Post-Thanksgiving Roundup
Posted by Shannon on January 27th, 2012 filed in News, Pictures1 Comment »
Let’s just dive right in.
Although we were basically in a holiday-induced frenzy from the beginning of November through mid-January we knew we had to make time to get to the Gardens for the Holiday Train Show.
Of course Liam had to take his turn on the ride-on train:
(Matt enjoyed himself, too.)
Paige and I took a short stroll together:
Ahhhhhh.
We went back for a second round of train-watching. Predictably, Liam could have stayed here all day.
“Mom. Why are you making me look at you when I could be looking at trains?”
Both of my babies love this fountain:
One of the major highlights of Christmas for Liam is when we bring out the “trolley” to put around the bottom of the tree. Shocker.
Here are the “Christmas Card Pictures.” Which would make more sense if we actually sent out Christmas cards. Still — here they are.
“Hey, Liam: How do you feel about that train?”
Hold on, the cuteness ahead is almost unbearable…
Ahhhhhhhh. (Again.)
We had a birthday celebration for me and Greatmama at my parents’ house. Here are a few shots from that day:
Paige makes eyes at Greatdaddy:
Liam helps me unwrap:
Anyone who knows me knows I love a one-dish meal. Now if only I can find something in here that both children will eat…
Paige cannot keep herself from climbing in and out (and on top of) this rocking chair.
Case in point:
Ahhhhhhhh. (Once more.)
I have no idea what was happening here, but I couldn’t leave this one out. Obviously.
Making wishes:
Next up? Christmas!
Thanksgiving 2011
Posted by Shannon on January 26th, 2012 filed in News, Pictures1 Comment »
We spent Thanksgiving Day in Decatur, starting out at Grammie & Pop’s house and moving on for the meal at Gran & Granddaddy’s house. We must have been really hungry because apparently we didn’t take a single picture during the meal portion of our trip. Oops.
Here are the pictures from the first part of the day.
Liam reads with GG Dad:
Paige was a little stunned to wake up from her nap to a houseful of people. GG Mom did her best to warm her up a bit:
“Um…excuse me GG Dad…I think that belongs to me.”
L.O.V.E.
Drummer girl:
Piano Man (& Piano Ladies):
“Hey GG Dad, would you care for a head tickle?”
Paige takes it from the top:
One:
Two:
Three:
Four:
The End.
Pre-Thanksgiving Roundup
Posted by Shannon on January 26th, 2012 filed in News, PicturesComment now »
As it turns out, life as a stay-at-home mom of two children who only take one nap per day between the two of them isn’t exactly a cakewalk. This results in basically no time to update here unless I’m prepared to give up hours of sleep (hint: at this point I’m not).
However? Having a playable backyard with a playstructure in it will keep a 4 year old happy for hours. HOURS. Hence, I have finally had time to work on catching up here (yay for wifi 20 feet away!). On the (other) upside? I also don’t have much time to take pictures so I’m not as far behind as you might think. That’s an upside, right?
Here are some pictures from before Thanksgiving:
This girl’s definitely got personality!
Paige in pigtails:
Everyone loves it when Daddy gets home!
Liam and I made turkey cupcakes for Thanksgiving. He was *very* excited.
I’ll keep trying to catch up. Until it rains or actually gets cold outside…
Liam Rides Again
Posted by Matt on January 2nd, 2012 filed in VideoComment now »
We have a nearby playground where a number of riding toys have been “donated” for use by visitors of the park. Liam has mastered the art of riding down the big hill. Behold:
Video from the top:
Video from the bottom:
Paige is Sick
Posted by Matt on December 14th, 2011 filed in Video2 Comments »
Sometimes, when Paige is sick, she makes this awful moaning sound with every breath. It’s particularly awful since there is nothing you can do- she doesn’t want food, drink, being held, put to bed, etc. Awful.
