Let that Wonderful Time of Year Begin

I have sat down to type/write a blog post for almost a week now. Every time I do I get interrupted. 3 kids sure make things wonderful and crazy! I have also needed to take a break from the computer, editing, and just basically working on pictures. Fall was an amazing time for my business. It has also meant a lot of time spent working even at home. I needed a break to recharge and honestly not get burned out on something I love. If it was just Anthony and I it would be no problem. With the 3 kids it just adds a lot of extra so I am working very hard not to over do it and find balance. The good news is I have taken the entire month of December off and I am caught up on all sessions so I will be back to a "regular" schedule of posts. As much as 3 little kids will allow. Sickness has also struck our house several times so that has put us behind. All that to say I have a lot of pictures to catch up on and stories to tell. I plan to post about my parent's visit, and the everyday life as of late. The kids are growing and learning so many new things. I thought I would start tonight with the beginning to the Holiday season. I will catch up the rest of the weekend on "life."

I love the Holidays. My poor husband probably thinks I am a nut case about all the "little" things I get excited for. Every year the city of Lansing does Silver Bells in the City. I have wanted to since Anthony and I started dating. We have never gone because somebody is sick, it is too cold, or we are home visiting my family. Finally we got to go. It was last week Friday night.

Needless to say getting out the door with 3 kids is more complicated in the winter than summer. All the gloves, hats, blankets etc. We add to the fact they are 3 and under. It makes life so interesting. Eli was insistent that we were going to get our pictures taken by the photographer that took our photos after Ari was born. He was very disappointed we were just going to fireworks and not to see Meg. Then he was even more upset she was not going to be there. She made an impression on him. 

I knew we should have left early for silver bells so we could see the parade. Sadly, that did not happen. Needless to say I was not in the best of moods when we arrived. I was ticked at Anthony. There was no place to see the parade. Finally we had the idea along with many others to sit in the top of the parking garage. This was after walking several blocks through throngs and I do mean throngs of people. I also had to go to the bathroom and we lost one of Lilliana's gloves. Oh it was just going to be wonderful.

When we finally got a spot I felt much better. Somebody forgot to remind me 2 year olds get bored easily. They watched for a while though. In fairness to them it was rather hard to see the parade. This might give you an idea of our view. 

I used my telephoto lens to get the really close up photo of the fish float. The parade was still going after about an hour. Lilliana was bored. Ari was screaming. We didn't know when it would end but decided it was time to call it quits. Poor Eli wanted to see the fireworks. We began our walk down when it finished and they got ready to light the Christmas tree. So we decided to watch. Ari was a sleep at this point and Lilliana was happy we had moved onto something else. I am so glad we stopped to watch because then we got to see the fireworks. It was priceless to see the kids reactions. It made up for missing the Fourth of July this year. 

All and all even after all my complaining and griping it was so worth it. I even had to eat humble pie when we were walking back to the car that evening and had  to go a lot longer than what we originally planned due to streets being blocked off. I still had to go to the bathroom. I said, "this is stupid!" Eli promptly said, "Mom you said a word Jesus doesn't want you to say." At first I was clueless then he told me what I said. I had to eat my humble pie and say your right. I love my boy. We can learn some wonderful things from kids. 

Lots of things have happened this week that I will catch up on but today of course we celebrated Thanksgiving. We went to Aunt Tracey's house to spend it with Anthony's side of the family. It was a wonderful time as always. I was very worried I would have to give up some of my favorite things like stuffing and green bean casserole due to being on a dairy free diet. Thank goodness I found recipes to fill these and they were just as good. Anthony didn't even mind them. 

I took Ari's pictures for Thanksgiving. A friend made me some hats that I took pictures for so she has them for her business plus we get to keep the adorable hats. I am going to do the older kids this weekend. Here is Ari's though. My little Turkey. 

Eli usually has the tradition of sitting with Grandma Terri to eat. Today we ate a little different than we normally do. Usually we do buffet style with a kids table. There were several family members missing. Some with their other side, and 3 are now military so they were not able to be home. So  we all sat at the table and passed. It was nice. So Eli sat like a big boy. Ari got to sit with Grandma Terri.

The older kids had pie. Lilliana liked pumpkin pie last year but not this year. Eli loved it last year and again this year. He had two pieces. I figured he would not want it because of the name, but no he loved it. 

While Eli ate Lilliana played at the table and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of her playing peek-a-boo and being at the age she is and avoiding the camera.

Ari was passed around but enjoyed his first Thanksgiving. We were also surprised by Anthony's sister who is a Marine. We didn't think she was going to be able to be home for Thanksgiving. She did get to come home. It was such a nice surprise and we are excited to spend some time with her. We also found out she will be joining her brother in Japan. I am excited for them as they are so far from home but will be able to be close to each other. We miss them so much. It has been an exciting start to the Holiday season. I can't wait to begin our 25 days of Christmas and a couple other things I have planned for the kids. I also plan to get caught up in "blogworld." I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for.

Ari is 4 months

My sweet boy turned 4 months this week! I can't believe it!! He is rolling all over the place. He loves to squeal and make high pitched noises. At the moment he is sick. He also is a big thumb sucker and surprisingly has no teeth yet the other two have had at this point. He has finally stopped the screaming all evening thanks to a diet change for me, and instead become a very happy drooly baby!! 

It is hard to believe one year ago yesterday I found out I was pregnant with him. I can't even begin to describe the emotions that came with that. While it was a hard thing to think about at the time I am sooo glad it happened. God knew exactly what we needed. It was also thanks to finding that out my wonderful friend gave me the idea of these series of photos. One year ago we started them. They went much better then than  they do now:) The middle child well she just does not cooperate anymore. In fact Ari grabbed onto both of them today when I laid him down and Miss Sass did not enjoy that. So here are the photos from last year and the ones from today, although I can't even call them that good but it shows the personalities and how they are growing. 

Spider-Man and Raggedy Ann

It is Thursday so time to Embrace The Camera. 

We have never done Halloween with the kids. This year we decided to do it. I had originally thought we would do Raggedy Ann and Andy. Eli didn't really want to do that and I didn't feel like spending $40 on a costume. Instead he was Spider-Man and we used cousin Chloe's costume from last year for Raggedy Ann for Lilliana. Ari and Anthony were too sick so they stayed home. 

We started off the evening with opening the annual Halloween card from Grandma Gloria and Grandpa George. They always send them and as a kid I got one too. 

Then we headed outside to take a couple pictures. The kids were great and posed and smiled etc. for me. Eli was so excited he could hardly contain himself. He kept asking when we were going to go and if we liked his costume. Lilliana was just excited because of Eli plus she loved her fake hair. 

After pictures I loaded the kids up and we went to Aunt Toni's house. Lilliana figured out the "trick or treat" part before Eli did. Eli was just being stubborn about it I think. Either way they LOVED every minute of it.

 

After Aunt Toni's we went to Grammy's house too. That was the extent of our Trick or Treating since they still had a mild cold.

We all had fun and for their first Halloween I think it was a hit. Eli told me it is the funnest thing he has ever done even better than Christmas. I don't think that is really the case but he was very excited about it.