Life's too short to smile at the camera

Family photos. Everyone does it. At least it seems that way. I've gotten them from nearly every sibling with their families. They sit in front of the camera in carefully placed positions that are optimum to the situation in which they are being photographed. Then they smile for the birdie, click-click-click, print and done. Sure, they look nice. Everyone all gussied up in their finest threads and all primped and proper for the shoot. But it's a bit stagnant if you ask me. Don't get me wrong. I've considered doing this with my family just like everyone else. But as my family will tell you, I've yet to have it done. I have a five year old child and still have yet to get family portraits done to pass out. So recently I've wanted to stick something on my photo wall that is of us and know for certain that there are plenty of family members who want pictures of us as well. Well, the problem with those pose, point and click pictures is that they are fairly boring for the most part. Pretty, yes. But boring. I've seen some very interesting family pictures online on some of those 'fun idea' websites and I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be fun to have an unconventional picture instead of an ordinary one?" It just so happened that I had an idea for this that I've been tossing around. About a month ago, the kids and I were playing around with all of Alex's super-hero gear. We are all pro-super heroes in this house. Josh took a picture of us and it was fun. Now, the problem with this moment was that the kids were in the pajamas and Josh wasn't in the photo. So I waited patiently for a nice, sunny day to go to my folks house. I enlisted my mom to be our photographer and wa-lah! Our very own photo-shoot commenced. We're kind of a weird family. So we needed a weird family picture session. And I love it!! After some tinkering in GIMP (art program), they turned out fantastic (in my opinion). Totally geeky and 100% us! Conventional family photo, move over! It's time for...

I'm giving this as our family portrait unless I'm threatened under pain of death not to. :)

Battle! This was so much fun! My mom was laughing and so were we. I'm sure their neighbors thought we were nuts. And the cows and horses were going bananas in the pasture.

The boys in battle!

The gals in battle.

Sibling rivalry!

Peace, at last, between the hero siblings!

I love this picture of the hubby and I. I'd be willing to say it's the best one yet of us! Not a bad side-kick for someone with no practice, eh?

And the last shot of the day. This was so much fun and I hope that you all liked it too. If any family is reading this blog and wants any of these, let me know in the comments section or something and I'll put it on a list for what to print. It sure beats a staged smile and point session.