It's been a while.  I've been busy doing random things that probably aren't very important.  Making an advent calendar, Christmas shopping, making ornaments, etc.  Plus I had to figure out photobucket since I ran out of space for my pictures in blogger.  These pictures are from a while ago that my friend took.  

James loves our neighbor "baby Chelsea" and always wants to hug her when he sees her.  He has the funniest high pitched voice he uses when he talks to or about babies.

I am getting a new lens for Christmas and I had to "make sure it worked".  Here is a typical afternoon.
Cranky after a nap.

It's funny how Isaac used to switch from toy to toy (or Little Mermaid dvd) that he loved and would sleep with, but he's been on turtle for a year now.  He just loves turtle.  When James turned two and started protesting naps I decided he could choose an animal to sleep with.  So now James is totally attached to Elmo.  Takes him everywhere.

We celebrated my brother's birthday.  No, he did not turn 4. 

Thanksgiving happened.  My mom came out before Thanksgiving, stayed a day or so and drove up to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with some other family.  I decided to stay home and support Blake.  He worked Thanksgiving but surprised us by getting home by noon!  It was fabulous because we had such great weather I was able to take the kids out for our own little turkey trot jog to the park and when we got home, Blake was home shortly after.  He got the day after off too so I went shopping at 6 AM.  My mom came back and spent another two days with us before flying home.  It was a nice little visit.  Isaac and James really loved having her here. 

The boys just started posing when they saw my camera!  They are trained. 

And now Isaac wants me to stop taking pictures.

The day after Thanksgiving we had a really fun time putting up our decorations and opening up presents of new pjs, a Christmas dvd, and some peppermint jo-jos.  The kids are still talking about our fun night. 

Here are some out takes from our Christmas card.  Maybe sometime I will finish our cards. 

Oh, here's a peek of Elmo and James for you!

And one day in November I woke up and thought that I should start taking photos for other people.  I have spent enough money buying equipment and enough time learning photoshop that maybe I could do it "professionally".  I emailed my ward and told them I was a beginner but open for business.  Immediately I felt regret and worry and a decrease in confidence.  Six families contacted me so for one busy day I was a real photographer.  It was pretty crazy.  I was so nervous but I think mostly it went ok.  I definitely learned some things and I had to redo a session.  So success? Just barely, I think.  I created another blog where I have posted the sessions I did that day plus some other photos when I was pretending to be a real photographer other times.   photographyportfoliobymarie.blogspot.com