Here comes Santa Claus

Now that we've seen Santa Claus (who knew about our Elf on the Shelf when Elisabeth told him! he IS real!), the kids are ready for Christmas. Are you?

I'm in love.

Smitten, actually, with someone I haven't even "met" yet. Well, at least not face-to-face.  That's right, I'm in love with our tiny, 12 weeks and 4 days old peanut who has about 27 nicknames already.  Max. Sheldon (my new fave). Kate. Baby. Tister. Bwudder. And the names of every single one of Elisabeth's classmates.

^ Those might be the cutest little fingers I have ever seen.

And look at that little profile! Sure, there are a ton of teeth that give a sort of Puppet effect (and let me tell you, that effect is multiplied by 10 when you see your little baby moving on the monitor and opening and closing its mouth), but still - have I mentioned that I'm in love?  Can you see the ear? And the arm raised up by the side of its head? Sigh...

We can't wait to meet this little miracle that I tried so desperately to avoid making. I'm so glad I apparently don't know a thing about my own fertility.  ♥

sparkly and beautiful

This is Elisabeth. 

She just overcame a huge obstacle.

The potty accidents she was having?  Well she made a goal of making it 20 days in a row without having an accident. For her, that is a huge accomplishment considering where we were a few months ago.  She has pushed through so many physical and emotional factors to get to this point and we couldn't be more proud of her.

Of course she had some sparkly motivation of her own as well.

Well, Miss Elisabeth, ask and you shall receive.

And receive she did, this past weekend as evidenced in the photo above. She's not going to lie, getting her ears pierced hurt bad.  Much more than the pinch that her friend told her it would be.  But I don't think she would have changed a thing.  She walked out of there one proud kiddo.

And we are very proud of her for finding her own motivation and working so hard to achieve her goal.

PS -- today is day 23 and she's still going strong!

Sweet Sydney. With a capital T.

Sweet little Sydney.

She's about to turn 3.

I love that the majority of her words start with a T, whether they are supposed to or not.

"Mommy, who wad dat on da tetetone?"

She eats food out of the tittertator.

Her days of the week: Tunday, Monday, Twoday, Wend-day, Tursday, Tie-day, Taturday.

And of course, there is the Tissmas Tee we just chopped down.

Merry Tissmas to all and to all a goo-night.  Tee you in da mawning, momma.

Scratch that last one -- that's just what she said to me tonight.

What we do on Saturday mornings.

Here is a sampling from yesterday.

We chill in our jammies.

We watch cartoons and pick our noses.

Well, some of us pick our noses. Some even eat what they find.

We play peek-a-boo.

(And us parents continue the 3 year streak of ignoring the wood trim that needs to be painted white.  I believe I was pregnant with Sydney when we got our new doors and windows and we said we'd finish the trim before the baby came. But who's counting, right? Life's short. And I'd rather play peek-a-boo anyway.)

Ahem.

We mother our cat and say in our highest pitched two year old voices "heyah titty, do you wan some watah?"

We bathe in the sun while said two year old continues to mother us.

Some of us furrier folk try not to act annoyed.

We chill.  

I don't know about you, but I sure am thankful God gave us lazy Saturdays.

A day late, a dollar candy bar short

I know it was only a week ago, but somehow Halloween seems like a lifetime ago to me.  I guess that tells you what kind of week I had in between then and now.

Slow as molasses. Long. Which makes me even more thankful for Saturdays and Sundays. But mostly Saturdays.

Anyway that's not the point.

The point is, I'm late in posting the pictures that I promised my mom I'd post asap.  And the candy bags, which were overflowing with sugary goodness, are still overflowing. But I'm doing my yearly duty and trying hard to get rid of the candy in this house by eating it.

What other way is there to get rid of candy besides eating it?

Dandelion wishes

Apparently I have a thing for dandelions.

What can I say, my children have me believing in dandelion wishes again.  It's good to think like a kid!  We should all be so innocent and free-spirited.

Happy Halloween, suckas.

From our crib to yo's.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

In the orchard.

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is "In the orchard".  That's a perfect theme for me!

While I have a gobzillion pictures from this year's apple orchard extravaganza, I have a secret love affair with last year's orchard trip.  Sydney was just 18 months then.  She had baby curls. And the cutest orange sweater dress.

Mark had just fully recovered from his heart attack. And I was so blissfully happy to have a beautiful (and healthy) family!

I love the way Mark looks in this photo. I think he might have been as happy as I was.

Catch it.

Make a wish.

Did you see it?

Did it come true?

I did.

Twice!

And we named them Elisabeth and Sydney.

The end.

1492

It's Columbus Day. Daycare and schools are closed, which gave me a pretty good reason to take the day off.  Us grown ups don't do that often enough.

You know what else we don't do often enough?

Enjoy the scenery.

Admire the weeds and realize how beautiful they really are.

(as long as they're not in my garden)

Make a wish. Or two.

Go to the park and play with the kids. (oddly enough I didn't take any pictures there)

Climb a tree.

