November 2018 - Santa Pictures

I decided to do Santa pictures earlier this year to avoid stress.

I made an appointment in November. I thought I was pretty smart and I was hoping for 

an easy session followed by a nice family dinner at a restaurant.

The day of our appointment, Ruby woke up very early and threw up for hours.

She was miserable and lifeless.

I called Fotofly and was told that since it was less than 24 hours until our appointment, 

I would have to pay for our session whether we came or not.

And there were no more good times left for me to reschedule to.

So I gambled and decided to just go get pictures done anyway.

Ruby stopped throwing up hours before we went and actually did great. We got some good smiles out of her but she was done being cooperative pretty quickly.

Ty was awful. He was terrified of Sean in his Santa suit and beard.

We got one picture of him looking and not screaming thankfully!

This is what Ty looked like most of the time.

Ty isn't screaming in these next pictures but I don't like how Ruby is completely blocking Sean.

I had bought Ty a hat to wear but he refused to keep it on.

He wore it in the last pose but by then he was ticked.

I like the one good picture that we got, so I'd say that Santa pictures was a success again.

Now it's time to start thinking about next year's outfits.

December 2017 - Santa Pictures

 I have been excited for this year's (2017) Santa pictures since before last year's (2016) Santa pictures.

I was excited to have a baby in our pictures again 

and I was excited because I've known what I wanted my kids to wear for over a year.

I knew that I wanted elf jammies this time around and I found the perfect ones at Target.

(I've already picked out next year's outfits in my mind and can't wait.)

...

Fotofly did it again! We got an amazing picture that I love, love, love!

I think this might be my favorite Santa picture of all time.

And here are all the other pictures that we got...

Here are our Santa pictures from 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.
...
We went to one of Fotofly's new locations in downtown Salt Lake City.
After pictures we headed to City Creek mall for dinner.
Then we walked over to Temple Square to look at the lights.
It was gorgeous as always.
Then we headed back to City Creek and went to the Disney store and bought some ornaments.
Then we headed home.
It was a great night!

Santa Pictures 2016

 Last night we had Santa pictures taken again with Fotofly.

This is our fourth year getting them taken.

Here's our pictures from 2015, 2014, and 2013.

I'm already so excited for next years pictures!

Santa Pictures 2015



 At the beginning of the month, we had Santa pictures taken.

This was our third year doing them through Fotofly.

This time we went to their Kaysville location.

I wanted to do something different then the past two years, so this time we did church clothes.

And just like the last two years, I love the results!

 

 

 

It will be sad to me when my kids will be too old for Santa pictures.

I'm loving this tradition for as long as I can.

And I'm already starting to think about next years outfits...
...
And here's a few pictures that I took with my phone that day...
I timed pictures so that as soon as Ruby woke up, we'd feed her and dress her and go.
She wasn't so thrilled when I snapped a few pictures on the couch right before we left.
She still hadn't fully woken up yet.

Here's a picture of the kids with Santa Sean while we waited for our turn.

Notice Eli's forehead has his new scar and his weird bloody blister thing.

Plus his eye and nose he scratched up that morning!

Needless to say, I Potoshopped his face in the Santa pictures.

 

After we took our pictures. The kids met the real Santa.

Eli was already out of his church clothes at that point.
I didn't want him to get candy cane on his brand new white shirt.

 

2014 Fotofly Santa Picture

 Last year, the kids got their Santa pictures taken at Fotofly.

We had such a good experience and got some great pictures so we decided that we had to do it again.

Sean dressed up as Santa again.

The kids did really great and Ruby slept the whole time.

And we got some amazing pictures.

I love this first picture. I love it! It will probably become one of my all time favorite pictures.

 

Avery has already asked me if we could do Santa pictures again next year.

And she told me that she wants to wear a night gown next year.





The Sunday Before Christmas

 On Sunday, I dressed up the girls in the new Christmas dresses and curled their hair.

And of course, took pictures of them before church.

I love having my two girls so close together in age. They are so adorable together.

 Eli wanted nothing to do with pictures.

For obvious reasons.

I decided to try out the awesome self-timer on my new camera.

It will take up to 10 pictures at a time with just one push of a button.

AWESOME!

And this means we're gonna take a lot more family pictures.

And after church I decided take some fun pictures of the girls in their elf ears and Santa Claus hats.

"Santa's Christmas Eve Adventures with the Christensen Grandkids"

 Lexi has recently become an author and illustrator. 

With my help she's made several books.

She comes up with great story ideas all by herself.

She's even taken a few of her books to school to share with her class.

This particular book, is the biggest she's made.

She's been working on it for a few weeks and she finally finished it today.

I'm going to have it laminated and bound.

I thought I'd share it before I did that though.

So here it is, "Santa's Christmas Eve Adventures with the Christensen Grandkids."