Our Family Picture

I thought I would snap a picture of our family for the Christmas card by using the self timer on my camera, and a tripod. Then I lent one of my studio lights to my brother in law and so we decided to go over to their place for the picture so they could take it. Man I was glad I did that! It was SO hard! A 3 month old and a 3 year old who can't keep her hands off the 3 month old, combined with a cranky husband (he always gets cranky when I want to do pictures....surprise!), made it VERY difficult even with someone else snapping the picture! Thank goodness my sister in law Jenn stepped in to save the day! She also does photography so it was really nice that she was there to help! Thanks to her and Landon (for holding the magical sunshine that gets Liam to look and sometimes smile) we were able to get this great pic! I did have to photoshop Liams head from another picture though. And I also had to liquify my face and arm a bit to get rid of the baby weight I still have! lol!

Here is some backblogging...

With all the craziness I never posted anything from the summer. Well I finally got these pictures off of our point and shoot, and thought I would blog them!
Bella made a new friend this summer, Parker, and when we went to their apartment there was this truck in the parking lot. Bella started to laugh and pointed saying "Look at that car! It's all tangled up!" It cracked us up so I had to take a picture! :)


At the beginning of summer, Ryans' mom hosted a "girls weekend" at the lake. Moms only! So Ryan got to stay home for the long weekend with Bella, and since his brother had a scouting thing he had to be at, he also took our niece! They had so much fun having a sleepover, but Bella was having a hard time...I guess the word is sharing? She just wanted everything her cousin had. If she had it, it was the best. End of story! It made for a very exhausting weekend for Ryan! :)


Her absolute favorite thing to do at the lake was ride the "foy wheeler" this year. She took every opportunity she got. Luckily mom doesn't know how to drive one (by choice) so she didn't have to take her on any rides, but she wore Ryan out for sure!




It must have been mating season...these two were just hanging out on the driveway in plain view. No shame! lol! Click on it to make it bigger. It really blows my mind that my point and shoot camera caught so much detail...also it's SO weird how they mate...we can't quite figure it out.


Bella loved the beach this year. Playing in the sand was her favorite, but she also loved to jump over the "waves"!








Yes I know she looks naked, I assure you, she is not. She had just started writing her letters a lot better so Ryan snapped this cute shot of her! Her 'E' now has three lines like it is supposed to! lol!

One for the Christmas card! :)

So I had about 5 minutes of Bella holding Liam before he lost it! So this was the best I got! I wish he was looking at the camera and smiling (right?) but he gets really nervous when Bella is around! lol!






















Also about a week ago we started decorating for Christmas...yes that's right, BEFORE Thanksgiving! So shoot us! We love Christmas! Monday for family night we put up the tree and decorated it! It was so much fun! Bella and Liam got to open their new ornaments...which I failed to take pictures of. Bella got a ballerina one since she is obsessed with dancing this year and actually shows real promise in the ballet dept! Liam got an airplane, and I got Ryan a grinch one since he is somewhat of a Grinch around Christmas! ;P I'm mostly kidding! :) Here are a few pics from it. Yes the two of the decor are blurry...I was too lazy to set up the tripod....sad, I know!

Liam's baby blessing

Liam was blessed this last Sunday, November 7th! It went really well! I got up and bore my testimony in like the first time since me and Ryan have been married (6 years!), only cause I thought I had done it at Bella's blessing also, which Ryan informed me after that I had not. I just felt guilty doing it at one kids and not the others...and now I still feel guilty...for not doing it at Bella's! :) Anyway Liam looked super dashing in his getup! And super chunky! A shirt & tie really bring out the chub in his face!

Yes, yesterday was the fall post...

Today is the winter post! It snowed a little bit today. Not the first snow, not by a long shot. We had about 3-4 inches a few weeks ago, and then had some great mid 60's weather, but I feel that fall is coming to a close! :) Bella wanted to go out and "play" in the snow...which there wasn't any to play in, so she just went out and did jumping jacks in it and "ate" some! :) While I was taking the pictures she made the comment "Mom you're just taking lots more pictures of me than Liam!" Sad that she is lacking attention that much, that this meant the world to her! :)

Fall in it's prime!

Fall is probably my favorite season here.
It's so pretty, but also the temperatures are so nice!
(Today was actually a cold day though).
Anyway we have these four great big trees in our
front yard that produce the BEST fall leaves. When
I was a kid my favorite part of fall was when
my dad would rake up all the leaves and let us
jump in the piles! So today after lunch we all went
out and raked leaves and jumped in them.









Bella helped rake with her little kid sized one!






















Then decided to sit in the pile...she wasn't too thrilled.






















But moms idea to jump in got her excited!






















Of course then Ryan had to join in! Gotta love the faces he pulls! :)






















Liam cheering from the sidelines...

















Then of course mom had to have a turn...not too flattering of a picture :P

Some more pork...

Look at this Porker!

2 months old and he already weighs as much as Bella did at 5 months! 13 lb 14 oz! He is 97th percentile for weight, and has grown 3 inches since birth putting him in 75th percentile for height! He is a big boy! I can't keep up with his growth, he is constantly growing out of clothes, and for his baby blessing Sunday he wore a vest that is a 6-9 month size! (I will post pics of that soon hopefully!) And check out that neck strength! I feel like he's been able to hold his head up since birth! He seriously has some crazy strength in that area! His pediatrician just kept commenting over and over how huge he was and that it was crazy how well he held his head up! She said if she didn't know she would swear he was older than 2 months! :)
Also he IS smiling now, but I have yet to catch that on camera. I have been pretty busy lately but that is my goal for his 2 month pics I will be taking in the next few days. I got a slight laugh out of him today too, but only one...soon enough I suppose.

Halloween!

Bella was a cute little witch for Halloween. Funny how she went from being a princess last year to a MEAN witch this year! Yes she wanted to be a mean witch, and boy does this fit her personality at the moment! :) Princess last year, witch this year! She has definitely been giving us a run for our money. Too bad she wouldn't let me put the witch makeup on her face...so she doesn't look all that mean! :)






















Here is Bella and Liam in their costumes. I looked and looked for a cute monkey costume while I was on bedrest for Liam, in a 0-6 month size but couldn't find one anywhere, so I moved on from cute and cuddly, to funny! A Chili Pepper! How lucky is he! And doesn't he look thrilled! He wore it for a total of 5 minutes! :) What a waste! He hated the thing, and the hat was huge on him! Lesson learned. Just buy a "Baby's first Halloween" onsie and call it good if they are under 6 months!






















Here is Bella's witch face! I also dressed up like a witch to take her trick or treating. It was super miserable weather to trick or treat in. Gray and drizzly and cold...not to mention windy! My hat kept blowing off! :) Bella didn't last too long, but mom thinks she got PLENTY of candy! Between the four halloween parties she attended plus trick or treating, she has as much back as we handed out! Too much for one person! Good thing she has such great parents to share with!

"Mom take my picture"

I was taking some pictures the other day of Bella holding Liam when all of a sudden Bella said "Mom take my picture over here"...







































She then proceeded to literally run from place to place in the room posing all cute for the camera. I guess she misses the days when I had time to constantly take her picture! :) She hated it back then! :)