Family Photo Fail

Family photos....

Giving Moms everywhere nervous breakdowns from the dawn of time...

I wish I could say I'm one of those Mammas who is uber prepared for family pics. The Mom that lays out every family member's clothes the night before (ironed and photo ready, of course). The Mom who searches Pinterest weeks in advance for pose inspiration. The Mom who plans ahead. The Mom who has the fool proof plan for successful family photos...

I am obviously not that Mom.

I probably should have come to the realization that I wasn't "that Mom" as I ran around my house half dressed, like a psycho, as I searched frantically for my daughter's only pair of black leggings (10 minutes before we were supposed to leave the house). The shirt I had planned to wear (I mentally planned...sort of... no actual physical preparation) was in the washing machine, still wet. The shirt my husband chose to wear had a hole in it. I seriously doubt that I could have been less prepared. Maybe if I had forgotten to even make the photo studio appointment? As luck should have it, I at least remembered that part!

I swear planning any family activity is a total pain, but photos...phew...those are the things that nightmares are made of... especially with a toddler....

Is my two year old going to wake up with an attitude? Will she have an eye crusted shut for God only knows what reason? Maybe a fever or a face rash? Will she be whiny? (More whiny than usual, of course)

Taking a toddler for pictures is like playing a game of roulette, or walking through a field of hidden land mines...Any misstep, any deviation from the plan, and game over... There is no recovering once the bomb goes off...

Once we finally pulled it together enough to leave the house, we arrived at the photography studio with just a few minutes to spare. Luckily we were the only appointment at the time, so Olivia had the whole place to run around like a little crazy person, which she absolutely loved, so I think that helped us get some good shots of her smiling when we first started.

After those initial photos though... it was pretty touch and go.

I think the thing that saved the whole process was that the photographer had an assistant, which made getting Olivia to smile and switching poses and backdrops super quick and painless. If it would have taken more than a few seconds we would've crashed and burned pretty quickly!

I'm definitely not going to pretend that we got "the perfect" photos, we definitely got some lazy eye, whining, running off set photos, but we did get some super cute ones.

I think that is the lesson I learned today...Well, was reminded of at least..

I totally take things too seriously sometimes.. I freak out, panic, lose my mind, and for what? The pictures would've turned out the exact same whether I lost my shit this morning or not. So why did a stress so much about it? And we did end up getting some good photos...

Today just reminded me that as a Mom, actually, as a human, we need to be realistic. Did I really think taking a toddler to get family photos taken would go off 100% without a hitch? Come on, even I'm not that delusional..

Moral of the story, if you're freaking out over something today, (or any day) remember not to take life so serious... There are gonna be God awful photos, and picture perfect photos. This is real life after all. Nothing is that simple.