Embrace the Camera

It has been a couple weeks since I have actually blogged an Embrace the Camera photo. I still have been doing it. I just have not blogged. Today we are linking up with Emily at The Anderson Crew. 

 I would like to say we had grand plans today to take some photos and just play which we did. I actually had plans to make some Christmas crafts with them.  Then last night I ended up with a very sick little girl. I already have had little sleep the past two weeks due to Ari being up a lot from teething and extra work just needing to get done. The kids are also getting up an hour earlier. I had plans that I would be in bed by 8:45 last night. That did not happen. This was what I was doing at almost midnight.........

This poor little girl could not breath or stop coughing so we gave her a vapor bath. All she wanted to do was sleep. She was not happy I put her in the bath until I gave her colors. Needless to say I was up literally all night. We slept downstairs in the chair. As soon as I would fall asleep she would start coughing and crying. It 

 was a long night. I actually thought we would be headed to the Dr. this morning. I try to wait and see if we need to go, but she felt awful so I thought we would be on our way bright and early. Thankfully after a night of cuddles and elderberry syrup I am seeing improvement so at this point we will wait a bit longer.

I might add that photo was taken with my phone using the Adobe Photoshop Express app which is free. I am pretty impressed. 

Regardless of being sick I still have two other little ones to take care of. Gone are the days of being able to be up all night and sleep with the sick babe the next morning. Somehow we will survive today. Thankfully there are some new Christmas movies laying around that I think we will be watching. I plan to baby gate many areas and just take it easy. It will be a lazy day. I am exhausted. 

I did still manage to get Larry moved last night......................

Silly Elf got in my make up and some jewelry................

The other accomplishment I have gotten to this week was the kids Christmas pictures. I have to say that these pictures you see done always look so cute. Last year I bought the wrong lights and so they did not work. This year I didn't actually know if I would be able to do them. I know I needed a lot of room in order to get good bokeh. Plus I figured I would need my ISO a little higher than I like on my camera and was afraid I would have some noise. Surprisingly they turned out great. The kids all did really well. Eli was posing himself. There are some outtakes he really wanted taken. They are silly. Lilliana is busy but I got her to sit still for two minutes literally and Ari well he is easy.

All in all it has been a good week. I am caught up and for that I am grateful!If the worst thing is that we lay around and watch movies all day.........oh well. I just hope nobody else gets sick.

Apologizing/Forgiveness

Last night I stayed up late finishing print orders for clients. Then at about 11:00 I remembered I have to get Elf on a Shelf done. Thankfully I have everyday already planned so there was no worries about that. I still had to do it.

So I did. I made a giant mess too and enjoyed it. 

Sadly last night of sleep did not go so great. Ari is still teething. All he wants is to nurse all night so we are back to co sleeping only I feel like a sandwich so just got hardly any sleep. I set my alarm for 6 because I wanted to be up before the kids got up so I could see their reaction. Anthony was already sleeping on the couch because the co sleeping just was not working with everybody in bed. As my alarm goes off I hear children. I can understand 6:30 but 6:00 is way too early for them to be up. Anthony was oblivious it seems and so I head downstairs. Eli is picking up my mess in the dark and can't understand why there is a mess everywhere. I send them back to bed. I know come 10:00 it will be World War 3 in the house if I don't. They go back to bed but are playing etc. Finally I just tell them to get up. That is where the video starts.............

The other thing about this early morning thing is I really wish they could just wait until 7:30. I would much rather be using natural light for all these pictures and video. Sadly you get poorly exposed flashed pictures. Oh well such is life. Eli understood it a little bit better today but that is ok. They both cleaned up very well. 

 

We did take some more time and talk so more after the video was turned off aobut saying sorry for things we do that we shouldn't. We talked about forgiveness also. 

Now it is not even 7:00 a.m. and he is asking for the candy that Larry left........ I think it might end up being one of those days. Regardless it is Wednesday halfway through the week! Have a wonderful day. 

We have a Thief

Last night Larry decided to turn into a bandit and steal some valuable things of  Eli's..............

We learned the lesson that taking other people's things is not nice. Eli didn't like that Larry took his money. Larry is now in trouble and will be put in timeout for the day according to Eli as he was cleaning up his money.

