family pics 2012

this was our christmas card photo 2012.  this is the story behind it.  in the fall i took a bunch of other family's christmas card photos with the beautiful crisp fall air & colors, lovely families with super cute coordinated outfits, and i even did some at my coveted place that i've always wanted to take our family pics (this red barn).  on top of that i took time to do some editing to make them clean & vibrant.   but when it came to taking our family pics, do you think i had time or the energy to coordinate cute outfits, pencil in a date to actually take pics, make sure our hair was prim & proper while the weather was just right, let alone edit them?  nope, not this year.  not this lady.  december was approaching, and i had nothing.  so being the procrastinator that i am, i convinced my family (20 minutes before) that we were doing family pictures today.  yep.  our outfits weren't coordinating, it was actually snowing when we left the house, and jude was screaming b/c he hadn't taken his morning cat nap.  i didn't care.  i said, throw on your coats & whatever it takes to keep warm, and we're taking a pic.  so on our way to church, we pulled over at my favorite place, i set up the tripod & tried to set my camera settings while the wind was blowing like CRAZY & it was FREEZING out!  after i set it all up (record time of 30 seconds), i waved bart over & helped him grab some kiddos.  we ran in front of the barn where luckily the wind was blocked off a bit, and then i put my timer on (a remote would have been handy), clicked it & ran like heck to stand next to the family & flash a grin.  i briefly glanced through the pics while jude started to scream b/c of the wind & said, "whelp, good enough for this year." we got back in the car & headed to church.  it was the shortest, most spontaneous "photo shoot" i've done, but it worked.  there was no stress in planning the perfect outfit, worry about doing zoe & i's hair, no effort in cute staging/posing...none of that.  and like i said before, it worked.  not the perfect family pic, and that's what i liked about it.