Christmas Pictures

Well Chipper(our Elf) is enjoying his stay at our house.  Hayden gets up first thing every morning and finds him.  She gets so excited.  So far he has landed in her stocking, the kitchen, in their room and today he is on top of the TV.   Chipper has to land high enough for Gracie not to touch, being that I don't think she totally understands and I would hate for him to loose his magic because of it.  It is so funny how this works! 

Yesterday I decided to dress the kids up in their fancy Christmas outfits and take a few more pictures, call me crazy.Right?  However, it went extremely well.  Colton was really into it and the girls did good.  They were excited to be all dressed up.  I got some really good pictures, which is good because now I don't have to keep second guessing myself about having professional pictures done.  I would rather wait until Colton is sitting up completely all by himself before having some more professional pictures done!  The other thing is that I never know how Gracie will do.  I did get her school pictures yesterday and they are wonderful.  She looks like a little doll!  I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to finally replace the one year old picture of her on my TV stand, yes that is the last really good professional picture she took!!! 

Hayden also got a 1st place ribbon on her book from school yesterday, which means that she read the whole book in class without missing a word.  She is doing fabulous with her reading and she loves to read books to me over and over again. 

This was Mark's GA Bulldog Jacket when he was little.  He looks just like his Daddy!!!

Thanksgiving

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving at Grandmama's house as always.  The food is always so yummy and it is good to visit with people that we only see a few times a year.  We went on Wednesday to get our Christmas Tree, it has kind of become a tradition mainly because the tree farm isn't crowded and we always get a perfect tree.  Mark picks out our tree every year and he really does have great taste, in fact he may have out done his self this year!  We were only going to get the tree, and we were going to decorate it after we got done with Thanksgiving dinner, or so I thought anyway. Hayden wasn't going to have it any other way but to decorate it Wednesday night and she was very into it this year.  She was a really big help this year and she was so excited to see some of their old ornaments especially the ones she has made at school.  It was fun! Gracie put all of hers in the same spot, pretty much what all 3 year olds do.  Colton just watched and enjoyed all the pretty lights.  Friday, we decorated the rest of the house with all of our Christmas things and put Hayden and Gracie's tree up in their room.  They were so excited that Mimi had bought us some snow, the kind in the bottle and we used it on their tree too!  We also decorated outside, Mimi was so nice to give us some ornament solar lights and garland for the porch and mailbox, it is really pretty at night.  Hayden has truly enjoyed herself this year!  Gracie and Colton still don't really get into it.  Our house is just simply beautiful this time of year!!!

Today Hayden, Gracie and Colton's Elf arrived.  I cannot even begin to describe how excited Hayden was.  He was in her stocking.  I came into the house and realized he had arrived(heehee) and I went to get them.  Hayden was so excited or shocked that she couldn't hardly breathe or talk!  I don't think I have ever seen her like that, yes I teared up a little bit!!!  Gracie was excited too, but she is still learning.  The Elf on the Shelf is very important.  He is magical and he reports to Santa every night and comes back in the morning and is always in a different spot.  You can't touch him or he will loose his magic.  They named him Chipper!  Chipper is very cute and is making a big difference around here.  Hayden has asked a million questions and I have tried to answer all of them.  I love the way they believe in magic!  They also got the Elf on the Shelf movie, which they have watched a total of 4 times this afternoon.  This has really made their day!!!  I also have prove that they believe really hard because someone dumped all the little bitty crayons all over the floor right where Colton plays.  I had already told them earlier not to do that now that he is moving around and putting everything in his mouth.  Hayden said that she didn't do it, so I got on to Gracie and she immediately got defensive and started getting upset.  Obviously she didn't do it!  I just stood there and said that Chipper knew who did it and would probably tell Santa.  Hayden immediately said "Okay I did it and I am Sorry!"  I had to walk away to laugh!

