The grandkids gather as Grandma reads a story. Pictured are (back row) Hannah, Kelby, and Cora, and (front row) Grace, Tanner, and Brennan. Elijah was off toddling about somewhere. The whole "storytime" idea went a lot better than I had anticipated. In fact, I thought it would be a complete disaster. But look at them, they were actually interested. Way to go Grandma!
"Cheeeeese!" We get three distinct reactions to the camera with our boys. Brennan will pose himself with little or no instruction and stand for pictures as long as your batteries will last. He's photogenic and he knows it. Ever ready to pose for a distinguished portrait, Brennan takes this very seriously and is always eager to see the results.
Tanner is painfully self-conscious when having his picture taken. If left to think about it he'll tense up and thus the best pictures of him are always the ones that are snapped immediately. When you count, the pressure gets to him and he tries to force his smile by moving his face around one muscle at a time. It looks like he's smelling something foul or he's planning his escape, as someone does when they hear something offensive or frightening but feel that the only safe thing to do is to smile politely.
Elijah loves the camera almost as much as Brennan. He wants to get in the middle of the picture and he repeatedly says "cheese" until the flash goes off. In fact he'll start saying cheese as soon as he sees the camera and he's saying it in the picture above. Of the dozens of pictures we have where Elijah has his teeth bared, they all capture him saying "cheese."
Next year we'll have Graham in there too. We're looking forward to new family pictures as previous versions have not really had the whole family. Next Christmas all six of us will pose for a picture… each in our own way, of course.
