Family Portrait Day

Today's the big day. Picture day.

Reasons why I don't like having my picture taken:
1. It always startles me with how overweight I look in pictures. I don't feel that fat, but the extra 100 pounds on my short frame really show in photos. Oddly, I feel skinnier than I actually am. Usually it's the other way around.
2. I have bad skin. My first pimple appeared when I was nine, and I've had a constant breakout since then. Makeup evens out my skin tone a bit, but it doesn't perfect it. Anyway. My face is always bumpy and inflamed, and it never looks anything close to flawless in pictures. You'd think I would grow out of acne, but it hasn't happened, and since my acne isn't hormone-dependent, it's unlikely to go away any time soon.
3. My mom always said that even plain girls are pretty when they smile. That's all well and good, but when I smile, I get an automatic double chin and my eyes go all squinty behind my glasses. So I end up going for a half smile, smirk kind of thing.
4. I'm a perfectionist, and pictures never turn out perfectly, and that bothers me. I'm quite handy with Photoshop, and any personal pictures I have of myself I get to monkey around with them and take out some blemishes or unflattering bits. With a cheap, discount place like Walmart, you get what you pay for. They don't do any touch-ups at all. And that's depressing.

But hey. Oh well. This is just to document what my family is like at this point in our lives. Ben will have his trademark two-inch spike on the top of his head (because try as we might, it will not flatten), and Chester will have his scruffy-looking beard which doesn't look that bad, but since it's only three weeks old, still looks odd to me.

And me? I'll just be Mamma and Wife. In my cherry lipstick and bright red, completely wonderful new blouse. Chester loves me just the way I am, and Ben couldn't imagine me any other way. I think Ben's adorable all the time, and I don't really have a preference for how Chester looks, as long as he doesn't have nose hairs sticking out or something.

Ideally, we'll have a kind of candid portrait taken where Chester and I are looking at Ben doing something cute and we'll be laughing. I'm not a fan of the posed portrait. We have a really great photographer in town who would do a perfect portrait, but we don't have hundreds of dollars to spend. Only about thirty. So Walmart Portrait Studio will have to do. And I'll try to inspire the picture-taking lady to be creative.

Chester and I had pictures taken last December when I was large with child. We had some cute pictures done, like one where Chester is touching my huge belly and resting his head on it with this dreamy sort of smile on his face. I didn't mind pictures then... I looked overweight, of course, but my cute, huge pregnant belly was the star of the picture and I knew that would be the focus.