the outtakes.

it all kinda sorta just randomly happened.  while doing a little clothes shopping last summer, phil picked up a camo t-shirt to wear around the house.  and while running errands.  and to church.  our church is very casual, but phil might have taken it to a whole new level with his usual ‘uniform’ of camo shirt and crocs.

so then mikey wanted a camo shirt to be like daddy.  we found one from an army surplus type store in the mall.

fast forward a month or two later and what do we randomly come across?  a whole dress made out of camo fabric.  at macys, of all places!  phil insisted on buying it for me.  he pitched its major selling point which was that it draped in such a way that i could wear it even with a growing preggo belly.  so now i found myself with camo gear to wear as well.

then, while we were up in seattle, phil suggested we try to find camo gear for the girls to wear as well for this year’s christmas photo card.  not exactly sure at which point i actually agreed to the idea, but that’s where the idea for the camo-tsai family photo was born.  it was all phil’s idea, i tell ya.  i’m just along for the ride here.

oh and we did also find a camo vest for our doggie to wear too, though you can hardly see it in the pictures.  huh.  apparently her camo gear was a bit too good at blending in.  anyhow, we found that at the walmarts.

and so now, i present you with a few of the camo-tsai family photo outtakes.

“make your silliest, crazy face, everyone!”

“ok, now your sad face!”

and this is the one i was leaning toward using for the photo card.  except for stinkin’ lauren in a semi-blink right then.  but look how nice everyone else looks (even daisy the dog was smiling!).

so this is the one phil ultimately decided was best and the one we ended up using this year.  i was trying so hard to make sure everyone else wasn’t in splotchy light and we definitely should have come out to do it an hour or two later when the sun wasn’t so bright, but what can you do when nap-time must be worked around?  just wish someone had been around to tell me that i was standing in the lovely splotchy light.  or tell me that maybe i wouldn’t want my behind sticking out like that…  aw well, at least the rest of the family looks good.  : p

and here’s a few outtakes of just the kiddos.

“surprised face!”

“mad face!”

and this was taken juuust after lauren got dog-poo on her knees.  which then ended up on my finger.  when then ended up on my camera.  which then kinda muddied up my spirits.

but on we must forward go!  (huh?)

 not perfect, but i still love it.

ok, so for the last few weeks, the kids have LOUDLY been admiring every single house decorated with lights and any other festive stuff as we drive by.  and ever since, mikey’s been waiting and waiting for us to get lights up on our house.  the only thing is that required daddy to be home before dark.  unfortunately, daddy’s been juggling work at multiple hospitals this month (don’t ask, long story), so the home before dark thing hasn’t really worked out this month- including weekends.

so there was this ONE day when phil texted he’d be home in the afternoon so i rushed to get everyone ready for the above family pictures and then we shot right back home to get the lights up on the house finally.  but not before a quick stop at our neighborhood 7-eleven for slurpees for all first.  cuz that day happened to be 80+ degree range.  allie was sweating from the head.

so we consulted mikey’s diagram, which he drew and left on daddy’s desk a couple weeks back.  he wanted two “bokis” (aka “boxes”) of lights to put up.

and thanks to a neighbor’s ladder, daddy did get those lights up!  while the three supervisors supervised.

in between sips of slurpee.  (this was the small insert pic on the christmas card).

after a while, mikey decided to lend a helping head.

but apparently, the job wasn’t going quite fast enough…

and someday, if this rain finally stops, i’ll get a picture of our purty lighted up house!  merry christmas, y’all!