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Flashback Friday- Christmas Sweater

Thursday, December 30, 2010


After the day that I've had- allergy attack from hell, my not being able to get into the garage because the laundry room is flooded with dirty clothes that we haven't been able to wash because we ran out of laundry soap and had to wait until payday to buy some more, my husband coming home 3 hours late without even so much as a text heads up, baby throwing a screaming fit at the park as soon as we got there, the 4 year old attitude when I told her hot chocolate was not an option for dinner, our slow cooker chicken giving me heartburn because it was too dry because Christopher was late, the previously mentioned allergy attack lasting 7 billion hours, eventually turning into some kind of windy Texas day migraine- ...yeah this flashback is going to be short.

OH! But, before I post a picture that I've already posted before, because I'm a big fat cheater, I have to tell you guys-

Our new blog design is going up this weekend! So take a little look around, things are going to be all sorts of different the next time you come back. Think typewriters and polaroids. ...its going to be awesome.



An Izone sticky film photo of Christopher and I, a few months into our cutesy boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. Hes wearing a tacky Christmas sweater. I'm wearing a bouffant. This was our normal.

And then I found that sweater in a box marked "lose weight so you can wear me", a year or so ago, and...



Yeah.
I know what you're thinking.
Ho Ho Ho, right? Ha!
(But really, I totally have back problems and walk like a hunchback because of it.)

Okay that picture kinda makes me miss my bangs.
(Did I really just type that bad santa joke and tell y'all how I walk like a hunchback?)

I might need to go get my haircut this weekend.
...if this heartburn ever goes away. Stupid slow cooker.


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Flashback with us! Go through your polaroids, scrapbooks, old crappy cell phone pictures- whatever you've got. Scan them, upload them, get them onto the computer somehow, and then share them with the world! Or... with us at least. Post them onto your blogs, write a little bit to go with them- tell us your story. When you're all finished, grab one of our buttons from down below (wayyyy down there at the bottom of our page) and put it somewhere inside your post (or link back to us the old fashioned text way). Come back here to this post, and add your link to the photo list below!




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A Walk In The Park

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

We weren't going to buy the kids Christmas outfits this year. "They're too expensive, we're not going to any parties, no family will be in town, why bother..."- and then a picture of Eleanore's first Christmas, a cute chubby babe in her white fluffy holiday gown, froze on the screen saver.

Never mind. We're getting Christmas outfits.
Right now. Lets go.

So we packed up the kids 5 minutes later, headed down to Target (because in this town, its one of the 3 places to shop), argued over whether we should get Eleanore a sweater dress or the plaid ruffle skirt, accidentally dropped and lost but then re found Lovey in the toddler department, and an hour later we were on our way back home, trying to think of when and where to take pictures.

See, the way that I figure out if I really care about something or not, is I ask myself "in 10 years, will this matter?". Example- "In 10 years, will I care if I wore maternity clothes for a year after I was pregnant?" ...no. So we're not spending money on new clothes for me. I'll gladly wear pajamas and sweats, day in and day out. I have one pair of jeans that fit me, and since I never leave the house, it doesn't matter. I'm a frumpy housewife. So what. Another example- "In 10 years, will I care that I looked like crap in this picture with my son?" ...no. All that I will see, is me and my baby boy. And I'll probably sob, because its already hard for me to look back at baby pictures (they grow up so dang fast), how am I going to handle it when hes older and wants nothing to do with me? One last example- "10 years from now, will I care if I never took pictures of the babies in designated Christmas outfits?" ...YES. I will care. I will beat myself up for it until I die, so- its worth the $50 that we'll spend on the outfits. The pictures will be priceless. Especially if I take them myself.

I had an idea of what I wanted to do, in my head. But just like every other day, when it comes to photographing children, or anyone really, nothing is ever set in stone, everything is pretty much played by ear. Otherwise you're setting yourself up for disappointment. And I'd much rather have fun during my photo shoots, than be pissed off ...ya know?

