THERE WAS A PLAN

Holy smokes, our family Easter photos almost didn’t happen this year! Wait until you read all the hurdles, mishaps and stinkin’ nonsense that occurred! I should have given up SO many times, but my stubborn self just wouldn’t let it go! 

We take A LOT of family photos… you most likely know that by now! Every couple of months, I really look forward to creating new style concept for us. I usually change up our style depending on the seasonal weather or holidays. Kade is now 3, able to understand and participate in all the Easter egg and basket hunting fun. It’s important to me for us to capture our family as Kade continues to grow. I thought capturing our families Easter fun would be the perfect theme for our spring photos.

Back in February, I scheduled our shoot date for the week after our move. Simultaneously I worked on our wardrobe selection before I headed to Alt Summit and became consumed with our move. Unfortunately, I waited too long to order some of our outfit items and a few things were no longer available. Therefore I would create new looks for us after our move. If I selected and ordered right away the items would have a week to arrive before we would need them.

HEADING TO MY PARENTS

Fast forward… as we moved into our new apartment, the coronavirus started to become more prevalent in the states. Things escalated quickly with asks of social distancing and schools being closed. At the time we were still able to go out to parks, so we canceled our photoshoot. And rather opted to take our own Easter photos in a nearby field.

At this point we were living at the apartment, so naturally all of my packages were shipping there. Who the heck could have predicted we would move again! But sure, enough we did! We ended up moving to my parents to wait out the new stay home lock down orders during the Coronavirus pandemic. 

One of the many pros to this was that their beautiful backyard and blooming flowers would be a great backdrop for our DIY Family Easter photos. The downside was now trying to get my packages from the apartment to my parents’ house. 

TRACKING DOWN PACKAGES

There were three packages (we will call these packages 1, 2, and 3) that needed to be sent from our apartment to my parents’ house. The property management at our building was willing to help me if I sent them prepaid labels. This was something I wasn’t too familiar with, so I enlisted Spencer’s help. He created a USPS label for package #1 and I emailed it along to the property manager. Three days later I still had not received the package, which was weird because It should have only taken 1 day. Long story short, I sent the dang box to TEXAS!

You might be wondering how the heck I did that… good freaking question! I had been selling items on Poshmark and accidentally sent a Poshmark label to the property manager instead of the USPS label. So, to fix it, I then needed to communicate with the girl in Texas who received my box, send her a new label … this time UPS so I could track it, and have it sent to my parents’ house. In the meantime, I also reordered all of the items in package #1 and had them sent directly to my parents’ house in case package #1 now coming from Texas didn’t arrive in time. This reorder is now package #4.

Package #2 and #3 were delayed in getting to the apartment so it was really looking like our Family Easter photos just weren’t supposed to happen. On top of all this I developed Bell’s Palsy on the left side of my face. If you aren’t familiar with Bell’s Palsy, it’s a temporary face paralysis that can last from a few weeks to a few months. In 2016, I had Bell’s Palsy for the first time while pregnant with Kade. I was of course devastated for a few days but given the world pandemic things could be a lot worse. Bummed about my face being crooked, a jacked up smile and one eye stuck open I was about to give up on the entire photoshoot.

GLIMMER OF HOPE

But then, there was a glimmer of hope… packages #2 and #3 finally arrived at the apartment, and I sent the property manager at our building two UPS labels. I received package #2 which had a purple gingham dress shirt for Kade. Turns out the purple wasn’t exactly the correct purple to match my Easter dress but at this point I was just going to have to work with it and hoping package #3 arrived with another shirt for Kade that would definitely coordinate with my dress.

Tracking all these packages was completely annoying but necessary to see if we could actually shoot our DIY Family Easter photos now planned for the Saturday before Easter Sunday. Package #1 from Texas and #3 from our apartment were out for delivery on Friday. I had been looking all day for the driver and was starting to worry on their whereabouts. I checked the tracking and it said delivered! Woohoo!!!! Happy dance…. NOT! The UPS driver may have delivered them BUT NOT TO ME! Packages #1 and #3 were most likely sitting at someone else’s house. I called UPS and they couldn’t really help until the package had been missing for 24 hours. And of course, package #4 that was supposed to also arrive on Friday was now delayed till later the following week. 

TWO OPTIONS

I’ll be honest… I was having a meltdown. Annoyed with myself, the situation, the hurdles…  I couldn’t see past my own vision of the perfect outfits and scenarios in which I created. So, I had a decision to make. I could get upset and be in a bad mood because the perfect scenery and outfits weren’t going to happen for these pictures, or I could focus on the fact that they were about documenting moments in time, having fun as a family and creating memories that we can revisit for years to come. It wasn’t easy to pull myself out of the slump, but I did! 

I worked with what we had and told myself if the items arrived, we could reshoot them a few days after Easter. Life is messy, mistakes happen, hurdles occur, and it would be really sad if we allow these things to stop our plans or rain on our fun. We need to be able adapt or pivot when needed and do what is necessary to see the bigger picture and find happiness! 

Turns out my packages were at a neighbor’s house and while we were getting ready for our photos in makeshift outfits our kind neighbor brought them over.

DIY FAMILY EASTER PHOTOS

So here they are… our DIY Family Easter photos that almost didn’t happen but eventually did during a world pandemic. Bells Palsy smiles and all!

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