picture attempt #1

1 of 2 shots that we got of them together. Grace was doing this weird tongue thing. Notice Tucker's "mohawk". That's seriously all the hair on his head. I was excited even just to get that out of him.


I love this shot. This is her, I'm pretending to be happy for my mom smile

Seriously, my dog could pose her better than this. I don't know what the picture lady was thinking when she told her to do this.

Such a personality shot!

Another cute one, I didn't order it in this color though (I'm too cheap), so the color version isn't quite as cute.

A pretty cute one, I ordered 1 of these

1 of the 2 pictures we got with the both of them, you can tell how photogenic Grace was at the time. Don't mind the fact you can see halfway up Tucker's shorts either

So now the story...

I took the kids to JCPenney's to get pictures taken last week. They were mostly for Grace's 3 year pictures, but I had hoped to get a couple of the kids together to update their's from Christmas. So first off, we had to wait an hour cause the place was crazy. I always schedule in the morning thinking that's the least busy time, but it's so the opposite. My kids did fine though. I just let them run around to get the wiggles out. So we finally get called in, and my usually photogenic Grace will NOT smile normal and keeps doing this weird tongue thing. Tucker sits still for 2 seconds, enough time for 2 shots, then starts freaking out and moving around, not staying still, etc. Finally I give up on him and focus on just getting pictures of Grace. Tucker is now getting into all the props behind the photographer, mainly just crying. I had brought my mom for reinforcements, but really Tucker is such a mama's boy, he wants me whether he's throwing a tantrum or hurt. So I'm stressing out because Grace is not really listening to the photographer and not staying still. The dumb photographer is sitting waiting for the perfect photo op when, come on, if you're shooting kids, keep your dang finger on the button at all times, they're not going to stay still. Then Tucker is just throwing MAJOR tantrums in the room with my mom and mad that I'm not holding him. He had thrown on several 4th of July necklaces and grabbed a bat and ball and desperately wanted to be in the picture with Grace. Now that would've been fine except the 2 kids have ADD when it comes to sitting at least a foot apart from each other. So my mom finally took Tucker out of the room screaming and I was trying to finish up with Grace and not strangle the non-kid friendly photography. To add the cherry on top, right when we were done with the photo shoot, Tucker got a real baseball (not all the pretend ones that he has) and threw it up in the air, only to of course, land right on his head. I'm sure you all can imagine that it hurt pretty bad. So he FREAKED out. I was so frazzled by this point, I told them I couldn't even look at the pictures they took and I had to come back later. I literally walked out of the place in tears, so stressed at everything and mad and the camera lady and upset that Tucker was such a handful. It was awful. I figured I would just not get any pictures, cause I really didn't think she took any good ones, and I would reschedule. But I came back later that now and found a couple cute ones of Grace, but I'm going to have to reschedule to try and get one of both the kids together. Later that day, I called Todd's parents and asked if the kids could go to Tucson for a couple days because I desperately needed a break. Sometimes this whole single parent thing is way over my head and I just need a day to cry about it so I can get over it and start again. That was my day. Now, I'm fine, and even though nothing has changed, and Tucker especially still makes me want to pull my hair out, I can deal and it's good. It's a good thing he's cute and loves me so much cause 18 months is the nightmare age right now. He recently figured out how to climb out of both the port a crib and the big crib. Another quick story....when I got the kids back from Tucson, they had fallen asleep in the car and I got home and put Tucker in bed first (upstairs, very long, steep stairs) then was finishing putting Grace in bed downstairs. I finished, turned around and there was Tucker. He climbed out of his bed, came out of his room and came all the way downstairs. I about had a heart attack cause there's almost 20 stairs and they're super tall and steep. So that's what I'm dealing with now. Don't believe what they say, boys are NOT easier than girls. At least not at this age. I'm sure when they're teenagers, the roles will be reversed. Anywho, now that I've procrastinated long enough, I must go and study!