Sunday, December 7, 2014

Christmas Card Rejects and a Visit With Santa...

I've been working on Christmas card pictures this weekend.  Surprisingly, Olivia has done great!!  Owen's been the hold out in the process...I'm going to try again today, he's super excited...

We are going to do a family dinner tonight for Owen's birthday.  Livi and I talked about it on Friday and I told her everyone that was going to be at the house.  She said, "I love everyone at my house, makes me happy".  How cute is that!!!










Liv was super excited to see Santa on Black Friday, but, when we got there, her tune changed...I asked her later if she told Santa what she wanted for Christmas and she looked at me and said "Oh no" in this super disappointed voice.  It was hilarious!!



I don't know why, but, she totally cracked me up while we were walking through the mall and I had to share.  She was really serious about shopping for some reason and was hurrying...I love how she runs with her arms!!!



Sunday, November 16, 2014

Testing...

I'm trying to decide what to do for Christmas pics this year and was testing out a background...of course, since I didn't request it...I had TWO volunteers to stand-in my shots.  Despite their willingness, neither were all that cooperative!!



October Pictures...

As I said in my last post, October was a rough month and for that reason, I didn't do too many pictures.  But, thought I'd share what I did take.  I'm sure I have more on my phone than I did on my camera, so, I'll have to pull those and post them as well later.  But, in the meantime...

Shawnie got Liv this super cute dress.  Olivia LOVES superman and we tried really hard to find her a girl's superman shirt without any luck.  I gave up and bought a boy's shirt instead.  But, she does have pink superman jammies, pink superman undies, and now this super cute dress!

This is what superman would look like if he was tired of his mom taking photos and sucked his fingers!!

Geoff and Jenna stopped by the weekend after Owen's surgery and we made them carve pumpkins with us!  Blake was SO into it, it was hilarious, that boy can totally handle a saw!  Owen had to have a lot of assistance from his dad this year with just one working arm!!

 Liv and Eli were happier chilling on the floor and watching movies...

The next day, Shawn and Trevor came over to care pumpkins too...it was Trevor's inaugural pumpkin carving with the Crouse's/Laster's...he had no idea how seriously we take it, hahaha!!


Liv doesn't know yet that she's letting the fam down with her indifference to the pumpkin carving tradition!! ;O)  She was actually more into it last year than this one!!

I was proud of Shawnie, she's more of a sticker kind of girl...but, not only did she carve, she used a pattern this year!!  Her's is cookie monster and Trevor did the Ghostbuster.  I did the owl and the happy face on the far left.  Owen and Dave did the other two.
 This year, Owen went as Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy and Liv was a pirate princess.  Notice the lack of snow!!  We went to Owen's school carnival this particular day and Liv drove us nuts wanting to "trick or treat at my school"...she didn't get why her's didn't do it if Owen's did!!  Then we had a discussion on how to trick-or-treat Halloween night.  I told her how we'd ring the doorbell and she'd have to say "trick-or-treat" to get candy.  She told me she wasn't going to do it and I said that she had to or no candy.  She thought about it a minute and said, "Mommy say trick-or-treat" and I said no, it's not my job...then she thought about it and said "it's Owie's job".   When it came to the actual night however, Owen wussed out because I made him wear snowpants over his costume.  He only made it to about half a dozen houses.  Liv on the other hand was a die-hard.  I finally had to promise she could eat the candy if we went home!!  I was frozen!!!



Uncle Doc came over and helped Dave cut up some firewood and we were excited to get to have dinner with them, we've hardly seen anyone at all these past few months we've been so wrapped-up!! Owen talked them into playing a game of Clue before they could get away!! ;O)

Friday, October 24, 2014

September Pics...

I posted most of these forever ago, but, never got to go back and tell you about them until now!!  It's been a busy few months, mostly due to surgeries!!  Owen fell running on the playground during gym and essentially crushed his elbow.  He ended up with emergency surgery to pin it back together.  He's almost done with the cast now...one week to go!!  A few days after the surgery, Ollie was playing in the back yard and managed to slice open the pad of his foot...so, he too had emergency surgery.  About a week later, I was on the phone fighting with the insurance/medical facilities and while I was distracted, Ollie pulled all of his stitches out...so back in for a second surgery he went!!  The vet said he was such a "weenie" that we'd most likely have to put him under a third time to remove the staples (we upgraded from the stitches the second time).  But, fortunately, she was out of town and I got a different vet who has a whole dog team of huskies at home.  She totally powered through the screaming and pulled his staples out without any anesthesia, thankfully!  She said he was not in anyway aggressive, but, you wouldn't believe it from the noises he was making, hahaha!!  We could all hear him in the front waiting area!!

Anyway, onto the photos!

This is Liv on her first official day of school!!  She'd been going since June, but, it was very informal as the school allowed parents to pull their kids out in the summer and held their spots for them.  There were only 3 kiddos in her classroom and 8 in the preschool.  Also, they kept it a little less structured and didn't have as many "lessons" to do (thats what they call all the learning activities each child can choose to do...they are typically each kept in an individual basket and the kiddo can pull them out and take them to a table to do.  Examples in her room is gluing punched shapes onto a piece of paper or practicing putting keys in a series of locks screwed to a short piece of wood.).  Anyway, we made such a big deal out of Owen's first day, we figured we better do the same for Liv and she was absolutely thrilled!

This is Liv hanging on her dad's leg while he walked around the kitchen!!  Kind of brings to mind the saying "under foot"!!  This kid has SO got her dad wrapped around her little finger!!

