When people hear that I am a photographer, they tend to imagine that every photo I take of my kids is picture perfect. Or that they love being in photos. Or that they always smile at the camera and listen to my directing for the perfect angles… I’ll let you linger on that top photo and figure out what you think 😉

To be fair, my kids do love being in photos most of the time and they are more used to a camera being in their face/ documenting most outings and activities. But I, just like you, don’t always get the perfect Instagram worthy photo. Which is one of the reasons I am off that app – who cares?! When I am looking back on photos years from now, I’ll be cracking up with Hilde about her thumbs down pose. And we will giggle about how Thorin never smiles in photos. And how Millie’s hair was so blonde it always was overexposed!

Now that we have cleared the air on picture perfection, here are some not-so-perfect-but-still-very-special photos of our journey to pick out the Christmas Tree this year. Same place, same tree type, taller girls, and more children. This is Mayberry five.

Check out past years here: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021!