Family Pictures and some other ramblings!

Last weekend my sister was so kind to take some family photos for us!  Despite planning it a few days in advance, achieving "happy kid" status with both my children was pretty much a failed attempt.  Aidan was great!  Owen.. meh, not so much.  First, we walked past the park.. I swear kids have "park radar" and within a certain distance they can just SENSE that there is happiness to be had and their MEAN Mommy is depriving them of that.. that was meltdown #1.  Then, we get to the nice grassy spot where we plan to take pictures.. but, Owen doesn't want to be on the grass.. he wants to be on the sidewalk.. ya know, naturally, because every kid wants to run and fall on the sidewalk and give Momma heart failure that he may smash his teeth or something.. right, so there was that.. and then there was the meltdown because we wouldn't let him hold his cup for pictures.. sigh.  Stupid cup.  Oh right, and there was my bright idea of trying to bribe him by telling him if he smiled for pictures I'd give him a cookie.. except, I didn't bring any cookies.. or any treats for that matter.. and finally, there was just the overall battle with the sun.. because, neither of my kids enjoy sunshine.. it hurts their eyes.. so, yea, it was a fun time!  Kudos to my sister for still managing to get some great shots despite the uncooperative 1 year old!!  (Check out some more of her photography at Http://pictureperfect4you.webs.com)

Love my boys <3  All three of them!  And, my sister for taking such amazing pictures!  She was even so kind as to offer taking some for the Holidays in a few months, too!  You can bet I'll be taking her up on that!

In other news.. today is Halloween.. it's still early, so no trick or treating yet, but we're hoping to get there in a few hours.. and by "there" I mean my Mom's house.. we get ZERO 'trick-or-treat'ers at our house.  I suppose that's probably because our driveway is like a mile long so it probably takes a good couple of minutes to walk from one door to the next door.. bad for efficiency I guess.

What are my children being for Halloween, you ask?  Likely nothing, if Owen were to choose!  Owen despises being dressed up.. my sister had given me some costumes her boys used when they were little (my nephews are 4 and 6 now.. where the heck did that time go?!) and we "practiced" dressing Owen up a few weeks ago.. major fail.. see below for proof!

Yup.  He hates costumes.  I'm hoping that today, being with his cousins and seeing other kids dressed, will make him a little more willing to put one on.. since it's 70+ degrees out I'm thinking we're going to go with the spider.. it's going to be interesting!! I'm hoping to at least get a few "non screaming" pictures!  Aidan man is going to be a little monster.. nothing fancy, just a striped jumper with a monster face hat.. And, I'll likely wrap him anyway (afterall, Halloween was my justification for why I bought my Ooga Spooky wrap!!)..wish us luck!

Beautiful Fall Weekend!

Last week was my first week switching to part time at work.  After Owen was born and my maternity leave ended I returned to work full time.. it was absolutely horrible.  I think I cried at some point every day over that!  I have a pretty hefty commute (1 1/2 - 2 hours both ways), and there's nothing worse than sitting in the car stuck in traffic thinking about how much time I'm missing out on with my baby.. Shortly after finding out I was pregnant again, I made the decision that after baby #2 came along I needed to adjust my schedule.  So, after pressing and pressing at work, they finally approved my reduced schedule request!  Can I just say.. 3 day work weeks are amazing!! I love having 4 days home with my boys -- best decision ever!  Sure, the paycheck was a whole lot nicer before, but the time I'm gaining now with my boys is invaluable :)

It's been a perfect Fall weekend here, filled with tons of fun, laughter and a few big milestones for my OJo! It was such a nice day yesterday that we decided to spend some time playing outside.  I had high hopes of getting some pictures of both boys with the beautiful Autumn trees in the background, but Aidan man had other plans.. instead of his typical 30 minute naps, he decided to stay sleeping the entire time we were playing outside.  Oh well, I'll take good naps over a good picture opportunity any day.  Here are some OJo shots from our front yard:

And, shortly after we started taking pictures, we had some visitors arrive!  My younger sister had just bought a new car nearby, so her and my parents stopped by for a quick hello!

