Monday, December 23, 2013

Christmas #1

My family came over this weekend for our first Christmas celebration. Connor and Chloe loved all of the attention, ate like crap, and loved opening presents!
I didn't take a lot of pictures because I just wanted to enjoy the moment with them and I had the video camera going the whole time, so I just snapped a few. Of course I'm not in any of them! I really need to get better about that.
 
Chloe's gifts:
A wagon
Wooden magnetic dolls
My mom's rocking chair from when she was little.
An Electric Minnie 4-wheeler
 
Connor's gifts:
A wagon
Smart Wheels Go Go Airport
A big dump truck
An electric Red 4-wheeler
 
And they both got a Mr. Potato Head Toy Story 3 play set.

Friday, December 20, 2013

2013 Christmas Card

Let's recap the past few years in Christmas cards...
 
In 2011, we had 2 Christmas cards because I ordered some and then quickly realized I didn't have enough so I ordered some more, but different. I really don't remember why. I'm sure it was because I loved them both and couldn't make a decision. I was pregnant!
 
 
In 2012, I used several pictures for our card. It was our very first family card and I was so excited!
 
 
This year, I knew I just wanted to do a one picture card. So I was keeping my fingers crossed for a decent family photo from our shoot.
And I kept getting drawn back to this picture. It's not a perfectly posed picture. I'm not even looking at the camera! But it's a candid shot of my family, smiling and together and I love everything about it.

14 Weeks

I'm 14 weeks pregnant today!
I had planned on doing a fancy post with pictures like I did with the twins, but time got away from me and there's lots going on right now. So a work bathroom selfie will have to do for now!

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Interval Timer Shooting

I read something the other day about a woman who set her camera on Interval Timer Shooting mode and just set the camera up on a shelf and it took all the pictures on Christmas morning and she could actually enjoy the event AND be in the pictures. I thought this sounded amazing, so I wanted to try it out.
While the kids were upstairs playing in the playroom last night, I played with my camera and set it all up. This is what we got, it's not perfect, but it's kind of fun. I set it to go off every 10 seconds but I think for Christmas morning I will set it for every 30 seconds.
I look tired, pale, chubby, and just awful, but at least I'm in some pictures so my kids know that I was around!
Of course I will also have the video camera set up and running during all of this too but at least the whole video won't be of me trying to take as many pictures as I can instead of enjoying my time with my family!

23 Months!

Connor and Chloe are 23 months today!
  And of course, it's freaking hard to get a picture of them together and both smiling or just both looking at the camera anymore, especially at night when all they want to do is watch cartoons.
 
I was trying to recreate something like these pictures from last year:
But this is what I got:
At least one is smiling so I'll take it!
 
Connor:
Connor has had the biggest change in the last month. He is talking all the time. He seems like the more dominant one lately. It's so funny how their personalities switch back and forth.
He tells us about everything and there might be a lot repeating things!
Some funny things he has said lately:
At school, the teacher asked him "is this my Chloe?" and she said he got a real serious look on his face and said "Connor's Chloe".
When he was getting up out of bed a few mornings ago, he tooted and said "I tooted, SHEWY" and waved is arms to shew the stink away.
He randomly yells out "Mommy's Baby!" and "OU!"
He tells everything "Bye Bye" when we leave somewhere including the tv.
He walked up to Chloe and a friend at school and said "Hi Guys!"
I took him to get his hair cut at JCPenny for the first time the other day and as we are walking through the store we pass some mannequins and he told them all "Hi" and waved.
He loves his trucks, his book about trucks, and his blanket.
He loves watching Nemo, Monsters, Inc., and Mickey Mouse.
He loves our elf Boomer and looks for him every morning when he wakes up.
 
 
Chloe:
I don't know if it's because Connor is talking a lot more or if she is changing a little bit but she seems more quiet lately. She has also been sick with ear infections and then an allergic reaction to her medicine, so that might have something to do it it too.
She loves to pretend play by herself with her dolls and Fisher Price Little People.
She loves watching TV more than anything.
She is very independent and insists on buckling herself in to her car seat and turning her DVD player on every time we get in the car.
She loves taking books to bed with her at night.
She is still very much into her schedule and routine and goes down really easily for nap and bed time and gets really fussy if she doesn't get to bed at her normal time.
She is a sweet girl that loves to sit with momma to watch the last cartoon before bed.
She loves taking baths and playing in the bath tub and we have a hard time getting her out of the tub. She tells Connor "no" and then mumbles something like she is getting on to him when he is doing something she doesn't like.
She says complete sentences but they are very quiet and just come out of nowhere. For example, last night I was putting a headband on her and she said "No! I don't want it!" Most of her sentences are a little bossy.
She tells Connor "Don't do that".
We had a real conversation the other day. She came home with pigtails in her hair and I asked her who fixed her hair and instead of just staring at me or talking about her hair she replied back with "Shelby", her teacher.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Weekend of Birthdays

Friday night we went out to dinner to celebrate Uncle Kevin's birthday. It was right at the kids bedtime so I wasn't sure how it was going to go.
 When we got there, Chloe said "I tired baby" and I knew she was. She had an allergic reaction to her antibiotic that day and was on Benadryl and she is a stickler when it comes to her bed time. She kept saying "Ready to go" over and over and it eventually turned in to her screaming "Blankie! Blankie!" when we were walking out the door.
The girl loves seeing herself in pictures though.
 
Connor on the other hand, did great. He doesn't get fussy close to nap time or bed time and I think he could pretty much stay up as late as we would let him. He was playing and talking and being silly the whole time.
 
The next morning, I had hoped they would sleep in a little since we stayed up so late the night before and we had a birthday party at 1:00, right at their nap time, that I needed them to be in good moods for! But nope, they were up at 7:00 am.
So we got up, ate breakfast, watched tv and got ready to go to dance class. We haven't been since before Thanksgiving because of being out of town and then bad weather last week. So we were excited to go and I had decided to be brave and take both kids by myself.
 But when we got there, I found out class was canceled and when I started backing away from the building, Chloe started screaming and crying "Dance Class! Dance Class!" and she cried a big cry the whole way home. The kind of cry where she can't even breathe.  She was so upset. I still couldn't get her calmed down when we got home and of course her blankie was in the washing machine so she cried until it was dry. I thought for sure she would need a nap then, but she refused to lay down, so we watched Tangled in my bed while I dozed off and on until it was time for the party.
 
The big hit at the birthday party was a guy making balloon animals! The kids always want a balloon animal when we see them but the lines at public places are always so long, so we never get one. They LOVED it!
After the party, the kids finally got their nap around 3:00 and slept until 6:00. Since I knew they weren't going to bed anytime soon, we ate dinner, had a bath, got in our jammies, and went to look at Christmas lights.