The dreaded picture portrait time for christmas card pictures!

So Thursday of this week, I was so relieved to be getting some things off my to-do list. I did not have much of a break because Friday I spent organizing figuring the outfits and finding coupons and making sure all had black socks and that everyone had "dress shoes" for the picture. Since I have 3 boys, I do recycle clothes, toys and the like. And so of course I do also save dress shoes - how can you not when last year I couldn't find a hand me down pair for Ryan and so I ended up buying a brand new pair at 34.00 so he could wear them 2 times (well 3 times if you include last years Christmas pictures). So would you like to see my shoe store?

(ok, I do not know why the above is undelined and I am not savvy enough to get rid of it, so just ignore it!)

I have every size except 1 from a size 5 (toddlers) to a size 2, and these are just the dress shoes!

So, after I made sure I had the shoes and the socks, we were good to go.

We went to Sears and it was actually rather fast and painless (well as painless as it gets with Trevor - he freaks out when we are in the portrait studio, so the photographer has to try to shoot him in between his bouts of crying. and, if we are lucky you might get a smile out of him. I don't know why he is so freaked out about the portrait studio, doens't matter if its Kiddie Kandids, Picture People, Sears or Penneys - he hates them all and stickes to me like a baby Koala. Of course he loves having his picture taken at home and is quick to say cheese and ham it up. So is it wrong for me to tortuture him so and take him to portrait studios? I am a mom and I need to caputre his fab outfits and in my mind I'm sure I will remember how fun he was in the outfit on Christmas rather than the tough photo shoot. He really did very well though and even with him being unhappy and crying a bit, we were in and out of the photo shoot part within 15 mins! but I digress . . . .)

Pictures were Sat. They came out pretty good I think. I did dress them all alike - Again another one of my mom torturing moments as Stephen does not like dressing up in vests and certainly doesn't care for dressing like his brothers. Soon he will be too big to find his size in matching outfits, so next year may be my last year. In my defense, if you are a mom of boys, you know there is so much more limited choices for boys than girls, so trying to find 3 that coordinate and go well together would be tough, so it is easier to just get 3 mathcing outfits from The Children's Place or Gymboree - so like last year I ordered online and had them coordinated!

Aren't they cute!! (ok, most pics you can't even see the shoes, but hey what if that shot was the one good shot out of all oft hem, you can't chance it right?)