Holiday pictures

Am I the only one that stresses out about holiday pictures every year?  It's like this silent pressure I put on myself to get a cute holiday family photo while walking that fine line between cute and uber cheesy.  Last year I bought a $10 Groupon and we had them taken at JC Penney.  We got some great candid shots of Audrey so the hubs and I left ourselves off the Christmas card that year (score).  This year I really want to get a picture or two outside, since my attempts at doing outdoor family photoshoots have gone up in flames (see Living Social Sucks post). 

We were at the Arboretum last weekend but Audrey could not be bribed to sit still for even one picture over a 2-hour time period.  When I tried to sneak up behind her in the hay maze while silently motioning to the hubs to start snapping away, she promptly turned around and dumped 2 handfuls of hay on my head.  Here she is squirming, kicking, and screaming at a decibel that only dogs can hear:

Picture drama aside, there's the whole outfit issue.  I have some strange aversion to those poufy satin and tulle little girls' dresses that are routinely foisted on me by well-meaning moms who JUST WANT SOMEONE ELSE TO WEAR THIS DRESS ONE TIME.  But finding something festive, semi-afordable, yet not fancy is not that easy.  I love the sweater dresses that Hanna Andersson comes out with every year but after multiple attempts I've concluded that their sizes are simply weird.  Audrey is consistently too small for one size and way too big for the other so I guess they only fit Swedish kids??

After much eBay searching and stalking I settled on this dress from the Gap:

I'm pairing it with these tights, which conveniently match some brown shoes Audrey already owns (me lazy):

I buy the Tiny Prints deal on Zulily every year for holiday cards so now all I need is that picture.  Our neighbor has offered to go to the park with us and try to get some cute family shots so maybe this will actually work?  Or maybe it's time to can the photos and start writing one of those awesome "Here's what we've been up to this year..." letters.  Oh how I love those things.