All that I asked, was that everyone keep their outfit on, and that Christopher help me carry the chairs from our house down to the forest by the park (I'd be the one that carried them back).

The pictures that were developed in my head, were nothing like the ones captured by my lens. The final product was the result of a fun filled day in the warm December sun (Oh, Texas), and the excitement that goes along with sticks and stones. And in this particular case, leaves.


All 3 of my babies.


Charlie, with his black eye.
Evelyn, with her sass.


Waiting patiently for the boring to end, and the fun to begin.
But looking so darn cute doing it.



Mismatched socks.
The only way to live, really.


I'm down.
(Thats how Charlie says done).


Seriously Mom, your photo shoot sucks.

Alright babies, you're right. Daddy carried the chairs like he said he would. You've all kept your clothes on like you promised. I did get one of all 3 of you. Everything from here on out is just for fun.

Run free.


So Charlie did just that.


While brother stretched his legs and flapped his arm wings, Evelyn battled her sleepiness in the shadows.

But like always, baby girl. Sleep will win.

We had moved the chairs from the path, to over near a tree. And before I knew it, Eleanore was channeling her inner 70s record cover...


The exposure was all wrong, but it was all wrong in such a great way. I couldn't bring myself to delete the picture. And it turned out to be my favorite.


And when Brother saw that Sister had a secret stash of vintage action figures with her- the chairs didn't look so bad after all.


Even if she didn't want to share.


Someday you'll be fighting your siblings for action figures, too. But for now, you just keep on fighting the sleep.


Sticks and stones.
And hearts and argyle.



Whats that over there?

Are those ...?


Piles of leaves?!

Somebody had swept up all of the leaves in the forest, and moved them into several well formed piles, ready to be bagged up.

My children then proceeded to dive in, and tear those piles apart.

I'm willing to take the blame if need be.
It was worth it.


And as for those action figures?


They were abandoned, along with the chairs.

The kids went crazy.
I couldn't keep up.









At the end of the day, I was glad to have spent the money on those Christmas outfits.






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Charlie's 2nd Birthday

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Its gotta be hard, having a birthday the day after Christmas. You can't really compete with Jesus, ya know?

My goals are to never ever wrap his birthday gifts in Christmas wrapping paper, and always always always put just as much effort into his special day, the same way that I would with any of my other babies.

Even if I'm absolutely wiped out and drop dead exhausted from the days before.



The day started off with a plate full of hot pancakes, scrambled eggs, and ...SPAM.

Gross, right?
I know, but, Charlie loves anything meaty and salty. Spam, bacon, hot dogs. If given the choice between chocolate ice cream and Spam, he'd take the canned crap. Cute, right?

So anyways. He ate everything but the pancakes and eggs.
And then he ate all of the Spam off of his sister's plate.
And some off of the floor.

Its your birthday, kid.




We decided to do gifts a little differently this time around. Since we had spent hours the day before, in an overstimulated room filled with ribbons and bows, we thought spacing things out might be a better option for his birthday festivities.

So we let him open up a Teddy bear from a relative, first.

He hugged it once, and then let it fall to the ground, never to be snuggled again.
I do hate it when the kids don't bond with a toy immediately.
Into the tea party box it goes.

We ran around the house, played with some of our Christmas toys, watched cartoons, and then in a little while...



We opened another present. This one was from Grammy and Grandpa, in Angels Camp California. A super fun new Little People Animal Zoo!! And then a wooden fish puzzle from Aunt Steph, and some Little Wheelie cars from Noni.

Note: Photographing an I-got-a-new-toy excited two year old in the midst of the birthday madness, is not easy.

But soon things started to lose their thrill, and we headed towards the wind down.

"Snuggle Bobby!", he shouts.
"Read dis book!", he begs.



So we snuggle together in the corner of the couch, and I read him Peter Pan. Birthday edition.

And after a little while, it was off to bed for a nap.

Well, him. Not me.
I wish it were me.

But when he awoke-

It was time for chocolate cuk-capes!



There was no gluten, and no dairy, and very little sugar. There was no frosting, and no candles, but lots of singing.

