Pre Christmas pictures

We weren't very good in sending out Christmas cards or getting our family portraits done this year. We couldn't decide if we were going to do a family portrait by ourself or get it done professionally, get dressed up for the photos or just have the kids in the photos. So by the time we decided to do the pictures, it was about two days before Christmas. I had two cute dresses for Ava but they were both sleeveless! I had bought them back in May when it was warm and thought I could use them next year. Of course I wasn't thinking about the season. Also, the dresses were almost getting too small for Ava. I don't know what I was thinking. With time running out, we decided to pose the kids in front of our holiday fireplace and mantle. The lighting wasn't too great so we shifted the kids in front of the Christmas tree. Ava gave us about 15 minutes of her patience and then all heck broke loose. So this is what we got!