Roundup
Posted by Shannon on December 7th, 2011 filed in Pictures2 Comments »
I found these in a file on my desktop from months ago. I thought I’d already uploaded them here. I’m losing my mind.
“Smile, Paige!” (aka: “My name is Paige Connolly and I don’t do a dadgum thing I don’t feel like doing. Ever.”)
Farmer Paige:
An attempt at getting them in the same shot:
These were taken so long ago that this outfit no longer fits her. Which to be fair is also true of clothes she was able to wear two weeks ago…
“Oh, dear me!”
I just love what sibling rivalry has done for my ability to get good pictures of Liam. All I have to do is try to take pictures of Paige and Liam jumps in front of the camera and volunteers a pose. After failing to get good pictures of him on any regular basis for over a year, this is a welcome change. Just look at this face!
Photobomb:
So sweet.
Cheese!
Why do my children insist on playing under the kitchen table (which is the dirtiest place in the whole house…and that’s saying a whole lot these days)?
Partners in crime:
It’s shots like this one that make me feel justified in following them around with the camera from time to time:
Sneaky girl:
Caught!
“Check me out!”
Another attempt at a shot of them together:
This was the day Liam’s monkey costume came in the mail. He rushed immediately to try it on and gave me this pose which made me feel much better about ordering his costume rather than making it…
Tambourine (wo)man:
Paige gets in on that sweet dress-up action:
A boy and his top hat:
“HELLO MAMA!!!”
Monkeying around:
“Hey, Liam. Show me your best monkey impression.”
Sweet girl:
Paige gives the top hat a try:
Naked wheelie-bugging:
I have no idea what this face was about but I love it.
Love.
One goes in. The other comes out. Rinse and repeat. And again. And so on and so forth. Until someone starts crying…
What is it about a baby on a bug?
After a day at the fair with Gran and Granddaddy:
First face painting experience (he loved it so much that there were tears when it had to be washed off):
Sleepy, happy boy.
Posing in his school-photo-day duds:
You can’t tell how much I’m loving being able to take his picture again, can you?
I have no idea what the context of this picture is, but I love it.
That’s all for now. And possibly for a while. I make no promises these days…
Halloween 2011
Posted by Shannon on December 7th, 2011 filed in News, PicturesComment now »
I’ll refer you to the last post to explain why I’m posting Halloween pictures in December. Also? Baby Girl can’t quite decide if she’s going to give up her morning nap or not but as of this week she’s not napping in the morning. And this? This means that there is no time for anything that does not directly involve keeping children alive. The house is filthy. The laundry pile is impressive. The number of times we’ve eaten food that wasn’t prepared at home (and to be clear: right now I count Trader Joe’s pizzas and giant bowls of cereal for dinner as “prepared at home”) is insane. I honestly have no idea what happened to the month of November. With all that said: here’re the pictures from Halloween.
Monkey boy:
The dynamic duo:
Like Daddy, like daughter:
Getting ready to head out:
As soon as Paige caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror she started giggling and didn’t stop until we got her out of the car. It was awesome.
A banana tree, two bananas, and a monkey:
Paige’s first bit of Halloween spoils:
Love.
We started out at the Koulouris’s house since their street has lots of kids and much less traffic than ours. Paige and James spent most of the time riding in the wagon together while trading candy with each other (or putting it in Liam’s bag: a major big brother benefit). They were adorable!
Heading up a neighbor’s driveway:
Paige makes sure the goodies are safe:
Liam cashes in:
“Look, Dad! No hands!”
We let Paige play with a lollipop she found in the treat bag. Her very high interest level should have been a clue to me but I just thought she’d seen Liam eating one and was mimicking his behavior. As it turns out? She managed to chew through the wrapper and was helping herself. Oy.
Banana bug:
“Whoa, Liam. What a haul!”
Paige got to try one piece of chocolate:
She almost took my finger off going back for more!
