i two!

Today is my baby's 2nd birthday. I can't believe he's already two years old! Why do babies have to grow so fast?? :) He is so much fun right now. Although, I think I tend to say that at every different stage. :) His vocabulary is expanding quite rapidly and some of his favorite words are "no sir!", "cool!", "oh, twouble!" (He puts a "backpack" over his head and looks for an "animal in trouble" to help, just like Diego.), "so funny!", and many more. His favorite activities are playing with the Thomas train set he got for Christmas, running in circles, doing whatever his sisters are doing, making us laugh, and anything to do with music - singing, dancing, and listening. He is most definitely all boy, but he is also sweet and still cuddly, which I love. I know he won't be small for long, so I try hard to treasure the sweet hugs and kisses he gives, the way he runs his fingers through my hair when he's sleepy, and the times when he just wants to sit with me and snuggle. I pray that he will grow to love and serve God with all his heart, so for now we'll keep singing Jesus Loves Me and I'll keep reminding him Who created him so wonderfully - and I'll keep kissing those little chubby cheeks while I can! :)

Here are some of the other pictures from our Portrait Innovations session last week....

eating an octopus

I have decided to try some fun lunch ideas on Mondays, since last week's pita pizzas went so well. So here is another idea from one of Shannon's books....the kind that makes you go, "Well, DUH! why didn't I think of that?!" :)

I should have taken a close-up, but I forgot. Oops. I made Pasta Roni - the (sea)shell noodles with white cheddar cheese - and then stirred in a can of peas and carrots. The hotdogs I simply sliced about 3/4 of the way up into 8 legs. I had found regular goldfish at the store and just as I was picking it up, I saw a new kind (same brand) right next to it that has goldfish AND starfish! Add two dots of mustard for the eyes and you have a seafood lunch of seashells, goldfish, starfish, and an octopus! :) The girls thought it was entirely fabulous. The baby.....

...was a little weirded out by the octopus sitting on top of his food at first! Then I showed him how fun it was to pull the legs off and eat them. He thought it was great after that! :)

Patience...

...is always a lesson in progress. :) I had been wanting to take my kiddos to have "real" pictures done just before Christmas, but I ended up having to make a total of four different appointments due to one or more of us being sick! I was very sad when I ended up having to postpone the pictures until after Christmas, since I had wanted to do one set in their Christmas jammies. However, I finally got to go to Portrait Innovations on Wednesday and the whole thing turned out much better than it possibly would have if we had made it to one of the other appointments. There was one lady there looking at the pictures of her baby, another mom with two kids just finishing up a portrait session, and then us. By the time we were halfway through our session, we were the only customers in the building! It was so calm and relaxed and laid back and my kids had a blast.

Ok, here comes my plug for the day, so if you don't want to hear it, or I've already told you about it before, just skip this paragraph! :) I LOVE the way Portrait Innovations does their pictures! They have big rooms (compared to the tiny spaces provided at places like Penny's or Sears...) and the kids sit or stand on the floor - not up on some high platform. The photographer takes a million pictures (since it's a digital camera they're not worrying about using tons of film!) and just keeps snapping picture after picture - big smiles, laughs, quiet looks - to get a range of beautiful photos. There is no sitting fee at all. After your session is over you sit and look through all the pictures on large, flat screen tvs, going through 3 at a time to narrow them down to your very favorites. (While the kids can sit and play with toys!) The price is always up in the top corner of the tv so you can watch to make sure you're staying within your price range. (We had a total of 154 pictures and narrowed them down to "only" 62 at first. :} This would have been over $1,000 !! in the end we narrowed it down to 6 for less than a tenth of that first price!) If you purchase 3 or more poses (and you get three sheets of each pose you choose - in whatever sizes you want.), you also get a cd with all the pictures on it. You can bring this cd back anytime to have more pictures printed (at a higher price, of course) or you can print them right from your own computer at home, share them online like I'm doing, or email them to friends! :) You can even choose just one absolute favorite photo for their on-going $9.95 deal - which includes a total of almost 50 prints of your picture in varying sizes!

