Picture Day!

"Exhausted" is the only word that can describe us right now. When M. gets home I will sleep for days.

Today the boys and I trooped to the mall to have their pictures taken. We've never gone to this studio before, and were not sure what to expect, really. The photographer we had was fantastic. Very good with the boys, got them to smile and was able to avoid those cheesy I'm-smiling-with-my-mouth-but-that's-it kind of smiles. She set up 6 poses, and was lightning-quick at moving things along. We were done in 30 minutes - half the time of where we've normally gone.

At the end, she tells me the photos will be done in 1 hour, and I was shocked. One hour?! I don't have to wait for 3-4 weeks and then show up at my appointed time with ny receipt? Nope! They print them there. You come back in an hour and choose the photos and poses from the pictures they've printed up.

So we found ourselves with an hour to kill in the mall while wearing matching outfits. We learned that grandma-types who walk the mall during the day love the matching outfits.

We stopped by Subway for a snack, and then walked through Dillard's to look at Christmas decorations. That was fun, seeing all of the trees.

Braden was mildly embarrassed by the display of women's undergarments that, I swear, seemed to be on display on every major aisle in that store. It was the first time I've noticed him turn slightly red and avert his eyes. Poor guy. Today he simply called out, "Eyes right!" and discussed the items we saw on the other side of the aisle as we passed by the unmentionables.

After an hour of wandering the aisles, we went back and sorted through all of the photos and sizes to select what we wanted. We were tired, and hungry, and hot (sweater-vests are HOT! Did you know that??), and by the time we left we'd spent 3 hours there!

Most of our family will be getting copies of these for Christmas, so I won't spoil the gifts. But here's one of the pictures as a freebie.