 

And, despite sleeping the afternoon away, Aidan passed out again during dinner!  Ah, tis` the life to sleep as much as you please :)

Yesterday couldn't have ended any better; as I was giving my OJo his bedtime tubby, he said "I love you" to me!  It was the sweetest thing I've ever heard in my life.  The first time he said it (which sounded more like "eye-you"), I thought I was hallucinating.  And then, he repeated it!  Now, let me just say that Owen is one of the most stubborn kids on the planet.. especially when it comes to speaking!  He's bright, no doubt, but doesn't like to do a single thing to please anyone else!! With that being said, the fact that he said it and repeated it was a huge success!! He then said it a third time this morning in front of both me and J.  Made my heart melt!  On top of saying "eye-you", we've also heard him saying "unk" (Chunk is our dog's name) and "up" several times, too!  Timing couldn't have been any better as I was just expressing my concern for Owen's lack of speech to our pediatrician at his 15 month appointment Friday.. she assured me he'd start talking any day.. who knew "any day" would actually be the very next day!

Also.. my other Sister was so kind to do some family photos for us today at a local park :)  More on that in the coming days!
 

Putting a Face to the Name :)

So here we go!  After weeks and weeks and weeks of talking about creating a blog, I'm FINALLY getting around to doing it.. that seems to be a trend of mine lately.  I wouldn't call it procrastination (at least not entirely!), but more so an overall lack of time and energy.  Shortly after my Aidan was born, I told the hubby that I wanted to start journaling.  I was finding that, despite my boys being less than 12 months apart, there were SO many things I already had forgotten about Owen when he was itty bitty (far from itty bitty these days!).  I realized that in the hustle and bustle of life my mind wasn't remembering the details that I wish it would!  At first I decided I wanted to start journaling.. ya know, by hand.. but, that quickly stopped when I realized how much my hand ached after writing a few pages!  So, considering I can type pretty quickly, and I have a slight infatuation with taking pictures of my kids, it all made sense to start a blog!  For now.

In the off chance that someone who doesn't know me reads this, I figured and introduction post might be worthy.. plus, it's always nice to put a face to a name :)

Here we are as a family! 

This picture is one of my absolute favorites.. it's the very first picture of all 4 of us (not counting when Aidan was still in my belly)!  As much as I love photography, it is a very rare occasion when I am dressed and presentable enough for a picture AND that there is someone to take the picture for us!  J and I took the boys pumpkin and apple picking and a kind lady offered to take this shot of us.. that would explain OJo's dirty look.. he's not pleasant with strangers.. I guess that's a good thing.. and, perhaps a personality trait he's acquired from his Momma.. meh, oh well.


My Owen.  Owen Joseph. OJo.  The term OJo came about by accident.. since we didn't want to call him OJ, we planned to just stick with Owen.. until Daddy accidentally called him OJo one night and it stuck! .He is my little character!  Full of personality.. stubborn as can be.. but, hilarious at the same time!  He makes me laugh, cry and on occasion scream.  And drink wine. 

Now my Aidan man!  Our biggest surprise!  When J and I said we wanted two babies relatively close together, neither of us expected 3 days shy of 12 months!! Just the other day we were talking about their age difference.. and, surprisingly enough, we both said we'd do it again in a heartbeat!  Especially since Aidan is such a wonderfully sweet baby!  Goddd, if I knew every baby would be like this, I'd be contacting TLC telling them we're the next "Duggar" family!

And, in the rare event I can grab my camera and snap a shot of the two of them together, our success rate is typically on the lower end!  For example, I've been trying for weeks to capture a picture of both boys smiling.. it has been a failed attempt.. one day, we'll get there :)

 

 Stick around for a wild ride!  It's never a dull day with these two boys =)