348 - 364

It's the home stretch! Almost there!

348 of 365: Pretty Lady
I took portraits of both girls this day, and this is the best portrait Olivia I have gotten to date. She's so pretty.


349 of 365: nudity
Yep, the girls no longer where clothes. You're more likely to see them naked than to see them clothed. Please don't judge us.


350 of 365: self portrait
Taken at work, in one of the Christmas balls I hung all over the place


351 of 365: Santa baby
Look! Both girls sitting happily on Santa! I never thought I'd see the day!


352 of 365: beat
taken after a long long afternoon of last minute Christmas shopping


353 of 365: magic
These are Olivia's ornaments (I buy her one from this set every year) and I was playing around with bokeh (the circles in the background)


354 of 365: let me sleep
Vash laid down in this baby bed I use as a prop for newborns. Olivia's the one that covered him with a blanket - so he wouldn't get cold during his nap.


355 of 365: pensive
perhaps worred about Santa?


356 of 365: sugar
the day I baked sugar cookies until I was buried in sugar


357 of 365: chocolate
the day I baked chocolate chip cookies until the package of chips ran out


358 of 365: Not a creature was stirring...
Christmas Eve, right after Santa had dropped by. I must have been on the computer and just missed him ;)


Lets break in the 365 to talk about Christmas. Firstly, I hope everyone enjoyed theirs. We certainly enjoyed ours. This year Olivia truly understood Christmas... she understood that she was going to get to unwrap a whole lot of presents. We'll work on a better message for her later ;) So for Olivia, every time she was done with a gift, she would point to a new wrapped present and say "Owivia open nother pwesent mommy??" She was always very polite about it. Claire wouldn't open her presents, but she would sit next to you while you opened it, screaming "WHAT IS IT!??????? WHAT! IS! IT!!!!!!!!!!!!" I just died laughing.

Christmas day we started at our own home, then we drove to Upper Sandusky. In upper, Tim and I quickly realized that we had forgotten sippy cups. Olivia can use a real cup, but Claire can't (though she can use a straw) To substitute, we gave Olivia her juice in a disposable coffee cup. Hilarious!


This image of Karen pretty much sums up all of the adults feelings of Christmas by the end...


From there, we came back to Columbus, and went to Tims parents house. We attempted a picture of all the grandkids together, but it didn't go so well...

359 of 365: presents


360 of 365: Generations
Three generations of men in Tims family. Oh and Claire. Because she manages to weasel herself into many pictures


361 of 365: snow now??
We had no snow over Christmas. It actually felt very Halloween/Thanksgiving-like in the weather department. Of course it snowed 2 days after Christmas. Thanks a lot Mother Nature!


Since it snowed, the next day we went over to my parents house to visit Haley and Aunt Sue, and play in the show. Got to love a bundled kid.






I asked Haley to throw snow, since it was such fluffy snow, and looked so cool when it was thrown.

362 of 365: SNOW!!!




And Haley tried so hard to teach the girls how to make snow angels. Claire was really the only cooperative one in that attempt, and even that probably had more to do with the fact that she could barely move in her snowsuit.




363 of 365: dropped
Claire has now stopped napping. In her crib. She has, however, taken up Olivia's method of just dropping to sleep where-ever she is. Only Olivia won't leave Claire alone. So here's Olivia sitting as close to Claire as possible, while watching tv and picking a wedge. Love that kid.


364 of 365: snuggie
I love all my presents that I got for Christmas, but it's the snuggie that gets the most attention. I love that thing. Probably because it's zebra print.

Ohio State Fair 2009

I know, I'm behind again... and I'm sorry for it! But I have some great stuff to show, and I'm very excited about it!

But until they're ready....

We went to the Ohio State Fair last Sunday. Saturday night, both Tim and I spent forever trying to get our wagon into the trunk of the rental car. Turns out that while the car (and its trunk) is significantly bigger then our totaled '03 Civic, the opening to the trunk is very very teeny tiny. Funny that our even smaller '95 Civic fit the wagon almost comfortably.

213 of 365: better bring a long the wagon


Tim and I joked that we would have to carshop with the wagon, just to make sure it fit in our next vehicle.

Sunday was Fair day, and I was pretty excited. The girls love animals, so I figured it would be a hit. Olivia's on this big kick of pointing out flags to us (stems from the Fourth of July) So like every car ride, on the ride there, Olivia yells out every time she sees a flag. And when we walk in, she's pointing out all the flags. Then she see's this...



and she literally sighs and says "Mommy, there's just so many flags"

But we loved the animals... the baby cow and the sheep were big hits. We had a few melt downs, but not too many.

baby cow - born the night before


Claire at the sheep pen
214 of 365: farm girl


Olivia managed to completely surprise Tim and I. She tends to be very tentative about new things. She talks a big talk, but when it comes to actually doing the new things, she tends to back down. So we walked past the pony ride. I always feel bad for those ponies... five little things tied up to a circle, not able to go anywhere... just bums me out. But I wanted Olivia to see the ponies, because she's really into horses lately. So she runs up to the ponies and yells "I GET ON NOOOOW!" I think she saw the saddles and knew she could ride them. We figured, what the hey, it's only three dollars, might as well give it a try. Buy the ticket, give it to Olivia, tell her to go to the man manning the gate. She runs off without us, gives the man the ticket. He plops her on a horse, tells her to hang on, and then walks away. And she rides!









I'm just so proud of her!!

Trying a little fantasy

I've seen a lot of fairy edits lately, and wanted to take a shot at it myself. I should be uploading pictures from Aidens party, but I couldn't resist playing around with this picture. How'd I do?