The Hope Family Portrait (or a lesson in patience for two Maryville photographers)

Weeeeeeeell... we shot ourselves. Not literally, of course (thankfully neither Danielle nor I were armed at the time or anything could have been possible). It was time for the annual Hope family fall portrait and it was shaping up to be an epic FAIL. Maddie has the attention span of a gnat and the attitude of a south Bronx hustler. Millie has the attention span of a baby gnat and the curiosity of a George. So trying to contain the two and get them to sit still long enough was nearly impossible. That, plus the time of day wasn't ideal (but the only time we could squeeze photographing ourselves in) and about 10 minutes into the session, little Millie tripped and busted her eye on an exposed tree root. Next year, we hire a professional. It's not like we don't know any other photographers.

My theory today was to write up this whole blog post about what a hellacious experience it was and show you all some funny out-takes. But as I got to working on the photos, I realized that, yeah, they may not be the best photos we've ever taken of our girls and, yeah, Danielle and I thought about selling them both on eBay during our little family session, but overall, we got some nice keepers. I can definitely see several of these on our walls very soon. And most importantly, these are OUR girls. This is how they act everyday (sadly) and we LOVE them for who they are (most of the time). Maddie is an adventurous, imaginable 4-year-old and Millie is a precocious, newly-walking 15-month-old. They are who they are and we couldn't ask for two better, more adorable little girls to grace us with their presence.

So enjoy a few of my favorites from the session...


We started off by stopping in a new subdivision on the way to Maryville College. I saw some cool color. Turns out, it wasn't so cool, but we tried a few anyway. This was the only photo we got with Millie looking and semi-smiling. Notice the face on Maddie? That set the tone right there. (And yep, I may have gone overboard with my funkiness, but who better to experiment on than my own family photos, right?)


Hey! One where we're all smiling! Let's go home. It won't get any better.


Hey! One where the girls are being super cute! Seriously, let's leave. Now.


Hey! Millie's doing something cute in some artsy sun-haze! We're pushing our luck here. Let's ske-daddle!


Hey! One where Mille made a goofy face! It's like we've hit the jackpot at the blackjack table and a couple security thugs with no necks are heading our way. ¡Vamanos!


Somewhere in between the last photo and this one, Millie takes a tumble in the wet leaves. A tree root kissed her where the right frontal bone and the zygomatic bone meet (What? I got an 'A' in anatomy suckas!). In other words, right next to her eye. She screamed. We calmed. No real damage. A little bruise. And a lot of attitude (see above). Though, I'd probably be pretty pissed and ready for some Dora and a popsicle too if a tree hit me.


Millie's all better and we send the girls off, hand-in-hand, for a Hallmark photo (Christmas card!).


And then she tries to eat a rock and run when Danielle attempts to stop her. One tantrum, thrown please.


Maddie grabbed our point-n-shoot and proceeded to do her own session. Yes, she has put a collection of Millie's shoes on her Care Bears. No, she's not going to be the tom-boy I hoped for.


There is something magical about this one.


Successful family photo part deux. Two things I learned: 1) I need to get a remote for my camera. I'm too fat to run back and forth doing the self-timer thing. And B) the toes of my shoes are overrated. Who cares if they inadvertently got chopped?


Maddie then built a "pile" of leaves. She wanted me to jump in the "pile" with her, but seeing as I couldn't distinguish it from the surrounding leaves, what with it's grandeur of all of half an inch, I encouraged her to go ahead and try it without me.


Eh, she loved her little "pile".


The girl is scared of the dark and takes 10 minutes to warm up to new people, but give her an obstacle and she's climbing it (and then leaping from it)!


We then went for the costume/location change. Maddie said the rocks were cold on her butt. And Millie tried to eat the rocks (not the same from under Maddie). We lasted all of 3 minutes here before the next meltdown.


My favorite smile. It's the one right before the laugh. I'm going to get all gushy if I don't stop.


Our little country bumpkin. Note, she did not try to eat the pine cone. The kid is finicky with snacks. Rocks, yes. Tree bits, not so much.



So yep, it may have been chaotic. It may have been crazy. Danielle and I may have wanted to [insert anything here that would have ended up with our children swept away by DCS]. But in the end we have some great memories through these photographs. Ones that our girls will look back on someday together when they are our age and laugh and cry and remember how crazy their old mom and dad were.

These are our girls. And we love them dearly.

Later,
Dad

Coming next: Whatever gets done next! ;)