Just a goofy girl in the swing...she wouldn't pose much for me, so, I gave up and took swing pictures...for the millionth time!!! ;O)

These were taken earlier when I attempted to get Liv and/or the dogs to take some pretty fall shots in the woods...as you can see, all of the above were cooperative...

This is when I asked Ollie to sit...it's a goofy picture, but, I just LOVE his little pink lips, hahaha!!

And this is when I asked the boys to sit nicely and pose...they are worse than kids!!!  They couldn't sit by one another without poking or biting the other one...


I did manage a few cute shots thanks to my persistence!!!  Hahahaha...


On another day, I forced the kids to do a photo shoot with me in a nearby park.  I was hopeful I'd get a couple good shots, but, we actually exceeded my expectations!!!

I didn't expect much, so, I didn't make a big effort on coordinating their outfits or even picking cute clothes...wish her shirt wasn't hanging out in this one, but, I'm not that good of a photoshopper to take it out!!

This isn't a great shot, but, I just love the way Liv looks at her brother...there's nobody in this world she admires as much as him.  I pray every day that these two are as close friends as adults as they are now, we are truly blessed to have two kids that love each other so much.

And the winning shot is....thanks to being able to Photoshop two pictures together to get the best facial expression on both kids anyway...

There's something about this kid, maybe how much he reminds me of his dad, I just have such a special place in my heart for him and at the same time, he can push my buttons faster than anyone I know!! ;o)  Either way, I just think he's the most handsome kid ever made!!

And then there's this one...she and I are so much alike...I usually know what she's thinking before she even opens her mouth...but, she's so darn smart and advanced for her age, we are always underestimating her and it makes it SO hard to keep one step ahead!!  She routinely asks me on the way to the truck, "My turn drive mommy?".  I am convinced she thinks I'm going to slip up one day and hand her the keys!!  Because she's so articulate, I believe anyway, she's been a whole lot easier than Owen because there was never a point where she wasn't able to express what she wants.  She's also a whole lot easier to reason with when you say no.  But, man oh man, she's a little manipulator and when she's made up her mind about something, you better watch out!!  She can also express her anger VERY effectively!! ;O)  She's got two different tactics when she wants something, she either says "please, please, please" and bats those baby blues at you or she looks with the sweetest little face you've ever seen and says "that's my favorite..".  It doesn't work on her parents, but, you wouldn't know it the way she uses it on the grandparents and her brother!!

As pleased as I was about the photos that turned out, these two were less than cooperative and thought they were super funny...look at the faces I got when I'd say "smile", hahaha...my mother prefers this photo of the two of them better than the one above!!
 
We got Owen's school pics back and it just amazes me how adorable he looks EVERY year!!  Mine were never this good I can assure you!!  The only bad school shot we've gotten was from preschool when he had a runny nose and wiped snot all over his shoulder at some point during the day, hahaha!!  Ironically, he still looked cute!!  I don't have a digi of that to fix or post though!

I thought I'd post all 3, so you can see how he's grown.  The far left is Kindergarten (they combed down his faux-hawk for some unknown reason), first grade in the middle, and second on the right...didn't realize until I did this that we always put him in red...

These are just my goofy girl watching a movie on the iPad while I cooked dinner...gotta love that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bandaid!!  I'm so thankful for winter and no more bugs!!  She had her forehead SO messed up all summer digging on different bug bites.  I'm hopeful she'll be old enough not to do that next year...she had bandaids on so long, the adhesive caused abrasions, it was a nightmare!!

Saturday, September 27, 2014

August

I talked Diana into checking out Palmer's Friday Fling one week with me and took the kids.  It's like a super mini Farmer's Market.  But, the kids had fun eating and getting balloons!  

Dave's dad, Anthony, was able to make it up for a couple weeks and both kids were ecstatic to have him here too.

We had sushi while Dave's parents were in town, look who the chopstick expert is!!  haha!!

These are just goofy pics of Olivia in the tub...

I thought this was a very artsy fartsy shot!! ;O)

 Owen started 2nd grade this year!!  Breaks my heart!!  How cute is he though!!

I made him take a selfie with me, he was super thrilled, hahaha, but, it's the only way I am ever in a picture!!
 We hit the fair on "Mining Day" this year...never again will I go on a weekend!!!!  We will totally be those parents that pull Owen out of school.  It was SO crowded and miserable!!  But, the kids had a blast.

We met up with Kaylee and Hayden...it was great, cut down on the number of rides Dave and I did!

Somehow, I got talked into going down the super slide with Liv.  This picture is terrible, but, I want credit because it was terrifying, I almost couldn't do it!!  Hahaha!!!  That slide is SO much higher than it looks from the ground!!!

Liv road her first ride all by herself!!!
 It got scary...hahaha!
 The older kids went on a ton of rides and I was super glad not to have to go with them!!!  They had a blast.




 A sleepy girl...

Liv and I went out to the "You-Pick" farm in Butte.  I was EXHAUSTED from pulling her around...she wasn't thrilled to be there or cooperative for pictures!

I made her take one with me though!! ;O) 

Hard to beat the view out there though!!


Owen always has trouble acclimating back to his hectic school schedule...

This was Liv "helping" me gather up clothes that don't fit anymore...

We went to Palmer to visit my grandmother and uncle, it's a short drive, but, you wouldn't know it by how sound asleep Liv can get between houses!!

Just because she's cute...