And he was a very happy little boy, having the best, just-woke-up-from-a-nice-nap, snack ever.



And then we had lots of cuk-cape steam to blow, so we hopped on his new Christmas ATV (its not a power wheel, its a hop n' scoot) and we played.



And we had some serious in depth conversations about the football scholarships that we're going to earn and win when we're older. *ahem*

Enough of that Dad, how about another present??


Ohmagosh, ohmagosh, is it, is it?!?!


A NEW TONKA DUMP TRUCK, HECK YES IT IS!!!!

Look at him sitting there all proud of his new toy, with his new Dragon movie (ok so maybe the movie is more for Mommy, haha) lying nicely in the back.

More playing. More tickles. More "yayyyy, Charlie! Its your birthday!!!", and then-



A birthday bath.
(We love the letters, Courtney!)

Gotta clean the chocolate cuk-cape out of that hair, big boy babies!

There were no parties, and no pin the tail on the donkey, but- there was a lot of love in this little house of ours, as we celebrated the birth of our very favorite little boy, and all of the joy that he brings to us on a daily basis.


Oh, and did I mention that he had more salty meat for dinner?
So gross, Charlie. Just, so gross.


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Our Christmas

Monday, December 27, 2010

Christopher pointed something out to me, the other day.

This was our first Christmas together, just us.

Really? Is that true?

I suppose it is, isn't it.

Our first year in Texas, we flew home for the holidays. The year following that, Christopher's brother was passing through, so spent the day with us here in Abilene. The year after that, my Mom flew in from Washington to help out while we welcomed Charlie into the world. And then the year after that, last year, both my Grandparents and my parents came to visit.

So this really was our first year alone together. Just our little family.



I wanted to take more pictures. I had high hopes for showing off our beautiful collection of Christmas cards, strung all the way up the staircase, spilling over onto the garland beneath the living room window. I wanted to freeze the snow globes in time, along with the tiny curious hands that held them. I wanted to show you the jingle bells, the jingle bears, the hats and the books and the candles and the cookies that we eventually did get to enjoy- I wanted to show you it all.

But, my camera sat on top of the printer for days, collecting dust. Almost an entire week, we were apart. That mean ol' grinch of a stomach bug had me down and out for 6 days, if you can imagine that.

Come Christmas morning. Nothing stood in the way of the magic.



I know what you're thinking. Its a little bit ridiculous.
But Santa reserves the right to be ridiculous.

...besides, they're all mostly underwear and socks.
And lots of pajamas.
Okay, and an Instax camera, because apparently Mommy was a very good girl this year.



We made the babies wait. Before we could open presents, we feasted upon piles of scrambled eggs and stacks of light fluffy pancakes.

And whats worse than having to eat a hot home cooked meal on Christmas morning? Gosh Mom!

But eventually...


Eleanore opened up the new doll that Santa had brought her.
And Christopher, behind Eleanore, opened up his new leatherman multi tool.


Charlie became the Fire Chief.


Evelyn got some new drool bandanas.


And a new hat.
Doesn't she look thrilled?


Christopher scored in the Boise State department.
Thanks Noni. Thanks Grammy.


The older two got slippers.


Charlie finally got his George movie.


And of course, a George to go with it.


Eleanore taught us how to put on a hat the right way.


Evelyn and I cozied up under the window and opened up film, sleepers, and board books.


Charlie read us the 12 days of Elmo Christmas.


Eleanore replaced her head with a movie that is "more fluffier than the cartoon Cat in the Hat".


And then hours later, since we had forgotten about it being out in the garage, Evelyn gave us the biggest brightest smile, as she gave her new jumparoo a jump or two.

Shes still too small. We'll be putting that away, and bringing it back out in another month or more.


There were other gifts given and received, a delicious turkey dinner on our rickety dining room table, phone calls and text conversations with loved ones, and plenty of Christmas carols and cuddling.

Our first Christmas alone together, was everything that we had hoped it would be. And then some.






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