Our family, some more pictures of it

Now that our Christmas cards are FINALLY out (yes, they just went out on December 30), I wanted to share with you some of the other photographs that the very talented Allen Oakman took of our family this Fall. I'll soon be updating my About Me page with some of these (and some of the ones we chose for our Christmas card). And by "soon," I mean "sometime before 2015."

We met Allen at Railroad Park, one of our favorite places in the city.

I really wanted to get some pictures of the kids amidst the mix of industrial materials, passing trains and green park elements.

Allen did a great job capturing all of that for us.

The other thing that I really wanted was to capture some of the Birmingham skyline in the background, which he was able to do in a few shots.

These will never be my favorite family shots for three reasons: 1) Jake looks like he's in front of a firing squad. 2) Amelia wasn't feeling well and would NOT take her paci out at that point in the day. And 3) This was in October and probably 13 pounds ago for me. That's shallow. Sorry. But even I can tell when I look at these that I've lost a little more weight since then.

One thing I think people often overlook when having someone talented take their holiday pictures -- and I don't care whether that person is your dad, your best friend or a professional photographer -- is asking him or her to take a few headshots of you while they're at it. It only takes an extra three or four minutes, and it's totally worth it to have one on hand when you need it.

Now, you'll notice that I haven't actually USED this one for anything. All of my social-media profiles still have my old picture attached to them, and that's because -- as I said -- I'M SHALLOW. I figure I'll wait another few months and change it then.

Nonetheless, I still had Allen take a set for me, because I do like to have them just in case.

I'm going to write a whole post about that last picture for tomorrow. Please prepare yourselves accordingly.