Last fall, I headed out to take a few images of my girls to add to the calendar that I make for my parents, in-laws and grandma every year for Christmas. My mother liked them so much that she chose one to print and sent copies to all of our friends and family in her Christmas card. So this year, when she casually asked if I was going to have an updated photo to send out, I said "Sure, no problem!". So of course, I went out and spent a small fortune on matching outfits (since I know my mom loves when I dress them alike) and set a date for the shoot. I made props and chose accessories, explained the bribes carefully and away we went. I was so excited that I even invited a couple of my photographer friends with kids to come and shoot their children as well. Let's just say I was confident that we were going to have a terrific time playing in the leaves, posing playfully and feeling the love. So wrong.

I will not recount the gory details, but let's just say there were tears, tantrums, kicking and screaming and I won't even tell you how my girls behaved! ;) However, I did manage to get some shots that I love (one is already at the lab being printed as a huge canvas) and everyone made it out of the woods alive (barely), so I will put it in the books as a successful day.

My mom hasn't chosen her favourite yet, so some of you may see one of these in your mailbox soon!