Family Pictures....

We got our family pictures done!!  

I always feel like I need to record what family pictures is really like.  It always cracks me up that family pictures are so beautiful and smiling, but they have a behind the scenes story that usually no one ever knows!!

So here's mine:

We were scheduled to take pictures one week before we actually got them done.  The clothes were laid out....

I was pretty much focusing my all day efforts on being totally prepared.  

The timing would be tricky, Jed gets home from work with not much sunlight left.

I called him in the early afternoon to make sure he was going to be able to make it, he was working a ways out of town.  He let me know it was going to be iffy.  

I called my sister-in-law who was going to be our photographer and said lets just plan on it unless I hear from him, and we were just going to start with me and the kids and have him join in at the tail end, at least we were hoping.

But as I talked to my sister-in-law a little later, she was feeling the onset of a major migraine ( I felt so bad for her.)  So we cancelled, and it was a good thing too because Jed wouldn't have made it!!  He got home way past dark.  

I had 3 of us girls all ready to go, but we postponed til the next week.

Fast forward to the next week.  I didn't dedicate near as much time to preparation as I had the week before.  I got my shower in and then decided not to sweat it until the kids got home from school.  They got home and I kicked it into high gear--which suddenly put me into crazy gear.  I still had to run an errand to town and I needed Drew to stay home with some of the kids while I went.  My errand took probably 30 minutes longer than I had anticipated.....it wasn't supposed to take me long at all.  Then I got home and and got a phone call from my sister-in-law saying she was at our location.  (!!!!)   Keep in mind I had gotten as far as a shower for myself and that was it!!  So in the next 20 minutes, I was hurriedly doing kids hair and my own and throwing on a bit of make-up.  Drew also kicked it into high gear and completely got Claire dressed without my asking.  He was a saint. So I left Jed a sticky note with what to wear and how to wear it and we would meet him as soon as he could come.

I was certainly not the above-and-beyond prepared mom I was the week before!!  In fact, Madelyn wanted straight hair and the whole time I was trying to do her hair I had her tell me "It's not the end of the world mom.  You do your best and that's all you can do."  I was coaching her to on what to tell me.  It's amazing how helpful that was, even when I was telling her what to say...but hearing it come from someone else's mouth was somehow more reassuring than coming from my own mind.  :)

I get another phone call from my sis-in-law, making sure we were on our way.  And we were pretty much on our way out the door.  Phew.  We did it, not with the hair-do's I had planned, but I did my best and that was all I could do.  :)  But the house was a tornado.  Oh man.

Then the actual taking the pictures is a total adventure.  Kids running into photos.  Whining.  Complaining.  Tears shed.  Threats made.  Bribes given.  You know, the works.

That's family pictures for ya.  

But I love that they capture our family despite all the craziness.  They capture us.  We're frozen in time for a moment.  All those ones that I love surrounding me.  

It's beautiful!!