Join Our Chaos: progression of a holiday photo shoot

I attempted to do a photo shoot for our holiday cards this past weekend. We had beautiful weather and I had already purchased the kids holiday clothes (instead of waiting until December and then scrambling to do the photos). You would think that since this was my passion, I would have some sort of kick ass holiday card to show for it. Ha, ha. Let me just show you how the afternoon went.

This was the first photo of the day. I nearly squealed with delight when I saw it in the view finder. I didn't even have to try, and I got a half way decent shot of the kid. I will admit she is getting a tad easier to photograph (ahem, I mean a tad easier to bribe). I just love the little cutesy expression.

Then look who decided to join us. Things pretty much went downhill from here. I started by singing and Miss C even managed to get into the tune. Just look at Little J. He's probably thinking, "I can't believe you are behaving for this. Just what do you think you are doing? Am I going to have to screw this up all by myself? I thought we were a team here."

Not a nano second later, I get this.

So I bribe with the big guns. Lollipops. Notice how the crying immediately stops. Look at those little beggars.

Gotta love Miss C. I imagine she was thinking, "touchdown! We got a lollipop within 2 minutes of starting and I didn't even have to throw a tantrum. Way to go Little J!"

So they decide to throw a little bone my way and actually both look at the camera. The problem is they both have lollipops shoved in their mouths. I don't even think they took them out for one second. Nope, not one second. Believe me I was ready just in case they did.

So I decide to switch it up a bit hoping to get a decent shot. This is Little J's best, "and what the heck do you think you are doing? I'm not going to cooperate. So just get any hope of a good shot out of your head."