Last year when my family and I stepped out and in front of the camera for our annual family photo session, I will never forget thinking to myself, “We can do this.  We just have to be ourselves. Smile, but don’t look like a moron.  We can be natural…we can be natural….WE CAN BE NATURAL…!”  And 5 seconds into the session, my son is running around like a little boy acting his age and all of my fear and nerves and any preconceived notions I had for our family photos went flying out the window.

And can I tell you a secret?I loved those photos.  Like, loved, LOVED them.  Because they were us.  They were real.  They were our goofy grins and our stupid jokes and our family hugs.  They were far from perfect, but that’s because we are far from perfect.  We’re us.  And I want the photos that document us to be real, not staged, not forced, just us.

So when you step out of your car with that fear and self doubt, with that butterfly feeling in your stomach, let it all go.  Remember this…you aren’t worrying about who fed the dog or who needs to pick up their clothes or if that crayon stain is going to come out of your kid’s bedspread. You are free to be happy.  You are free to pull your children closer, to squeeze them tighter, to whisper to them how they hung the moon for you, and to look at your husband and know that you get to be in a picture with him and not worry about anything else happening in that moment in time.

And it will be wonderful.

You know what else?  Those dishes can wait…