Come on Santa!!!

I've tried to post more time than I can count, mostly our thanksgiving pictures, and the mother effing computer won't stay on long enough to load the pictures. Here's hoping Frankie Santa has listened to my nagging usage of kind words and sugar coated wishes that my macbook will be fixed.

Happy (real) Thanksgiving!

We're having some of the hubby's family over this afternoon, turkey is going in the oven soon and we're decorating. Gotta love it.

{daddy and finney handprint turkeys. finney's chubby little thing? i die.}

Fakesgiving, instagram style

{i was looking cute! gotta love the front camera on the iphone}

{mac did the flowers, i made the grass thing to cover the oasis...proving that siblings can still work together!}

{finney and aunt amy}

{eddie did not leave uncle mac alone. games on the phone, jumping on the bed...he even sat on his lap for dinner}

{the momma's pretty table}

{love this crazy table}

{i suppose this table is pretty good too :)  }

{one of my favorite pictures...finney toes resting on melissa's baby chase bump!}

{ps- can you believe she is due on the 24th? melissa looks so good!}

{my finished from scratch pumpkin pie!! the mini ones were made from extra filling and pecan topping}

{eddie had quite the day. when he wasn't playing with mac, he was making the girls chase him around the house and tackle him. when aunt kelly read to him, he (hilariously) fell right to sleep}

it was such a fun day. i was so sad that i forgot my camera, but i suppose this year's pictures all being instagrams really fits with my obsession, so we'll take it :)

Phone Dump

I'm obsessed with my new iPhone, especially the instagram app. I love, love, love it...so phone dumps are going to be a little prettier around here now :)

{finney's oh-la-la lashes  -  eddie and finn in the am  -   jimmy john's sign "if you do the things that you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them  -  my handsome finney  -  eddie's new favorite bagel and lox  -  storytime before bed  -  eddie's self portrait  -  me and eddie entertaining ourselves while finn nurses in the car  -  mypublisher's adorable box (yay christmas cards!)  -  finney noming my finger, his new favorite activity}

photo limit?

i just tried to put up a new header and it told me i reached my photo limit through picasa. huh? let's see if this posts...

{an eddie outtake from our christmas card shoot, i ahd my settings all wrong but this turned out kind of cute, so we'll leave it}

Done and done!

After my practice picture rounds, today we took our official Christmas card picture AND i even ordered them! WOOOT!! Incase anyone is looking, we went with My Publisher for our cards this year - they included lined envelopes (we got to chose the pattern of the lining) and printing of the return address on the envelope. I also had a coupon code for 10 free cards + 20% off + free shipping. My Publisher is a fairly new company and the best part about that is they're throwing around tons of deals. I've ordered from them previously and have been happy with the outcome, so hopefully these will be great too!

Since I'm not going to be sharing our picture until after they're mailed, I thought we'd go through our pictures from previous years....

{our first family card! 2008. pictures by photosbylindsay.com and designed on the now de-bunked scrapblog}

{not our real card from 2009, but the picture is from the same "shoot" with Eddie. This is the one I posted on the blog...that card was cute though, so I should try and find it!}

{2010's card was a popular one. This picture is by the (always awesome) photosbylindsay and I can't remember where I got them printed. Oops! Photo Affections, I think. Anyone know why Eddie is actually wearing the beanie hat? The day before our pictures (for eddie's birthday) he ate it - HARD - on the porch step and had a giant goose egg and road rash on his forhead. That night I went out and searched for a hat to cover the ouchie. Lindsay was able to photoshop it out of the hat-less pictures, but I loved this outfit with the hat so, so much}

This year was difficult as Eddie hates the camera lately, but we were able to get one good one and that's all I was shooting for! I can't wait to send them out, which means they're going to be out super early this year :)

Can Finney....

"Momma, can Finney play 'rawr'?" ......and I hold Finn, facing out, while we chase Eddie around the house. Baby brothers make great monsters.

"Momma, can I hold Finney?"  ......and he sits quietly on the couch, for just a minute, staring into the eyes of his little brother, waiting for that oh-so-loved smile.

"Momma, can Finney and I play tummy time?" .....and he lays on his tummy next to the baby, cheering when he holds his head high and squeeling with joy when he rolls. Big brothers make the best cheerleaders.

"Momma, can I help you?" .....and he does, holding tiny legs high in the air so I can scoot a fresh diaper underneath. Mommy and Eddie make the best team.

"Momma, is him awake?" .....said as he bounces, gently but sillily next to his brother, trying (not so subtley) to get him to open his eyes.

"MOMMA! HIM'S AWAKE!!" ....and the gentle bounces work.



"Momma, can we put this on Finney?" .....and we've got a new game, dressing up baby brother in whatever we want.

