"Chex"

Me:
"Oh no, you guys are dirty and are making a mess on that clean blanket.
What are you doing?"

Isaac:
"We are playing Chex Mix"

Pictures to go with the smiley day

12/2/11
Isaac and Noah made sugar cookies. 

 They got pretty dark because the mail lady brought our first Christmas gifts!!! 

 Isaac is watching his big brother.

 "What, I get a present too?!?!"

 "He he, they theyink I can read!"

"Here it is, my first Christmas card!" 

 We got Dylan and Malia (long car lines) then Dylan opened his matching PJs.

 All 6

 frosting the sugar cookies - outside, and with pink frosting.  I'm still a cook mom even if I didn't make and get out Christmas colors and sprinkles. 

 Another tradition that isn't really working: Reading a story about Jesus each night by candle light.  The first night, our power was out when we got home from work.  On December 1st.  I was excited because it was perfect!  We could read by candle light, do homework by candle light, and even cut snow flakes while talking about traditions and Christmas etc.  Instead we went to Andre and Barbie's house and did homework, helped move a fridge, and cut snowflakes.  They're so hospitable but I felt bad for imposing our big family of 5 on them unanounced.  And I felt dirty and tired from after work and just felt so bad.  Anyway, we did read on Dec 5th as well. 

This morning, Isaac asked me what we were going to do this evening.  I wasn't sure what he was talking about and he said "You said we would do something Christmassy every night, what are we going to do tonight?"  So cute.  I went visiting teaching after dinner, so Steven read them the "please tell the children" story about the symbols of Christmas.  We have a bag of tiny items that goes with it.  I'd like to do the simple hot chocolate one night, but it's not cold.  We keep putting our A/C on. 

We were going to go ice skating, but Steven pointed out that he doesn't like that as much as roller skating and the kids should start there first.  So I took the boys roller skating.  They were brave.  So we checked that off of our list. 

Santa Baby

Here's a hat by Rachael.  She uses the $ to buy supplies to make these hats for the kids staying at the Ronald McDonald house.  I sent her a link to a hat on etsy.com to see if she could do it.  She made it differently than the picture, but it works and I love the pom pom at the end.  I was trying a twinkle lights picture b/c I just bought a 50mm lense w/ a 1.4 appeture.  This is all the way open at 1.4 here.  He's not too wiggly, so I could get the focus even though I'm way low doing a sit up to get this from the floor.  I wish I had set the lights up lower so I wouldn't get an up the nose shot to get the lights.  Oh well, this is still cute and once I buy more lights ona white strand this time, I'll do retakes.  Steven and I need new desktop background pictures at work. 

a smile w/ me post

Instead of having to listen to 'Poker After Dark' at 2am and changing the channel, the day's noon Today Show is on.  Much better.

Post Edit:
It's 2:38. Hoda and Kathy Lee have a guest on from Prevention Magazine about "secrets of happy women" and just said that we should post about good feelings and happy things.  I just did this!  How applicable.

Another post edit:
Dude, it's 4am.  This photography gig is a full time job - I just sat in one place for 6 hours doing the 2nd half of a family's session.  After working an 8 hour day at my day job.  And I'm pretending this Facebook-like updating is "blogging."  I don't even look at my own pictures any more it seems.  But that's ok.  B/c instead of infomercials after Hoda and Kathy Lee, I'm watching a Jay Leno that I missed.  And I think I'll get a nap tomorrow:)  I love naps.  Do you think Tyler will sleep through the night tonight?  He hasn't waken up yet.  What a good baby boy.  He's such a baby.  You should see and hold and smell him and burry your lips in his cheeks.  You're missing out if you don't get to do that every day like I do:)  He's so wiggly/wobbly too now - like a surfer on my legs.  I miss him.  G'night!

a Smile With Me update

Today, while checking the tracking of my new lense, the doorbell rang!  There it was, along with a print order!

Then the FedEx guy came with a gift for somebody. 

Then the mail lady came with gifts for the kids - they get to open those presents early because I knew what Lacey gets them every year. 

So while taking pictures of Tyler opening his FIRST Christmas present, with my NEW lense, our sugar cookies got a little over toasty.  But that's ok because it's a good day!  The only odd thing - no Christmas cards in the mailbox.  That's ok, we JUST ordered ours 2 days ago (along with image cubes for myself) and I still have one client's images to process for their cards.  It'll be a busy night tonight. 
Gotta go, Ivy is stirring.

Dear Tyler, you're 3 months old!

Dear Tyler,
You're 3 months old now. 
I've taken some pictures of you and your brothers lately, but I may use them for Christmas card photos, so I'm not going to post them just yet.  Oh how I wish I had our card figured out already! 

You have firm bouncy cheeks I like to kiss and kiss and kiss some more.  Dylan and Isaac like to touch them. 
Sometimes I call you "Tyler T."  I don't know why, and I don't even like it.  It's funny how I called Dylan "my little Dylan head" and Isaac "I-Z pie or shmeye."  Pooka pie kah and Shmeye shmay came to mind too. 
You're getting into a groove and I like it.  You're (knock on wood) predictable!  You don't eat much it seems, so you don't poo much, so I thought.  You overfilled your diapers twice today to make up for it:)  (We both had 2 baths today.) 
You have officially gotten a little louder.  You're still not the ear piercing loud crier that Ivy is, but I know when you're mad.  (This is when you're in your car seat.)  You even have a sad face now - your little lip puts out before you cry.  I saw it for the first time like 2 weeks ago.  Daddy had already seen it and I hadn't believed him.  So sad!!  You get fussy when you're tired.  You calm down either by being put in the swing or by bouncing up and down in front of me.  You have to be vertical and I gently bounce you from under your arm pits around your ribs or holding your arms to your side if I bundled you.  It's sweet to see your sleepy eyes stare into mine until their lids cover them. 
You're a good sleeper and sleep 8 hours/night w/o interruption then go right back to sleep after I feed you a little. 
You grabbed a napkin off of our lap and put it to your mouth today!  I think it was an accident, but still, you've been staring at your fists for about a week now and have been trying to use your brain waves to make them magically get to your mouth.  You have a staring contest with them sometimes.  I need to get you another mobile for your crib b/c I know you'd love to stare at it and would probably fall asleep by yourself if you had something to keep you company. 

