A picture says a thousand words

Today was the dreaded "Santa photo at the mall day." I take the kids every single year, but I just had a feeling that things were not going to go as I planned. Last year, we got lucky and got an awesome pic of the kids. Carson is 15 months old and any parent that has had a 15 month old is aware of stranger anxiety & separation anxiety. Well, as Alex says, "I think Santa was really freakin' out Carson." HA! He screamed bloody murder the entire time. I kept saying, "just take the picture" because I knew it was impossible to get a smile from the little guy. I am usually sweaty by the time I leave from jumping up and down and trying to get the kids to smile. This year, I just stood there and laughed. These are the photos that end up in the rehearsal dinner videos!
Alex was a total pro and stopped every person she could find on her way to the mall Santa to say to them, "Do you like my beautiful dress? I am going to see Santa now." She was so into it and twirled in circles and was just so proud in her fancy Christmas ensemble. When she finally got to Santa, she ran up and gave him a huge hug and said, "Oh Santa, I've been really missing you! Can I just have everything for Christmas this year?"
Needless to say, I never had to coerce Alex to smile. So, here it is. It just makes me laugh every time I look at it. This perfectly defines our stage of life and we are loving it!

click on photo to enlarge and get the full effect

Can you see Alex trying to hold his hand? Such a sweet, mess of family we are!