December Daily | 31

With our actual move to Maryland rapidly approaching, I've been finding myself wanting to squeeze in as much time with family as possible. Sometimes it's hard to do because of schedules, naps, and life, but today we were able to have lunch with Grami and Papa Snow and then have them over to Mom and Daddy-Man's before the kids went down for their naps.

It. was. wonderful.

I've been on a video kick lately and this afternoon was no different - I hope that the kids will cherish these videos as much as I already do.

***

Nearly every New Year's Eve, for probably the last 20 years{?}, has been spent with our friends, the Bullards. The kids were super excited to get to spend the evening with Addy. I had no plans for how long I'd let them stay up. Truthfully, I anticipated that Ellie would crash around 9PM and that Noah would follow some time after that.

Boy, was I wrong.

The three little RockStars made it until midnight, doing everything in their power to stay awake: chasing each other, watching VeggieTales, blowing on their horns {which were, eventually, confined to their room}, and playing lots and lots of dress up.

My favorite dress up time? When they were playing SuperHeroes and Princesses. Notice how Addy is totally feeling Noah's muscles.

Close runner-up for my favorite dress-up time:

The rest of us were tired when midnight hit and after a little short celebration outside with sparklers and horns, we were back inside, putting the kiddos down for bed and asleep ourselves, all before 12:45.

Goodbye 2011,

Hello 2012!

Determan Family | Mini-session

When Marlene helped us wrangle the kiddos during their Christmas mini last week, I offered that the next time she had Addy, to let me know and I'd get some for her as well. She mentioned it to Lesa, who mentioned that it might be nice to get some of all three of them, so, here we are! I had a great time, especially since Addy is quite the little poser - only once did I really have to "pose" her.

{It's a toss up between these two for my favorite of her!}

♥

Christmas Mini-Session

Ellie's teacher warned me yesterday that she doesn't know how the photos are going to turn out, so while I'm hoping for the best, I knew I still wanted to take some myself for Christmas cards. Mom, Marlene, the kids and I all went to a local church's craft fair and, next to it, is one of my {new} favorite spots for photos. So after we shopped {and made a quick trip back home for Noah's shoes and a comb}, we got the kids dressed and had a little Christmas mini-session at the park:

Oh how I love those two little silly kiddos! Thanks Mom and Marlene for your help! ♥

The Pumpkin Patch {at School}

All the classes at Noah and Ellie's school today got to go to the "pumpkin patch". It wasn't a real big deal, but because Ellie wouldn't be going with her class since she doesn't go to school on Fridays and I've really been wanting to see how Noah reacts and behaves with his peers, we tagged along. Nana and Marlene met Ellie and I for lunch and then we all headed over to the church to follow his class to the pumpkin patch.

Noah, according to Ms. Billye, picked one with "a lot of character". We all giggled!

{I'm not sure who she is and didn't want to post a good clear photo of the little girl, so please pardon the weird censorship!}

Afterwards, they all came back inside and took individual photos for their scrapbooks they are making, and then did a group shot as well!

We left right after this so that they could read the story in peace without Ellie trying to climb onto Ms. Billye's lap and Noah wasn't sad at all to see us go. Such big improvements from that first day of school!

Friends.

This afternoon, after Ellie and I picked Noah up from school, we were excited to get back home to have a visit from David, Stephanie, and Baby Jonah! Back in August when Erin and I went out to meet Jonah and visit his parents, we made plans for the Prysock's and the Carroll's to come up to OKC for a MUTEMATH concert and some friend time.

It was the first time the kids met each other. Ellie was in love. She liked sitting next to him. She liked kissing him. She especially liked showing him the picture of her Daddy on my phone.

But most of all, she just liked him. Can't say that I blame her - he's too cute!

The Prysock's left just before dinner so they could eat dinner with her family and get Jonah settled before we met up at the concert. But not long after they left, we had another set of visitors! Marlene and David were taking care of Addy this weekend, so they walked around for a little visit. Both of my kids just adore Addy!

After they left, Noah asked, "Who's coming over now, Mommy?"

♥

Baths and bedtime for the kids, and then I headed out the door to meet our friends for the MUTEMATH concert!

I was more than grateful to see my friends, listen to a new-to-me band, have some earplugs, and even enjoy part of the concert while outside in the cool air with Erin and Jadyn!

It's Been a Week.

Truthfully, with the exception of Thursday night's photo shoot with my Aunt and cousins, I haven't touched my camera much this week. I'm okay with that. There's a saying that has been going around that the best camera is the one that you have on you. Or, in my case this week, that others have on them!

