I received our picture CD ages ago, but haven't printed any photos for our house yet because I was waiting for my Christmas presents. I asked for some picture frames and now I can finally get these hung.

On a side note, our photo shoot was pretty much a disaster. Our photographer warned us that the ages of our children is about as tough as it gets (2 years and 2 months). James was just starting to allow us to put him down while he was awake, (so I don't know what I was thinking arranging for a family photo shoot), and my usually calm little girl, was not so calm. One of the first questions Donna asked us was whether Juliet was easy going (willing to sit for photos) or a little more active. We both said, "Oh, she will just sit and be fine!" And normally she would have because it takes Juliet some time to warm up to people and places, but for some reason Donna and her photography studio felt like home to J. Her studio is in her cute children's boutique which we frequent, so perhaps Juliet felt a little more at ease because she was so not her outside-of-the-house-self. She didn't listen to us, ran around in circles (literally), and was just plain stubborn. This is behavior we rarely ever see. I'm absolutely certain Donna thought we were crazy parents between saying Juliet was so calm and me begging her to sit still by bribing her with endless amounts of chocolate chips, which didn't do any good. :(

After 10 minutes or so of attempting to corral Juliet, she would finally sit or smile or whatever, and we would place James down only to have him start crying. Then I would take 10 mins or so to calm him down. Once he was settled I would place him next to Juliet and she would get up or start acting like a crazy child. This went on over and over and over again. Donna would try and get Juliet to look at her or smile and then I would try and get her to do something and then Brian would try, and it just was not good. Seriously, I am sure Donna thought we were the most difficult family.

When it finally came to the family shot we got about three shots of one pose, but it took us about 20 mins to get even that. Eventually, Donna gave up. I, however, was not ready to quit, and tried to get a few more but Donna said that Juliet was just done. A normal shoot for this age goes about 45 mins and Donna gets you a ton of proofs to select from. Ours lasted a little over two hours and we did not exactly have the selection I was hoping for, and this was no fault of the photographer! I am pleased with the children's photos, but not so much with our family shot. I was hoping for one with all of us standing that looked a little more less posed, but we can always try again next year. Or maybe the year after. Truly after the morning we had it is amazing that she got anything at all! So here they are!