Holiday Recap

The fall is always the busiest time of year for me so it makes it hard to post much about it while it is happening.  So today I thought I’d share a few photos of some of what we did during October to December.  Sorry it is all pictures of the kids, I am usually taking the photos and am bad about getting myself in them.  The kids are cuter any way.

My plan was to get all three kids standing by their pumpkins in their costumes.   I can’t wait for the day when are all old enough to just smile and take a picture without drama.  Audrey’s costume was partially handmade.  Josiah’s was found on sale at Pottery Barn for $15.  I had planned on making one but after the cost of materials and then the added time of making it, it was a lot easier to just buy it.  Plus it glowed in the dark.  It was bit long so I shortened the legs (took off the bones first and then reapplied them…which ended up being way harder than I anticipated.)  William’s skunk costume was first worn by his brother when he was the same age (found it for a steal on ebay) so it was fun to see another one in it.  I love that little costume.  I’ll try to find a picture of big brother in it.

Here was another attempt at a group shot.

We’ve talked about making a garden for years but because of time/budget/and a constant drought we have put it off.  My son is required to do a big project of his choosing  for school that can be about most anything so we decided to finally try our hand at a garden.  It has taken way longer than I’d hoped with us finally planting some seeds this last week…let’s see if anything can germinate in our now cold weather.  I will be doing a whole post on all we’ve done but just wanted to show a glimpse for now.

Here’s the photo we got for our Christmas card this year.  I thought it was going to turn out like the halloween photos because William hates being told he has to stand next to his siblings for a picture.  I have some pretty fun out takes.  It was all looking dark until I told them to grab some leaves and on the count of 3 throw them in the air.  The anticipation of it and now being a game made them all genuinely smile (when Josiah tries to smile for a picture he does like Chandler on Friends and his face looks crazy) and look at us while I was counting.  It was a Christmas miracle that we got a good shot within a few minutes of trying since it was cold and we usually end up having to try 2 separate times.  One day the whole family will all be able to get in a photo and still look at the camera, can’t wait!

Oh look, here’s a picture with us adults in it too!  The kids asked about seeing The Nutcracker last year but by the time I looked into tickets all the affordable ones were gone.  So this year as soon as Fall came I grabbed some of the $15 tickets they had in the nosebleed section for the Austin Ballet.  Of course the way the theater is built there aren’t any bad seats.  We could see just fine.  The only real issue was literally all the people around us were really late and the theater becomes completely black once it starts so they were having a terrible time finding seats, walking back and forth tripping on people,  standing in front of us trying to look at their seats and tickets with other people’s phones, and even arguing with us that we were in the wrong seats (they were in the wrong row).  It looked like something out of a sitcom.  But once all those things got fixed we enjoyed the ballet.  The dancers did an amazing job and I’m happy any time we can introduce some culture into our children.

This was before it started and we were trying to get them to smile.  They were not in the mood to be photographed so the first 10 shots are of grumpy faces. I don’t remember what we said to convince them to act like they were having fun.  I think part of why they weren’t as excited as I expected them to be was I later learned they thought it was just going to be a movie and didn’t understand they’d be seeing it live.

The kids showing off some of their loot from Santa.  Audrey wanted a 3 wheel scooter and Josiah wanted it all (a house, phone, diamonds, 4 large lego sets) but was happy with the castle he got.

Once when Ken pulled out his guitar William went crazy for it so I knew he’d love having his own little version.  He calls his little ukelele “blue song”.  He LOVES all things music and sings, dances, beat boxes, drums, etc all day so it has been fun for him to have this to use as he sings and dances.

There were lots of other things that happened that aren’t pictured.  We had lots of family come and stay with us in September, October, and November but we aren’t good at taking pictures while hanging out with people and some of the ones we emailed from family are too small to post on here.  We really enjoyed that time but it also allowed us to appreciate the mellow Christmas and New Years we had with just us since we were really tired by the time December came along.  For the first time maybe ever we were able to just stay home and enjoy rest and each other while Ken had off work for a week.  It also allowed us to slow down and reflect more on the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

Looking at all the out takes of the Christmas card photos made me laugh so I’m gonna show a few of those in another post.  It’s a shame to never show any of the other ones that don’t get chosen.  They’re the ones with the most personality.

I’ll also be sharing more about our garden as well in the future.

How about you?  Are you able to get all your kids to look at the camera and make a natural smile?  Are you good at taking pictures of yourself with the kids?