Christmas, 2011

Man, I am really slacking on the blog front.  The last few months are always the craziest ones of the year for photography, so I guess photographing/documenting my OWN kids gets pushed to the back burner.
I am really going to try to do this more often, since it serves as my only scrapbook-esque item for my kiddos!
This Christmas was really fun!!  We started out the festivities this year with a little party and program at the twins' school.

My little angel got up to the risers and already started fiddling with her halo.  I could tell by looking at her it was going to fixate her for the whole performance.  She has hated anything itchy, loud or annoying since she was tiny.  I love that she's always on the top riser because she's so tall....

Cale was the cutest little shepherd in the program.  (He's the one in blue)  He was so funny when he saw me sitting next to a pew trying to get pictures...he smiled and waved so big!

Hayden's sweet friend Abi from school.  This is the second year they've been together, and they really enjoy each other...

Cale had lots to tell me while dressed as a shepherd....and showed me all around his classroom.  My favorite part of their program was how he danced and sung so happily....he's still little enough not to be embarrassed to do stuff like that.

I attempted to take ONE, just ONE cute picture on Christmas Eve of all of my babies.  This is the best I got.  Fancy, huh?  Nothing says "Classy Christmas" like a bag of hiney wipes on the floor, crazy faces, and a tiny belligerent cat curled up on the loveseat in the background.   (Side note:  I thought the twins were pretty much the same height now, but DANG.  She is an amazon!!!  Let's hope she likes volleyball...)

Bubby with his loot on Christmas morning.  He is really into pirates, so his favorite gift was a giant pirate ship with teeny, tiny parts.  It's really cool.  I love that he's wearing feety jammies in this picture.....definitely the last year for those.

The baby was so sweet and excited on Christmas morning.....she would open one thing and just love on it and play with it forever.  We kept having to tell her she had more presents, but REALLY, the way she was enjoying them was so much better.  Not ripping through them at all, but spending time inspecting and enjoying each one.  I love this picture, and the sweet look on her face.

Sissy loved all of her gifts, too.  She loves tiny dolls and tiny parts, so she was gifted accordingly.  Let's just say momma had to make a trip to Wal Mart on the 26th to get six new tubs to organize all this stuff!

Mixed in to the craziness was the Zunker's annual Christmas Party, Shawn's work Christmas party (where Livi stood on the stage with the guitarist, holding her dress up, hollering "I POOPING!" at me across the room) and lots more Christmas fun.  Looking at lights, shopping, making Christmas cookies for our neighbors, having  "Christmas Toddies" with some of our besties, Christmas dinner and gift exchange with the OTHER set of besties, and lots more.  I stopped working earlier this year, which was so great!!!  I really enjoyed slowing down and giving myself two weeks to enjoy the holiday with my family.  

Now to "undecorate" this house....

Tougher than a two dollar steak....

This kid really cracks me up.  That's a good thing, because lately he's also been making me want to stab myself in the eye with a fork.  He's just at a "stage" (dramatic sigh) and we're just muddling through it the best we know how.  It's funny because the things he does that are stressing me out are SO HIS DAD.  I shouldn't get bothered by these things, because clearly they're genetic and he has no control over them.  For example, after being asked to put on his shoes forty six times, I find him standing in front of the television, HOLDING HIS SHOES.  Dear Lord, is this a boy thing, or a boy-in-my-family thing??  Apply that same scenario to buckling his seat belt, coming when he's called, being told to eat his dinner, and hollering at the baby to "stop making noise".  (Like that's even possible.)

Other than the stuff he's doing that is driving me nuts lately, he's pretty much the awesomest kid on the planet.  (besides my other two of course)

He says hilarious things that make his daddy and I cry.  Here are some recent ones:

"Mommy, I'm tougher than a two dollar steak." --spoken randomly from the backseat.

"JESUS!  Don't jump!!"--hollered at the Jesus decoration on top of a roof when we were looking at lights.

Me:  "CALE! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  How many times have I told you to stop???" followed immediately by him responding, 

Cale:  "Mommy, why do you think God gave me such good parents?" 

And this little conversation with his daddy...

Daddy:  "Buddy, you know Daddy used to be in the air force."

Cale:  "What plane did you fly?"  

Daddy:  "I didn't fly a plane."

Cale:  "Why not??"  

Daddy:  "I didn't want to.  Instead, I was in finance."

Cale:  "Where did you find ants?"

Yep, it's a good thing he says junk like this to offer some moments of hysterical laugher in the midst of difficult parenting.  If ever I get bogged down about this "phase"....I just need to remember how great he is.... How he delivers these one liners that keep us rolling.  How he wants me to lay with him at night and sing him Christmas songs.  How he sung and danced with abandon at his school Christmas pageant.  

