Last Friday, Gracie pleaded with me to go and take her picture.  Her exact words were, "Mama, I want a photo shoot!"  I can't believe those words came out of that girl's mouth - she has always been an anti-picture kind of kid.  But, she'd planned out everything she wanted to wear and even where she wanted her picture taken.  I tried to talk her into a little shoot at the house, but she insisted that it be at the beach.  And she had to wear her coat, and her mittens, and her hat.  Who was I to tell her no?  The problem was we were late getting home on Friday and by the time I got down to the beach where I normally take pictures, they had the gates closed.  So we drove a little farther down the beach to a public access site.  I put the van in park and realized that I'd left my camera at home.  Yikes! I drove back home (a little faster than the posted speed limit), grabbed my camera, drove back to the public access site, unloaded the girls and realized two things:  1)It was getting way too dark to take pictures and 2)It was very, very cold.

But, I couldn't deny Gracie at least a couple of shots.  I'm not sure about posting these pictures, because they way things are going around here, these may well be our Christmas Card pictures.  Heck, the way things are going, this post may well be our Christmas card.

Abigail was so funny.  She stood on the beach, all bundled up, shivering.  She said, "Mommy!  I  fweeezing!  I fweezing!"  Needless to say we didn't stay too long.  But, when I got home and downloaded the pictures, I realized that with them all bundled up the way they were, the time of the day, and the fact that they looked so cold, it looks for all the world like I took these shots in the SNOW, not at the beach.  Don't worry - there was no actual snow here