The Christmas Card That Wasn't

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we headed over to a shopping area for their Christmas tree lighting and holiday festivities. I thought that it would also be the perfect time to try and get a picture of the kids for our Christmas cards. Well, as usual, things didn't go as planned and I did not get a picture that is worth putting on a card! I did snap a bunch of pictures while we were there though, they may not be the best pictures, but they perfectly represent the craziness that is our life these days.


Ella saw something she liked...

Landrie, however, did not! What could it be?

Well, it's just a happy Christmas bear! Landrie was terrified of him and all of the other characters walking around. Ella was just thrilled to death and couldn't jump out of Jay's arms fast enough to go and give him a hug. So cute!
After completely terrorizing my child with large stuffed toys, I decided that we better try and go get our Christmas card pic before it got too dark. It started out innocently enough, look at these good big brothers with their little twincesses

"So sweet!" I thought to myself...this was going well so far and I was excited thinking about the pictures that were to come. My excitement was quickly abolished once we got to where we were going...this is just a sampling of what I got.

Yes, the boys were doing their best to baby wrangle and smile at the same time. The girls, well, were being the girls and had much better things to see and explore and had no time for picture taking. So, we thought that if we let them run around for a bit we might have a better chance at getting a decent picture. Ella ran from light post to light post yelling "Goggy! Goggeee!," and I didn't have the heart to tell her that they were not her beloved animals.

Landrie on the other hand was completely mesmerized with a palm tree. i was pretty surprised by this because she tends to be a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to things that look a little different and lets face it, a plant with big spikes looks a little strange!

After a decent amount of running around and exploring, it was definitely time to try to get some pictures again because the sun was beginning to set for the day. This little session went a little better, but not much.

Isn't it just great that the best picture of the day is the one where non of the kids are looking? Perfect! Story of my life! Jay and I were tired of trying to force the girls to do something that they obviously weren't in the mood to do, so we just let them run around some more.


The boys were really patient and good that day, they are the best! I managed to snap this picture of them at the end of the day.

After the picture taking marathon, everyone headed over to a pizza place for dinner. This was a whole other nightmare in itself. Think crazy packed restaurant + tired and cranky 18 month olds...that always equals a good time, right? Landrie was fine once our food arrived. She chose not to eat the ravioli that I ordered for her and instead shared Jay's seafood linguini with him. Ella also shunned the ravioli, not surprising, and opted to eat sugar. Yes, you read that right sugar! I guess that is what happens when you are out to eat with Gigi and Poppy?!