How he creates amazing, detailed drawings that blow all of us away.  How he immerses himself in airplanes, Legos, playing pretend, pirates....and becomes the resident expert on all of these topics.  How his tiny little teeth all show when he's laughing really hard at something.  How kind and thoughtful he is.  How he tells me he's never going to grow a beard, never ride a motorcycle, and never move out of my house, all because he wants to make me happy.  I really, really love this kid.

Halloween, 2011

Boy, you're probably REALLY excited to read this blog post.  I know everyone loves to hear about Halloween, right smack dab in the middle of the Christmas season.  Oh well.  This blog is my scrapbook, people....and I have the pics that need to be put somewhere, so here it is.
The twins had a little Halloween party at their school, and I took Liv up there with me.  I realized while there, that I really needed to be an octopus with eight arms, because that baby was ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE.  Luckily, Uncle Daniel was there for Davis, so he held her for a little bit, and kept her in one spot.

We did it up big time this year....the kiddos invited a few friends over for a "Halloween Playdate"...everyone wore their costumes (because who doesn't want to wear their costume more than twice?) and had cupcakes.  We invited our friends the Pattisons over to watch baseball, eat pizza and carve pumpkins...which the kiddos loved.  Somehow I ended up being the only adult in the kitchen carving pumpkins!!  Livi decided she LOVED the Pattisons' son Preston, and let him hold her and give her her bottle, which is hilarious because she hasn't been held to get a bottle in over a year.  In fact (don't judge) she shouldn't be even GETTING a bottle anymore!!  We also celebrated October in true Halloween fashion by adopting Chewy Louise, who is conveniently black.  We trick or treated around the neighborhood, and the babies LOVED their costumes this year.  Livi was a LaLaLoopsie doll, and loved her blue wig.  I'm sure no one else knew what she was, but my girls love lalaloopsie dolls so they got a kick out of it!  Cale saw a knight costume at CostCo and had to have it....it seems really itchy, but he was a trooper and wore it four times!  Sissy was ADAMENT that she wanted to be Ariel from the Little Mermaid, and it couldn't be the Ariel with the mermaid tail, it had to be "Ariel in the princess dress at the end".  I obliged, and found her a dress at the Disney store, but was secretly a little disappointed.  I loved that she was something more creative last year, and I don't want her to think she has to be a princess, just because that is a "girl" costume.  Hopefully in the future she'll pick some more hilarious costumes....but I always want her to be what she wants to be, so I never try to push them into something I want.  (Unless we get to the age where they want to be something really creepy, and then I'll intervene)
One last note....for Livi's costume, I drew on her face with Crayola washable markers, because I didn't have any face paint, and that stuff is disgusting and greasy anyway.  Now, Livi thinks drawing all over yourself with markers is okay.  The other day she covered herself in marker before I got to her, and when I took her shirt off for bath, I noticed she had colored her belly button blue.

The Photo Shoot Where No One Cried.

This one has to go down in the history books.  We set up a little no stress, one stop session for my mom's Christmas cards.  At the last minute (no joke) I told the hubby to put on something that went with the kids outfits, and I took my hair out of a ponytail and put on matching gear.  We literally jumped in ten pics with our kids, and I think we got some good ones!!  They were happy and smiley, and no one needed a spanking.  It's ironic that the shoots where I stress for weeks about what to wear, and how they'll behave end up turning out HORRIBLE, but the one where I throw on a brown cardigan six minutes before go time end up being my favorite.

We keep telling Livi she has "Justin Bieber Hair" or as Sissy puts it:  Justin Beaver.  She needs a hair clip, but won't hardly last four minutes with one on. 

This girl.  Sigh.....we're just at the sweetest phase with her right now.  She's the best sister to Livi, and so sweet to me.  Lately, it's been nothing but "Okay Mommy."  She's been so agreeable and fun, and I have loved every second of being with my four and a half year old girl!!  She is my mini me....she does so many things exactly the way I do them, and makes faces all the time that are like looking in a mirror.  Plus, she over reacts, and Mommy knows all about that. :)  She's wearing her first piece of big girl jewelry now...a necklace with three charms on it.  She's so proud of it, and has been really careful not to break it or hurt it....just another way she's growing up, and becoming my big girl.  She acts like mommy, but looks like Daddy (with a tiny bit of me mixed in).  

These eyes!!  Where did that color come from?  I'm not sure, but I love it!

To be honest, we're not at the easiest phase with Bub.  Luckily, he's adorable and hilarious, so even when he's being a toot, I can't help but laugh at him.  He does things that are SO Shawn....he is stubborn just like his daddy, focused, and particular.  Today he was picking tiny pieces of black grilled spots off his chicken, and my mom said, "Who does that??"  I had to ask her if she remembered who Cale's father was!  This kid is all Shawn!!!  He blows us away with his drawing, coloring and writing lately.  He's going to be an overachiever at school, this one.  If my blog readers could be a fly on the wall in a "day in the life" of this kid, your side would hurt from laughing.  He comes up with thoughts and phrases that you wouldn't believe.  