This play gym keeps you occupied and you can't even grab anything yet!

 You're staring down a toy instead of looking at me.  At least Ivy cares - j/k.

 Malia was "sick" so she stayed home w/ me.  She needed a break like Dylan did when he skipped to go to Busch Gardens.  Count 5 kids in this picture.  Then we went to pick up Dylan from school.  Then we all took Dylan to tae kwon do.  Crazy days!

This is my little naked boy from earlier today.  You used to fit inside of that hanging part and your toes didin't even touch the end!   

 I helped your hand grab this toy, and you kept it there. 

 More stare downs. 

 Nap time today.  I wanted to give you the bath then take your onesie picture, but you were so tired.  So I washed the cars while you took a nap.  Today was a hot day - the water from the hose wasn't cold at all.  Daddy and your brothers bought then wrapped white lights around our big tree out front. 

Today is Small Business Saturday, so I was supposed to go shop at small businesses.  I just stayed home instead.  Daddy took your brothers to a new restaurant, but you and I were content here.  I did get a couple of takers on my little add which was fun.  I offered 3 5x7s in your name b/c you're 3 months old today! 

 Look how sweet and new you were!  Time if flying by way too quickly.  There's so much to do.  I make sure to just stare at you and listen to your baby talk as much as possible.  I love your "aah, uh-goo, oooh," and "uh" sounds.  They're pretty quiet, and so sweet. 

So happy 1/4 year birthday!

Love, Mommy

Tyler's 1st Thanksgiving

Tyler and I slept in today.  We had a perfect start to our morning.  The boys played catch and practiced batting with various balls and oranges.

 Dylan and Isaac painted a turkey onesie for Tyler using their hands and Dylan's foot.

 They played around the pool and on the orange tree. 

 I went for a run in an old Turkey Trot shirt then came home to a smiley Tyler. 
Tangent: Tyler goes to bed around 9 or 9:30 each night.  I put him in his bed and he sleeps for 7 or 8 hours and Steven brings him to me.  I nurse him right back to sleep while we both sleep then he doesn't wake up 'til 7 something.  I feed him again a little then if we have to get up, he's up, but if we can sleep a little more, he sleeps.  He wakes up and when I finally wake up, we smile at each other.  I call in Dylan and Isaac so we can laugh with Tyler.  I sometimes try to feed him again, but he's not hungry so will spit that right back up.  I never learn.  Then he's awake for a bit 'til his morning nap.  He wakes up for lunch time then takes another afternoon nap or two.  I like him:)

 This was his afternoon nap.  I still bundle him up. 

 Brace youself.

The onesie is pretty sad, the wind blew it over on its face, for one thing. 
AND Tyler isn't happy that I wanted to put him down in his beanbag. 
He likes to be held if he's sleepy. 

 I brought him inside and he was distracted with his own hands. 
He's really trying to get control of them. 

 I like this one a little better.  He was ready to go pick up his great grandma.

 He cried in the car though.  He hates his car seat. 
Barbie and Andre hosted Thanksgiving this year!  (My mom is in Utah.)

 The kids played hide and seek and catch while the turkey was carved.

 Andre rented tables - we all fit perfectly!  And there was even a kids table:)

 A pretty good first Thanksgiving for my baby boy!  Even though he didn't directly eat any turkey. 

Until, it turned into the worst 1st Thanksgiving ever. Poor Tyler had to be in his car seat for what seemed to me like forever! And he cried, with tears, gurgling, spitting up, and even a little sweat on his mullet. I'm so sorry!  He had a bath and went to bed a little before 9pm.  I think that I should get to have a megaphone on the top of my mini-van that acts like a siren.  Tyler's cry will be amplified and the traffic will move out of the way to let me rush home to comfort my baby - it's stressful when that's the only time I can't comfort him!  It feels like an emergency.  There's a new rule that there's no talking when the baby is crying.  I can't handle that.  Gunny bag came when I got home too.  I know he shouldn't come when I'm stressed out, but he did.  So Dylan and Isaac cried too.  But they got baths and are sleeping too.  Maybe I'm still tired even though I got to sleep in.  But this is a good break from editing.  Only three more families' sessions to go through. 

Thanksgiving stuff

The kindergarten turkey. Note: Dylan's feather is the only one with a photo. These were family homework projects.

 Our thanksgiving tree. I gave each kid a color.  Noah participated too.  Isaac picked the branches and pine cones that morning with me at Lake Seminole Park. 

 Dylan is addicted to coloring.  I've been meaning to document that here.  His new thing is writing.  He spells things out himself, and sometimes asks how to spell things.  He makes lists of words he'd like to see written.  His best friend at school is Dawson.  He wrote his leaves all by himself.

 He just learned "ai, the two letter A in the middle of a word" and used it to spell playground.

 Isaac began looking around the living room when we were writing the things down that he's thankful for.  See the remote control.  I didn't give any hints to lead them to say what they're thankful for. 

 Tyler is following things more with his eyes.  It's a different look now - he wants to figure out how to grab!  The other day he kept punching himself.  I asked him "why are you hitting yourself, why are you hitting yourself?" while Dylan and Isaac were cracking up.  When he grabs my hand, he doesn't let go.  He wraps his whole wrist and arm around me.  I love it.