Redeemed

Our second round of Christmas pictures went much better.  Olivia made sure of it - as I was dressing her that morning, she looked at me sternly and said, "Mommy, don't take us to the wrong picture place.  Let's go to the right picture place this time!"  The following are the good pictures...

And then there were some "not-so-good" pictures that just made me laugh!

Olivia was perfect during the picture session - except that we couldn't get the bow to stay very well in her hair.  Lilly was NOT a fan.  She had a bow that she refused to wear.  Her face in the last few pictures says it all.  There is just no doubt about it - taking pictures of the kiddos is exhausting and (almost) impossible!

Afraid of the Dark

Olivia is afraid of the dark, so bedtimes are a little "nightmarish" for us if you know what I mean - she refuses to go to sleep and oftentimes we find her crawled up in our bed with ALL the lights on when we finally trudge up to bed for the night.  It has been driving me crazy trying to figure out a way to deal with it.  This experience has been a window though to her personality.  Jeremy and I came up to bed the other night and found our room decorated with Olivia's toys.  Do you think she may be my daughter?

Who's that sleeping in my bed?  Sleeping Beauty of course!

Icing Cupcakes

Worst. Portrait. Session. Ever.

So a couple of weeks ago I scheduled a portrait session for the girls for Christmas pictures and Lilly's 1st birthday pics.  Although I am a couple weeks early for her 1st birthday pics, I thought I would be smart and kill two birds with one stone, right?  Wrong.  I scheduled an appointment for today at 9:00 a.m.  This required me to get up at 6:30 on a Saturday morning, wake my children (which never happens - only on picture day would they decide to sleep in) and get them fed, dressed, and ready for pictures at the mall, which is a 30 minute drive from our house.  I barely had time to brush my teeth, but the girls looked cute and Liv was primed to smile for the camera (since I bribed her with a stuffed animal from the Disney store if she was good).

So we arrived about 10 minutes early for the pictures, walked up to the Picture People shop in the mall, and realize that the shop is just opening the doors.  Odd, I think.  We go inside and wait for about 10 minutes.  Lilly is trying to crawl on the dirty floor, getting her white hose filthy, and Liv is raising her dress to scratch her "bum" because her dress is "itchy."  I am starting to sweat and wondering, where is the photographer?  The sole girl who arrived to open that day finally comes up to me and says that they don't usually open until 10 and asked the time of my appointment.  Well, 9 o'clock, I tell her.  I received a phone call confirmation yesterday.  I am rolling my eyes and thinking that they have completely screwed this entire session up.  But then something doesn't feel quite right - so I look at the calendar on my iPhone and realize that we are getting our picture taken at the Portrait Shoppe - NOT the Picture People!  I quickly realize that I confused the names of the two businesses - I had intended to schedule our pictures at the Picture People in the Mall but had instead scheduled them at the Portrait Shoppe.

The problem is now that I have no idea where the Portrait Shoppe is located.  I ask the girl at the Picture People and she is clueless.  I finally look up the address on my iPhone and realize it is on Pasadena Drive.  So I call to find out if they can still fit us in (as it is now 9:15) and the photographer is very gracious after I call myself an "idiot" and explain what happened and she offers to take the girls' pictures if we want to come on.  So I tell her that we will just do Christmas pictures so we don't run into her next appointment at ten and I run the girls (in their fuschia pink dresses, white tights, and black shoes) to the car as fast as I can.  The tulle on these dresses is a little big, so we struggle to get into the car seat, but manage.  At this point, Liv's bow is falling out of her hair and she is picking her nose.  Not a good sign.

Jeremy and I tear down Nicholasville Road to Pasadena....and then drive up and down Pasadena looking for the Portrait Shoppe.  We finally come to 144 Pasadena Drive - and discover that it is a mortuary service and NOT the Portrait Shoppe.  At this point, I am in tears.  At 9:41, I call the Portrait Shoppe and find out that they are actually located directly behind the Mall - literally yards from where we originally parked at the Mall.  Seriously?!  I inform them that they may want to update their address on the Internet yellow pages.

At that point, I knew it was time to give up.  So I cancelled the appointment and dragged the girls home. On the way home, Liv starts crying because she "can't get a toy from the Disney store."  Fantastic.  So I promise her a trip to Target.  I ended up with no pictures, but $20 poorer - $5 for the toy at Target I had to buy that afternoon on our second trip out and $15 for the toy I had purchased for Toys for Tots to cover the portrait session at the Portrait Shoppe (a special they were running that no longer applies after this weekend - of course.)

Needless to say, Jeremy did not make it to the football game today.  He said he took one look at my face when I realized that we were at a mortuary service and not the Portrait Shoppe and immediately decided to stay at home.  Not. A. Good. Day.

Not happy to be stuck in the "itchy" dress with no Disney toy...

Lilly wasn't fazed though - she loved the adventure!

Olivia's First UK Football Game

I think her expression says it all.  Lets just say she is definitely 

my daughter and NOT a fan of football.  She did like the cheerleaders though.

Spaghetti Dinner - Yum!

Halloween 2010

"Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!"

She was so pumped about this costume 

(so excited in fact that she has worn it 4 days straight!)

Lilly isn't so certain about this sheep costume...

Trick or Treat!

Where's the candy?

This is the look of a child who is not enjoying Halloween...

Show me the candy!

This was taken right before we sent Lilly home - after 2 houses.  She was MISERABLE.  

The saddest sheep I have ever seen.  Hopefully she will enjoy it better next year.

Going house to house...

Handy Manny (or Bob the Builder depending on your preference)...

Cooper and Uncle Randy

Uncle Randy and Olivia

We took the kids trick or treating this year in Somerset at Grammie and Grandpa's house.  It was really fun - Olivia was very into it this year!  She has been talking about her costume for over a month.  I have tried and tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted on being Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.  Oh well - maybe I will get a princess next year, but she tells me that she wants to be Thomas the Train, so I am not getting my hopes up.  At least I get to choose Lilly's costume until she is 3.  You can tell from the pictures what she thinks about my choice!  Lilly basically hated Halloween - I think she despised her costume more than anything.  Olivia loved it - except for the witches.  One of Grammie's neighbors answered the door in a witch costume and I thought Liv peed on herself she was so scared.  We spent the rest of the night promising her that there were no witches in the houses that we visited.  She is not a fan.  

Trick or treating in Somerset was actually a day earlier than Halloween, but rather than go trick or treating a second time in Lexington (and get more candy that is going straight to my hips), we decided to let Olivia wear her Buzz Lightyear costume (Lilly had a bye this time around) and give out candy.  I swear, I think she had almost as fun giving out candy as getting it.  She ran back and forth across the lawn crying "Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!" and talking to the other little kids.  All went well until the fireworks went off in our neighborhood - lets just say she jumped higher than she ever did after seeing the witch.  I think she is a fan of Halloween, but definitely not of fireworks or witches!