I'm not the Joneses

My little family and I took some family pictures this week... How do you react to "family pictures" do you get excited? I mean Who doesn't love taking pictures?! Or do you groan and moan? Because who actually loves taking pictures?

I grew up in a picture taking family. Everything warranted pictures and I love having so many to look at it! It's fun to be able to look back and see how my family and I grew up and all the fun things we did. Which is what pictures are for right? The memories?

Pictures have changed. Like everything else and I feel like they have gotten much more complicated than they need to be. 

There are hundreds of posts about how to dress for your family pictures. I'm totally guilty and have pinned oodles of them. The talk about how you need accessories, hats, scarves, boots, cardigan for the husband, patterns that match just enough so they aren't matchy, but they look good together, colors that are friends but not FRIENDS. I can't even explain it, that's how good I understand it. But they all look SO good. And you think "yeah. I can do that. No problem."  Wrong. It's a problem. 

My mother in law bought me a 20x24 canvas so I really wanted to have some good looking family photos. 

So I started the hunt. I went through about a million combinations. Added a cardigan for me, tried to fit in a pattern. I had the pattern, no j has the pattern, nope a different pattern, maybe I should have the pattern and the cardigan. Shoot what's woody going to wear? Should he have a pattern? No he wore his good pattern shirt last time. Crap. Woody wants to wear shorts. Should I wear shorts? Shorts don't look good. What about capris? Do I have a necklace for this shirt? Should j wear shorts?

2 whole days worth. 

And finally j ended up with the pattern, woody got the shorts he wanted and I wore jeans to make my legs look good. ;)

J's shirt was too close of a match to my shirt and his pants blended into woodys shirt. And we didn't have any accessories. 

But as I look at the few pics I have so far this doesn't bug me like I thought it would. Because in the end it's the people, the smiles and the stage my family is in that matters the most. 

Would I have been forever bugged if I had had a bad hair day? Definitely. Would I be mortified if I had picked pants that made my butt look big? Absolutely!! Will I be sucked into trying to have to the perfect picture outfit? Most likely. 

But this time around. We did not end up looking like the joneses. But were still pretty cute ;)

Who wants more pictures?? I know I do!

Where have I been lately??!!!

I've been around.. you've just missed me because camouflage has been used.

J and I have been working hard (or hardly working??) lately.  J finally caught his feet!! He has been staring at these little stinkers for quite some time now. And his hands have finally decided to cooperate just enough for him to grab them! He loves it and I love it

J and I spend most of our mornings in my bed. At one point or another he ends up in here with me so I can sneak in a few extra zzzz's by snuggling him.  He has the best stretch ever!! I think he dreams of being a super hero.. so he makes the appropriate pose when he wakes up to tell me about his stories

You never know how long we will stay in bed.. I've been trying to get up this week and sneak in a work out. Sometimes I'm successful. Sometimes I'm not.

J has had one fun and exciting time at the pool so far. He spent most of it sleeping... but who doesn't enjoy a good nap by the pool?? I sure do!

J babe is loving his toys lately! 

This one time J had woken up and was laying around very nicely. So I snuck in and just watched him for a couple minutes :) I can't help it. He's so cute

J's new thing is to stick his tongue out. He does it all day long!

And of course he loves his nighttime snuggles with daddy. I mean who doesn't??

I love the life of a stay at home mom. J and I play all day long! When dad comes home I'm OK with him being a baby hog, because I'm a baby hog in the day! Or I don't mind getting some things done around the house at night, or bedtime! I love my time with my J babe and am soaking up every last second.

SO there's my update. Hopefully I'll be more consistent so that I don't have to do only an update in the posts :)