Back in November 2009, I asked my amazingly talented sister Hailey to snap a few last minute family photos for our Christmas card. Olivia was barely a year old, and little did I know that I would shortly discover that surprise baby number five would be joining our family in 2010. Of course, Hailey came along to help me out, and so did my brother Trevor. They wondered if we'd mind if they did a practice run family video? Um, yes please! I have plenty of photos of my kids, but not as much video, much less with me and Clayton in them. I was so excited about it.
The day of the photo shoot was completely stressful, getting everyone dressed and hair done, and a husband showing up in NOT the outfit I laid out for him. Grrrr... I told him he had to kiss me in one of the photos even though we were really angry at each other and I remember looking at each other at that moment like, "Seriously, I am so ticked off right now, but I love you and I will kiss you anyway." Ha! Please tell me that we aren't the only family that fights on photo day! That particular photo hangs on my wall to this day and in a way, it's a reminder of our unconditional love. Funny how the imperfect photos are so perfect.
The video that Hailey and Trevor filmed that day in 2009 ended up being such a surprise little treasure for me. I cried as I watched it over and over. It meant the world to me, and still does.
Flash forward four years and another child later, I've been craving another family video...before little Will loses his soft, squishy baby chub! It's disappearing so fast it makes me sad. Hailey and her husband Brad are so busy traveling the world with their video work I wasn't sure if they'd have the time to squeeze us in this year. But of course, being the generous and sweet people that they are, they said they'd love to shoot a new video for me.
I had a plenty of time to plan clothing and props, but my life is such a whirlwind these days that I found myself scrambling at the last minute to pull things together the day of our shoot. I didn't feel as prepared as I would have liked. "Oh well, here we go!" I thought. Will fell asleep on the drive to the location and when we woke him up, he was so grumpy and incredibly clingy. My two youngest girls wouldn't let me do anything with their hair, and Clayton {who hates being in photos, and videos even more, but who humors me and smiles anyway} was having an allergy attack throughout the entire shoot. Achoo! Achoo! And nobody brought tissues. We were a little late too, so we didn't have much time before we would be losing light, and to top it off I was having a bad hair day. Dang it.
However, I wasn't too worried about it. I told Hailey, "I know you'll work your magic and make this look more amazing than it actually is!" She assured me, "Yes, don't you worry!" She is incredible at what she does, so I knew that despite all that was seemingly going wrong, we were in good hands. She would add my cute little selected Beatles song, "I Will," and that would help. She would turn it into something better than I could even imagine.
And she did. This video is another little treasure for my collection, and yes, I cried as I watched it over and over. It means the world to me to have my little family captured for a little moment on film. I'm sure that as the years pass it will mean even more and I won't even remember the worries I had that day. Maybe I will. But it won't matter. This is us in 2013. Funny how the imperfect can be so perfect.
Here's our 2009 video if you'd like to see it. xoxo