Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Oh, and since I haven't been around, belated Merry Christmas! Wow, the holidays kept us busy! So busy that I gave up on even trying to edit photos or get them posted, but now that things are slowing down I am going to get back to it.

We were on the road A LOT over the holidays, but had a great time nonetheless. We got to spend lots of time with family and friends and ate way, way, way too much great food.

Here's a small sample of what our holidays looked like.

Lily and her boyfriend, Carter with their lovely decorated heads. Try to get four kids under the age of three to sit still and look at the camera at the same time. Just try it. Don't even think about trying to get them to smile, though, because it won't happen. Even with bribes and threats, it never works out. This was the best we could do and I thought it was pretty good, all things considered. My little Lily, relaxing on her pillow in front of the Christmas tree. Yay! I actually got a photo of both my girls in front of the tree! And yes, I know, there are a lot of presents under that tree. We all got very spoiled. Ella trying on her favorite present from Santa. Hopefully she'll like them just as much when she gets them on the ice. Another fave from Santa. I'm thinking Santa should have thought a little harder about how many thousands of times mommy would have to pick these up before he gave them to her. She does love them, though, and they are pretty cool. And hey, I get a new piece of jewelry to wear every day. Lily and the world's most expensive teether, Sophie the giraffe. She looks and sounds like a dog toy, but everyone I have talked to swears that she is the best. I hope she is!Daddy and Ella trying out Ella's new drums before we left for the day. This is how you can tell how busy we were. Ella always wakes up the second the car turns off, but on Christmas day (after going to bed the night before at 10:30 and getting up that morning at 5:00) we drove to Alma, pulled her out of the car, threw her on her grammy's couch, and poked and prodded at her with no hopes of waking her up. We decided to stay home with our kids for New Year's and invited a few friends over to join us. Here is Hailey and Ella enjoying their special New Year's Eve cupcakes. This was taken at 1:30 a.m., just before Melissa and Kevin took their kids home for the night. Isn't it amazing how they don't even look the least bit tired? We thought for sure they would have crashed eventually, but they didn't slow down all night.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, the days around here have been crazy busy. Between getting ready for Christmas, photoshoots on the weekend, Shawn working so much overtime, and our everyday craziness, I don't have time to do anything extra. Needless to say, I haven't been up to blogging very much. I did get a beautiful new lens for my birthday and have been practicing with it, but haven't had the time to edit the photos or get them posted. I'm hoping that things will slow down a bit in the new year.

Tonight I actually took a few minutes to myself and edited a couple of photos to put up here. You'll notice that I have a few of Lily and only one of Ella and that is only because Ella will not let me take her picture lately. If she sees the camera she runs. Luckily for me Lily can't run yet, so she becomes my daily subject. She always has big grins for the camera and her big eyes always look so nice in photographs.

I've really been loving high contrast black and white images lately, so that's what I am posting tonight.

Here is little miss Lily sucking on her rattle. And she LOVES laying under the Christmas tree and looking at the lights, like she was doing at grammy's house last weekend:I love this one because of her sparkly eyes and her spikey hair:And here's my one and only shot of Ella for today. I'm not sure how I managed to capture a natural smile, but I was glad to have it.

Okay, I Lied

I know I said that I would be back yesterday to post some photos of our Christmas shoot, but I was wrong. I didn't come back at all yesterday and I decided not to post them today either. I don't know if I will get another Christmas shoot in or not, but I decided that I don't want to post the photos on here until I get the Christmas cards made up. Then I will post them. But I won't leave without posting photos from today.

After chasing Ella around all day, trying to capture her funny little self, this is the best shot I got. She has been obsessed with these wings lately. She calls herself a butterfly and runs around the house saying "tweet, tweet, tweet", despite my best efforts to assure her that butterflies do not in fact say "tweet". I'm not sure what's with her expression, though. I think she was just determined that I couldn't get a photo of her with her "normal" face. I think she looks like she might a future rock star or something :) I also decided to bring out Lily's jumperoo today since she has been so excited about standing on her feet. As soon as I put her in it she started screaming, but the second that I started moving her around and she could feel her feet under her, she loved it. She also loved the lights and sounds that it made. Yay for mommy! Another way to keep her occupied for a couple minutes at a time. And of course Ella wanted to rediscover the jumperoo too. She never takes any interest in Lily until a new toy comes into the picture. Then she's all over her. Oh well, I'm just glad that they spent a couple of minutes together today, especially since Lily loves to watch Ella so much.

