Family Pictures

Well, it's that time of year again. Jim's brother and his family are in town for Thanksgiving so we did our annual tradition and got together for family pictures. We did alter the tradition a little this year and did pictures last Saturday instead of the Friday after Thanksgiving mostly to avoid becoming popsicles while taking pictures since the high on Friday is only supposed to be 24 degrees. FREEZING!!!! I really don't like getting my picture taken. It doesn't help that I have 30+ pounds I'd like to lose but I am also not photogenic which really makes it difficult. So, take that and a 15 months old who REALLY doesn't like getting her picture taken and what do you get?? One picture that we all look semi-decent in.



Yep, only one. I'm sooooo grateful that we got the one, don't get me wrong, it's just amazing to me when you have 10-15 pictures to pick from that you only get one. Oh well, at least now I can change the family picture hanging above our fireplace that is 5 years old. Yep, no Vanessa and Ally was 8 months old. I'm a loser mom, I know! Here are some of the others to show you why we only got one picture.




Nope, Vanessa was not going to have her picture taken. Jim was such a great sport and kept putting on a 'three-ring circus' to get her happy. I am thrilled we got the one. Here are the kids having some fun after (and a little before) we were all done.






All said and done, it was a pretty good day!

Lots of Updates

I'm not feeling well today so I decided to take advantage and get a lot of posts updated. If you want to see what we've been up to continue reading for a while.

Getting Ready for Pictures

I have wanted to get some updated pictures of my kids but with Jim not having a job right now, it just hasn't been on the top of our priority list. A little while ago I saw an ad for a local photography company, Cheapshots Photography. I looked at their website and was impressed with their work but wasn't really sold until my neighbors used them and I saw their pictures. I was really impressed! The best part is it costs $49 for the shoot and you get the disc with copyright release so you can do whatever you want with the pictures. I scheduled an appointment for yesterday. Things went so well getting the kids ready. Ally sat still getting her hair done and didn't complain once about what I was doing to her hair. Even Vanessa let me put a braid and curlers in her hair and even left the curlers in while her hair dried.





I had to get pictures of her with her hair in curlers. She reminded me of a cute little old lady.

Here are some of the shots I took at our house before heading to the photo shoot. I really only wanted one good picture of the three kids together and one of Vanessa by herself. The bad news is that she didn't cooperate at all. She cried pretty much the entire time. Then only time she wasn't crying was when she was playing with rocks. Hopefully we got just one picture that looks halfway decent. Ally looked absolutely adorable in every one of them and Andrew was Andrew. He wasn't thrilled to be doing pictures but did what he was supposed to and tried to be as content as possible.











After we got home Vanessa was as happy as could be again and back to her normal self. She was even back to tormenting, I mean loving Dixie.



Fingers are crossed, I guess we'll see in a few days. The good thing is we have family pictures with Jim's family soon so we will get another chance.

New Horse

Isn't it every little kids dream to own a pony? Well, my kids are so spoiled and lucky they get to have their own horse. Yep, we are the nicest parents in the world.



See their smiles, don't they look like the happiest kids in the world? All right, so Aunt Kelly is really the nice person who let us borrow the 'horse' and even though it's not a real horse, it still makes them very happy and keeps them very entertained. Plus, it's a lot cheaper, cleaner and a lot less work than a real horse.

She Loves to Bake

Ally got to go to a birthday party at Home Depot fr their kids' craft and after they went up to Krispy Kreme for donuts. I think this was her all time favorite birthday party. Not only did she get to build a fun bus spice rack but she got her very own apron and two donuts and a little chefs hat. That same day I had a baby shower for a girl in our ward and had left my table up. I came into the front room and found...



She spent quite a bit of time with her 'recipes,' mixing and baking. It was so fun to listen to her and watch her 'baking.' She is a really great helper whenever I am cooking and baking too. I love having her help me in the kitchen.

