Professional Family Pictures!

One of our friends in our ward has a sister who is trying to launch her photography business and asked to take pictures of our family.  Excited for some nice family pictures I decided to get us matching outfits (really just me a new outfit so I felt semi-good about how I looked in the pictures).  

 Earlier that week I was in Denver and saw a sign for a huge sale at a store there.  So the morning of our photo shoot Elizabeth and I drove all the way to Denver for this sale.   We spent a long time in the store trying on different things and finally found a perfect shirt for me to wear during pictures;  I checked out, paid and was on my way back home to get ready for our pictures.  When I got in the car I checked the reciept and found that I was not given any discount but I really liked the shirt so I tried to shrug it off.  However as I drove home I kept getting more and more upset at the price for the shirt and the fact that I didn't get my discount (I know I am weird). When I was almost home, I called Ben and he told me to turn around and take it back- so I did with poor Elizabeth starving and bored in the back seat.  We went in to ask about the discount and they told me that the sale had ended days before but they hadn't gotten around to taking the sign down- WHAT?  So I returned everything (I had also gotten Elizabeth an ADORABLE outfit) and left.  I was so frustrated because I now had spent more than half the day shopping and driving and still did not have a shirt.  We went to two more stores before Elizabeth gave out and we had to go home.  In the last store I bought a shirt (which I look at now and probably won't wear again) and we went home to get ready. 

Ben came home from work early. Elizabeth was fed, napped and smiling. And I was in my new clothes and feeling accomplished that I had managed to get my family all put together for these pictures.  The time came for our photo session (she was meeting us at our house) and she didn't come.  We waited an hour and she didn't come; I didn't have her phone number and I ended up e-mailing her with a response the next day that she had forgotten.  I was so upset that I had spent the entire day getting ready, had a horrible experience shopping and then didn't even get the pictures taken.  Our awesome neighbor came outside and took some pictures of us (so that my matching outfits didn't go to waste)- thanks Nate!

We rescheduled with the photographer for the following Wednesday at 11 (so we didn't get to do a whole family shoot- sad).  This time it was my turn to forget; after a rough night and a hard morning, Elizabeth was asleep and I laid down to read when the knock came at the door. I ignored it for a while until it continued and I got up to see who it was;  to give you a visual,  I was in my pajamas, no bra, with my hair in a messy bun and I don't even think I had brushed my teeth that morning.  When I saw who it was I went into hyper apology and panic mode.  Elizabeth was woken up (at least she was smiling?), dressed in ragamuffin clothes, hair not done (actually hair standing up in weird places and pushed into an impromptu photo shoot.  This photographer was very nice and the pictures of Elizabeth turned out cute!
 I was so frustrated by the whole experience (shopping catastrophe and missed appointments x2) that I don't think we will take professional pictures for a LONG time.