Holiday Photos

The last time we took family photos Declan was just a week old and three out of four of us wound up in tears. I may have been a little melodramatic when I said I never wanted to get family photos taken again, but it turns out the trauma hasn't quite faded because I decided to skip professional family photos this holiday season. The idea of paying someone to get a bunch of shots of my kids crying or running away from the camera didn't seem like the wisest use of funds right now. Instead I got out my real camera and we bought two tripods, one for the real camera and one for our phones so we could attempt our own photo shoots. Plural. Because I'm still on the hunt for that elusive money shot where both kids are looking happily at the camera. Let me tell you, photographing kids is hard. If one kid is smiling you can bet the other one is half squinting. Or staring blankly off in the opposite direction. Or screaming. Or eating their shoe. Or eating dirt. This can't just be my kids, right?? If you did get real photos taken this season, make sure you give your photographer a Starbucks giftcard or all the chocolate because if I thought it was frustrating with my own kids, I can only imagine how hard it would be to get pictures of other people's kids. 

Even though I'm still working on getting that perfect family shot, I did wind up with lots of imperfect shots that I love all the same. So here's a little glimpse at a few (dozen) of my faves: 

Happy Holidays!