Family Pictures

There was someone that posted on a classifieds Facebook page at the end of November that she was offering mini-sessions for family pictures. I really wanted to do pictures now because we could get Cam's 4-month, Meili's 6 year, Grant's 3 year, and our family picture done all at one time, but November is not the easiest time to do pictures. (It's freezing cold outside, we're already tight on money, Meili's bangs are still not quite all the way grown out, etc.) So I didn't want to spend a fortune. So a mini-session sounded perfect. And thank goodness, because my kids lasted exactly 1/2 hour and even that was kind of pulling teeth.

 

Then, remember that Grant hit his head 2 days before this (thank goodness for photoshop), when I took my phone away from him as soon as we got there, he threw a fit, then he had a herd of hungry ducks started chasing him as soon as we got of the car and he started screaming. Not off to a great start.

 

But you would never know any of that from the pictures...

 Photobomber Grant strikes again!

 

November

Whoever decided to do Spirit Week the same week as Halloween... maybe needs to rethink that decision. After a crazy morning of trying to get Meili all ready and to school on time on Halloween (Monday), I felt like we had a redo again on Tuesday with crazy hair/sock/shoe/clothes day.

Here's our photobomber: Grant.

 

Meili was funny trying to pick out her clothes. She wanted to be crazy but not too crazy. So she wore two boots in different colors. But wearing one boot and one tennis shoe was out of the question, and when I wanted her to wear one soccer sock and one regular sock, she thought I was crazy. So she wore the same style of sock in two different colors. And she was very nervous getting out the car-thinking that her mom was just nuts and she was going to be the only one with crazy hair.

 

This month Cam seems to have gotten a lot bigger really fast. He rolled over from tummy to back, and has basically rolled from back to tummy besides one arm.

We also started trying rice cereal, and so far we've failed and he hates it, just like the rest of our kids have.

 

 

He's basically big enough to be in his saucer now and can be entertained by toys for a little while.

 

These pictures I took just to bug Josh. Jake and Kami brought this Red Sox shirt back for us when Grant was little. When Cam had a blowout later that day, Josh said he wasn't surprised. He had to figure out a way to get out of that shirt.

He's pretty much the cutest boy in the world. We love this baby so much. He's our first baby that will lay contentedly by himself for any length of time. He's pretty good about sleeping both for naps, and at night. He eats great and there are even times that he's so low key that I forget about him (not for a long time, of course). He cries when he's tired, hungry, or doesn't want to be in his carseat, and that's about it. We just love him so much!

 

 

Now, for a couple of random pictures...

I just had to take this picture, because: Come on! The only thing cuter than Grant's toes, is Grant's toes in those shoes on the wrong feet.

Saddest picture in the world! Grant fell on his way into the gym about a week ago. It looked so bad, but he has recovered just great. But it was totally Murphy's Law because we were getting family pictures taken two days after this! Of course!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we went to MaryElizabeth's to help her eat her leftovers, and to put up the Christmas tree. It definitely does not look like it would have if Lou had decorated it, but I think he would have appreciated that the kids did it mostly themselves.

Living Planet Aquarium

My friend Alisha and I took our kids to the Aquarium on a Tuesday in November when they were having a really cheap day. We were worried about how busy it would be because of that, but we managed to survive with 5 children and even managed to have some fun.

 

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, Josh and I went over to his mom's house on Wednesday, and stayed up much too late with Liz, Jake and Kami, and MaryElizabeth. (Late enough, that MaryElizabeth finally decided that she might as well not go to bed before putting the turkey in at 5:00 in the morning.) I don't know how any of us made it through the next day because I haven't slept that little in AWHILE (and I have a 4 month-old), but memories were made :)

 

On Thursday morning, we went shooting with some of Josh's family. I definitely did not think we would be taking the kids along to go shooting, but it worked out. Luckily Jake and Kami brought their 4-wheeler, to keep them occupied during the really loud guns. And I kept them entertained in our van for awhile with some snacks. Yep, we tested out the all-wheel-drive in the minivan by driving it up the mountain. We probably added some dents and dings, but it survived.