Meet Larry

Anthony and I agreed the first year Eli was born we were not going to do Santa. It was a little hard for me to swallow and at times still has been. I grew up doing Santa so I really hoped my kids could enjoy that memory too. I also know that I want my kids to be focused on the real reason for Christmas and Jesus' birth. 

Last year I began hearing about the ever popular Elf on a Shelf. I was very disappointed as Anthony and I discussed again about doing Santa and the Elf and it was decided we would not do it.

This year came around and I really wanted to do it. So I thought of a way we could modify it and still make it relevant. Anthony liked the idea too. So our "visitor" was born. Each year Larry will come for Christmas time. We have to be good examples to him. We need to obey, be nice and kind to our brother and sister so he can go home after Christmas and do the same for his family. They show him what their one job is according to God's Word and that is obeying. 

Yesterday afternoon our visitor was welcomed into our house. 

Eli wanted to name him Larry from the beginning. Lilliana was just fine with that. She really doesn't care as long as she gets to do it too. Anthony and I asked for other names so then he said karate. We decided Larry was a better idea. 

He didn't necessarily like the idea of him being here until Christmas either. He kept asking when we were going to send him back. We assured him that he would be more fun the longer he stayed. He also kept checking to make sure he was still sitting on the ledge. He was insistent he not stay long. Lilliana kept wanting to touch but was good and didn't. She just kept smiling at him. 

Fast forward to this morning.................

As you can tell they enjoyed it and now he can stay longer according to Eli. 

The Big November Catch Up

I don't even know where to begin with this. I could start with some grand story or something but instead I think I will just start adding photos and narrate from there. Basically I am being really lazy and just want to get caught up..................So the month of November in photos................

Since we were sick and did not feel well plus busy with so many other things in October, November 1st rolled around and we finally got to painting pumpkins. Eli did not let me forget we were going to do that. A day late but who cares I had two content children.

Ari is loved and adored by everybody in this house.............

The past month he has really become more mobile and curious. He is very determined and lets you know if he does not like something. He also loves this monkey!! 

He has also learned to blow bubbles and LOVES doing it. I didn't think I would ever see him do it due to his tongue tie but he does very well. This video was while he was learning to do it. 

Just like the other kids have done he has fallen asleep in the bouncer.

He has also discovered his toes! This is something as a mom I LOOK forward to. It is a milestone I LOVE seeing them do. 

 

  Lilliana is getting so big! She is talking so much. Her latest obsession is dolls. She received her regular American Girl Catalog and was mesmerized.

She also has been eating her cereal like a big girl with a spoon. Somedays she decides when it is all done that it is time to put her bowl on her head resulting in a mess usually. Not my favorite thing but it is kinda cute. 

 

She no longer likes the camera and it takes a little bit of coaxing to get any photos or even videos. She learned to flip (somersault)

 She also loves watching the Aristocrats and frequently breaks out in song..........

She is silly, adorable, and sassy! Her hair is constantly a mess due to her curls but we love her sooo much.

Eli.......Oh Eli! He is just amazing. I love him. Many days he talks non stop but he is just funny. 

He many days hates the camera so we don't take many photos. I did finally get him to wear him box man outfit the other day. We were playing dress up. He got this last year for Christmas. He loves the box man. He would not wear the outfit though. I would try all the time. Finally he wore it and now he wants to wear it everyday. My goal is that when the UPS man drops off a package next we get a picture with him. 

 

My kids have also gotten to know the joy of JIFFY POP! Growing up we went water skiing a lot. One of the guys that waterskiied also use to make us Jiffy Pop. I could never recreate his show. It could be called a show too because it was amazing. It is a fond childhood memory I have. The actual popcorn may not have been great but everything leading up to it being popped was. I bought one to show the kids. They were not as impressed as I was as a kid, but they didn't get that great of a show. I know my stove is dirty......Anthony was doing the dishes from dinner as I was making this. 

We have had many warm days. I do love the sunlight as it sets this time of year. It is just amazing. It has granted me some great photos when we have been outside playing at night. 

We also got to celebrate cousin September's birthday. The kids had so much fun. They also love any type of birthday thanks to cupcakes. 

We also were able to see Grandpa Jeff today as he came to visit for a couple hours. The kids loved playing 

with him.

 

It has been a wonderful month. Hopefully I don't ever get this behind on blogging again. It has been nice to take a little break but I have missed it. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post as we welcomed a visitor into our house this afternoon....