Christmas Card Picutres

Each year, usually near the beginning of December but sometimes later depending on how busy we are, we take pictures of the kids for our Christmas cards. This is always a fun event.....well not really but we can pretend....can't we?!?! I always try to stay calm but about 3 pictures in I am about to yell at a kid. Cory on the other hand is usually always calm (which is annoying that he can do that by the way ;) ). He always gently reminds me not to get to wound up about a silly picture......but it is not just a silly picture.....it is a picture that we will send out to friends and family. I hate to admit it but I always get frustrated because we can't get the perfect shot....or even a decent shot. And in reality.....it is just a silly picture because in the big picture it doesn't matter. Sure, I still want a capture a great shot of all three kids but I do need to relax a little more (or maybe a lot more). Maybe I will do better next year!! :)

So, with all that being said......I want to share some of the shots that we opted not to use this year!


These first few are Hayley being Hayley. I really have no idea what she was doing or why but this is what we got......








Then we tried to get one of the three of them together.......I finally gave up!








Hayden really was trying so hard. He just wasn't producing a "real" smile for me......




Alex's turn......He was in a very bad mood the evening that we took these pictures!! He did not want to do anything that I wanted him to do, which resulted in lots of crying on his part. His crying did not help my stress level but we won't talk about that anymore!





Hey....a candy cane might help.....


Or maybe not.....






Check out the lovely drool on his chin.......


I am going to assume that most of you who try to take your own pictures for something like this end up with similar results (if that is not the case I really don't want to know about it :) ).


I will say that in the end (after I spent time reviewing the pictures, ordered them and then actually saw it in person), this might be my favorite Christmas card we have ever had!! Cory laughed at me because of the amount of stress I put on myself and grumpiness that followed that stress.......to like the card so much. He is right (yes I said it).......I will strive to do much better (not only next year when we take our pictures but all the time). Lord please help me to tackle this issue!!

So......if you haven't seen it yet.....this is our 2009 Christmas Card!