Family Pictures

With three-and-a-half months to go before Phoglet No. Seven makes an appearance, I'm really starting to feel (and look!) rather pregnant. Part of that feeling is the urgency to get as much

• done and
  
• finished and
  
• taken care of and
  
• checked off my list
  

as is humanly possible before I have a tender little "inkfink" to cuddle and hold and feed and care for. You know what I mean. All those unfinished projects. The un-checked-off To Do lists. All the piles around my house that silently call to me and remind me they are unorganized. As much order as I can possibly carve out of my Domain of Chaos...so help me, I will do it.

One might think that pictures would factor very low on this Urgent Pregnant Feelings Richter scale. Au contraire. See, I have a Wall. It has family portraits of Mark and I, with each successive child as The Baby. You can see us with just Hyrum, and then us with Hyrum-the-two-year-old with bald little Gabriella. And then Hyrum at four with Gabba at the I-just-gave-myself-a-haircut-and-it-is-finally-growing-out stage, with sweet little Baby Lucy. And so on.

But there is not yet a portrait of our family with George as The Baby. And here comes the next one, to de-throne him from that very position. And I know - I just know! - that if George has to grow up in this home with all those family portraits on the wall, but conspicuously missing the one where he is The Baby, I'm going to pay for it. Therapy bills? Possibly. Behavioral problems? Maybe. Guilt trips? Definitely. Plus, it would bug me. A lot. My little detail-oriented brain might self-destruct after enough time has lapsed.

To come to my own defense, I have been trying since last SEPTEMBER to get this portrait thing settled. This exact same scenario played out when I was expecting Yvy and Eliza didn't have her place on the Wall as The Baby. How far in advance do I have to schedule this stuff to avoid a Quick-I'm-Pregnant-Take-A-Family-Picture moment of panic? I guess it just adds to the sense of drama we so carefully cultivate at the House of Phogles. For instance, when I took all these photos, I absolutely planned on getting the Mark Galbraiths in the mix, as well. Didn't happen. Of course. And whatever muses of photography are out there, they have arrayed their forces against me.

In fact, it took a high school pal coming all the way from Arizona to spend five weeks with family to pull of this miracle. At not quite four months out from the big L & D, I was getting all panicky and desperate. But my Kara friend is a gifted photographer. And she asked me if she could do it. Done! Knowing my mental state regarding the issue, my dear husband took an entire day off of work so we could drive down to Liberty and do family photos. Bless him. And here you go! The next official installment for the Wall. I now move on to the next must-obsess issue on my list.

Please notice that we stacked kids in front of my preggo self so as to hide the Bump. Thus George will not have to be shamed when he is older and gazes upon the Wall and the portrait in which he first appears.

If you want to see the rest of the portraits, go to my photography blog to check them out! And, thank you, thanks you, Kara Sue! You saved my pre-partum sanity. And George's self esteem.