A Picture is Worth ...

...a lot, I hope! :)

Today is my mom's birthday!

Happy birthday, Mom/Nana/

Watercolor Extraordinaire/World Traveler/Friend!

This weekend we enjoyed celebrating together, eating lots of yummy foods (a delightful summer picnic in February) and plenty of laughter.  My mom's love language is "Quality Time" and so anytime that she gets all her kids and all her grandkids in one place ... she is happy!  So that was our primary gift for her ... but we wanted to do something else special, seeing as this is one of those big ?-0 birthdays.


What to do?  What to do? What to do? ...


After a bit of deliberation, we decided to rally the troops (all 13 of us) and get some professional portraits done for her.  Then she could hang them on the wall of her home and "visit" with us anytime she wants!  Not the same as the actual bubbling hive of activity that it usually is when we're all together ... but maybe a close second.


We set the appointment, set the wardrobe color and set ourselves up for some fun.  As it turns out, we probably should have brought my mom along just so that she could appreciate all that went into this one still, almost everyone is almost smiling picture ... because this snapshot didn't come easy!  I don't  think that we will submit anything to Awkward Family Photos, because we weren't weird, necessarily ... just challenging.


Being the wise parents that we are, we started the photo shoot with the kids.  Get them while they are fresh. Which apparently means for one shot.  The photographer got one picture and then things started getting wooly!  Actually ... Lydia started getting wooly.  She truly wanted no part in this shenanigan and refused to stay put.  And once she had been finally coerced into staying put, she continued to make "lovely" faces.  Of course her zerbets, writhing and wriggling got the other kids distracted from the camera and there was a lot of "keeping looking at the camera", "ignore her ... just worry about you" and "stay focused ... look at the camera and smile" being said.  Somehow we ended up with a good one:

What a cute bunch!

Next we brought the rest of the family in for a group shot.  This part of the photo shoot went really very well.  Lydia was relatively happy to sit on my lap, except for the one time that she smacked me in the face with the back of her hand when I was trying to keep her hands out of her mouth.  Such tender Mother-Daughter love. :)  Glad we didn't catch that on film!


At the end of the sitting, we were relieved that there was one picture where we all were looking at the camera and looking relatively happy.  This was not the one where Cousin Caleb looked terrified of whatever might happen next.  This was not the one where Cousin Mallory had a zoned-out, far-away look on her face.  This was not the one where Norah had her head cocked 90 degrees.  This was the one where we were all smiling ... and only Lydia had her tongue sticking out.  Perfect.

Can you spot the tongue? :P

So ... I guess a picture really is worth a thousand words.  And I hope that every time that Nana walks by her framed portraits she will her us saying: 


"We love you!"
"You're the best Nana ever!"
"You're a wonderful Mother!"


... and ...


"We endured this for you!  'Cause you're worth it!" :)


Love you, Mom!
_________________________________________________


I hope that the portrait police will be lenient ... I promise not to sell this post to anyone. :)  You family members who belong to this crowd should know that there are probably pictures coming your way ... be patient. :)