The Making of our Family Christmas Picture

Getting the perfect picture for our Christmas card this year proved to be a little more complicated than I expected.

 

 

I started by getting the kids dressed up in their cute Christmas jammies and attempted to wrap lights around them all cute. But the lights didn’t cooperate, and neither did their expressions or limbs.

 

 

They just didn’t look like the image I had in my head.

 

 

So then we tried a few sitting in front of the tree. The lighting was great…

 

 

…but even with taking a ton, this was the best I got and it just wasn’t the perfect picture I was hoping for. So then we planned a day to pick up Nolan on his lunch break and go to a park near his office and use the tripod and my remote for the camera to take the pictures. I had the kids dressed cute, liked my hair, was on time to pick up Nolan, got the camera all set up and realized I left the memory card at home.

 

 

Between the rain and Nolan’s schedule there weren’t any other lunch breaks that would work, so we attempted an evening shoot in our living room. Without the tripod being able to be directly above us, or someone to tell us where to sit so it would look good, and a VERY cranky baby, rebellious 2 year old and exhausted Daddy, the pictures just weren’t what I was hoping for.

 

 

A shot in front of the tree was nice, but I still had hopes of something frameable that might pass as a professional picture.

 

 

Another attempt at cute jammies pictures turned into Jace biting Reese on the cheek. I couldn’t help but laugh when I looked through the pictures and found this one of Jace just before he bit her! From the viewfinder of the camera, I thought he was giving kisses.

 

 

Nolan ended up having some overtime and took a [relatively] dry afternoon off work and we finally had success with our family photo! (And we triple checked to make sure the memory card was in the camera.) There was plenty of bribery going on to get Jace to cooperate!

 

 

And now I’m so happy to have a good family picture of the four of us!

2 Months Old!

 

Our little lady is growing up way too quickly for me.

 

 

She’s happy, gaining weight and brings us lots of joy. Especially when she smiles.

 

 

Her favorite thing ever is to be held. Her second favorite thing is smiling at her daddy. If she’s in the right mood, I can convince her it’s fun to lay on her ladybug and play with the toys. Sometimes she’s happy swinging too.

 

 

But sleeping in her own bed? Or at normal bedtime hours? Probably her least favorite thing. For the past few weeks her preferred bed time has been between 2 and 3 am. But last night we somehow convinced her that 1 am was ok, and then she slept for 7 hours! She’s a fan of headbands but does not like wearing hats—she does everything she can to get them off.

 

 

She loves to nap, especially if she’s being held, and would nap all day if we let her (hence, the nighttime problems). She also loves to eat. Every 2-3 hours. She’d also love to be a thumb sucker, but has yet to figure out how to get just it in her mouth, so she settles for smacking on her fist while grabbing her blanket with the other hand.

 

 

She got her first cold the day after Thanksgiving and wasn’t a fan of having a stuffy nose. She’s still a little on the stuffy side, so I’m just hoping she isn’t allergic to our Christmas tree or the pets.

 

 

We all love having her be a part of our family—especially Jace! He still loves to get right in her face, talk to her, check to see if her eyes are open, and needs to know where she is at all times. And she loves to watch him. It’s going to be so much fun celebrating Christmas with this little lady!