picture perfect

Sometimes, well most of the time, things just don't pan out how I envision them in my head.

This is not how I thought our first family picture would look. But it is how our first family picture should look, because this is real.

Real for us...we are happy, just not really "put together" in that picture perfect way. Laci is under a kitty, can you even see her? Mia is oblivious, but what young baby isn't? We are surrounded by ugly towels and a nursing cover, the back of a dog's head is in the foreground, and everyone has that end of the day, worn out look. Probably because it was the end of the day and we were worn out. I handed my mom the camera and said, "Take a picture, now, because we don't have one of all four of us yet, and we need one, and I don't care how it turns out." Or something like that. Try as we might to capture an image where we are all looking at the camera, this is the best of them all. But we are together and happy and that's really all that matters.

I'm sure I've said it before, but I need more pictures like this, with me in front of the camera instead of behind it. Even if I'm not wearing makeup and my hair is frizzy and I have a dirty shirt on. Because that's the real me. I want to be able to leave pictures of my younger self for my children, and I'm guessing that that is the way they'll remember me anyway. If I left a picture of me all glammed up properly, they certainly wouldn't recognize me.

Someday, I'm certain we will all have clean clothes and combed hair at the same time. I can only hope I have it together enough to also take a picture on that day. Until that picture perfect day, this will do.