Photographed on the 4th of July

When Evelyn was three months old, I ran into a college acquaintance in a local mall's food court.
I did not notice this friend at first, however she approached me and offered a generous greeting.

The reason I did not notice her was because I had just come from the picture studio attempting to get a decent shot of a three month old and an almost two-year old. My hair was matted to my face by sweat, my clothes were half untucked, and the remnants of the make-up that somehow survived the session were splattered across my face.

I offered a feeble "hello" while I greedily slurped on a coke, attempting to restore my blood sugar to its rightful levels, while shoving chicken nuggets at my crying toddler and shaking a bottle for my starving baby.

Although I love adorning the walls of casa de phillips with pictures of our little family...I detest the process of having pictures made. I told Tobe the other night there is likely a four month window in the entire span of a child's life when he/she cooperates fully with the professional picture process. When they are babies they are either hungry or tired. Toddlers are grumpy, scared, or resistant. Older children would rather be playing than smiling. Adolescents simply glare at the camera.

This is likely why such a website as this exists.

Despite my slight hatred of having pictures made, yesterday our family joined nine other family members (four of those children. If you do the math, that makes SIX children involved in our picture taking process) for a professional picture taking extravaganza. Amazingly, the whole process could almost be described as painless.

Children laughed adorably.

Everyone smiled.

Evelyn waited to have a potty-training accident until after the photos were done and we had changed her clothes.

It was good times (almost)

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Here are a few of our family pictures from yesterday. Enjoy!