Smile! You're on Candid Camera

Aahhh, the long-awaited pics from Saturday's photoshoot. Most of them speak for themselves so I won't take the time to narrate them, but there are a few that may be better received with a short explanation. Take these first few, for example... Normally I only post "good" pictures, meaning those pics where nobody looks fat or has a goofy smile, where no one's clothes are caddy-whampus (sp?) and no one has spinach in their teeth. However, I also think that some of the best pictures are candid ones, and boy, do we have some doozies. Rachel often takes test pictures to check her lighting and such, and the result of the spontaneous pics are these incredibly candid shots of our family. Rachel is absent because she is behind the camera, and the one you may not recognize is my brother's adorable girlfriend, Allegra. There's a chance my family will kill me for posting them, but it's worth it.

Seriously, folks, you couldn't stage pics like that if you wanted to. I think they look like movie stills. I particularly love Alex's expression in the last one. All of that practice led to a great family portrait. As you can see, my dad's gigantic Bravia flat screen is officially part of the family now.

Alex loves his B's (Grandma and Grandpa B, that is).

Us and him:

More us and him:

Timothy and I have recently determined that we have the happiest baby ever. Or the hammiest. Same difference. Ugghhh, it doesn't get any better than this...

Murphy and his Bubba:

Can this kid pose or what? I knew making him watch all those America's Next Top Model marathons would pay off...

Here is his "serious" model face. Note the manly clenched jaw...

Sick of Alex yet? So sorry. I can't help myself...

I gotta give Timothy props for these next pics. Grammy gave Alex this outfit and we wanted to make sure to get pictures before he outgrows it. Aunt Rach and I had some errands to run and we weren't sure if we'd have time to shoot him, so Timothy took matters into his own hands.

The outfit was adorable, but it was heavily starched and Alex found the crunchy texture to be kind of uncomfortable. He tried to take it off himself and almost succeeded.

Although we were all very impressed with Timothy's skills as a photog, we decided to let Aunt Rach give it a whirl.

This one has no explanation. I just thought it was funny...

Can you see why we are going to have a hard time deciding which picture to use for our Christmas card? I generally prefer surprises and wouldn't normally offer a sneak peek, but I will say that I think the following pics are in the running to be "the chosen one":

Believe it or not, these are just a fraction of the pictures that were taken. If you still haven't had enough of Alex, the collection in its entirety can be viewed on my flickr site. Enjoy!