She's a Climber

If you are one of the few loyal followers of my blog this will not be new news to you. I already know that Vanessa loves to climb on things but it's always fun to see the new things she climbs on. Her latest, the kitchen table. She loves to stand on top of the table and is so proud of herself each time she gets up there. Luckily she only does it when she is in her chair but it's still difficult to stay one step ahead of her. I learned this morning that I now have to make sure the middle strap is included when buckling her in or else she can wiggle out of the straps.





Yep, she is a busy little girl who keeps me very busy trying to keep up with her.

Crazy Hair

Vanessa really dislikes her hair being done. It's not that she doesn't like getting it done, she's usually very good to sit still while I am trying to do her hair. It's once it is done that she doesn't like it. She is constantly pulling out bows, ribbons, rubber bands, anything that is in her hair. I blame it on Jim since he was always pulling the headbands and bows out of her hair when she was a baby. All right, so maybe it's not because of Jim but for me, it's very frustrating. She's such an adorable girl but it's hard to see it behind all that hair.

A few Sundays ago after church she quickly pulled everything out of her hair. Once you see these pictures you will understand why her hair HAS to be done.

Halloween

Since Halloween day was cold this year I decided to take the kids out trick-or-treating before dinner since we would have our yummy, warm taco soup all ready to warm us up when we got home. After getting the kids all ready in their costumes




we headed out for loads of candy. Our neighbors were heading out the same time so we decided to go with them. We got three houses away when it started hailing so we all ran home.


(yep, that's hail, not snow)

We got inside soaking wet and cold. Ally took off her costume and immediately put on her pajamas, she wasn't going out in the cold again. We ate some soup and kept watching the weather. Vanessa decided to trick-or-treat at our house



We finally got to go back out and the kids got more than enough candy. We even ran into our neighbors again and got to go with them. We all had a ton of fun, even in the cold.

School Carnival

Our school hosted a Halloween carnival as a fundraiser for the teachers and the school. The kids begged and begged me to go so we put on their costumes and headed down to the school. (I decided t keep Vanessa's costume off so it wouldn't get dirty before trick or treating)







The school had all kinds of fun activities for the kids to do like bouncy houses,





a dunking booth for kids to dunk teachers, etc.,


(Andrew didn't get the teacher dunked but he came super close to hitting the target)

balloon darts,




fishing,



popcorn hands,



and face painting.



The kids had a ton of fun. Even Vanessa loved it 'cause Mom gave her treats to keep her entertained in the stroller while Andrew and Ally played some of the games.



It really was a fun carnival that I think we will make a tradition each year.

My Helper

Yesterday while I was busy making cookies to deliver to some neighbors my darling Vanessa did what she does best and climbed up on my flour bucket.



She immediately picked up a butter knife and started 'helping' me bake. She and I had fun baking cookies and they sure turned out yummy!!

School Costumes

Our school doesn't celebrate Halloween in the traditional sense. Instead, they celebrate by holding a History Fair. Each grade dresses in costumes that represent what they are learning about at that time of year. Andrew's grade was learning about vikings and Ally's class was learning about discovering the new world which meant she could dress up as her favorite thing, a princess. I have to say I loved it too 'cause one less costume I had to come up with. My poor kids have a mom that is not creative or a seamstress. If I can't buy it, they don't wear it, which means I was very grateful How to Train Your Dragon is a popular movie right now so he could wear a Hiccup costume to school. Come to find out I wasn't the only mom with that idea, there were nine other hiccups and two Astrids. Andrew thought it was great. Besides the costumes most of the Halloween activities are usual party things, yummy treats, fun games and even movies. They had a great day at school and it got them really excited for Halloween.

Ally's Halloween Dance

Ally's dance class got to dress up in their costumes and performed special Halloween dance numbers for their parents the week of Halloween. I always love watching Ally perform and am so glad her teachers give us as parents opportunities to watch throughout the year. I have her enrolled in two dance classes, one just dance and the other is a song and dance class which she loves. I'm glad she is enjoying dance so much because she is really good at it and super cute when she is performing.


(I love her face in this picture)





Vanessa didn't want to be left out and kept trying to dance with the girls.