 

One Little Two Little Monkeys

Yesterday Mimi took us to the movies and we saw Happy Feet 2, it was pretty cute but it was a little bit long so needless to say by the end of the movie the girls were ready to go.  They also had tons of popcorn loaded with butter and cokes.  That is their favorite, well Hayden has to have Cherry Coke.  It is funny that she doesn't forget anything, the first movie that I ever took her to we got cherry coke and now every time we go that is what she wants.  Colton stayed with Nana and Steve while we went to the movies and as always he was a good little boy.   He was sound asleep when we got back yesterday so the girls took advantage of the nice weather and played outside in the trees.  Hayden can climb and flip on anything these days, makes me a little nervous but as I recall I was the same way when I was little.  My grandma used to fuss at me all the time about flipping on the swing set!!!  Funny how then I thought she was crazy and I would never get hurt but now that I have my own little angels, I feel a little differently. 

One little monkey, you should see her she went all the way down this limb and then climbed back up it!  Silly girl!

Two little monkeys, no she didn't climb the tree, she still isn't too sure about heights, climbing or being upside down, I'm sure everyone remembers when Hayden was scared of all those things too...must be some sort of phase!!!  She looks like a little doll up in this tree!

Colton sleeping like an angel!

Calendar and Memories

Every year I do a calendar for Christmas with pictures of the kids on it.  It makes a great present!  Who doesn't want to look at these beautiful faces everyday? This calendar takes a lot of time, I mean I have to pick the perfect picture of each kid for the month and as you know we have tons of pictures.  I also get wrapped up in looking at all of my old photos when starting this project.  I found thousands and I do mean thousands of pictures that I wanted to re post on the blog but made myself only put a few.  This started when I realized that Colton looks just like Hayden when she was his age.  It is unreal how much they look alike.  Although sometimes his facial expression also make me think that he looks like Gracie.  He will change but just look at the resemblance of  Hayden and Colton!!!  These pictures also made me realize that my first baby is growing up way too fast, she is almost 6 years old and it seems like just yesterday I was taking these pictures.   

Who is this?

If you have seen Colton's huge smile, you would know this is where it comes from!

I laughed when I saw this one, same smile and same fat little thighs..heehee!

Gracie's silly faces and Colton can make some silly ones too!  Notice she has a different expression in every picture.  That's my Gracie!

Here he is, the handsome baby boy!!!

 

When I Grow Up

Last night Hayden told us that when she grew up she wanted to be a Georgia Cheerleader, not sure about that one except we were watching the game.  Then she changed her mind back to Doctor and then again to a Teacher, lets hope she either picks Doctor or Teacher...I personally don't care for the cheerleader occupation.  Gracie decided that she wanted to be a Mommy and a Ballet Teacher, who knew she would like ballet so much.  Hayden then decided that she also wanted to be a Mommy, so we told them that they can be anything they want to be. 

Hayden - "when I get grown I will move out"
Mark - "what?  You are not going to live with me forever?"
Hayden - "No Daddy, like when I am 15 I will move out"
Mark - " I think you better stay a little longer than 15, you won't even be out of school yet!"
Hayden -  laughing "okay"

They are so silly, isn't it funny how at 5, 15 seems old!  She is so sweet but we told her that we thought that they should all stay forever and let us take care of them, yes we know that is not how it works and we want them to be very successful.  That is why we are going to enjoy these days right now, while they are still babies!

Santa Pictures

Remember when we went to see Santa and Gracie acted like a little stinker, well here are the pictures.  They turned out better than expected so I am pleased.  The only way to get Gracie in the pictures was to do a whole family shot, which we needed to do anyway and other than the fact Gracie looks miserable it is very good.  It is actually the best picture of myself I have seen in a long time, not that it is about me but it is always nice to like your pictures.  The one of Colton and Santa is so sweet and perfect my little man didn't really know what to think. 

Fall and Christmas Pictures

I tried something new and different this year and I was pretty impressed except that the lighting was all wrong on the first 20 I took.  Oh well, lesson learned, I think I got some pretty natural shots of all my angels and Gracie even performed her own little show all by herself including winking.  Of course then Hayden had to perform too, but they are cute.  They had fun and there was no fit pitching involved.  That is a major plus for Mommy.  I have got some with all three babies and that is totally amazing especially since they were all looking and well kind of smiling.   
Anyways here is what I got today and keep in mind they are not as good as a professional or as creative as a professional but it is my work and I am proud of it!