{because who doesn't love dressing up babies in silly accessories?}

(thank god finnegan is an easy going baby)

Practice Pictures

I've been trying to shoot more and more on manual, which is hard and intimidating and 90% of the time I get it wrong, but man..when it comes out right, it is worth it. It would also help if my subjects would sit still, but thats obviously an issue with the littles :) I'm trying to figure out Christmas cards this year, and after our beautiful card last year, I feel some pressure, especially since I want to shoot it myself. Sigh. So this morning we practiced.

{eddie started out happy while I was testing settings}

{and quickly turned into Pouty McPoo-pants. This was during our negotiation...I tried candy, toy from the basement and even the big guns...a box! nothing worked}

{the only thing that actually worked was when Finney "tickled" his arm pit. I really wanted to recreate my favorite time of day...when Eddie comes and wakes up me and Finn and then Eddie and Finn continue to lay and play in bed...Finney smiles and coo's at his big brother who tries his absolute hardest to get those smiles. Since Finn has started swatting at things, Eddie thinks it is hilarious to pretend that Finn is punching him :) this is the most amazing time of the day and I love to just sit back and smile at my boys}

{so Finney and I continued on our own}

{gahhhhhh sooo cute!}

While I don't think we got anything christmas card worthy, I did get some cute ones of Finney! This little man kills me - so freaking cute!

Halloween 2011

Three? Amazing year for Halloween. Eddie looooved his costume and felt so special all day....except when he saw a classmate's football player costume and immediately announced that was what he was being next year....lol :)

{eddie the astronaut}

{with our pumpkins....Eddie told me how to carve all of them except my monster that he's sitting right next to. it was so funny to have his hilarious input this year}

{eddie's serious astronaut face}

{Eddie's preschool class reading a Halloween story at their party}

{eyeball cupcakes that I made for the party}

{mmmmm...eyeballs}

{frank's Frankenstein tattoo...eddie told him he needed it!}

{gah! my most favorite picture of Finn...I needed to post it again!}

{this little man is seriously the most smiley thing I've ever seen}

After how amazing this year was, I'm even more excited for next year. After the first couple of houses Trick or Treating (with Velia, just like last year!) Eddie was saying that he was ready to go home and eat pizza. I think after the long day he was a little Halloween'd out...next year I'm guessing he'll want to book it until we say enough :)

Things I forgot to post...pumpkinfest!

This year was we decided it was the perfect year for Eddie to enjoy Pumpkinfest. He loves carni rides, loves the food vendors and this year, he really, really loves parades. So when I read that the kid's carnival was having unlimited rides for 4 hours for $20, I knew Eddie would get in all the rides his little heart desires and we could probably avoid the freak out when we said we were out of tickets. And it worked!! It was a great day, until the wind picked up and the rain started in the middle of the parade. It was exactly 3 years earlier when Mac and Amy came up for the same parade and the same thing happened, except I'm pretty sure that year it was frozen rain! It can always be worse, right? Good thing Eddie wasn't even phased by the rain :)

{the boys ready to go!}

{the slide on his favorite obstacle course thing}

{happy to be on the motorcycle}

{i love this picture and want it printed huuuuuuge}

{not amused on the flying ride...it was boring for my newly minted dare devil!}

Of course my camera died after just a couple minutes, so there are a ton more pictures on my phone. Now I just have to do another phone dump so you can continue to see the cuteness!

Things I forgot to post....visitors from germany!

A couple weeks ago my momma-bestie and i were reunited :))) I mentioned this in a previous post, but didn't post pictures, so I had to throw these up here. As I said in the other post, about 2 years ago (almost exactly, really) Jesse got stationed in Germany and Nicole and Ethan moved out there too. A bit after that, Kaydence was born (ahem...exactly 9 months.....reunited and it feels so goooooooood!) and then Jesse was sent off to fight in the desert. This was their first time back since they left and we had a ton of fun getting the boys back together and chatting away. Love that girl.

{buddies!}

{nicole, jesse and kaydence}

{i love randomly handing Jim my babies. It freaks him out and makes me laugh. Notice the mirrored expression....neither of them knew what to think of the other!}

{our crazy house....we had the hoodians over so everyone had a chance to see our overseas buddies, it was packed but fun!}

{aunt michelle was finney's favorite of the night}

{keith and eddie teaching maddi to play hockey. poor girl even got all dressed up by the boys, too}

{and of course the boys had to get in on the action....}

It was so fun to have everyone over....the kids all got super crabby past bedtime, but it was still so fun. Nicole and the kids are back in Germany and Jesse is back fighting for our country, so we're all anxiously awaiting having them all back stateside!