Oh My!

If I never try to take portraits of my kids again it will be too soon. I thought that doing it myself at home like I did last year would be easier than going to the mall. I don't know if anything could be more painful than what I experienced today. I started out taking Rachel's picture first. She was so cooperative and smiled really well as Bennett was making her laugh. She was jumping around a bit which caused some blurry shots, but for the most part she was great. Next I got Bennett all dressed and started his pictures. He has the most fake smile, so it is hard to get a natural looking smile from him. His pictures always look like mugshots! Ellie was sleeping during the first two rounds of pictures, but woke up right in time for her turn. She didn't wake up as happy as usual. I think she sensed what was coming. I got her dressed in her Christmas dress which had a fluffy fur collar that made her look like Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth. She was not so happy about it and she really did look pretty ridiculous. I hadn't tried it on her yet, so we were stuck with it. I decided to get a picture with the three of them together before I tried to get Ellie's picture alone. By this time, the digital camera's batteries died and I had to use the video camera that also has a digital camera on it. I don't know if the flash was brighter with the video camera, but all I got was 20 pictures of the kids with Bennett's eyes closed. He started crying and then the baby started crying and Rachel just didn't know what to do but constantly squirm around. This is when a sane person would decide to call it quits for the day before things got ugly, but not me! I was set on getting all their pictures done and getting one cute one of the three together. I moved on to Ellie and actually got some sweet pictures. None of her smiling, she just wasn't THAT happy with the dress on. I once again defied all logic and tried to get a picture with them together. Bennett continued to have closed eyes in each shot, Ellie was crying, Bennett was crying, and Rachel decided to cry just to keep them company I think. I was defeated and never did get a shot of all three together. Bennett was so mad at me that he told me that I was going to get disciplined when dad got home. Geesh, when will I learn?!