Picture Nightmare

I am so behind on posting what is going on in our household. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. The twins had pureed turkey for the first time and did okay with it. Chance ate it right up and wanted more. Brynlee was not too sure at first and it took a while for her to get it, but she finally ate it and I think she liked it okay. This was the first meat they have ever had, so maybe I have some vegetarians on my hands After Thanksgiving, Grammy (Sean's Mom) wanted to have her picture taken with the grand babies for her Christmas card. She made all of us an appointment to Portrait Innovations for the Friday after Thanksgiving. Sean had to work, so I had the twins all by myself. I got them fed, bathed and dressed in their adorable Christmas outfits in plenty of time to head to the studio. First of all, let me just say that I am so over the commercial photography places with the strange photographers, the strangers trying to make people smile and all of the people waiting to have their photos taken. It was a nightmare! To start off, they were an hour behind, so we had to wait for over an hour once we had arrived. Not so much fun with a 1 year old (nephew Kaylon) running around and a set of twins that were quickly approaching their afternoon feeding time. We specifically reserved the 11am slot for the purpose of the twins, their morning nap and their afternoon feeding. I keep them on a pretty strict schedule, so when they get thrown off of that schedule, it is a train wreck. That is exactly what this photo shoot turned out to be...a complete train wreck nightmare!!!! By the time it was our turn, the twins were melting FAST! Picture this, Chance has the sweetest little sweater vest, stripped button down shirt and black pants with Brynlee wearing a matching fluffy dress with her name monogrammed (of course) and little patten leather RL shoes. We set them down to have the photo taken with their Grammy and this is how it goes. Brynlee stares straight at me screaming the whole time and Chance is smiling at everything and everyone except the camera. Even the potted flowers sitting next to him made him smile. He is a happy one, but sometimes doesn't really know where or who to smile to. It was a nightmare! I am trying to make them smile, the picture people are doing crazy things to get her to smile, nothing was working. After a little while and a couple of different poses, we gave up. They even brought us to our own little room away from the crowds of people to try and get a smiling shot of them, but they were done. The meltdowns had completely taken over. I felt so bad for Grammy and kept apologizing for my crazy daughter. Of course, the sweet Grammy that she said smiled and said, "It is okay, I just wanted them all to act natural." So sad to think that some people think that is natural for my beautiful baby girl. She really is a sweet little girl and will smile all day long at her mommy, daddy and brother. Not too sure why she is so shy in front of the camera, I'm not. hee!hee! After this nightmare of a photo shoot, Sean and I decided that Brynlee cannot handle everyone yelling in her face to smile. It makes her too overwhelmed and all she wants to do is scream. So from now on, it is hired photographers, in the privacy of our own home and Sean and I will be the only ones to attend. So, we did that they following week. Want to know how that went? We had a photographer come to the house to take the photos for our Christmas card and Brynlee actually did a little better. Chance was the nightmare this time. It was later in the evening, so they melted pretty quickly, plus Chance was cutting a top tooth, so he did not feel well at all. But our photographer got some really good shots of them. Enough to have a Christmas card worth sending out. Much more successful this time around. So if any of you have any ideas of how to get my little ones happier in front of the camera, please feel free to let me in on the secret. I am desperate!! We have another photo shoot at the end of January for their birthday invitations and I am hoping to get some really great shots of them. Here is a little teaser from our successful photo shoot! ENJOY!!!!!

See she really does smile!