It's That Time For Family Pictures. Dum Dumm Dummmmm!

Even before I started a photography business I noticed the trend that Christmas cards have almost entirely become photo cards or aka "my family cleaned up nicer and sat more still than yours did" cards. And because no one wants to spend hours taking snapshots in the snow right before they mail the cards, everyone takes them early which makes fall the unofficial season of the family portrait. I'm not cynical, I promise. I just personally dread it. In fact, if it hadn't seemed so wrong to have all our recent family photos missing our newest family member I might not have even attempted it this year. I foresaw the difficulty in getting 3 kiddos to be in good humor and smile (all at the same time) toward my silent and uninteresting tripod. Thankfully, my parents were in town and attempted to capture my dream shot while my beautiful children had meltdowns that rivaled episodes of Supernanny. We ended up with a few keepers including one of Duncan clobbering his sister, Justin attempting to separate them, our dog licking the baby's face and myself, watching with open mouthed wonder. The one I chose to place on this blog still partially exudes our chaos but with slightly less malice involved. In fact, I love it because its sweet, honest and represents our life rather well- lots of laughter, scattered smiles and an unplanned pout or two. But don't worry, we did finish with a few less energetic shots with the famous fake looking smiles and hidden sibling animosity which will grace our photo cards this year. After all, no matter how honest, nobody wants to consciously forfeit the "my family is more docile than yours" war, right?