New Pics and good stuff....

I looked at this picture for the first time and burst into tears! MY MATTY!!! MY KAYLEE!!! MY RYAN!!! MY AARON!!! I cannot believe that these four incredibly funny, intelligent, hard working, men and woman of integrity and deepening faith are ours! Oh Lord, You have blessed me beyond anything I could ever ask or think! I watch them grow, not physically anymore, but spiritually, emotionally and mentally and I marvel at the amazing ability they have to learn, the capability they have to love and to translate that love into action! My heart almost breaks with joy!

My one and only true love...
Another great shot of them....
Julie labeled this picture Lu and Lu and I love it. This is my other girl!

To be completely fair to Julie, we were a pain in the neck to take pictures of! It was rainy, cold and yucky and you can see by Alexis' pants that we were getting wet. Sorry Lindsay, we can't see you at the moment in this shot! Julie had to stand out in the rain on a chair with AJ holding an umbrella over her to protect the camera from the rain. To even get the amazing shots that she got is a feat in itself. The pics she got though truly reflect our family, the humor, the chaos and sheer joy of being together. Matthew refused to smile, Ryan refused to do anything but goofy faces, Aaron looked like he'd been in someones medicine cabinet and us girls, well, we were all business....we wanted the good shots! The other day I saw Johns sister Carrie and she told me she just cried and cried when she looked at them, studying each face in the pictures and looking at what we were all doing. I love that! I have had some really good compliments on them!

Picture this...haha...pun intended... "Come on guys! Julie will be here in a minute for pics, get your shirts on!" "Oh mom, why do we have to have family pictures taken? Its raining!" This is said by multiple people. "Because I need new ones of all of us and Julie is really good!" "oh mom, why do we have to, its raining!" "just get your shirts on! Did you all pick out what you were going to wear as couples?" I look around the room. Matt looks at Lindsay and she nods...Affirmative! One couple down, three to go. Ryan and Bri look at each other and smile, yep, they've got it covered! Okay, two more...Bryce and Kales? Of course, they love this pic stuff, they've been picking out clothes for days! hahaha! not really...... One more couple. I look over at Alexis and she looks down at Aaron who is lounging on the floor with his orange foam beaver hat on, Nope! NOPE????? what do you mean NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She looks at me with a pained expression and wisely says nothing, merely shrugging. Aaron lies on the floor choosing to be blithely ignorant of the whole exchange so that later he can say he didn't know a thing about it. How do I know this tactic? It is one often employed by the youngest child in the family to absolve them from any responsibility they don't relish having!

Julie arrives and we all troupe outside in the rain. After some long discussion amidst deep sighs and longing looks at the family room that lay just inside the sliding glass door, we settle on taking pics just under the gazebo and begin moving furniture to get that accomplished. Julie takes to snapping away and you can hear her say, as we are all posing, "MATTHEW! SMILE!" I see that he didn't choose to on some of them! hahaha! We have some where they are all trying to give him a wet willie, poking him, leaning on him, whatever the case may be, it was quite a riot! We really did have fun, even though we were cold, wet and wondering if we were getting any good shots at all. I give all the credit to Julie. We got the family shots done, did the couple shots and Julie took shots of Matt and Lindsay for their engagement photos. I had good intentions of putting them in the paper but never got around to it. Is it too late?