For example:

Last night, Jessie and BB camped out all night long to buy balcony tickets for the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn, part 1. {I'm going - thanks to them sleeping in a tent all night outside a movie theatre! Thanks Sisters!!} We had to take them an air mattress and sleeping bags... and the kids thought the tent was just the coolest thing. Lucky for me, while my phone battery was too drained to take a photo, Aunt Jessie's wasn't.

Today, while Daddy-Man, Ellie and I were driving to Texas to get the vehicle inspection updated on Ben's truck, Mom, Marlene, and Noah went to a few garage sales. I got several texts with pictures like this from Marlene. He might have started out with a poor attitude this morning, but he definitely seemed to enjoy hunting down treasures with Nana!

And after he ate lunch with all the rest of the crew, they stopped by a little exhibit in the Home Depot parking lot and Noah got to get inside a Police helicopter.

The subject of this photo text: "You catch the bad guys!" {That's what he told the Policeman who was standing by the helicopter.}




Meanwhile, Daddy-Man, Ellie and I were driving back from Texas after getting the truck inspected, visiting my favorite scrapbooking store there, and eating lunch at OTB. I brought my Canon along... but didn't take a single photo at any of those locations. But I *needed* a photo of the sleeping Ellie in the backseat of Ben's truck. So after a couple of failed attempts on my part, Daddy-Man took my phone and got this one. ♥

And moments later, this one.

Once back home, there were too many exciting things happening for me to not pick up my camera.

Including a visit from IronMan:

Fantastic new "treasures" waiting for us in the living room:

{Nana is amazing - $12 for the pirate ship slide! They. love. it!}

And a quick photo thank you for a dear Friend:

It's been a week. But it's been a good one.

A Busy, Busy Sunday

After church and lunch at home with the family, I left the kiddos in Mom and Daddy-Man's care and headed over to St. Andrew's Catholic church to take some photos for one of Jessie's childhood friends, Monica. She and her husband were renewing their vows and were having both of their children baptised after the Sunday Mass. It was a lot of fun getting to play photographer... especially when the subjects were as cute as Junior!

{Eliza slept right through her baptism!}

Once I got back home and relaxed a little, we decided to make dinner easy and go to McDonald's. Noah was excited to get to eat in the play area... especially since they had a cartoon episode of Batman and Robin playing.

Ellie was just happy that I let her have ketchup... which doesn't always happen when I forget to bring a bib.

And both kiddos were thrilled when Addy {and Marlene and David} showed up to play with them in the play area. They only stopped chasing each other long enough to take quick bites of ice cream or sips of their drinks before running back up the treehouse stairs to the slide.

We came back to Papa and Nana's house to give the kids a quick bath, Skype with Daddy for a few minutes, and then Noah and I got back into the car and headed over to Aunt BB's house for Noah's first "sleepover party".

Noah was pretty happy that he got to take his Lightening McQueen sleeping bag.

After a little bit of playtime for Noah, he finally went to sleep {NOT in his sleeping bag...} and Aunt BB and I got to enjoy a movie - the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2! ♥

Cow Appreciation Day | 2011

Last year, we went all out for Cow Appreciation Day. This year, it kinda snuck up on us. And since we knew we'd still get a free meal, as long as we were mostly dressed up using their paper costumes... well, we just used them!

We didn't go for breakfast, but after cutting out eight {yes, 8!} costumes, Aunt BB joined up and we headed up to the closest one for lunch with Nana and Marlene after they finished up garage saleing.

Both kids were pretty excited about getting to dress up as a cow, Noah more so than Ellie. On the way to Chick-fil-a, he mentioned that he was going to be a cow and that Nana was going to be a dolphin. Why a dolphin? We have NO clue.

Noah was a big fan of the cow and was the one who brought up taking a picture with him - of course I willingly went!

Ellie, on the other, was not a fan of the Chick-fil-a Cow. Apparently she feels about him like she does about Chuck E. Cheese himself: "Stay-away-from-me-before-I-have-a-total-panic-attack-and-mental-breakdown-from-the-weirdness-of-it-all." She was totally fine though, once she had food and was sitting in the corner with Aunt BB.

We also went for dinner. To a different one. And at this one, even though we had the same costumes on, we didn't get a full meal free - just the entree. The kids, however, did. I'm fairly confident that it was because of the tail. Or maybe it was Noah who kept telling the employee, "MOO!" and "My sisters' a cow too!" heh!


One of the other highlights of the day was Nana's best find of the day {and perhaps her entire garage saleing career this summer}:


a train table.

Both kids have played non-stop with it, all day. Noah's first words when he woke up from his nap {before which, he didn't get to play with it} was: "Mommy, I'm awake! {gasp!} MY TRAIN TABLE!" He was out of the room before I could even remind him to potty first.

Everyone has been asked to play at it today... at least twice! Thanks Nana!