Stomp in the fallen leaves.

Thank goodness for Christopher Columbus and this glorious day!

One more reason to love orange.

Once upon a time there were two girls who had a couple of days off of school.

So they went to visit their grandma, who took them to a pumpkin farm.

Their grandma took lots of pictures. Mostly of their backs.

They found the perfect pumpkins in the field!

And then they found out they were way cheaper pre-picked, so they left their pumpkins near the checkout and grabbed two pre-picked and equally awesome orange beauties.

And then they took them home.

And their momma showed up to help carve the pumpkins!

She makes weird faces.

And her daughter knows how to use a knife a little too well.

While the pumpkins were carved, the little sister vigorously stirred pumpkin seeds with an ice cream scooper and made "soup."

A "lottalotta toup," as she would say.

Happy Fall! Happy Halloween!

The end.

Taking the plunge

As I continue to feed my passion for all things photography, I have been lurking, watching and reading iheartfaces.com for some time now.  There are some amazingly talented people out there, and if you have the same love for photography that I do, I suggest you check them out too!

So anyway, today is Constructive Feedback Friday, and I have decided to take the plunge and finally join in the fun in hopes of someday being half as talented as some of the regulars. 

That's right, I'm coming out today!

Because a certain person whose job starts with "ther" and ends with "apist" told me to be selfish for a change.  Do something for myself and embrace my hobby.

So here goes nothing.

We went apple picking a few weeks ago, and Elisabeth decided to climb the ladder and pose for me.  She has been doing this lately and I love it! A) because we have finally exited the refusal to smile phase and B) because I get to exercise my index finger and snap away.

So this is the photo, SOOC.  I am proud to say that I just switched my camera to manual! Alas this photo was taken prior to that, on the (gasp!) auto setting.  With the (gasp!) kit lens.  

Nikon D40 f/8.0 1/250 sec ISO 200 55mm 

I am a sucker for photos taken on an angle and love that about this photo as well.  But even more than that, I love how she just sat up there and posed for me. It's so sweet! But the picture is dark, and I wish she stood out more.  I also don't like how dark her eyes look.  Or the white sky. It was so cloudy that day.

Here is my somewhat edited version in PSE 8.0 using my limited experience (which I'm working on!).  I brightened the photo, saturated the blues and greens a bit, sharpened the photo and added some sparkle to her eyes.

I don't know that these are necessarily the right edits, which is why something so aptly named Constructive Feedback Friday appealed to me -- I'd love your input and suggestions!

Thanks for letting me play!  Oh and for any of my family and friends who are reading this, please keep in mind that the whole point of this for Constructive Feedback -- so don't be offended if you see just that on here! xoxo

Model child

We went through a couple of years where Elisabeth, our strong-willed child who will undoubtedly do the opposite of what we'd like because that's the kind of model child she is, refused to smile for the camera. It was like we were torturing her by asking her to take a nice picture for us. We often used reverse psychology to get the smile out of her; that is until she was old enough to pick up on our tactics and then we were just left smile-less.

That is until recently. Now when I break out the camera she picks out the perfect location, cocks her head to the side, and gives me a gorgeous look. A lot of the whole posing thing started with her first teen idol Hannah Montana, and her desire to be all grown up and cool like Miley. But now I honestly think she's blossoming into this tiny grown up person who just likes to smile for the camera. When it's on her terms, of course (because some things will most likely never change - and I have a feeling the strong-willed nature of our sweet Elisabeth is here to stay).

She has been so amazingly helpful with Sydney lately, who is starting to enter a bit of a defiant/stubborn stage. Elisabeth has a way of calming Sydney down and explaining the facts to her in ways that I could only dream of. And she gives the best advice to her baby sister. Tonight we had the joy of hearing Elisabeth say "Sydney, you need to listen and respect your mama." AMEN TO THAT!

An apple a day

Apples.

They're good for you. You're supposed to have one a day to keep the doctor away.  And we like that!

I don't actually like apples.

But apple picking? In an apple orchard? Sign me up!  It's now one of my favorite activities.

I give equal rights to our seasons and love them all for obviously different reasons, but Fall has got to be my favorite.  I think I bust out the camera the most in the fall.  Maybe. Or not. But it feels like I take a lot more pictures in the fall, and for me I can almost judge my happiness by the number of photos I have taken at any given time.

Is that weird?

Thanks. I didn't think so either.

Anyway, we went apple picking recently with a great neighbor who has two of the cutest kids with the best smiles. They make for great photo ops too!

Seriously. Don't you just want to eat her up?!?

Thankfully we could split a bushel with said neighbor so that I didn't have to eat so many apples. Imagine the torturous pain if we had to eat the whole bushel!

We have more fall activities planned. The ones I'm looking forward to most?  I'm chaperoning a field trip to a farm with Elisabeth's first grade class and we'll go pumpkin picking as a family as well.  And halloween. And truck or treat by the lake. Just to name a few. I can't wait! I'm sure I'll have more photos to torture you with soon enough, my pretties (insert evil laugh)!