Happy New Year to all of our readers! Are you all charged up for your New Years Resolutions? Sadly my diet only lasted 4 hours. But, there is always another “this Monday” to start.

I’m going out on a limb here in sharing some family pictures. If you haven’t noticed, Ashleigh and I like to hide a bit. We had to be talked into putting our pics on the sidebar after blogging for two years. We are both way more comfortable behind the camera.

But this photo shoot was flat out fun and I love the results. Thank you to my dear friend Jan at Jani Photography for the most fun I’ve ever had taking family pictures.

She suggested we head to the local ice cream joint. First of all, I didn’t believe her that 8 people would fit in one booth.

Then I didn’t believe her that I would actually want pictures of myself eating. Should I really document that I eat ice cream. It is probably self-evident that I do.

I was not surprised, however, to see that my kids were caught giving each other dirty looks. There are certain things Photoshop can not fix.

I for sure never believed I would post this picture online but my kids requested to do this picture and it makes me laugh. I’m pretty sure I was laughing while Jan was taking the picture.

I definitely doubted Jan got enough pictures to make sure all 8 of us were looking our best. In every photo shoot I have done I snap about 301 pictures and still have to settle on one where kid number (fill in the blank) has a fake or goofy smile. But in her ultimate genius and talent she managed to take the best family picture in only a few shots.

The moral of the story is to trust your photographer. And have fun with your photo session. And try not to cringe when you hit the publish button.