Nothing. And I struggle with this. Like…A LOT. I always want everything to be perfect. I stressed literally for months trying to put outfits together for our family that coordinated, but weren’t too matchy-matchy. I wanted Isla’s pants to be the brighter color and stick out a bit more. I ordered the cutest barrettes that matched perfectly. My necklace also matched her pants. I had the burgundy color in Grayson’s shirt. I laid everything out on the bed. 5 times. Picturing who should and shouldn’t stand next to each other. I was determined that we were going to look picture perfect.
Then reality hit. I knew I’d be the one to hold Isla, so I didn’t want our top colors to match too much. My shirt ended up not looking right by itself with my pants. So what did I do? Throw on a sweater that was similar in color to hers. Ughhhhh.
For as long as I stressed over this blessed photo shoot, it went anything BUT perfect. Don’t get me wrong. We love our photographer. She’s amazing. But she had an imperfect canvas (us) to work with. So you can only work so much magic before it’s considered a disaster. Because of our Little Miss, I wasn’t even paying attention to who was next to who. What side of my hair was showing. If my sweater was open enough for the colors to pop through and not blend in so much with Isla. I just wanted it over. Honestly.
If we only had 3 boys, we’d have such a cute picture of the kids! And I know I’m biased, but aren’t our boys so handsome?
Here’s the thing though. We have 4 kids. And this is our only picture of all of them together.
She was NOT having it. I’d put her down and run away as fast as possible to try and get a picture. And Isla ran almost as fast as I did.
Here are the 2 individual shots she got of Isla in between her melt downs. Because literally. She was melting down 95% of the time.
That look. We’re in trouble.
And the family picture? Ha! There is a good one. But talk about STINKER! Isla was either crying or putting her fingers in her mouth. But it showed the good side of my hair. Because y’all, that’s what matters most. Kidding. But seriously. Insert eye roll.
The boys were positioned perfectly. Everything was great. Except the 2 year old. There was no way anyone was going to get her to do what we wanted. Without crying at that. So we embraced our imperfect situation. Travis is actually the one who told our photographer it was fine. He told her, “Just take a picture of the kids with her screaming. That’s our life right now.” And he’s right. I’m all about WISHING we were perfect, but completely realizing we aren’t. And we never will be. Nor do I want to portray that we’re perfect. Ever. So our perfectly imperfect family picture of 2018 will be this one. The one that shows the bad side of my hair. But Isla is smiling…with her tongue hanging out. But we got it. And it’s as imperfectly perfect as we’ll get.
There will always be a family who’s more coordinated than us. There will always be other families who have more perfect and willing 2 year olds in their family pictures then us. There will always be families of 6 or more who seem to have all their ducks in a row better then us. As much as I wish we were all those families. We aren’t.
So we will continue to embrace our messes. Embrace being imperfect. And focus on living and making real memories more then having a picture perfect life ❤️
~xoxo
Living With Intention and Giving Myself Grace 