Thoughts about Family Photos...

As a kid, I thought everyone was forced to participate in the "Family Photo" experience.  My parents didn't have a lot of extra money when we were little but they still had pictures taken throughout the years.  I love those pictures (and we love to make fun of the clothes we wore.  Back then we just wore our best clothes and often they didn't match at all.)

This is the first formal picture, I think.  All of our relatives had this picture in their houses for YEARS!  Todd and I were always wishing they would take them down.  At 12 and 11, we weren't sure this picture fit our images.

My brother Todd and me

 It helped that my Uncle Grant was a photographer and some of our family pictures were taken in their front room with a white screen in back of us.  (When the pictures were black and white, it didn't matter so much that our clothes didn't match.

Dad, Mom holding Valerie
Mike, Robin, Todd, me

 This was taken in our back yard in Amarillo, Texas and one of the pictures we love to make fun of because our clothes did not match.  It was also windy (it was in Amarillo after all where it is always windy.) so some of the pictures have our hair flying in the wind.

Valerie, Mike, me, Todd, Robin, Lynette
Rick, Dad, Mom, Scott

 This is the first family picture with in-laws and grandchildren in it.  This was in 1983.

Rick, Valerie holding Jarom, Lance, Joann, Todd, Mike holding Paul, Me holding Jessica, Gary, Scott
Lynette, Mom, Margaret with Lisa, Dad, Robin

This is a scanned picture of the last extended family picture which we had taken the summer before my mom passed away.  It was taken at a park in Plano, Texas as part of our family reunion in 1994.

For Family History purposes:Sitting:  Ben Hall, Jessica Hall holding Tosha, Sierra, Jordan, Lora, Zech, and David Giberson, Paul Giberson, Scott Hall, Jarom Ipson
First row standing:  Megan Ipson, Niles Giberson, Justin Ipson, Rick and Linda Giberson holding Katie, Mom and Dad Giberson (Richard and Eileen) Valerie and Lance Ipson with Kristen, Kara, and Jordan Ipson, Landi Ipson, Lisa Giberson
Back row:  Robin Giberson, Scott Giberson, Gary and Judy Hall, Linda and Todd Giberson, Lynette, Mike Giberson

And although I am sure that I might have complained along the way about getting dressed up or having my hair done, I am so glad that I have these pictures of my family and of course, I continued that tradition with my own family.

It hasn't been always easy.  In fact the phrase, "We are doing this for your mother so be happy about it." was frequently heard as kids were getting ready in the clothes I had picked out for them (because we are in the time where clothes need to "blend" artful in family photos.)  And I love our family photos over the years.  Each one captures a time and place in our family.  Just looking at them can bring a flood of memories of the day the picture was taken or where we were living or what was going on in our lives.  In fact I love them so much I couldn't bear to put them away when we took the next new family photo.  So in our hallway, I have several of them posted so in a flash we can see our family and how they have grown.

(Side story:  One day when Scott was in high school he had a girl over who needed to use the bathroom.  Instead of directing her to our powder room, he instead sent her off to the main bathroom which meant she walked down this hall. I tried to redirect her but she had already made the corner and I heard her call out to Scott;" Scott, you were so cute."  He smiled at me and headed to the hall where he stood to hear her comments about each of the pictures.  After that, most times when he had a girl over we pointed her in the direction of the family pictures--just to get it over with, we said.)

I was thinking about family pictures because I finally got around to hanging up our most recent family pictures and the first ones to included our 3 little grandchildren.  I removed our former collage of family pictures which were taken in 2010 right before Scott and Chantel got married and also a set of pictures of each of the kids which they gave to me for Mother's Day one year (2009?).  I have always loved those pictures, both because they were darling but also because they had arranged it between the five of them and even had their clothes blend in blues and yellows. And even Jena had kept the secret.  I was totally shocked and I love them all.

And here is the new arrangement:

Family picture taken in April of 2015
Niki and Scarlett together in April of 2015
Liam in November of 2015

Jessica, Elessia and Liam taken in November)
Everyone else in April during the family picture

Already, our grandchildren have grown so much.  I can't wait to take another family picture.  It will be so fun to see the three grandchildren sitting all together.  It will be a few years since Tosha and family are in Japan but someday.  Until then, I get to enjoy these gorgeous pictures (thanks again, Ashlee Hair.)!

I LOVE these peoples!

and I love the history these pictures hold for me.

I hope that my children love them, too.