Family Photos - Thanksgiving 2011

Guess what?! My family actually has a decent photo! Of all of us! I think the last one we got was at my wedding. 8+ years ago. Sometime after Thanksgiving dinner and before the turkey coma set in, we ventured out across the street into the cold for some impromptu family photos. Huge thanks to cousin Tyson for taking these! Needless to say, my mom is pretty stoked to have a photo with all of us in it WITH all our eyes open.

I grabbed a few of the parents. Awwww....


My Dad turned 50 the day after Thanksgiving. However, he's still very much a kid at heart. He's not a huge fan of being photographed (that's a huge understatement), but he obliged. However he did have us do a few goofy poses...as the next few demonstrate.


Kenny looks extra "fabulous" in this one.
Lola loved this part.
And we allowed ourselves to be photographed with half our members in a tree.
And while we were there, we figured why not burn off some of that Thanksgiving dinner and play at the park for a bit.
Ryan demonstrates a proper "planking" photo.
Lola loves the seesaw - with whomever will take her on it.

And of course, what kid doesn't love being swung in the air?


I do wish that I had pulled her pant cuffs back down at some point, but oh well.
After photos we returned to our extended family to find this dude watching us from the window. Best photo of the session, in my opinion.
Happy Thanksgiving! Happy 50th, Dad! oh, and congrats to my two sisters who both got their braces off yesterday - one week after family photos. :)

Park Days

I found myself at the park one day WITH a decent camera. That calls for a blog post.

Rose...
Diego...

Miranda...

The crew (at least on this day)...
And this may have been right before I let her get pegged by the swings. She literally flipped upon collision. I was hoping it would teach her not to keep running in front of the swings, but I'm thinking she didn't even know what hit her. I won't elaborate, but it was a bad hit. For both the hitter and my little hittee. Tears for both parties. Bad mommy.
And, of course, Sweet Dee.



"Peek-a-boo Mom!" (It's not cute in the traditional sense, but I love when she does that scrunched up face.)

The End.

PS - for records' sake, these were taken right after she had two vaccination shots. It was the last day she was herself, i.e. happy, chill, not-sick. Seriously, I'm going on my 11th straight day of sickness with her and I'm ready to shoot myself. I needed these photos to remind me of "the good times." Fingers crossed we'll get there again real soon.

Halloween 2011 - Lola

First things first - THANK YOU all for the congratulatory comments! We're excited and hopeful and trying to enjoy our remaining time as a family of three. We don't yet know the gender (and are still debating if we will find out this time). Any guesses? Lola's been really into baby dolls lately and I'm using it as an opportunity to prep her on proper behavior around real babies. So far, she's a natural nurturer and I'm confident she's going to make a great big sister.

Speaking of Lola...

Here's the Halloween photos of Sweet Dee...she was a Candy Corn if you couldn't tell. Thecostume was really easy (no pattern even) and I LOVED how it turned out. Fortunately, there were a few parties we attended so the costume got a lot of use.

The first event was our nephew, Sloan's, birthday party - a costume bash appropriately. These first two photos were (of course) taken by Sloan's mom, Amelia Lyon. Below, Lola and her cousin, Lucy, share a balloon. I love that Lola has a cousin just 12 days older than her. The two girls are so much fun together, and Lucy is the funniest girl I've met. Lola's really lucky to have her.
(PS, Nicole and I have a pretty good themed costume idea for these two for next year. It's gonna be awesome.)

Then Halloween - the actual day - came. And by dinner time, I was ready to trade Lola for a Jack O Lantern, straight up. She was NOT a fun girl. But, for the sake of the holiday, we joined up with the Lyons anyway for some pumpkin carving and trick or treating.

Lola didn't care much for the pumpkins. Of course. I was super bummed.
But Hudson and his dad were much more enthusiastic about the project, and so it was still fun.

And then came trick or treating. An HOUR after her bedtime on what had already been a rough day. I braced myself for the worst and planned on doing two or three houses, max. And then the girl totally redeemed herself. She was excited, and, well, adorable the whole time. We ended up doing way more homes that I planned on, just because it was the first time all day she was any fun. She laughed at every house and every other trick or treater. She was sure to wave "Bye" to everyone she saw and sprinted (which looks so funny with her short legs and ghetto booty) to each house.

In short...It was a great day.

Halloween 2011 - Jill

I'm still waiting for a photo from Amelia to post the only good photo of Lola's halloween costume. I pinned/instagramed/facebooked a screen shot of it, so when I do post it here it will hardly be a surprise. Oh well.

Kenny and I actually dressed up this year. A little.

Kenny donned this hat for his baker costume (modeled below by me)...

While I wore this little ditty...

Bun's been baking 18.5 weeks now and should be ready April 3rd. :)

(Cannot begin to say how many people didn't "get it." Including my mother-in-law.) :)