family picture time

Ah, family pictures. Everyone's favorite day of the year. 

Except Ryan's. And Leah's. And Kate's. 

Okay, maybe only my favorite day.

But Ryan loves them once he's done posing and the pictures are in his hands (or on his hard drive). Leah always miraculously delivers with her mile-wide, toothy grin. And Kate, well, she's Kate, and we love her. 

This year we had our pictures taken by a fellow special needs mom who we met at Up With Families last February. She is a photographer in the area and she was so great to work with - busy Leah, crazy Kate and all. 

It was really cold all week, but warmed up for the day of our pictures - we were actually getting a little hot! In an out of the beautiful Iowa foliage in an hour with reassurance that there was at least one shot where all of us were looking and smiling. I call that a success. 2014 family pics in the books.