Saturday, November 20, 2010

Good News

We finally had some camera luck this week. Our camera eventually did show up at Panasonic's repair facility and we finally got what we thought was our camera back. However, as we excitedly opened the package, we discovered that it wasn't our camera - it was a better one!! My first thought was "Oh no, we're going to have to send it back again, tell them they made a mistake, and wait even longer." However, after looking into it, it was on purpose. They couldn't fix ours, didn't have another like it, so they sent us an upgrade. And what an upgrade! This new camera is worth 3 times what our old one was worth. So nice! We are so happy. So here's a few pics I excitedly took today. I took a ton more but I'm still figuring this fancy thing out so most of them are blurry/too dark/otherwise flawed. Only downside to an expensive camera - I'm going to have to be EVEN more careful with this one!!

Benjamin loves holding Christian and loves playing with him. He's such a great big brother.


Watching his sibs play around.


Bella, in her beloved apron, sneaking some of Benjamin's waffle while she sets the table.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Don't Laugh at my Pickle Nose

Now that Christian is able to hold his head up well and gives such cute smiles, I thought I'd take the kids for some professional photos. Haven't had any since Isabella was Christian's age. I also wanted some pics right now because we still don't have our camera back. (It seems to have been lost in the mail on its way to repair. Grrrrrrrr. We really have no luck with cameras.) The photographer, however, just really didn't click with my kids (ha! click! get it? I know. Not funny.) In my opinion, a HUGE part of being a good photographer at a studio where 99% of your clientele is under 10 years old, is being able to get kids to like you and laugh for you. When you see that something you're doing isn't working, you should have a huge repertoire of gimmicks and move on to something else. Our photographer had only one trick up her sleeve and that was the line, "Whatever you do, don't laugh at my pickle nose." I watched later and this line got other kids cracking up, but my kids took her at her word. She tells them not to laugh, so they don't. Stone faces all around. Instant cold shoulder. Slowly devolving into a complete refusal to even look in her direction. Yikes. I worried the session would be over before it began. Seeing that her line isn't working and that the kids are starting to get really annoyed by her, does she try something else? Does she call in someone else to help? No. She just kept saying it, over and over again, in an ever screechier, ever more obnoxious voice. You could almost hear the desperation in her voice as they stared her down. She finally came up with something new and tried the line, "Does mommy have stinky feet? Ew! Gross! Stinky feet!" Benjamin's response: "No, she doesn't." More stone faces. She momentarily left the room to grab a bean bag for Christian (and tear her hair out, I assume) and I jumped in to give them a pep talk. "I know she's annoying, but she's trying really hard to be nice and we really want these pictures to look good so we can hang them up at home. Please smile for her to make me happy, okay?" The rest of the pictures turned out better. Not great. Very few big happy smiles, but better. Thank heaven. I thought Miss Pickle Nose would doom us. Here are some of the results. My kids really are cute. Serious... but cute.















Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Another Year, Another Camera

I turned 33 this past weekend. I love birthdays. I love getting older. I love having the day be all about me. :) It also happened to be Halloween, so we had lots going on.

It did start out a little rough, though. Saturday morning, the kids decide play around and take pictures. Benjamin takes a few and passes the camera to Bella. Bella doesn't seem too comfortable with it and I get nervous about how she's handling it so I tell her that I think she's too little for the camera and attempt to take it away. She will have none of that and whips it out of my reach. Out of her reach too. She whips it with such force that it flies out of her hand and onto the ground with the lens still extended. Good bye 4th camera in 2 years. The day before Halloween. Two hours before the Halloween party. The previous three cameras met their demise being dropped in a fountain (by me), being dropped on the floor (that time by Benjamin), and being sat on (by Kelly) We're hard on cameras! Big thanks to Tara for lending me her camera so I at least got a few pictures of my kids in costume this year.

The day improved after that. We attended my gym's Halloween party in lieu of the one at church because the church doesn't understand that sugaring up tiny children at the time when they're normally already in bed is a bad idea. Luckily my gym had their party at 11am, so we had options. I thought my kids looked so cute in their costumes.


And that party rocked. Blow up jump houses (and a blow up dragon!),


lots of games,


pumpkin patch, crafts, rock climbing, stick-on tattoos, food, music, and a trunk-or-treat.


And what Halloween party is complete without a petting zoo?? That was weird, but the kids liked it.



In the evening Kelly and I went out to dinner by ourselves! Yay! That was very nice. And on Sunday morning Kelly got up early and decorated the kitchen, baked a cake, made breakfast, wrapped my presents, and got the kids to make me cards. I got to sleep in a bit and woke up to find the place decked out. So fun. Again, center of attention, very nice. :) No pictures of that day, obviously, but probably for the best since short hair lends itself to some major bed-head! And Kelly got me a toilet for my birthday! Just what I always wanted. No, he's not that lousy of a husband, but he did install a new one this weekend. So exciting for the kids that it might just be the secret to potty training success with Bella! She sat on it twice today - first time in a long time. Maybe that's the secret-she didn't not like toilets, she just didn't like the old one! ;)

In any case, my birthday was a success, and many friends and family sent cards, emails, and gifts, which was wonderful. I am really very blessed. 33 and mother of 3. Amazing. Now I wait patiently for my new camera.

These pics were sitting on my camera and I hadn't posted them. Benjamin is in gymnastics and last week was "family day" when the sibs and parents were allowed to come play too. The place is really cool - the best part being the pit. Benjamin was determined to find the bottom and ended up getting himself and a classmate buried.



It never ceases to amaze me, though, to see how athletic he is. He jumped, climbed, and ran non-stop for an hour. And he's really getting good in his swim class too. So fun to see him excel and to see him so happy.