12/30/12

Our Downtown Family Portraits 2012

Our last official "Family Portrait" was when I was pregnant with Kaleb (though we didn't realize that at the time). They were captured by our good friend and talented fellow photographer, Kara Rushforth.

She currently lives/works in Texas, but shes from here and there was no one else we wanted to capture our larger and more awesome family.

So we arranged a photo trade and chose a date and location.

I was so scared it was going to rain that that, but thank goodness it didn't!
Marinda Kennison did my hair (the cut, the ombre color and the style) and make up, the boys dressed themselves and we looked pretty good if I do say so myself.


This was one of my favorites! Love the reflection.

Oh my goodness, he was NOT in the mood for pictures. He was so busy and fussy.


Fighting a smile.

Most of my images look something like this




Mine.


He seriously did not sit still.


Sorry Blake, but if I can look fat in all the pictures, you can look ridiculous in one. Plus I'm getting  a rare baby hug.




this is the best one from that set. Still adorable if not cooperative. 

FAVORITE! 




Kaleb was really digging the train.



Most of the day...

love love love!



love this one too.







He LOVES water






laughing at daddy

last favorite. 


 Thank you to Kara who is amazing and to Marinda who is also amazing.

Oh, and to my boys, whom I adore.

12/26/12

2012 Christmas Card (a Shutterfly copycat)

So for this year's Christmas card (donned with images from our Downtown Fullerton family session) I originally planned on ordering the lot from Shutterfly, found the perfect card and was about to order the one below...
Isn't it cute? This is a low resolution screen capture. NOT printable.



Well the price was not at all desirable  Way too much. Then I found Cardstore.com and they were having 75% off card AND they would label and mail them FOR FREE!
Easy choice, right? Well when I looked at the cardstore.com options, I didn't see any designs I liked. 

So my solution was to make a copy cat design in photoshop. What do you think?
Its not 100% the same, but I really like it. 

There is always a solution.


MERRY CHRISTMAS

12/24/12

Our week with Stinky - Lincy

Quinn and Becky (Blake's brother and sister in law) had the awesome opportunity to take a cruse with Quinn's company just before Christmas and Blake, Kaleb and I were lucky enough to have little Lincoln stay with us! 

I wrote Becky emails the whole week letting her know how her little guy was doing... the went something like this:

Sunday and Monday Morning
Lincoln is perfect. 
Hes supper happy and spent most of last night and this morning watching Kaleb and laughing.
Blake took the boys to mom and dads for dinner and everyone was good.

We gave the boys a bath together (Kaleb in the tub and Lincoln in the baby bath in the tub) Again, Lincoln was mostly curious and watching Kaleb.

Bedtime was smooth. We decided to put Lincoln in Kaleb's room, and I was nervous they would wake each other up, but they were perfect. After bath time  we diapered, lotioned and dresses them. Then it was story time, some cuddles and Lincoln went in the pack and play.

They both fussed for about 10 minutes then it was silent.

This morning Blake gave Lincoln a bottle and he played quietly with his toys in his highchair while I fed Kaleb. 

I love his cheeks, his toothless laughs and he seems to like it when I sneeze or kiss his cheeks or when kaleb gets excited and starts jumping.

Hes wonderful and happy.









Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Morning

Monday after first nap was eventful.
He DEVOURED his cereal. He kept grabbing the spoon and trying to get more in his mouth.
(Kaleb kept trying to get a taste too, and I kept telling him it was not big boy food... he didn't seem to care.)

After that, I decided to take the boys grocery shopping, so I got there at around noon and when I went to take them out of their car seats, both were sleeping. 
I thought it was better to let them sleep and figured I would go in after they woke up...
Two hours later, we finally went in. (so needless to say every ones schedule was off)

I don't normally do my grocery shopping at the Wal-Mart, but they had these awesome carts for multiple babies, so I had to take advantage.




After the store, we went home and played for while, took another nap and when Uncle Blake came Linc went nuts. (I think he sees Quinn in him or something, because he really loves to see him)

That night was awful. Kaleb was up ALL night, which was made worse by your perfect son's perfect example of a slumbering baby. :D

Tuesday morning was good, but everyone woke up at 8:00am, so the schedule was (again) thrown off a bit.

I called your mother, and she wanted to see Linc that day at around two, so I was going to drop him off and she said she would bring him home for bedtime.

So during Kaleb's nap, I was sure to get in my Lincoln cuddles during a feeding and we took a short (15 min or so) nap together on the couch. 
He seemed to really enjoy the one on one time.




Your mom and dad brought him back around 7:30pm after they had fed him dinner and given him a bath.

Last night was much better because we moved Linc's pack and play into our room. :)

This morning has been good so far. Linc slept in his car seat, because he was already sleeping when your mom brought him over and I didn't want to disturb him.
We woke up to his cooing ... and ten minutes later to Kaleb's yells.

It was cold, so after bottles, Blake took both boys a blanket and a heater and tried to warm everyone up.
Kaleb liked being so close to Lincoln and was giving him hugs and kisses. 

He also tried to teach him all about ears




Wednesday and Thursday Morning
Wednesday post nap was the usual.

We all had breakfast and Kaleb and Lincoln looked adorable.
Kaleb enjoyed "tickling" Lincoln's toes (which basically means kaleb scrunched up and said "gitchagitchagitcha" as Lincoln kicked furiously)






Then it was Kaleb's naptime, or as I like to say "Lincoln's favorite part of the day"

Lincoln and I cuddled as he ate and then I put him in Kaleb's jumper and walked around him, pretending to jump in surprise every so often. 
Your son thinks I'm hilarious. 

After Kaleb work up, Lincoln sat in the hight chair playing with his monkey as I fed Kaleb.
We all relaxed a bit more until your mom picked him up at 2:00pm.

He came home around 8:00pm all fed and bathed and ready for bed.

This morning he woke up happy, had his bottle and spit up all over Blake. 
It was ok though because Linc was smiling about it.

Today is Blake's day off, so we're all hanging out today. 




We also broke out Kaleb's old swing, which Lincoln seemed to dig. He ended up taking his nap in the swing. Kaleb tried to push him a couple times too. We're still learning "nice".




So basically, everyone had a great time! I love this little guy and was sad to see him go. We'll miss our Stinky Lincy!