The Day Parker Refused to Take Family Pictures

Y'all..... it's Christmas card picture day and as I suspected but prayed against..... it was a disaster. Everyone woke up in good moods. The time change gave us ample time to get up, get ready and eat breakfast since Miss A woke up at 5:58am... SO close to not seeing the 6 o'clock hour! We talked in the car that good behavior meant a friend could come over and play and he'd earn a NEW train. He picked Paxton. Well... I'll just say his playdate was cancelled and Paxton has been put in storage for Christmas. 

I DO think we got a few good ones despite the fact that he would ONLY smile if he were running and tackling me and he refused to wear the vest I spent days trying to find. Children.... Poor Avery's face is still scrapped up and she just ran around kicking a football or being thrown in the air pretty much the whole photoshoot. I totally lost my cool with Parker which resulted in a phone call apologizing to the photographer. I put SO much effort into organizing this. Jotted down shots I wanted to "try" to get. Picked out just the right outfits. Appliqued Christmas shirts for the kids.... the works. I was SO bummed on the way home that we stopped by Starbucks for a "cheer me up red cup Starbucks" but the line was SOOOO long (church crowd!) that I just grabbed some International Delight caramel macchiato iced coffee and taquitos.... lunch of champions my friends. Despite being a committed lover of Starbucks, I think I'm gonna start having an affair with this ID iced coffee. It's THAT good... just don't look at the ingredients or nutrition facts.

After we got home, I sent Parker outside to the swing set to play out his grumpies. He came inside 15 minutes later saying he was itchy. Poor kid got bit by ants at least 10 times on his face, neck and hands. I felt so bad for him. I can't stay mad at him long...especially since he keeps coming up to me with a HUGE smile and saying "Look mommy! I'm smiling!" If only you had done that 7 hours ago, love bug! Bless his heart. You win, Parker.... I give up on photos of you for a while. When you're older and you wonder why I only have pictures of Avery just know I love you equally and I tried!

After Miss A's nap she wanted to go outside so I took her to walk the neighborhood trails. I thought she looked SO cute in her new outfit (I LOVE Smockadot packages in the mail) so I brought the camera along. At least this one still enjoys having her picture taken!

I'm excited to get our pictures back in a few weeks. They always surprise me and make it worth the "experience." Even if Parker is having a meltdown in all of them I'm sure eventually I'll look back at those pictures fondly and laugh at the day I spanked my son because he wouldn't stand next to Avery so we could get a shot of our shoes.... it seemed really important at the time.

PERSPECTIVE

Christmas Card Conundrum - An Ode to Old Navy

Just killing time before I can get the littlest lovie down for her nap and then sneak out and run errands. No worries... Daniel is working from home today. No, I do NOT leave my children at the house alone to run errands even if I actually think Parker wouldn't notice I was gone for at least 62 minutes... the length of Blue Mountain Mystery. 

We've got our family pictures on Sunday for the good 'ol Christmas card. How is it already Christmas card time?! So here's my debacle..... I didn't want the standard "everyone in coordinating neutrals" picture like I did last year. I'm in a colorful phase right now with my $19 Old Navy color pop jeans that you KNOW my kids will laugh at in a few years and I will regret terribly (anyone having visions of puffy sleeves, shoulder pads and acid washed jeans?). So I set out a month ago for outfits that said "we just put this on and it happens to look good together and Oh hey... there is someone taking our picture!"  Avery had a leopard sweater dress and tulle addorned leggings Parker had a plaid shirt and puffy vest. Daniel a collared shirt, sleeves rolled and jeans and I had cobalt blue jeans, kelly green cardigan and a necklace that brought it all together. It was coordinating without being too matchy matchy. I was pleased and no longer loosing sleep over it.... a sad but true fact.

Then I checked the weather on Wednesday and realized at 9am on Sunday morning (yes mom, I'm skipping church for family pictures) it's gonna be freezing... literally.... like frost on the ground cold. I'm having to scrap my very planned and purchased ensembles for something warmer. After looking in our closets, I decided I could go 1 of 2 ways.... funeral chic or Old Navy ad bright.

Everyone but Avery has nice black peacoats or winter coats and I know I could easily find one for A but I'm worried pictures in the woods in black coats might look like we buried a family pet and were memorializing them with a family service caught on camera. 

So Old Navy ad bright it is.... obviously, I would prefer for it to not look like an Old Navy performance fleece ad (are you singing the jingle yet?) but lets be honest... man in a thermal shirt and puffy vest, woman in a yellow peacoat, son in a plaid shirt and puffy vest and baby girl in a pink peacoat and colorful leggings is only a dog in a hat and random black child short of an Old Navy ad. 

