All I want for Christmas...

A mom has very simple tastes when it comes to Christmas presents. They don't want anything expensive, because it just means more stress when it comes time to budget for next month's groceries, plus they'd rather spend the money on presents for the kids or their hubby. They don't usually like clothes, because it just reminds them that they still have those extra baby pounds to get rid of, which in turn makes them feel guilty for all the holiday treats they've been eating. All mom wants for Christmas is a nice family portrait. Turns out this the holy grail of all Christmas presents, because lets face it, the odds of getting four wiggly kids to sit still and smile and pretend to be happy are almost a million to one. Not very good odds.

Our family portrait was over a week in the making. We tried to do it last week right before church. You know, as opposed to after church when the babies would have had a whole three hours to spit-up on their dresses and Evi's hair would be half-way undone and Easton's hands would be covered in markers from the pictures he would draw in class. You wouldn't think this would be a hard thing since we have church at 1:30 and have the whole morning to get ready. Well it didn't happen last week. We didn't have enough time and ran out the door in order to make it into the chapel at 1:28. Not a great way to start sacrament meeting. If I'm feeling stressed, there's no way I'm feeling the Spirit.

So we tried again this past Sunday. We started getting ready at 11:00, and we had my sister-in-law Whitney with us that weekend so she could help out. She snapped over a dozen pictures, and here's a sampling below.

Okay, let's start simple. Forget about me and Todd, because nobody looks at us anyway. They want to see the kids. Let's just get some where Easton and Evi are smiling. They're older and should be able to accomplish that, right?

Nope, that's not going to fly. We want them to look like they like being a part of the family.

Getting better, Easton, but Evi's not looking at the camera. She's wondering why Kylie is screaming. She doesn't scream very often. Only when the camera is on and Mom wants to take a family portrait. And Olivia is wiggling so much that she's blurry. Let's keep trying.

Evi's looking at the camera, but she's not looking happy. Next.

Yay! We got one with them happy! Now let's work on the twins.


Oh dear. Kylie is still not a happy camper.

Todd takes Kylie and starts bouncing her on his knee. It works every time. I don't know why I wasn't blessed with a magic knee. I'd use it ALL the time! And now Olivia isn't happy. I'm starting to feel a little stressed. It's 1:15 and I don't want to feel rushed to get to church.



And here it is. The very last shot. I'm not kidding. This is the only one that came out with Easton and Evi looking semi-happy and the twins in focus because they're not being bounced as the camera clicks. That's as good as it gets. Merry Christmas to me. Good thing Todd is a Photoshop wizard, because I think I'm going to have him swap some heads.