Family Photo Warriors

We got our first family photos taken last September and decided afterwards that every year we should take updated family pics. Now after only 2 family photo sessions I seriously feel like we are family photo warriors. Last September it was raining but we plugged through the rain and wind with smiles on our faces and when the final pics came back you couldn't even tell. (amiright?) & this year was even worse....I was battling a nasty cold and sinus infection, and Landon was mid-nap when our photographer arrived and came down with a 103.6 temp later that day. At least I could put on some make up, drink down a skinny vanilla soy latte with 4 shots of espresso (I should probably do that every morning) and pull it together. But poor Landon couldn't. He was sick, tired, and not having any of it, for the entire hour she was here. l was sure that we weren't going to get a single good shot in for our Christmas card this year and I came to terms with the fact that we just weren't going to send out cards this year or have any updated family photos to frame. & then my little USB port came back in the mail and I saw this beaut amongst the other dozens of Landon's crying, pouting, tired little face.

I rarely get to be in front of the camera, in a shot that is further out than arm's length. But I think it is so important to capture "mom" in the picture every now & then so my kids have something to look back at years from now to know I was there and what I looked like back then. That's why our family pictures always make me so happy. Because I have something that immortalizes these times in our lives... when Landon was a squirmy, clingy, little daddy's boy, when we lived in our first house in the suburbs & braved family pictures with a screaming, kicking, pouting toddler, when I was a sick, exhausted mom of a 2.5 year old & Chris was doing more than his fair share to keep it all together. This is our life right now. It's not always glamorous but when I look back at our pictures I might think it was. We look happy. We are happy. And now I have these pictures to remember this time forever.