Photography Mayhem

This week I tried to get some fun cute photos of the children all together. As it turns out they cannot coexist peacefully in the same photo. However, it is because of this that I was able to get some pretty funny shots that I thought I would share for those of you that may care to see.

I just love the smile on our big boy. He is all smiles when we put him in this chair because when he sits in this chair it means it is either time to eat or play.

Grandma sent fabulous decorations for Valentines day so we decorated the kids bedroom doors. My son thought it was a little girly for his liking but told me it would look ok if I put some orange hearts on his door. I've yet to do this, but he does not seem to mind.

A future Bond.......James Bond. Seriously how handsome is he.

Just when you thought there was nothing more beautiful than that little angel, we show all three little angels.

I love this picture. My youngest making crazy Italian hand gestures with a facial expression that seems to say, "What's the matta wit you". My daughter looking at me as if to say, " really, really, you are really making me take another picture". Of course there is also my oldest son who is ever in awe of the baby.

Smiles, I finally got two out of three to smile.

The baby finally looks up and looks so much like his dad.

My oldest son seems to be soaking in the imaginary sunshine in this photo.

Saturday we had the opportunity to go with some other members of our branch to help clean the church. I am always especially impressed with our single friends that work long difficult hours and rather than sleeping in or going out and blowing off steam with the rest of their friends they get up early and come clean.

This is where we get to go to church. One of the neat experiences we had this particular morning was that while we were cleaning some of the local members of the community were cleaning out the berms on the sidewalk and planting flowers. Apparently this is very common, everyone in the community gets together and takes care of what needs taking care of to keep things looking nice. We are so thankful for their kindness in planting flowers next to our chapel.

We loved that children were working with parents and grandparents, everyone working hard side by side. My husband and I decided that is something we want to instill in our children. My only regret was that we had a previous obligation and so were unable to stay longer to help out.

Back to my attempts to capture a cute candid photo of all three of my children together.

My oldest son looks like he is yodeling in this photo, don't you think. "Riiiicooolaaaa."

My husband had been burning the candle at both ends and during a few free moments on a Sunday afternoon decided to pass out. I walked in the room to find my daughter, who had not seen dad very much that week, just watching him sleep and eventually laying her head down next to his.

OK, so the cutest candid photos actually need to be candid.

Friday the 13th

So today was one of those days when things go so aria in such a cartoony slap stick way that you have to laugh and cry at the same time. By the time dinner rolled around we had all lost our minds and seemed to prove that insanity was contagious. So rather than trying to deescalate the situation, my husband and I embraced it, much to the approval of our children. Here are a few photos to recapture our evening of madness.




My husband's family has a tradition of Nerf wars when they are all together. It has become a daily way of life in our home.

I think this picture is pretty self explanatory.

My eldest son and I had fun dressing up the baby. My oldest son is the sheriff in our house, really, he actually has a badge and when we need a task to distract him and keep him busy we send him patrolling the house to make sure there are not any bad guys. Tonight he lovingly passed off his hat to his little brother to barrow and deputised him.

We introduced our sweet baby to bubbles, it was a big hit.

How cute is this little guy as he just sits back and observes the madness.

This is my son giving us a "what up yo".

So as our children were eating their ice cream my daughter seemed to transform her looks into some kind of super villain. She had a full chocolate go-t that got wiped off just before the photo, but at least she kept the mustache. I don't know what was funnier, her facial expressions, or my husbands villainous impressions.

Birthdays and Christmas

Our son's birthday kicks off the month of December and this year he made it clear he wanted a Scooby Doo birthday, so that is what he got. When the time came to brake the pinata he didn't like the idea of hitting Scooby but eventually the idea of candy got him over his discomfort. When swinging at it with a stick didn't work for him, he started punching and kicking it. Mom finally took a swing at it with a descent size mag light and that did the job.
Included in the party paraphernalia were googly eyes. These never cease to be amusing to my children.
Here comes the Scooby cake.
Between birthday and Christmas my husband and son went on an outing together and stopped to look at the base Christmas tree.
This is just a cute picture of our youngest. When he was making this face we were cracking ourselves up with the funny things he might be thinking that caused him to make this face.


Finally, it was gingerbread house night. Early in our marriage some good friends of ours gave us a gingerbread house kit as a Christmas gift and we did it for family night. It was so much fun that we decided a tradition had been born. Our children especially look forward to gingerbread house family night every year. This year Grandma was kind enough to help us keep the tradition going buy sending us the kit, unfortunately some of the pieces got a bit beaten up. We made due and it turned out to be one of our funnest gingerbread houses yet.

We entitled it, "When Avalanches Strike". Notice the poor gingerbread man pinned under the roof of the gingerbread house.
So finally Christmas morning arrives and of course our two oldest are ready to get things rolling, our youngest opted to sleep in. We let him.
We decorated the boys ( our soldiers ) for Christmas, check out P. Chang here.


Yes my daughter is actually wearing her crown as just part of her sleeping ensemble.

Our youngest finally woke up and was more that thrilled to chew on and play with new toys and still had a death grip on his faithful giraffe

The next day it was perfect weather to go out and try out some new toys. Our two oldest got roller blades and it was fun watching the try to figure them out.
I love my happy family.