always a pain in the ass experience, and continues to get worse with the addition of more children.

Top 10 Downfalls of Family Photos

1. A child inevitably gets a bruise on their face the day before (this year, it was Baby Girl)

2. If you pick summer clothes, it will be freezing.  Warmer clothes and it will be dreadfully hot.

3. You always fall back on the beach (this is an OC thing) and when you look for other locations, you realize there are not many (though this year I did succeed in getting a different spot!)

4. If you are at the beach, people stare at you and you feel ridiculous

5. You dress your children minutes before walking out the door in hopes that they do not spill something on themselves

6. You spent so much time getting everyone else ready that you end up looking like crap and are usually shiny

7. During the shoot, your children suddenly decide to turn on you, one at a time, so that in each picture, one of them is not smiling or looking at the camera

8. One child decides they do not give a crap that you want a good picture (this year it was my diva Baby Girl who screamed bloody murder if we did not let her just sit in the dirt and play)

9. You overdose on bribes to get everyone to take "just one more shot"

10. Six months later the picture is already outdated because children change so fast

The plus side to all this? The photos!

Photo courtesy of Dane Sanders Photography

Photo courtesy of Dane Sanders Photography

And of course the amazing photographer who made it look like none of the above actually happened (and perhaps airbrushed out the bags under my eyes).  Thank you Dane!