Marian is making “eraser pets”-she gets herself in the most awkward positions

We were making Tobin’s star student poster and to display that he loves cars we took this picture, I saw it on Pinterest;)

We think he’s going to turn into a banana or a monkey – he wants to eat them constantly

I did not put Ezra up to this, he came and found me to show me what he made after finding the cars in a heart in his room (gotta love that mama’s boy!)

And, we played some cards, I took this one just to show how in unashamedly in love he still is with his blanket

In case I haven’t mentioned this, this was Kelly’s blanket and they both believe it has magical properties;).  It was knitted by his Grandma Marian for his older sister Kim, Kelly can’t remember how long he carried and/or slept with it but his Mom put it safely aside.  The first 4 years Ezra used it, it looked amazingly perfect but it is now showing wear so I’m afraid it won’t be passed down again.  But, boy is it special to 2 boys:)

Tobin celebrated the 50th day of school with 50’s day, some dressed up in 1950’s attire (we forgot!), they played some “50” games and had root beer floats which Tobin thought was the bomb.  He made a suggestion to have them at home and was surprised that Daddy agreed.  Yum!  Tobin took all the credit for his good idea:)

Mom & Dad came by for a visit before migrating for the winter, that’s what Marian calls it;)

Ezra took advantage of a willing football player

We miss them:)

After the picture expedition, we went inside the museum, they had cool Lego exhibits

And, a place for you to build your own creations

Then we met up with Aunt Faye, Uncle Al, Kathie & kids-the boys had a lot of fun playing with Jack this year-we only see them about twice a year but they get along great

They really wanted him to spend the night but it wasn’t going to work out for this visit-next time:)

I decided I really wanted an entire family picture this year for our cards-now keep in mind that this is my business, I take pictures and make cards for people, so I kind of have a high level of expectation for these cards. We decided (ok, scratch that “I decided”) that going to our favorite village for pictures would be best, I must also say, I was suffering from some guilt and taking pictures of everyone else’s families and hardly any of my own from Sept-November. The day that we could go turned out to be about 40 degrees, rainy and about 40 mph winds! Bummer, because the day before was like 55 degrees (on Thanksgiving). I wasn’t to be deterred because outdoor pictures are WAY better than indoor. There was significant whining (not from Kelly, he was being a good sport, or maybe he was just afraid to get in my way) and I basically said, “hey, we are getting this picture, it’s going to be cold, AND you will have to take your hats, scarves & coats off, so let’s just deal with it and get it over as quickly as possible”, I know, I’m such a good mom:(  I was trying to figure out how to do this without getting my camera wet . . .

Didn’t like this spot

The rain let up a bit, so we quickly found this spot, not a horrible picture but Marian’s hair is blowing in her face

Then we decided to go to the old fashioned replica of a photo studio, beautiful natural light in this place (and it was warm!)

After rearranging some things, and trying to find something to mount my gorilla-pod on, we got these . . .

I didn’t make it in time

Made it into this one but the camera slipped and cut off Ezra

and then cut off Kelly & I (the kids look great though!)

We got an ok one (turned out not to be ok), when I spotted this nice porch from the window

Not bad but too far away and when we zoomed in it was exactly what I wanted but too grainy and Marian’s face is partially hidden:(

And, then I gave up hoping that I had something that would work-no such luck:(,

But I have to say that it wasn’t because they weren’t cooperating, I reminded myself that I take up to an hour with a family, shoot continuously, get about 500 images and keep about 10 percent of those.  Will someone PLEASE come with us next year and help me!