Catching up with photos

You know I can't let too long go between posts with pictures.  Because really, my blog is worthless without the photos.  Today we went to cut down our Christmas Tree.  That made me realize that Fall is really behind us, and winter should be here soon.  We have had very little snow so far this year, so our Fall has consisted of mainly rain and brown leaves.  

Last year, I was so excited one day to find my inlaws with huge piles of leaves in their front yard, before I realized I didn't have my camera.  This year, we made an event out of it.  We weren't all that impressed.    

 She is much happier being held, of course.

 A boy and a dog, I loved this shot cropped in of Ben and my Inlaws dachshund Toby.

This is one of those pictures where you can really see a difference after her haircut a few weeks ago!

 We do enjoy tormenting babies around here.

Mia turned 5 months!  We switched to glider photos, and I can't believe how big she is getting.  Well, not big, girlie only weighs 11 pounds.  We have her 6 month appointment on Friday (!) and I am curious what the doctor is going to recommend.  I only have three days left of my long term subbing assignment, and I feel a visit to the LC coming on.  So far, nothing but breastmilk and some homemade baby food has gone into that belly, and I really hope I don't have to supplement.  

And here is my lame attempt to show that we missed 4 month photos.  Sorry baby girl.

This is the best I could do with a kid photo on Thanksgiving.  Yes, Ben has his "boo cup".  No, I don't have Mia in the picture.  But they were sitting still, so there you go.  Somewhere, my SIL has a picture of all three of them, I think!

One of our family traditions is to get pieces of the skin of the turkey when it is being carved.  It is something my cousins and I have always loved.  Excited for the kids to try it this year. . .they weren't interested.  Andy also thinks it is gross.  But it is a tradition that I know we will pass down.

Ben was pretty excited about dinner.  This year, they ate squash, sweet potatoes, rolls and salad.  I think.  This is so much better than the first year of the pureed turkey incident.  Ew.

My best friend Beth and her family came to stay with us over the holiday.  They recently moved to West Virginia which means they are now only 3 hours away.  This is the closest we have lived in years and years, and I am so excited that we will be able to see them more.  She did an awesome blog post about our weekend that I am going to just cheat and link to if you are interested.  So here are her highlights, I decided to do some of the out takes.  

Our husbands are excellent sports when it comes to indulging the photo hobby.  

While we were setting up for our Christmas card photo shoot, the kids decided that our stool made a better table.

Here is one of my favorites of Maggie.

And my favorite of Ben (who was not being cooperative at all!)

And a funny one along the cautionary line of pay attention to what is in the background of your photo.

Beth said this series of shots looked like ads for clothing.

Maggie had decided very early on that Gabe, though only 6 months younger, was clearly someone she needed to be in charge of.  We told her to take Gabe where we were going, and she grabbed his hand and led him around.  The fact that he is bigger didn't bother her a bit.

Ah, potty training.  Thanks to my "paparazzi" lens, I was able to get this shot of Daddy and Ben in an important right of passage.

I was so proud of Andy when he actually got out the camera recognizing a potentially cute moment.  This was one of the cutest ones.  Oh, except for my head being missing.

Oh well, he corrected course fairly quickly.

In yet another example of our excellent parenting under pressure skills, here is Andy holding Ben over the trash can.  So he could poop.  

Once again, Frank has experience as a test model.

I got a couple of really cute ones of Maggie.  She looks good in red, don't you think?

Here's a good one to see her new haircut.  I had tried to give her a little trim before Thanksgiving that ended up with an emergency visit to the hairdresser when I cut off more than I had planned.  I think it looks adorable now, but it was a little traumatic.  This picture also shows one other thing I was thinking of the other day.  I am going to have excellent documentation of the back of these kids' heads.  

Meet Gio.  He has reappeared into our home after a very lazy start last year.  I wasn't sure how the kids would react, and they were skeptical the first couple of days, but really excited to find him every morning.  The other night there was that new holiday movie about the Elf and it was like a whole new ballgame.  They talk to him, tell them what they want for Christmas (candy canes) and have been talking about him.  Thank you, silly tv special.

Mia started solids.  Just like with the twins, I skipped the cereal stage and went straight for purees.  Avocados were a hit.  

Everyone else wanted to try them too.

We finally got to my parents to decorate their tree, and it was a lot of fun.  They were really into decorating this year, and only broke a couple of ornaments.

Maggie especially loved it.  She was so focused, and did such a good job.  She even figured out the hooks and everything.

Mia was happy to be snuggled by Ba Ba and watch from a distance.

My Mom won't be happy about this photo maybe, but it cracked me up.  I don't even remember what they were looking for, but Maggie laid down on her belly and was looking around under the tree too.  Such a good helper.  

We got a couple of super cute photos of them in front of the tree.

Ben held her for about 5 seconds before letting go of her and tumbling to the floor.  Oops.

Nama and her girls.

Apples were a big hit!

We enjoyed making "cracker houses" and eating the candy.  I watched them each take bites out of tootsie rolls and then stick them on the house.  Mmm.  Yummy.

And the last one for tonight.  Look how cute we are!  The photo was photoshopped, not by me, but by Beth who managed to do something neat that swapped out heads.  The shoot itself went better than expected, but still, very hard to get everyone to cooperate.  And by everyone I mean Ben.  Oh well, this turned out better than I expected, good enough that we even made the Christmas card this year.  

I will have to post our Santa photos, and other seasonal type photos another night.  We have our tree up, presents are slowly being bought, and I can't believe how fast December is going.  Happy Holidays!