Friday, December 28, 2012

Photo Friday 2012 ~ 52 ~

Another year of Photo Friday is almost over.  I can't believe I've kept it up for 3 years.  I have a habit of not always finishing what I start, so I consider this a pretty big accomplishment.  Every year I struggle with whether or not to continue and this year is no different.  I'll think about it this week and you'll just have to check back next week and see!  I know that I have slacked off this year as far as blogging goes and I'd like to post more of just us being us because when I look back at old posts those are the ones I like the best.  I like the favorite photos of the week too because I can look at a whole year and see what we did in a nutshell.  Obviously I have some more thinking to do.  This week was jam packed with Christmas activities and I have a bunch of favorite photos.  I have a ton of Christmas photos to go through and I'll probably post a bunch next week.  We still haven't even finished celebrating because we still have to go to my in-laws next weekend!  It's kinda nice having it spread out like that so we can enjoy Christmas even longer than usual.  Although I do feel a little weird taking down my tree before all the celebrating is done, but to be honest I can't wait to get the house back to normal.  It always feels so big and clean when I'm done.  On to the photos.  Here you go!

I realize that this doesn't look very Christmas-y, but it was taken on our visit to see Santa.  I waited too long this year and decided not to go downtown to the Macy's Santa (huge mistake I won't make again) and we went to Bass Pro Shop instead.  You can take your own photos there too which is why I picked it.  It was nice, but both the kids right away commented on how that was definitely not the real Santa because he had a fake beard and my son said, "that Santa looks like a young man to me."  Which is true, he was probably in his 30's.  That was disappointing.  The great part was the toys they had out for the kids to play with and of course the huge aquarium in the middle of the store which my kids loved.  It had one of those bubble things that goes into the aquarium and it was so funny watching my son play in it.  He kept getting freaked out that he was going to fall in or something.  He warmed up to it and didn't want to leave his little spot.  It was so cute!

Christmas Eve at my mom's house.  I loved both of their outfits this year and I actually got a picture of both of them smiling!  A Christmas miracle. :)

My son was cracking us up during the present opening.  Grandmama had a crazy idea that we should start with the youngest kid and let them open all of their gifts before moving on to the next kid.  Turns out the youngest (my 3 year old niece) is the world's slowest present opener.  He was not happy about it.  The picture on the left was taken during her turn.  Grandmama finally agreed that they could all just open some, so he perked right up and was super happy about his new Ninjago spinner.  Sometimes it's frustrating having a kid who always shows his emotions, but on the flipside when they are showing their joy it's so fun to see!

I just love this photo of the boys playing with someone's phone.  They are so cute together. 

I love this photo of my kids with their great-grandpa.  I'm so glad he's still around and they love him so much.

This was taken Christmas morning.  She was so excited about her doll.  She didn't really notice the present at first and then when she finally saw it she said, "I know what that is!!!".  It was so cute.  My boy wanted this hat when he saw it in a store one day so we went and got it for him and he looks soooo cute in it!  The rest of his presents were legos and he was so happy about that.

I had to include some snow pictures.  This is the most snow we've had in a long time.  The kids were so excited about it and they've already built 2 snowmen and 2 snow forts and had a couple of snow ball fights.  We even went sledding.  I can officially be done with winter now.  :)  If only that was how it worked...

He fell down in the snow and needed some help getting up.  They were just a little bundled. :)

I hope you all had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did!  I'll be posting more photos and memories next week!

Friday, December 21, 2012

Photo Friday 2012 ~ 51 ~

I can't believe it's almost Christmas!!  The kids are really excited.  I'm taking them to see Santa today so they can give him their lists.  Today is our first day of Christmas break and it snowed!  How appropriate. :)  We have been busy, busy, busy with fun stuff this week.  We celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family and we did a white elephant exchange which the kids thought was the greatest thing ever.  I have some photos to share, but I'm going to do a separate post for them.  Then the kids had their Christmas play at church.  My girl had a little solo and I was so proud of her.  She did awesome.  My boy actually sang this year, which made me proud too!  Usually he just stands up there looking bored, but I bribed him with candy if I could actually see his mouth moving when he sang. :)  Then I took my girl to see the Nutcracker!  She had never been to the ballet or to the theater before so it was so fun to see her eyes light up with excitement over the whole thing.  She really enjoyed it.  We went with my mom and I hope we are going to make it a yearly tradition.  My mom took me every year when I was little and I remember looking forward to such a special day.  My boy spent the day with some of his buddies and had a blast.  I went out with some friends last night downtown and it was fun to see the city all lit up with lights and decorated.  Whew.  I'm ready for a night at home snuggled by the fire.  Here are my favorite photos from the week!

