out with the old, in with the new...

I am usually dragging Mike out the door to get our annual family pictures taken. I think he dreads it because there was one year when I made him go out for retakes 3 times! Yes, I can get a little picky about family pictures. I think the biggest thing for me is that we have a big frame (24x24) in our front room. I can't have a picture up there that I don't like! Imagine walking past a picture every day when all you can think is "man, I look pretty big in that picture!"

So, I am picky about the picture. This year I was dragging my feet because of Sam. I was sad that we really never got a picture of us all that I could feel good about blowing up in such a big frame. I felt like we would be getting pictures, and I would know that a big part of our family was missing.

So, I just didn't bring it up. Mike kept reminding me that we needed a new picture. Yes, you heard me...Mike was reminding me. I kept dragging my feet. So he kept reminding me. He would announce that we might not have another nice weekend, or that the leaves were going to be off the trees. Finally I snapped out of my funk and we went to get our pictures taken. My friend Heather took them and I am happy with the result. I took Sam's blanket up there with us and decided that in the future we will have Sam's bear in the pictures.

So, here's the big one...

the old

the new

I also have this really cool barn window that we use as a frame. The road block I faced in updating the pictures in this frame was about Sam again. I always pictured adding new pictures of each of the kids as they got older. I realized that unless I change Sam's picture out for a new one on one of the few days that he lived, his picture would stay the same. Allie and Jake (and any future children) will slowly grow up around Sam's little picture I took when he was 2 days old. That is a little sad for me. I got over it (for now at least).

So, here's that one...

the old

the new

That's all I have to say about that.