Visit with Santa...

Word to the wise, the best day to visit Santa Clause is on Black Friday.  While everyone else is pepper spraying each other for a $2 waffle iron, Santa is available and there's never a line! ;O) 

Christmas Photos...

Dave bought me some photography lighting for Christmas and I managed to get it out of him early on the pretense that I would put it to good use taking Owen's Christmas photos.   The alternative, is going to Sears and spending $25 on a sitting fee (which is good all year, but, we rarely use it more than once) and if I remember correctly, they make you buy a $150 package in order to get the photo cd with copyrights.  So, see, I'm SAVING him money already! ;O)  One sitting fee and package at Sears should have cancelled out the cost of the lighting, but, because we are here in AK, they take total advantage and the shipping ends up being as much as the light kit itself!!!  So, I'll have to keep forcing photo shoots to make up for it I guess!!

Now I just have to get these on some sort of Christmas Card and get a letter written...I may be sending out Happy New Year cards instead! ;O)

These was one of the two good ones I got from the last impromptu photo shoot (I posted the other one in his 5-year look back post)...

Cars 2 Birthday...

I bribed Owen into another photo shoot this morning...I wanted a picture of him in front of this birthday decoration we had on the wall before I took it down.  He was less than cooperative today and that made me flustered enough that I didn't notice how bad the lighting was...I watched a few youtube videos...but, apparently, that's not enough!! ;O)

I really loved this one, but, the lighting was especially bad...I tried to reduce the saturation so he wasn't so blindingly white against the background!!  I am going to keep working at it, but, thought I'd share it anyway.

I have so many more to fix, I'll share them as I finish them up!!

Owen's Officially Five...

In honor of my baby no longer being a baby, I thought I'd share some pictures that we used for his birthday celebration at school.  I had to provide one picture for each year to show the class while we talked about what he did and what he was like that year.  Here's the pics I used this year:

2 Days Old

1 year-January 12, 2008 (Maui)

2 years-August 1, 2009

3 years-October 8, 2010 (Butte, MT)

 4 years-April 6, 2011 (Disney World)

5 years (Almost)-November 19, 2011

It's a Healthy Baby....

GIRL!!!!!  I was so sure this was another baby boy, it honestly never crossed my mind I'd end up with a little girl, I'm in absolute shock and still trying to come to terms! ;O)  She is a trouble maker already and is going to keep her big brother hopping I do believe!!

I was SO excited for the "4-D" sonogram we were scheduled for, but, instead, he spent most of his time in 2-D mode anyway.  So, here's another grainy shot of our baby girl.

The sonogram guy waited until the end to get a good shot of her face and by that point she'd had all she was going to tolerate.  The picture below is the best he was able to do.  The rest of them have both her arms crossed in front of her face!!  The one thing we're sure about...she has all 10 fingers! ;O) 

And just because I think its crazy how much these two look alike, I thought I'd show a picture of Owen and his new sister at the same age!!  I think they BOTH are going to be little Daddy mini-mes...I just get the chore of making them and he gets all the credit! ;O)

Halloween!

So, Owen was SUPPOSED to be Bumble Bee from Transformers for Halloween this year.  We even did a little photo shoot in the backyard in September with that costume!!

Instead, he INSISTED on wearing last year's costume come Halloween night!!  I could barely get the hood over his head and then he was mad because I made him wear his coat over his costume.  He cried and told me that nobody would be able to see the costume...dude, it was 20 degrees that night and it's not like I could fit a winter coat UNDER the costume that is almost 2 sizes too small!!  Goof ball!  He finally gave in when we told him he could answer the door for the other trick-or-treaters as a "dinosaur".  He really enjoyed that part, but, instead of giving each kid 2 pieces of candy, he gave the girls 2 handfuls!!!  Such a typical man!!

His uncle dressed up and went out with him.  Owen was thrilled to have him there!

Snow!!

We FINALLY got a little snow this past weekend...woohoo!!  Dave went out to put away the last of the stuff laying around the yard in preparation for winter while Owen supervised, sledded, and enjoyed some hot chocolate by the fire! ;O)  Don't you love that hat?  Dave bought that for me before Owen ever existed as a joke.  But, Owen thinks its the greatest thing ever made!  It pays to keep stuff every once in a while I guess!!