And then there's my baby.....talking up a storm, not that interested in the potty, still wants a paci when she's in the car seat or tired. (or falls down and hurts herself)

Loves her sissy and bubby, and tries to show her momma who's boss.  She remembers everything, and has the sweetest, kindest little heart.  She's getting too big, and it's happening too fast.  I guess that's why I'm not in a big rush to potty train, or get rid of the last five bottles in my house.  She doesn't ask for one every day, but when she asks for one, she generally gets it.  It's one of the last "baby things" she does....just today, I was thinking how big she seemed...getting her own snack out of the fridge, throwing her trash away, putting her cup in the sink.  

And this is what I really love about pictures.  

The fact that they capture these fleeting moments in time with such perfection, and with no words.  

What they looked like with their baby teeth, or before their hair grew in.

When they still had "baby fat".

Before they were embarrassed to snuggle up close to their mommy and daddy in a picture and smile with no reservation.

I'm so thankful for these people....five years ago, these babies didn't even exist, and now they're my world.  Each of them is SO half me/half Shawn....I can see us both in all three.  Even though they're only four and two, I am so proud of the tiny people they are becoming.  I can already see glimpses of the kind of big people they are going to become....they are the same characteristics they had when we brought them home from the hospital.  It's funny how you parent the best you can, and teach them the things you think are important, but their core personality, who they really ARE on the inside, is just who they are.  

From day one, Sissy was sweet, loved to sleep, and so smart.

Cale was particular, and unsatisfied with sitting still.  He was silly, but hard to entertain....you'd have to be really ridiculous to get him to crack a smile.

Livi was content and happy, and knew when she was making us laugh.  

I couldn't be happier about these babies, these blessings, this LIFE. 

Busy, busy days...

This is hands down the busiest time of the year for my photography business....things get pretty complicated around here, figuring out who has kids, who's watching who, who's picking whom up from school....luckily we still seem to find lots of time for nonsense....just listening to these babies play puts a smile on my face.  For example, Shawn let me know what was going on this morning when I was working.
Cale:  "Daddy?  Can you walk by my door 1,000 times so I can try to kill you?"
Shawn:  "Um, no."
Cale:  "Please?"
Before you start thinking my four year old is a budding sociopath, let me explain.  He loves to play rough with Shawn, and thinks it's HILARIOUS for Shawn to get hit with the foam hatchet and fall down on the floor theatrically.  So what does Daddy do?  Indulge the boy, and play hatchet fight all morning.

Today....

I am obsessed with:

Candy corn.  Seriously, this stuff needs to disappear from my kitchen island.  If you call yourself my friend, please stage an intervention and dump the bowl into my trash. 

My new camera.  

This lotion.  It's about this time of the year that my hands start looking and feeling like those of a four hundred year old.  I've put this on four times today already.

My neutrogena at home microdermabrasion kit.  Oh. My.

You want your face to feel like your baby's rear?  Get yourself this thing!

My autumn scented BBW candle.  I love it!  It smells amazing....but I think this one is a bit of a dud because the last one I lit I could smell from my front yard.  

I found a box of Mr. Sketch markers in my office stuff, and now I'm unnecessarily highlighting things in my planner just to smell them.  If you see me in public with rainbow colored dots on my nose and upper lip, please refrain from pointing.

Sofia champagnes....tiny champagnes with a little straw attached.  It's momma's Capri Sun!!

The tiny cat.  She's always good for some laughs.

I'm obsessed with the idea of eating a double doozie from the cookie company at the mall.  This all started on Saturday when I had to leave a birthday party to shoot a wedding, and realized the cake was a huge cookie cake.  I'm not kidding, I thought about that thing at least twice while shooting the wedding...resenting that I didn't get any!

I've also decided I need:

Tall brown boots.  I love tall boots, but they create quite the issue.  For one, it's hardly ever cold enough here to warrant tall boots.  Last year, I sweated my way through many an event because of camel colored sweater Uggs.  I know they're impractical for south Texas, but I need them anyway.

New aviators.  I had some at one point, but I'm not sure where they went.  I know this aviator thing has been going on for awhile and is probably on it's way out, but I want some anyway.

A silhouette machine.  I salivate thinking about the crafty amazing-ness I could create with this thing.

A flip video.  I know I can take video with my iphone, (and I'm reminded of this all the time by the DH)

but I really want a camera ONLY for video, and one that will fit in my purse.  I'm done with the video camera with the little tiny tapes that have to be transferred and burned (real time, no less) onto DVDs.  Ugh.

A big brown bag.  To match the aforementioned boots, of course.  I love all the buckles on this thing.

A portable light kit.  Looking at this set doesn't make me instantly think of "ease of transport" but it might not be that bad.  I just need softboxes to use, especially with newborns.

To think, this whole blog post started with me googling the nutritional content of candy corn....