Christmas Card Photo Shoot -- Take 2

Need I say more?

Christmas Card Photo Shoot-- Take 1

Here are the outtakes from our Christmas card shoot this afternoon. Last year, I got really lucky and took great pictures without much effort. This year, not so much. So I decided to give you a little laugh and helpful tips for your own pictures.

1. Props are not always a good idea.






2. Hire professionals to play your children. It will save time and you will not be left with pictures like these.







3. Just hire professionals to do it all--stage the scene, enhance the lighting and to take the pictures while you sit inside with a cup of hot chocolate and a magazine. Trust me on this one.

Chloe's First Braids and a Hip Hip Hooray

They did not last long but she sure did look cute while she had them. In honor of the occasion Finn tossed several handfuls of Memory cards at us while shouting "Hip Hip Hooray!"

Where am I?

For the last week or so, things have just been crazy. Houses have sold, papers signed, plans made to pack boxes and through it all I have been running around trying to decide where I most need to be. I am thinking I will crawl under my covers and come out with the groundhog. Good plan, right? The next few weeks will be even worse so for all 4 readers I have please don't miss me too much. I will be back soon (and with lots more time to blog). So for now I will leave you with pics and a few stories from the last few days.

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Reading before bed last night and J was caught red-handed when Finn said, "But Daddy, you skipped a page."

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Another weekend another visit from the soon to be residents of my fair city, Granna, Grandaddy, and TeeTee. They arrived Friday afternoon and unless you want all the gory details I will spare you the Biscuit the Dog and Walmart incident. Finn is fine now though. Here is Hayley wrecking a plastic orange from the girls' kitchen set.

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Today we had the privilege of observing Finn's dance class and let's just say I am glad I do not have to teach 6 three-year-old girls how to tap. It would not be pretty. Finn did good although her eyes spent more time wandering around the room than they did on the teacher.



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A pre-Christmas toy arrived today. I ordered a new nativity set from Fisher Price that includes the inn, the wise men and their camels, and a manger. It also has background scenes and will hopefully be a nice addition to our Christmas decorations for years to come, if Chloe will quit hiding Baby Jesus that is. This is the animal parade that Finn set up.


And this is the chicken that came with the inn at Bethlehem set. Anybody out there notice a problem?

1 for 2

Finn's latest photography--the top picture is of Chloe and when she pushed the button she said "Oh no I got her shirt again".

Definitely Monday.....

Every night before I go to bed I go into the girls' room and place a still asleep Finn on the potty. This hopefully keeps from having to wash her sheets in the morning so I try not to forget. Late last night I went into her room and got her on the potty. Sitting there waiting I looked around and noticed this:



I got Finn up and put her back into her bed. I went to place Chloe's blanket back on her legs and saw this:



Can you see it? That's right, Sherlock. Both legs in one leg of her pj's. And the discarded pull-up from above, yep she SHOULD have had it on so I very quickly fixed that.

So now you get to hear the reason for the title. There was a huge case of the "badattitudes" today. The girls, me, even the dog. The cats are always crabby so we no longer factor them in to the very complicated mood of the house equation. It was bad, there was more than one set of tears, a few injuries, but all three of us were still breathing at bedtime and some days that is all you can do. Tomorrow must be better, right? At the very least, I hope it doesn't contain the phrase "Stop feeding the dog gummy bears".

The Truth About Our House

We wear clothes that don't match when we go out to eat




We love our waffles frozen and in doll beds



We like our baby dolls well done



We take beautiful pictures


What is the truth at your house?

FFF- Favorite Family Photo

This week's theme at Kiss the Frog 4 Me is your favorite family photo. This was easy because I have one picture of our little table for four that I love dearly. It was our very first ever. So without making you wait anymore here it is:

Dear Finn,

Here are some things that will be important to you later in life and may help keep your mother from wearing a tight white coat one day. I call them:


Life's Little Lessons
#67-69

Do not create macaroni art on yourself at lunchtime


Do not create macaroni art on your sister at lunchtime


And, for the love of pete, do not change your non-potty trained sister's pull-up into panties and rubber pants at naptime and put yourself into a pull-up. It isn't a good idea or funny.

Awash in a sea of crimson.....

We just returned from a girls' weekend in Tuscaloosa. It was the University of Alabama's homecoming (can I get a big loud ROLL TIDE?!!!!) so there was lots of stuff to do. We arrived at Blakney Inn around 5pm Friday and settled in for the night. The common areas of the inn were decorated quite spookily and Finn and Chloe had a great time turning on the candles and stealing candy corn. I believe Chloe came pretty close to eating her body weight in "canny corn" this weekend.


Saturday morning we (Finley, Chloe, me and Granna) got up bright and early and headed to the Quad. I needed to get t-shirts for the girls because their wardrobe has been sorely lacking in crimson attire this season. So two shirts and a Mountain Dew later we went to find a spot to watch the parade. Both girls seemed to enjoy what they could see but Chloe did not like the loud horns or fire engine sirens. We spent some time sitting near Denny Chimes listening to the music and letting the girls run. I took no great pictures in the morning because they would not stand still. Ring around the big tree was a lot more fun I guess.



After a snack, we headed on a long walk to meet up with some wonderful kids I spent a lot of time with when I was in Georgia. I was their greatest sitter of all time and if you want to know the truth, they were my practice kids. I love them very much and was happy to see them, even if it was a short visit. At this point in the day both Finley and Chloe had reached their breaking point and since we only had one stroller, so had my back. It was time to go but first we had to hike back to the library to catch up with some family. Waiting on us there was Alice, Kaye, and the baby boys. Everybody wanted lunch so again, off we hiked. We get to the restaurant and Finley shares a little Finn-ism with everyone. She said, "I want something better than a grilled cheese." Alice thought it was quite funny and told Finley that "maybe when your Granna gets moved you will get a decent meal." This may read as one of those had to be there moments but take my word for it, it was funny. A little shopping and it was back to play at the hotel. Chloe LOVED having her baby cousins nearby and worried both of them to death trying to feed them and pat their backs. There was also a lot of sticking the pacifier in the mouth and cooing "whatsamattuhlittlebaby?"




When the football game was over we were joined by even more cousins for pictures and playtime in the yard.