Finally...family pictures

I'm trying to remember the last time we had "professional" family pictures taken. I believe it was in 2009. So, here we are, three years later, and finally, at long last, we have them. They aren't professional, mind you, as I was the photographer for most of them. However, they turned out SO good. But before I show them to you, let me tell you why I am so exhausted today.

First of all, I laid in bed until noon. That was my first mistake. I'm not going to tell you if I spent the majority of that time playing Draw Something and changing my status on Facebook. I think you know me well enough by now. Kris laid next to me, watching Ghostbusters (which is lame-stone me if you will), refusing to get up and clean the kitchen so that I could slave away in the kitchen, SELFLESSLY making HIM bacon, biscuits and gravy. The nerve of some people! I swear...

Second, starving to death from having done NOTHING, including feed myself, I finally decided to get up. Kris and I had talked about taking the kids to the zoo. I told him I wanted to make sugar cookies and stay home. We went back and forth. I struck a compromise. You clean my stoneware and cookware, and I'll go to the zoo with you...and, I reluctantly added, we could take the kids with us. If you are new to my blog or don't know me well, I don't handle crowds and other people's kids very well. Majority of the time I don't even handle my OWN crowd of kids well! So, for me to agree to this zoo outing is quite remarkable. I get my kitchen cleaned up by my loving boyfriend, and HE in turn gets to do something fun with me and the kids, PLUS eat sugar cookies, PLUS get a nice dinner of bacon, biscuits and gravy, PLUS at the end of the night, after the kids are in bed he would get to...watch T.V. with the lovely ME. Get your minds out of the gutter! Would I dare imply anything inappropriate on here? Don't answer that!


So, we finally get ready and head to the store to grab some quick picnic "stuffs".  And downtown we headed.  We stupidly believed that because it was chilly out, that Turtle Park wouldn't be crowded.  Thus, we could park there for free, eat lunch, then enjoy the zoo.  I really wanted to see the giraffes!  And then we got to Turtle Park.  We discovered we were VERY wrong about the weather.  Apparently, ALL OF ST. LOUIS had no qualms at all about the blustery 60 degree weather today and all decided to congregate AT TURTLE PARK.  While waiting for someone to leave, opening up the ONLY parking space, some moron STOLE it from us.  I glared at them as they walked past us (they couldn't see me doing this of course), grumbling about how obvious it was that we were waiting on that spot.  It took what seemed like minutes  hours to exit the extremely packed parking lot, but we finally made it.

By now, I'm a little on edge, even with the appropriate little orange pills properly digested 45 minutes prior to this.  But we press on.  Towards the zoo.  There was no way we were going to pay for parking, but as we drove around the front of the zoo, it quickly became apparent that if we were going to visit the animals, we would first have to walk about 7 miles, after parking, just to get to the entrance.  We had just about given up (Kris loving me so much knew I was about at my limit of what I could take for the day), when we drove past Grand Basin at Forest Park.  It looked so pretty.  There were still cars lined on both sides, so we thought there was no way we'd find a spot, but just as we were about to exit Forest Park, very close to the lake with its beautiful fountains, there was a spot!  So we took it.  Everything in me screamed "RUN AWAY!  GO HOME!  GET AWAY FROM ALL THE IDIOTS WHO TOOK ALL THE PARKING!!!"  But outside, I put on a brave face and willed myself to get out of the van, determined to at least have lunch with the kids, overlooking this:

We ate lunch and enjoyed the view.  Some of the children who didn't listen and bring along a jacket were cold, but I won't rat out which one it was!  She knows who she is.  And no, it was NOT me.  I was nice and warm.  

Shortly after we finished eating, I looked over at Katherine and thought, "That looks like a good picture!"  I had brought along my half-charged camera, intending to take pictures of the giraffes primarily, and maybe get a shot or two of the kids.  Somehow, after taking that first picture, I got it into my head that today would be a perfect day to just try my hand at photography.  Of course, I wasn't consciously thinking that, but essentially, that is what happened.  I just started taking pictures and told the kids we were going to take family pictures and they had better cooperate!

I can't even begin to tell you how incredibly blessed we were with terrific weather, great props, and some really adorable, photogenic kids!  In all, I took about 256 pictures!  I didn't even realize I had taken that many.  It took about 2 hours and we all had fun in the process, for the most part.  The kids got to climb trees, run down the hill, and then roll down the hill, before collapsing into exhausted heaps!  We were about to head over to the Art Museum (which was at the top of the hill we were on) when Livvy fell, which for me was a blessing in disguise.  I sat down while Kris went to carry Livvy.  They went to take one last picture and realized just how tired I was.  I did NOT want to go to the Art Museum.  So we headed back to the van, then home.

Once we got home, I was all too eager for Kris to go take a nap.  Because I wanted to edit and post the pictures.  Because I love him so much.  The kids watched T.V. and looked at pictures with me.  I spent about an hour and a half playing with the pictures and getting them all uploaded to Facebook.  I was so pleasantly surprised with how great they turned out.  My kids are just THAT cute!  I was going to try to share the Facebook album publicly but apparently it won't work. I know because I tested it.  So, I'll share the Picasa album here so that you can see them.  In case you don't have time to look through them now, or you just really don't care, here are some of my favorites.  There are WAY too many favorites to choose from, but I will limit myself to two of each child, and a couple of them all together.  Then you, in your own time, can look at the rest.

Let's start with the youngest, Olivia:

She insisted on praying, which of course, was adorable!

Next up, the lovely Abigail:

I LOVE this tree!!!

The ever-so-handsome Kaleb:

Pondering life...

And next, we have the beautiful yet way-too-old-looking Katherine:

I think this one is my favorite of her!  The pose was ALL her idea!  Very creative!

And here are a few other miscellaneous ones that I love:

Just ignore the cream from Livvy's dessert on her mouth.  :-)

These two have always had a special bond.

Love it!

My not-so-little-anymore Bishops

She insisted on this picture, and furthermore, after seeing it on Facebook explained to me that the leaves were like the crown of thorns on Jesus' head and she said she should have stretched out her arms.

Love this shot of them running, especially the look of pure joy on their faces.  When do we, as adults, feel that free and happy?

Preparing to roll down the hill.

I LOVE this!!!  And as you can see from how small Kaleb's waist is, it isn't 100 lbs. Kris is lifting there.  Not saying he COULDN'T.  I should just shut up now...

Livvy explained that she was praising God in this picture!  Look at her arms and her face.  Oh to have the faith of a little child!

I love this picture of Kris, in the background (out of the shot), helping Kaleb up!

You can see the rest of the pictures here (hopefully clicking that below will work) or on Facebook if you are friends with me there:

Family Pictures 2012

Oh...and lastly...while it wasn't biscuits and gravy, Kris did clean the kitchen and I did drag myself off the couch to cook pancakes and bacon, before we put the kids in bed, which led up to this present moment and this particular blog post.