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

playing with friends

We've been having some beautiful fall weather here and there.  Isaac and James have some great playmates up the street and we play with them almost every day.

Unfortunately I am running short on patience.  This week has been very trying with the kids sick with ear infections and whiny and I am getting so bad with Isaac's questions.  I pray for patience to answer Isaac's questions every night.  Every day he asks so many questions, so many whys, so many things that are hard to explain or that I don't know the answer to.  Why did the bells stop ringing?  Why is that guy doing that?  A tree fell down on the path, when are the guys going to take it to the wood chipper?  Why do the guys dump leaves in our backyard instead of throwing them in the garbage?  What do fish eat?  Do turtles have teeth?  Why mom why? 
 

Happy Halloween from a turtle and a dragon

Andrew happened to be over when we carved our pumpkins.  He didn't want in on the action, though. 

James was so funny looking way down there for "guts!"  We would scrape some and then he would scoop it out.  Isaac, however, wanted nothing to do with the inside of the pumpkin.  Too messy.  He did draw the face he wanted for his pumpkin--all triangles.  Somehow I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

"Too yucky!"  Isaac says.

I did Halloween on my own this year.  Blake worked his long shifts on the day we had our church trunk or treat and Halloween.  These are pictures from before our trunk or treat.  James is saying, "no cheese!"  (translation:  don't take my picture.)  James barely fit into Isaac's old dragon costume.

 Isaac borrowed his costume from our friend Tyler.  Isaac was mad when people would call him a ninja turtle.  "Mom, I not a injun turtle, I just a turtle."  In case you do not know, Isaac adores turtles and his all time favorite toy is a turtle hand puppet.

And then James decided he didn't like the costume because it was too tight and would never wear the hood again.

We had fun at the trunk or treat and our friend Jenna was so nice to pass out our candy while I took the boys around to the cars.  James got the hang of getting candy really quick.  Yes, please, I'll take that.

On the day before Halloween we went to the History Museum and they did a little trick or treat thing there.  So Blake got to see the kids in the costume and pick up about four treats from the upstairs galleries.  The actual day of Halloween after naps (Isaac actually took one too) we just waited and waited and waited until it was time to trick or treat.  Let me tell you, it was not pretty.  Or fun.  I really really really wished I had backup (a spouse).  I was ***this close to putting the kids to bed at 6 instead of taking them trick or treating.  They were whining and trying to eat the candy I was passing out and just generally driving me crazy!

 see James trying to open some candy?  "No, I said AFTER we trick or treat!"

 This was James' face from about 4 PM until 6 PM.  In his defense, he's been cutting molars and has had a little cold.  But he mainly just wanted candy.

When I said we could finally go trick or treating, there were shouts of joy and Isaac ran at full speed toward our neighbors house.  I love trick or treating in our apartment complex.  Everyone who is passing out candy puts a special Halloween sign on their door so it's like a treasure hunt to the kids to find the participating doors.  And it's the perfect size--not too big, not too small.  About an hour.  We tagged along with our friends Peter and Sam and Anna and Andrew and their parents which made it even more fun.  And then the kids finally got to eat some candy and then I finally got to put them to bed and give a sigh of relief! Here's hoping Blake doesn't have to work Halloween next year.