Ok, I'll stop rambling on about them now and just get to the actual pictures! :)

This is the one we used for the $9.95 deal. :)

The girl with the camera stood on a small pedestal to take this picture from a different angle. My middle child was standing with me watching and asked, "Why is she standing on that?" The girl turned around and said, "To make me taller - because I'm short!" My middle child wasn't quite satisfied with that answer and looked at me and said, "But, Kiki, she is not the statue of liberty!" Evidentally the statue of liberty is the only one allowed to stand on a pedestal?? :)

This next one is an example of how they just keep snapping pictures and end up capturing some great moments:

One of the best sounds in the world - a child laughing!! :)

Oh, you are also guaranteed one clothes change, and we did a more casual look for those but I will save them until next week....

pita pizzas

For Christmas, my best friend, Shannon, gave me an awesome book filled with all the neat, fun, and easy craft ideas from the Family Fun magazines. I couldn't wait to try out an idea and there were so many to choose from! However, "peanut butter and jellyfish" sandwhiches are my oldest's all-time favorite so I chose to do PB&J pita pizzas for lunch yesterday.

We spread peanut butter and then jelly on top of a pita for the "sauce". Then we added bananas, raisins, and pretzel sticks. The recipe also said you could use small apple chunks or dried cranberries or peanuts, but these ingredients were what we had on hand. The girls LOVED this lunch and it was easy and fun to make. Thanks, Shannon, for the book!! I know we'll be using it a lot!! :)

merry christmas and happy new year!

NYC

Well, my blog has been a bit quiet for the past week or so due to getting ready, going, and coming back from a trip up to New York City! Instead of describing everything here and having to choose a few photos to upload...if you want to hear all about my trip, I will post two links to the photo albums on my facebook page for you to scroll through. And once you start...don't stop till you've looked through both albums! You won't want to miss my Most Fabulous Experience in the second album! ;)

Here's the first one:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=195260&l=81aa9&id=729430647

And here's the second one:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=195283&l=068a1&id=729430647

tree party

A few years ago, I lived and taught out above Nashville, TN for a year. I didn't make many friends that year and spent a very large portion of that year alone. It was good in some ways and way lonely in others! I discovered that the absolute lonliest thing to do was to decorate the little 3ft tall fake Christmas tree I bought for my little apartment. I put on Christmas music and even splurged on a little bottle of sparkling cider...but it was just not the same! So ever since then, I have made sure to have friends over when decorating my tree! This past Sunday I had a tree decorating party and put up two big trees - one in the living room and one in my bedroom.

My friend, Leah, and I have known eachother since the beginning of elementary school. We were in the same second grade class together and then ended up at the same college! Just in the past year we have really reconnected and gotten together quite a few times. Here, she is helping me "fluff" my tree. :)

Leah is an awesome cake lady and made this adorable ornament cake for the occasion! It was beautiful and she did it all free-handed and totally just from the pictures in her head! :) It was very yummy too - chocolate mint! :)

Shannon, Dave, and Jonathan came for a little while. Somehow they left before I could get a picture of all three of them. But of course I got plenty of Jonathan! :) He very much enjoyed Aunt Kiki's beads.

He also enjoyed helping Aunt Kiki decorate the tree. He set this roll of ribbon on the tree and was very proud of himself. :)




After decorating two trees (you'll see them in just a minute...), we played the game Compatibility. I love this game, even though (as you can see here. I was the blue guy.), I almost always lose! :}







My friend Eric... and Michael being his usual goofy self.... :}

Leah, who is 35 weeks pregnant, discovered a new trick while sitting in the rocking chair that my mom rocked me in as a baby! :) It works as long as baby Aiden doesn't kick the cup off her belly! Ha! :}

Leah and her husband, Ben. Ben also went to college with us, but I didn't ever really get to know him until the past few months. The more I hang out with him, the more I like him. :) He is so sweet and gentle and is going to make an awesome daddy here in another month or so!

My best friend of twenty five years. Yikes. Makes me feel old! :}

Ok, Mrs. T., this picture is for you! :) I ran across an old email from you the other day mentioning that you would like to see my red couch. I had totally forgotten about it and so after the trees were decorated, I took this picture specifically for you to see. :) Oh, and I did not put the beads across my wall...a couple of the guys did that when I wasn't looking.... :)

My Webkinz tree! :) I knew all those little animals would come in handy somehow! :) This is my fun, colorful, cheerful tree.

This is the tree in my bedroom. It is more formal and I love it. I actually like white lights better and I love all the blue, white, and silver on it. :)

It was such a fun evening! I love having bunches of people around! :) Now, if only I could have a "tree UNdecorating party"...! :}