The Headache of Family Pics

Today I’m thankful for all the veteran’s, and I‘m wearing red, are you? (30 Days of Thanks)

I’ve been wanting to take a new family picture for a quite a while now (after all, the one on our wall is from when the 4 year old was just 6 months).  I’ve found a brave camera operator, and tomorrow is the big picture day.

Now, there are plenty of things I’m worried about, such as how Mr. 2 1/2 year old will behave and keeping 2 little ones happy while pics are snapped.  But right now it’s the “what do we wear?” that is the problem.

Seriously, is there anything harder when get family pics taken than trying to coordinate everyone’s clothes?

Years ago when we got our pictures snapped my husband and I both wore black and put our daughter in something pink that stood out.   I thought about doing something similar, making the kids stand out against whatever we wore.  The problem is that Peanut’s clothes are all pink, purple, or some other girly color.  The only shirt she has in a color the same as any of little brother’s clothes is a red Santa shirt.Since I’m hoping to use the pics on Christmas cards, it’s not a bad idea, but honestly, if I want my little man to be happy during the photo shoot (ie. not scream), then I better put him in a car/truck shirt.

My husband’s clothing choices aren’t helping, either.  He is a strictly dark colors kind of guy.  (Again, can’t seem to get the little girl to coordinate with the guys.)  If I try to coordinate his shirt with my own, it will have to be green (I no longer have the black shirt from years ago; it was a maternity top, actually.)  Here’s what it would look like with our greens and reds together:

After, literally, 25 minutes or so, I remembered we bought a new black truck shirt for Monkey last night (most of his car and truck shirts are red, for some reason…)  Ding, ding, ding!  Black is the husband’s big color in the closet!

I scurried to find the new shirt, the trucks will make Monkey happy and it will kind of coordinate with Daddy.  Then I set off to see what girly colors I could put together for me and the preschooler.  This is what I came up with:

At least I know the hard part is over… After the pictures are taken on the digital, it will be easy to turn our family picture into priceless Christmas gifts for the grandparents.

Last year I made calendars.  And while I still love that idea for the grandparents, I am also loving the idea of photo Christmas ornaments.

What about your?  When’s the last time you took family pics?  Was picking out clothes a headache, or am I the only one?

Brought to you by your friends at Vistaprint, a great way for easy and personal Christmas gift ideas!