our bigger family

Remember when I showed our little family and said we needed to have portraits taken, since this one was twelve years ago?

Well, it was time for our parish’s church directory photos, so we hightailed it down to the church and got ours done. No matching clothes this time; in fact, we were all so rushed that we just ran down there in whatever we had on. Here’s the one that will be in the directory:

Q’s “faux-hawk” is definitely the attention-grabber. She doesn’t always gel it up, though the day she got it cut short and found she could coax it up into a faux-hawk if she used enough product, she was so excited. (I joke that she cut her hair short so that it would be low-maintenance, but she now spends more time on her hair than ever before!)

As for David and me… apparently we are middle-aged adults. I don’t know why this startles me as much as it does. Granted, David has bifocals and newly-shorn hair (the shortest haircut he has ever had in his life), and I am carrying about 50 matronly pounds I’d happily give up, but in my mind, we are still the cute little kids we were when we got married:

Why, oh why, do I think I will never age physically past the age of 26? This is a great and profound mystery. When I see photos of myself, look in the mirror, catch a glimpse of myself in a store window, I do not recognize the person I see. Please tell me this happens to you, too!