We have a “you can eat all you want on Halloween night” rule and Liam took full advantage. Even still? The bowl where we poured the remainder isn’t yet empty. I’m pretty sure this means the statute of limitations hasn’t run out on posting Halloween pictures…
Pumpkin Carving 2011
Posted by Shannon on November 9th, 2011 filed in News, PicturesComment now »
After last year’s “oops we’re too exhausted to live and it’s already Halloween and we completely forgot to carve our pumpkin…good thing Liam’s not old enough to notice and/or care” debacle we made sure to make time for pumpkin carving. Liam was *very* excited.
Tools at the ready!
“Oooooh”
And we have liftoff:
Liam’s expressions during the process were killer:
“Hey, Liam. How do you feel about pumpkin carving?”
Checking out the progress:
My sweet boy:
Getting to the guts of the matter:
Checking out Daddy’s handiwork:
Paige woke up from her nap and came in to check out the happenings:
“Hey, Liam. What’s that?”
“Well, Paigey — that’s a Jack-O-Lantern. Isn’t it great?!”
Finished product:
Liam was very excited to get it outside to its proper place:
Have I mentioned that Liam *loved* this Jack-O-Lantern?
“Hey, Liam — show me what that Jack-O-Lantern looks like.”
All lit up:
Liam had a fantastic time (and Matt was right there with him) and he’s already asking when Halloween will come around again. Also? If Christmas is tomorrow. And? If his birthday is next week.
Soccer
Posted by Shannon on November 8th, 2011 filed in News, PicturesComment now »
A couple of weeks ago I took the camera with me to what was supposed to be one (of two) of Liam’s soccer “games” for the season. As it turned out, half of the other team had a stomach virus and the other half of the team was instructed to stay home as a precaution. So basically Liam had a cheering section for his practice. He loved it.
Liam gets warmed up:
And here’s where he became aware that I was taking pictures…
…and started milking it for all it was worth.
Kickin’ it with Daddy:
Paige takes Pop on a walk:
Liam shows me his stuff:
Paige shows me her stuff:
These days I find that I get the best pictures of Liam when he’s aware that I’ve just been taking pictures of Paige. Sometimes sibling jealousy works in my favor.
Game face:
“GOAL!!!”
Love.
Sun-kissed Paige:
The official warm-up begins:
Paige finds this fascinating:
Paige & Pop:
Paige & Grammie:
Huddle:
“Which way should you shoot the ball?”
This is what a “scrimmage” of 3 year olds looks like (at least for the first 20 seconds or so until there is a total breakdown and people are running off the field or staring into space…):
A rare shot of Paige looking at the camera:
At this point she was still interested in what was happening on the field:
Liam has a tendency to play with the flag when he’s supposed to play the game:
(Note that the other children are largely chasing after the ball while my child is mugging hard for my camera)
Water break!
More mugging:
“Go Team Bananas!”
“Going Bananas!”
Classic Liam move — running in one direction while looking in another:
Although the majority of these pictures may tell a different story, the fact that they were in the process of running in the wrong direction, off their field, and onto an adjacent one was not an infrequent occurrence…
This was the crown jewel of the running-in-the-wrong-direction-off-the-field shots as in this case Liam fully believed that he was scoring a goal. In the backside of the net. On another field.
At some point taking pictures of the scrimmage became harder and harder and I took advantage of the opportunity to snap some of Paige who was having an absolute ball. Pun intended.
It should be noted that she wasn’t walking independently at this point and yet her ball handling skills still surpassed those of half the children on the field:
I would attempt to take some pictures of his last “game” this Wednesday but without the additional cheering section to watch Paige I’m afraid it’s nearly impossible. That girl is on the move these days! Fingers crossed that it goes better than last week (at which time we were unaware that Liam was hours away from tossing his cookies and that his physical complaints probably weren’t solely an attempt to get out of playing the game). At this point I’ll settle for not having to make any trips to the porta potty with both kids in tow…