Trying to Get a Christmas Card Picture Part 1

Do you ever see pictures and wonder how people get kids to sit so still and perfect to capture it? I do! Just about every "pretty" photo of children that I see I wonder how in the world they got it. Seriously, it is so incredibly hard to take a half-way decent picture of one child, never mind two! Every once in a while I get a shot of one of them that I love and I get so excited about it. I know Jon thinks I'm crazy when I get so excited about one photo, but I don't think he has any idea just how difficult it is, or realizes that for every one good shot there are nine hundred and ninety bad ones! So, I thought for fun I would share with you my attempt to get this year's Christmas card picture (which I have to admit I don't have yet, despite quite a few tries!)

There is a really cool old barn in a fabulous field that we drive by every now and again when we are up in New Hampshire. I never really noticed it much, though, until I was up there back in September and ended up driving by it quite a bit. I thought it would be such a great setting for our Christmas card photo. Well, when the girls and I were up in New Hampshire in October it rained basically EVERY DAY for the entire week we were there except for the last day. It was hurried and rushed but I figured it was worth a try so we got the girls in matching jumpers and out the door and over to the barn we went.

With help from my mom and Jamie we tried to get them in the general spot I had in mind (we didn't have much luck!) and then just when I was about to start taking some pictures poor little Lola got her foot stuck on a vine and that was the end of that. This was the one shot I got before she started crying. (In her defense, it had prickers on it and I would have cried too!)

Lillie smiled nicely for me for a minute or two, but it's kind of important to have BOTH of your children on your Christmas card! Haha!

Now it's time to get down without getting scratched...

 

After that failed attempt we headed to the apple orchard. I generally try to do very little posing with them and have them be in a setting they find fun to help it go smoothly. Well, I couldn't even get them to walk in the same direction there! Ugh!

They did have fun, though! Here are my parents with the big giraffe:

Lorelei checking out the goats:

Lillie playing some bocce ball:

And then there was a brief moment when Lola sat down in the middle of the road and we got Lillie to sit down next to her. Their faces show pretty much how I was feeling at this point:

With some help from my parents and Jamie and Josh all standing behind me we did get some smiles:

Now I do really love this photo of them so if I don't get anything else I can always use this, but it's not at all what I had envisioned. After the apple orchard we tried a third location which I will show you in my next post.

I am hoping to give it one more attempt this weekend! Wish me luck! =)

I hope you all have a fabulous Friday!