Say Cheese...

Okay--whoever came up with the idea of including the dogs in our Christmas card picture (I'm not naming names) did not think it all the way through. Getting a 6 year old boy, a 3 year old girl, an extrememly overweight, slightly uptight dog, and a psychotic dog, (both of the later being bigger than the kids) to sit still for a picture is asking a lot. When you add in santa hats and reindeer antlers to the mix, it makes for a VERY interesting photo session. Neither of the dogs are....well, how do I put this nicely..."well behaved"..."smart"...they are sweet, nonetheless, but not exactly the brightest lights on the tree.
Picture it...2 kids pumped full of sugar--2 dogs pumped full of whatever it is that makes dogs hyper-- 2 parents exhausted--one of them with dog treats in his hand, the other with a camera in hand, both bribing everyone involved to cooperate. Here we are trying to be calm and make this a fun little event, all the while trying not to scream. There were kids sitting on dogs, dogs sitting on kids, kids looking at the ceiling, dogs looking at the floor, and santa hats and reindeer antlers flying everywhere except where they were supposed to be. I think everyone switched places...and costumes...AT LEAST twice during our 45 minute photo session. At the point that my eye started to twitch, I made the call--"that's enough...who cares if everyone was looking at the camera...as long as all parts of their body were in at least one shot--I don't even care if eyes were closed...we are DONE!" At that point, everyone scattered like ants...clothes, hats and antlers flying through the air. Then we looked down and the dogs are sitting...wanting more treats. So now you want to cooperate!! Figures.
So, for now, you can just picture this little fiasco...hopefully I will be able to post our photo shoot soon so you can see just how little I am exaggerating! One thing I forgot to add is that Marlie, before the photo shoot, decided that she didn't want to wear the santa hat--she wanted to wear a princess costume because she's not santa...she's a princess! Chad finally convinced her that she is a princess everyday and today we wanted her to dress up as santa. She did it, but not very enthusiastically. Never ever a dull moment in the Fiebiger household, that's FOR SURE!