Painful. So Painful.

My dad was a professional photographer and I honestly don't know how he did it. Kids are the worst at picture taking, especially a group photo. The only theory that saved my dad, I think, is that your kids always act better for complete strangers. I think next year, I'm going to offer the UPS man $20 to come in and snap some pictures of my kids. This is honestly the only good one out of a bunch of about 30. I don't even really like this picture. I may try again, but time is a'tickin. The hardest challenge was not Lily, I could get her to smile with a silly face or dangling a 2 -year old Hershey's kiss from the back of my fridge over my head. She's like Pavlov's dogs when it comes to chocolate. The challenge was the boys keeping a constant 'natural' smile plastered on their face, so I could just snap the picture when that miracle moment happened. Jackson did pretty good, but Noah gave up after the first dozen. I swear I could see toothpicks in the corners of his mouth. It probably doesn't help when mother is saying, "SMILE, DANG IT!" What child wouldn't have a natural, loving, warm and happy smile after hearing that?!?! When he did have a good smile, he evidently had some itchy undies on, which would take some majorly creative cropping to make it socially acceptable. Most of the pictures are great of Lily because I'm worked into a sweat making her smile and then the boys look like they've been drugged. Not necessarily the Christmas message I'd hoped for. They might just get what they get. I do remember the vicious backlash I recieved when I decided to make a bold move and send out cards minus a picture. Whoa. I may try again, if I'm feeling brave.