Ella's Special Day

Yesterday was Ella's special day. We really haven't spent any time alone with her since Lily was born, so we left Lily with her grammy and took Ella out for the day. We went to the library first to pick out some books. She was really excited to do that until she spotted the toys that were there and then it was left up to mommy and daddy to pick out the books. After the library we went out for supper at a big girl restaurant (ie. NOT McDonalds) and then headed to the Santa Claus parade. Luckily we were smart enough to take a couple of chairs along with us because it was a very cold, slightly rainy hour-and-a-half long parade. Ella loved every single minute of it. She got to have treats, stay up late, and was very excited to see every single character in the parade, including Santa. Sadly, I didn't get any photos of her at the parade because of the rain, but I promise that she loved it. After the parade we did a bit of shopping and then Ella passed out on the way home. We all had a really great day.

Since I didn't get any photos on our outing, I'll post a couple of Ella working on her letter to Santa to take to the parade. She was very excited that daddy was going to help her write it. She called him her "big helper buddy".

Here she is with daddy writing her letter.Working very hard to draw Santa a beautiful picture.

This is her finished letter. She couldn't decide on exactly what to ask for, so she just asked for surprised. Four to be exact. Oh, and she was kind enough to ask for three surprises for her little sister too :)Check out this E that she wrote all by herself! I was very proud of her, since I have never taught her how to do this. She has been able to recognize the letters in her name for a while now, but I was surprised to see that she could put her "E" on paper all by herself. Proud mommy moment!Oh, and check back tomorrow when I will {hopefully} have a few photos ready from our semi-failed Christmas photo shoot today. Let's just say that my kids may never ever look at the camera at the same time!

Changes

I can't believe how much my girls change on a daily basis. Ella is constantly cracking me up with her funny comments and actions and Lily is growing so fast and even laughed out loud for the first time yesterday. That was really shocking to me, since Ella didn't really laugh out loud until she was about seven months old. But Lily definitely laughed yesterday, out loud, three times. It was the cutest thing ever. I have been trying ever since to get her to do it again and do you think I can? Absolutely not. I think the only reason she laughed in the first place was to get me to act crazy for the next few months trying to get her to do it again.

Lily is also finally big enough for her exersaucer, which she loves for a few minutes at a time. And, of course, Christmas is coming and Ella is getting sooooo excited. She likes to flip through flyers and point out everything that "Ho Ho" should bring her. She is very excited about the Christmas decorations, including the stockings that she thinks should go on her feet, though I haven't been able to catch that with the camera yet. She liked Christmas last year, but I think this year is even bigger and better for her.

I'm working on translating some of these changes into photos, but since my kiddos don't always cooperate with me, I only have a few for today.

Ella as Santa EeyoreLily's first time in the exersaucer

My little beauty, starting to look so much older

Lily is 3 Months Old!

Wow, time is flying by! I can't believe that Lily is 3 months old already and getting so big. It is so fun to watch her discovering new things everyday. I tried to do a 3 month photoshoot with her on Friday, but it didn't go so well. I'm going to try to do some more tomorrow. I'd like to get outside for some more natural shots, but it is supposed to rain all week long so that may not happen. For now I will leave you with a couple of shots that I did manage to get on Friday. I usually don't like babies in headbands, but I've recently developed a liking for them as a photo prop. I wouldn't take her out like this on a daily basis, but I think it made for a pretty cute photo.

Play Date with Hailey and Carter

Today was a very busy day! We spent most of the day visiting with Hailey and Carter and had lots of fun. Ella and Hailey are finally at a point where they actually play together, interacting, and not just playing side by side. It was really cute to watch them chasing each other around and playing dress up. I guess it won't be too long until Carter and Lily are joining in the fun too. I can't believe how fast time is going! I only had a few minutes to edit a few shots tonight, so here's a little peek into our playdate today.
Carter and Hailey snuggling in the rocking chair. Carter just hanging out. Lily has discovered that she can get her fist in her mouth and she now does it all the time. Carter was practicing standing up...this shot was right before he fell over. Ella was pretty proud of her princess costume that she put together all by herself.And finally, Lily and Carter, hanging out together.