 

 I was forced into a shooting competition by Kami. This picture was probably taken around the time that I said, "There's no point in me even shooting, I'm not going to hit anything..." And then I hit a clay pigeon. And another one. Which just goes to show you-if anybody shoots a gun enough times, they will eventually get lucky.

 Even the littles got in on the action with the BB gun and a 22.

 

 

 

Then we had a very nice meal with Josh's family, and I took no pictures :(

HallowBirthdayWeen

When I was pregnant with Meili, I absolutely did not want her to be born on the Halloween. In the years since then, I have decided that it was actually a lot of fun, and don't mind it at all. However, this year I decided that we need to start doing things a little bit differently. It was just way too busy. I made her a birthday breakfast, then had to get her ready in her costume before school (which she was, of course, late to). Then I took Grant to story time at the library, dropped he and Cam off with a neighbor so I could help with the Halloween party in Meili's class. After school, we ate lunch, and had to get Grant down for a nap ASAP. We had less than an hour of downtime, before I had to get Grant up so Meili could go to gymnastics. Then after gymnastics we tried to have a spooky dinner of mummy hotdogs, bug juice, and black olives and cheddar cheese on skewers. Then trying to get three kids out the door in costumes, while trick or treaters are interrupting every couple minutes. We went trick or treating to a few houses, while, in the back of my mind, I kept thinking "We need to get back to our house so she can open her presents before bed."

 

Needless to say, it was a very fun, very exhausting day, and I bought everything to make her birthday cake, and didn't even end up making it because I didn't think we could squeeze one more ounce of sugar into our diets that day.

 Here is our cute Cam Man in his skeleton costume. He wore it for a total of about an hour and a half the day of, and during that time, he was either screaming or asleep. (The other drawback of our super hectic day is that Cam was totally off his schedule, and in the middle of trying to get everyone ready and make dinner before Josh got home from work, he pretty much just cried in his swing.)

 These pictures are from the day before when my parents came and gave Meili her presents.

 My parents kept asking if my kids like legos. Now we know, the answer is: Yes. They pretty much couldn't keep their hands off of it for the last two days. We now know what Grant needs for Christmas.

 

 And here is Meili in her Genie costume before school. She told me last year that she wanted to be a Genie named Shine that is on a tv show. I was so excited about it, and we went to the store to start looking at fabric. Right in the middle of our shopping trip, she changed her mind about what she wanted to be. This year, she told me a couple months ago that she wanted to be Shine, and that she wasn't going to change her mind. Her costumes went through a few modifications from my original vision, but it was still fun for me to make. However, I felt like after all the hours I put into it, the pictures don't do it justice.

 Grant said right from the beginning that he wanted to be a witch. We talked about being a Super Hero, or something from Cars or other shows he likes, but he just laughed. I think he believes that you have to be something scary for Halloween. So witch it is!

I tried to figure out a witch costume that wouldn't give him a complex later in life, and I think it turned out well. I did try to paint his face green and he wasn't having any of that!

 I wish so much that we had, but we never got a decent picture of him running around on his broom. He always had it backwards like this, and for some reason watching him, with his backwards broom, and cape flowing in the air-it was pretty much the cutest thing ever. But I really like this boy :)

 Again... I tried SO hard to get the perfect picture in their costumes...

 ...And this is what we ended up with. Oh well! I may like this even better!!!

 When the kids were sufficiently tired and frozen from trick or treating, we came back to open presents. I feel like every single person hit on the head with Meili this year. She got a box of cards, stamps, watercolors, and a notepad from Mary Elizabeth. I thought about getting her something similar because she is totally into writing notes and drawing pictures for people right now. When we were done opening presents, guess what Meili played with first? She wrote a thank you card to Grandma Anderson. Aaahhh......

 Grant and Cam gave her a Mermaid Barbie that she's been asking for for months.

 I gave her one of those extreme coloring books, because she and I have colored a few of them this year, and I love it.

 Josh gave her Perler Beads that she has now been obsessed with for the last week.

 See. Here she is writing her thank you card.

I. Love. Her.

And... this picture is a random add-in. I asked my sister for witch's stuff for Grant's costume, so of course, they both had to try everything on.