A LOVEly photo shoot

We had Elliott's 1 year photos taken the week after Christmas.  I went to the studio to pick them up the first week of January.  One of the prints had a white smudge on it so it was reordered and then that was ready to be picked up on January 17th.  Totally on a whim I decided that since we were going in anyway, it would be fun to have secret Valentine pictures taken of the boys.  I was going to give them to Michael as a gift.  We don't usually exchange Valentine gifts, but I was going to make an exception for this. 

 

I grabbed their beagle sweaters, grabbed some of our Valentine decorations out of the storage container in the garage and off we went.  It was a Thursday afternoon and I didn't think the studio would be very busy.  I was right.  We got there around 4:30 and the next appointment was at 6:00.  Susan, the manager, was the only one there and she said she would love to take the photos for us.  She knows us well.  Shocking.

 

We went into the studio, Susan picked up the camera and Elliott burst into tears.

He just cried and cried and cried.

 

Susan, being creative, tried to make the best of a bad situation.

 

And Elliott continued to cry.

Nothing was working to make him stop, so I picked him up and we went into the waiting area. 

 

Then Spencer participated in a photo shoot for GQ magazine.

In the meantime I got Elliott nice and calm.  He was laughing and having a good time.  We walked back into the studio and BAM!  Crying.

 

 Balloons couldn't even get him to stop.

 

I wish I could remember what I was doing over on the side for Spencer to be making this face.

 

This is the "best" one of the bunch.....if you like your kids with tear stained faces.

He stopped crying just long enough to shove some cheerios in his face.  And then we called it quits.  And I mentally added this to the list of things that my kids owe me for in the future.

 

P.S.  I totally ordered the $6 package and got a 10 x 13 of the one with Spencer shushing Elliott.  I'm totally going to give it to Elliott's fiance to be used in their rehearsal dinner photo tribute.