Wise Family Christmas Card Preview

I called my fashionista sister who lives in NYC for her opinion but she's pretty busy with bigger problems like lack of power and water. I called her the other day to discuss color combinations and she was walking like 60 blocks to see if her apartment was broken into and if the power is back on. I felt like an ant but I suppose now we're even with bad timing phone calls. When she was in college at UNCW, she called me from the beach telling me she was having "the best day of her life" and then asked what I was up to.... you know.... just getting my 1st round of chemo. Now I'm gonna have to quit holding that over her head since she has ammo of her own! I digress.... back to my ""problems"" .... which deserve double air quotes and I KNOW they aren't actually PROBLEMS so much as they are conundrums.

 

In all honestly, I AM excited about our "Merry and Bright" photoshoot as I'm calling it. Maybe Old Navy will love our ode to them SO MUCH that they'll buy the rights to our photos and we'll be thousandaires. 

Now off to get little lovie to sleep so mama can go pick up Parker's vest that's on hold at Gymboree, bribes for smiles and a football for Parker to hold in the pictures in efforts for his train collection or Woody to NOT be in this year's family pics. Kid doesn't know what to do with his hands!

 I couldn't resist!

Halloween 2012

I hope you all had a fun and candy filled Halloween! Ours was perfectly low key... just what I was hoping for! Last minute I was able to wrangle Parker into his costume (it was a 2 person job) despite his insistence for a month that was would be "nothing." If he genuinely was having a terrible time, I wouldn't have made him dress up but sometimes he just needs a nudge and then he has a great time. Avery was SO excited to get dressed up again and even got upset when we had to take her fairy wings off for bed. I was sure they would only last for pictures but she wore them (and the hairbow!) the whole night!

 

I was admittedly a bit of a Halloween scrooge this year. It was Wednesday night and Parker had school Thursday morning so we were dressed and trick or treating by 6pm. We hit up a few friend's houses around our neighborhood and then came home to hand out candy. Parker was comfortable to just be along for the ride. Avery, on the other hand, was on a mission for copious amounts of sugar.

Once we got to houses he recognized, Parker came out of his shell a bit and enjoyed the trick or treating experience.

Note the smurf is picking his nose.... I love finding treasures like this on my camera the next morning!

Grandma (Daniels mom) joined the trick or treating fun. It was nice to have an extra pair of eyes even if we did trick or treat while it was still light outside! 

Avery cracked me up. When someone opened the door, she would just walk straight in as if we were touring homes. She would check everything out and then come back to the candy bowl. I suppose it's a good thing we only went to our friend's houses! Stranger danger! Girlfriend had a great method for picking what piece of candy she wanted.... 100% of the time she went for the shiniest package so we scored a lot of TWIX! 

Parker went with the "Bigger is better" method which worked out really well for avoiding smarties and tootsie roll pops Come on people... no one wants those!  Parker requested to come home after about 8 houses and I was totally fine with that. He enjoyed a showing of "Thomas and Friends Blue Mountain Mystery" courtesy of his dad who brought it home from Redbox, scoring mega Parker love. Avery helped us hand out candy to the rest of the trick or treaters while showing off the dog's costumes. 

Before we had the kids, we dressed our dogs up for Halloween. I'm a bit ashamed to admit they have 6 costumes. Daniel picked these out of their dress up bin (yes.... I just admitted my dogs have a dress up bin). They hated it were thrilled.

Moses is supposed to be a hot dog but looks more like a bratwurst since he's a bit on the rounder side and Ellie is a dragon. Heaven forbid Daniel put her in a girly costume! Poor thing... she pretty much just barrel rolled until I saved her. I wouldn't want to be a dragon either, pretty girl!

I was successful in my mission of having a fun Halloween while still getting the kids to bed on time. I forgot to turn our light off so we did have a group of trick or treaters ring the doorbell and wake A up but all things considered, a great night! Avery even slept through the night (7:30-6:15! WOO HOO) Best night's sleep EVER for her and Mr. Parker was bright eyed and bushy tailed for school today! :) Score one for keepin' em on a schedule and still having Halloween fun!

Today I went to 2 different Targets trying to find princess dresses and super hero costumes for a dress up box for Christmas but others mamas must have beat me to them! I did find a garden gnome, colorful witch and lady bug for Avery and a firefighter for Parker but I've still got my eyes open for costumes on clearance! Let me know if you see any!

Halloween is officially over... onto Thanksgiving!!!!!

My Outside Girl

Avery is an outside girl! She spends a good portion of the day trying to put her shoes on and banging on the door. We usually take an afternoon stroll around the neighborhood walking trails to burn some energy and since daddy was working from home today, we took our stroll during Parker's quiet time, just the two of us.

She is loving playing in the crunchy leaves!

Absolutely out of focus but cute nonetheless!

Such a happy girl!

What a ham!

I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween!