Whew!

It has been an exhausting week and it's only Wednesday! We had our family pictures taken today. The preparation was a lot of work! After much research (online) as to how to coordinate wardrobes so that we look put together, we decided we would wear blue tops and jeans. Okay, that was progress, to actually agree on a color. Black would have been fine in a studio but we chose to go to UO campus and do an outdoor session. White would have been okay too, but not my first choice. Since we are a multi-colored group already we thought that blue would be most complementary for our varied complexions...(I'm darker than my dear husband and our children are somewhere in between.)

Anyway...back to the blue choice. Everyone except Lindsey and I had the "right" color of blue top so that meant I had to go shopping. That's usually not a problem. Well, I had the right color but it's a short-sleeved shirt and the "research" suggested that all the adults, at least, wear long or 3/4 sleeves since arms look "thicker" in print. Heaven forbid that my arms would look thicker!! They're thick enough thankyouverymuch! So off to the mall. I can't tell you how impossible it is to find a blue shirt for a girl!!! Aqua, yes. Blue with a hint of periwinkle, fat chance! Well, I FINALLY found a couple of shirts for me that would work and bought them both. That was on Monday afternoon. It had already been a long day with the 'Lunch & Learn' playgroup at the church that morning and a stop at Freddy's to see if by some chance they would have a longish sleeved shirt for me and a little one for Lindsey. No shirts, but we did find her a dress! All we could have hoped for at that point. So after a day of driving all over creation, it seemed, we found what we needed in the end. Whew!

So, Tuesday I didn't have to worry about shopping for shirts but now Lindsey wouldn't/couldn't stop coughing. Poor thing! She sounded just awful so I called the doctor and they thought she should get checked out so we scheduled her for a morning appointment today. So we were off and running (again) to the doctor's office. She needed some meds so off to the pharmacy. Then to the school to pick up the kids from school (early) so that we could get to campus. Oh, yeah, then a super quick lunch that I so wisely made before going to the dr's office. A quick change of clothes and then to UO. Whew!

We enlisted the help of Grandma and Grandpa today as the Baby Wranglers. I am so glad they came! We got to campus and they were having a little street fair. I was hoping to be inconspicuous, but no! We started the session just a few yards from the festivity and it was fine until we added the kiddos to the mix. "Okay, smile Claire! No, Lindsey don't play with Mom's hair! Move closer, no the other way, okay, a little more, stop" and on and on. Our photographer was excellent and very patient. We went to a couple of other spots and got some more shots. I hope we will end up with a few pictures where we were ALL smiling. Overall, it was a good experience. It made the preparation worthwhile. I wish that I would have taken my own camera to document the event but amidst the frenzy, and it was a frenzy getting out the door(!) I forgot to grab it. Whew!