Christmas Pictures

We took the kids to get their annual Christmas picture done last night. Now I have to be honest here.... I do NOT have perfect children. (Surprised?) And the last, hmmm...I don't know, 5 attempts throughout the years have been nothing short of a disaster. I dread these photo sessions, but as any mom out there can probably testify I feel a need to sit all my children down at the same time so that I can always have a visual memory of how they looked (perferably calm and happy) at Christmas every year. (The pictures also make great gifts for all the grandparents!)

So to say that I was dreading going to the portrait studio would be a bit of an understatement. And then, it started to snow. I could have called to cancel, but no, I was on a mission. The roads were passible and I had my mind made up. I got the clothes all ready for the kids to change into as soon as Alicia came home from school I would get them ready. Alicia came home and I noticed that it looked like she had drank a pitcher of cherry kool aid. But, no, it was not kool aid, it was chapped lips. (poor kid) Ok, I thought, maybe it won't show in the pictures. Then Emily could not find one of her black shoes. We searched everywhere. Could not find the dumb shoe. I was starting to get a little stressed. I decided she could where her pink shoes (which DID NOT match) She would just have to sit on her feet or have a sibling cover them. Then... Ethan fell head first into a container of toy trains. Take a deep breath, Ami...l At least the baby seemed content. Until, he spit up all over himself and his new outfit. Thankfully, he was wearing white, so it did not show to much! So we all trugged through the snow to the van. Safely got in and out without a mishap. ( just a few disagreements between siblings), and we were there.

Now this is the point where things could have fallen apart. But God must have been listening when I asked Him to get me through this without melting down. It went wonderfully I am SO happy to say. Everyone smiled. There were no tears (for the first time in five years) I could have done a happy dance right there in the middle of the mall! Here are a few of the pictures. --The only bad thing is I wanted to buy so much more of the pictures this year!