 I took these before the Christmas play.  I had some posed shots of both of them, but this of course ended up being my favorite.  I love these two cuties.

My girl at the theater with her doll, Ruby.  We had pretty good seats!  I was asked to put my camera away after I took this since there is no photography allowed in the theater.  Oops...

Taken this morning.  My kids went outside right after breakfast.  They love snow.   I love her eyes in this.

I love this too!  I love her pink cheeks.  Some of my favorite photos of her ever have been taken when she was bundled up playing in the snow.

My boy.  Every shot of him pretty much looked like this since he wouldn't lift his chin out of his coat.  Not that I blame him, it was cold out there!  And before he went outside he kept telling me how he didn't want me to button his coat over his face.  :)

Being silly and eating a snowball.  She could stay out there forever.  She really doesn't mind the cold.  She definitely doesn't get that trait from me!

Have a very warm and Merry Christmas!!!  

Friday, December 14, 2012

Photo Friday 2012 ~ 50 ~

Something I love about downloading pictures from my camera to my computer is the occasional times that I find photos that I had completely forgotten about taking.  That happened again this week.  Almost always it is when the kids ask me to take pictures of something, because in those moments I just grab the camera and snap and don't even think about composition or lighting or anything technical.  I usually have no plan for using them in any way other than just to have them.  Sometimes they turn out horrible which is fine, but sometimes they turn out better than expected.  And sometimes it's nice just to have normal family photos that don't always look so perfect, because let's face it, our lives are far from perfect.

This photo is technically all wrong...the flash was off and it was way too dark and she wasn't perfectly still so the result was blurry and grainy...but I seriously do not even care because she is so adorable in this that I love it!

Her pirate name that day was "Dead Eye Debbie".  :)  I love how she tied a baby blanket around her head for her pirate hat.  Such a girly pirate.

They had pushed together the chairs to be the pirate ship.  And this is a pretty typical face that he makes when he's hamming it up for the camera.  I also like the toilet paper tube turned pirate spyglass. :)

I took this last night while she was wrapping presents.  She has made presents for almost everyone in our family including aunts and cousins.  I didn't even know because she had been hiding them in a secret spot.  She is such a sweet, thoughtful girl.  And this is another technically not so great photo that I still love.  It was extremely dark in the room and there was just one little desk light on.  I cranked the ISO and tried to be steady handed.  I think it turned out pretty good considering.

 She was concentrating hard on wrapping.  I love her face from this angle.

Can you believe it's only 10 days until Christmas!!  I will try to post some more, but I'm busy, busy, busy so we'll see.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Photo Friday 2012 ~ 49 ~

Somehow Photo Friday slipped my mind the other day!  To say I have a lot of things on my mind would be a massive understatement, so I'm not surprised.  I usually have to remind myself to post something by writing it in my planner, and I forgot to write it down so it didn't get done.  I'm gonna go write the it on the rest of the Fridays in my calendar right now...done.  Now I hopefully won't forget...at least for the rest of the year.  I don't have a 2013 calendar yet, which reminds me I need to get one.  This week was busy with designing and ordering our Christmas cards, Christmas shopping (finally! I just started), practicing for the Christmas programs at church and everything else we normally do in the week.  Next week will be even more jam packed, so I'm trying to get some rest in today!  I took some photos last Sunday of my kids and my niece and nephew for my mom's Christmas card and I have just one to share.  My favorite.

I love them.

The End.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Bananagrams Bragging

We like to play games at our house.  We are a competitive bunch which can be good and bad. :)  Last week my girl got to stay up a little later than her brother and she wanted to play Bananagrams with us.  It's kinda like scrabble, but without the board and it goes much quicker because each person is essentially building their own little board, not adding onto the others.  I just had to brag on my girl because even though she is only 8 I know she is going to be a major contender in this game.  Here is her board from the last game.

Once she figures out that she can spread it out a little more she's gonna be blowing us away.  She took a lot of time making sure the words up and down all made sense and worked.  The only word I helped her with was 'gulp' because she was having a hard time using up her last few letters.  

I'm so proud of my smarty pants girl!

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