Holiday Photos: Round 2

Well, we all rested up and tried again for the "perfect" holiday photo.  I think the second try went better overall, but possibly just being outside helped.  However, I still managed a wide range of unfortunate and hilarious expressions from both children and the dog.

We swung by the depot, in the hopes of them having some decorations out.  They had one large tree, but the sun was really bright, and Malcolm had a hard time holding the dog's leash and not letting Rory tangle up with Dorothy.

One of the local shops had some decorations out front, so we had the kids sit in the rocking chair.  Too bad it didn't work out for any cute photos.  I couldn't get them to look at me, and the dog kept wanting to be with them.

This one is actually fairly cute, but doesn't show their faces.

 We headed down to the river and tried a couple of poses.  I like this one, except for the lighting (and expression) on Dorothy.  Rory was being so good and waiting for his turkey bits...

...until he just couldn't wait any more.

Great photo of the kids, but notice the little fuzzy photo-bomber in the corner.

I had the "great" idea to distract Rory with a giant peppermint stick.  Unfortunately, it was broken, so instead of one big stick, each kid got a small section to hold.  I had envisioned the dog holding it in his mouth, like when he carries sticks around.  Instead, I got lots, and lots of pictures of him licking.  So. Much. Tongue. 

 He didn't confine his licking to the peppermint stick.

 Lean your heads in together.  No, not like that!

 Not like that either!

 Now, they are all just silly, and passed their attention spans for photography.

Cute shot of the kids, but the dog has left, with Dorothy's section of the peppermint stick.


I'll play around with some card layouts, but I think I might have gotten enough "close enough" photos to have something to work with.  Fingers crossed that we don't have try for a third time!

Holiday Photos: Round 1

It's that time of year again, where I attempt to take a picture of the kids that is decent enough for a holiday card.  It's always a challenge, and I follow the philosophy of "take hundreds of pictures, and hope that at least one is accidentally good."  I guess the kids weren't enough of a challenge, because this year, we added a puppy to the mix.  What was I thinking?  We are going to give it another try later today, once everyone is fed and has rested a bit.  This is what happened, so far:

 I had the kids sit on the stairs to test how it looked.  I had dreams of taking photos on our nice, new front porch we are having built, but it is still not finished, and is a construction disaster area.  However, I was hopeful that the inside stairs would be good enough, and the kids started off looking pretty decent.

 Then, Rory came in to see what we were doing...

...and the kids looked a bit worried about the whole idea.

 Guess where Kevin is standing, with turkey goodies from Thursday's Thanksgiving feast?

 Sometimes, the dog looked great, but then the kids weren't looking at the camera.  Unfortunately you can't see it, but Rory is wearing a little plaid bow tie.  It's too small and disappears into his fluff, which is too bad, because it is adorable.

 Sometimes, the dog looked goofy.  Malcolm looks good though.

 Sometimes, Rory got impatient for turkey bits, and went right to the source.

 Sometimes, all three looked goofy.

 This would be so cute if Malcolm wasn't all hunched over.  We asked him to lean in, but he couldn't figure out how to do that and sit up straight at the same time.

We moved outside for a change of scenery, but the lighting wasn't good at that time of day.  We are going to try again later and hope things go a bit better.

I have to say that the kids were much better this year than in previous years.  It helps that they are a bit older and can take a bit of direction.  So far, no one has cried, so we are ahead of the game.