Behold the Wall of Photos!

I am from a big family. 
I mean BIG.

We used to get family photos now and then... back when the twelve of us could fit comfortably in a 16x20 print.

I have nine siblings... ten of us altogether.  Plus parents.  Plus spouses (nine are married).  Plus tons of grandkids (I have lost count, but there are more than 30). 
BIG FAMILY!

My mom has been wanting a current family picture with everyone.  The trouble is, getting us all together and making us all look the same direction and smile is pretty much impossible... and it would be outdated too quickly anyhow (there were two grandkids born this year!).

So here is what we came up with...

Behold The Wall of Photos! 

Mom and Dad get to be the pop of color in the middle.  They are surrounded by black and white photos of my siblings' families... plus portraits of grandparents, wedding photo, snapshots of fun family activities, etc. 
The beauty of this is that individual family photos can easily be updated.  They can just switch out the photos as the family grows.
This display is mammoth... about five feet tall and about ten feet long.
The frames are from IKEA.  They come with glass and mats and are very reasonably priced.

My mom and dad love this.  The wall is stunning and they always get comments on it.   What do you think?

PS- Can you find Santa, a Clown and an Ice Skater in the photos?  I have colorful grandparents.

The M Family

Taking pictures of big families is a fun challenge... especially on a chilly day... especially when the kids are nephews and a niece! 
We got everyone posed in their jackets, then quickly, they tossed the jackets behind the wall as I snapped several dozen pictures.
Brrr.

They were troopers!  It was very cold.
Everyone was glad when it was time for individual shots.  The kids bundled up, waiting for their turns to freeze.



This lucky gal has five brothers!  (She is one tough cookie!)


This one makes me grin.  We really had to coax a smile out of this one...


I think he was all too eager to show off that missing tooth!


Smile.  Click.  Coat please!


The little one...


Angelic.


And here are the amazing parents of this crew...

Adorable.
(Can you tell he is my bro?)

those adorable Z kids

These two were so fun to work with.


This boy has the BEST EYELASHES!  For real.


Pure cuteness...




Jumping on the bed is so much fun! 


This boy is all boy.





And she is all girl...




Adorable.



And the dog... who was quite wiggly.


To see more, click here.

He's makin' a list...

Ten second timer and family fun

I had this brilliant idea on Sunday... let's take our family pictures!  We'll just use the timer.  No big deal.

 

We did get a good one... and several others... and I burned 275 calories.  I can dash, smile and pose in ten seconds.  One of my special talents.

Afterwards I took some fun pictures of the girls.

Alli is growing so quickly and looks downright gorgeous in this one.

Ruby likes action shots.

 June wanted to pick all of the berries for the birds.

To see more, check out the album on my Facebook page!

Vivian Magdalena

Shhhh.

Halloween!

On Halloween, my sister organized a party at the YWCA family shelter.  There was face painting, cupcake decorating, a treat walk, etc.  She invited me to set up a little photo booth to get pictures of the kids in their costumes.  My family came along to help.  The experience was great.  Many of the children were thrilled to have their photo taken... they would come back with vampire teeth and a new pose or with siblings and parents for more pictures.  This big tough guy asked me to take his picture.  He crossed his arms and made a serious face... in front of the whimsical Halloween backdrop.  He was deeply grateful.
For some people a photo is not an everyday occurrence.
I take it for granted... I have thousands of pictures of my family.  So many moments are frozen for us to look at and remember.
But for these families, it is not so simple.
I cannot show the pictures of the families at the shelter, but here are my kids and my niece...












Happy Halloween!