Visit With Santa

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!  We had a good dinner, but, my grandmother had this nasty and highly contagious stomach bug thats been going around up here and having had it ourselves just two weekends ago, we weren't anxious to risk being around her!  So, it wasn't all I'd hoped for, she's really the reason we make the effort to get together to begin with.  She's doing better though and we plan to have dinner for Owen's birthday this weekend, so, hopefully, that will make up for it!

But, the day before T-day, I came home from work early and despite some sketchy roads (its been this weird freezing rain lately), we grabbed the kids and took them to the mall to see Santa.  As you can see...Olivia was thrilled about the idea! ;O)  I know what she's getting for Christmas!!!  She wouldn't even look at Santa during the pictures and when we went to leave, he said watch this and waved at her and said goodbye.  She smiled and waved emphatically back like she was thrilled he acknowledged their time together was over.  He got a big kick out of that!

Owen's been cracking us up lately.  About 2 or 3 weeks ago he came home from school and asked to put up the Christmas tree.  I told him that it was too early and we had too much to do to even consider it.  He said, "I'm just so excited, I can't help it, I'm just so jolly!"  I have no idea where he learned the word "jolly", but, I couldn't help but laugh.

On Wednesday, Dave told him our plan to visit Santa after school.  He looked at Dave and said something to the effect of "Oh good, I need to ask him for some light sabers, I think he misunderstood me last year".  Turns out, last year, "santa" decided that light sabers are ridiculously over priced and impractical and that it would be more fun to get the Wii Light Saber controllers and the corresponding Star Wars game.  I cracked up when Dave told me.  I've never heard Owen use the word "misunderstood" before either.  He never ceases to amaze me!  I think he managed to set Santa straight, so, hopefully, he gets it right this time!

Picture Day...

I wanted to make sure and do a "shoot" with Liv while she was still officially 18 months old.  So, I was setting up the background and lights when Owen walked into the room.  He HATES to get his picture taken, but, hates it worse that I would take Olivia's and not his!  Men!!! ;O)  He's in cub scouts now and got to go on a "Go See" to the fire station last night.  You'd think he'd gone to the moon, he has been ecstatic about the experience and wanted his picture taken with his fire "Chief" hat.  He cracks me up!!  But, he makes a pretty handsome "Chief" if I do say so myself!!

Live was particularly uncooperative as was her hair today.  I edited these in color, but, forgot to save, so, I will have to try again later.  I will try the shoot over again too on a day her brother is at school and I can get her full attention...and maybe her hair will have calmed down! ;O)

A Rare Beautiful Fall Day...

Snow in September!!!

O.k., so, its not unusual to have snow in September, but, it is unusual to get this much and for it to stick for two full days!!  Owen went to bed telling me he was hoping there'd be snow in the morning when he woke up.  I told him I'd wish for that too, but, that we had no control and I didn't think there was a very good chance it would happen.  But, we woke-up on the 23rd to snow on the ground and it continued to snow ALL DAY LONG.  In fact, it was a blizzard as we walked to the bus stop that morning and although it was above freezing, we ended up with a total accumulation of almost 4 inches that lasted until late the next day.

We weren't very prepared.  I have snow clothes for Liv that I bought at the end of the season last year.  Unfortunately, I overshot her size by A LOT! ;O)  Expect to see this coat next winter...

Max was probably more excited than any of us to have snow.  He gets cold pretty fast, but, loves running and jumping through the snow piles.  In fact, I wanted the kids to stand by him for a picture, but, every time they got close he'd pounce the ground and take off.  He's such a funny little dog. 

All I want for Christmas...

Owen lost his third and fourth teeth last month.  I wanted to get shots of him with his missing teeth before the new ones come back in and figured that since we were already on a roll, we might as well do it today!!  He starts hockey 

Second Round...

 O.k., my editing is super inconsistent and my clouds need work.  But, thought I'd post the second try at it anyway! ;O)

Happy Easter!!!

It's not Easter you say?  It is when you are this far behind!!!  I HAD to do this bunny rabbit pose with Liv and I still want to do the kids together.  So, here's round 1...there will be more! ;O)  I didn't spend much time editing these.  I want to take the creases out of the backgrounds and add some clouds.  But, that will have to be done later.

Here's my first stab at clouds...I think I kind of love them if I could get the kinks worked out!

Do all "Fashion" models have to put up with this kind of super model fans!!! ;O)  My furry kids love to be in the middle of the pics, drives me nuts!!

Here's a shot of my crew...what would I do without him! ;O)

This is by FAR my favorite shot! ;O)

Uh-oh....

Little Monkey...

Just a couple snapshots today.  My Mom, Will, and Shawn upgraded me to CS6 for my birthday...woohoo...now, I just have to relearn EVERYTHING! ;O)  That's why my pictures are so blurry.  Photoshop eliminated the need to manually reduce the images for blogging, so, when I do, it pixilates the snot out of them!  Anyway, I think I've got it figured and they should improve from here on out.  These are still a little off though I see.  Sorry!!

Unlike the rest of the normal world, we are encouraging our 1 year old to take a pacifier still these days.  She sucks her fingers constantly lately.  The molar that was pushing up before seems to have subsided, but, she still seems to be in pain.  Anyway, this was an especially bad day, but, thought she was too cute not to take some photos.