Valentine's Day Photos

I did a little photo shoot with the kids so I could get some photos for our Valentines that I usually send out. I like to send out a photo card because it makes it seems a little more special. I've been doing it for years and I figure I better keep up the tradition while my kids are still willing to put up with me taking their photos. 

However, it is a lot of work to get a few photos where all the kids look good!! Here are a few outtakes from the session: 

I have a complex rating system for making a good photo:

-dinosaur tshirt in a non valentine's day color:subtract 5 points

-both girls in the frame: 5 points

-both girls looking at the camera: 5 points

-one girl smiling: 5 points

-both girls smiling: 10 points

-all three kids in the frame and looking at the camera: 15 points

-all three kids in the frame, looking at the camera, and smiling: 100 points!!!

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day!

Snow Day Snaps Pt 2

We had our third snow day of the school year during the second week of February. While it was not nice to miss school, it was nice to be able to have the gift of time at home with my children. I tried to remind myself that I had absolutely nothing on my schedule except soak it all up with my kids! The girls are so adorable right now and I just want to drink it all up. Here are a few photos from our day (in our jammies, of course). 

The girls got in on some work time with Michael. They loved taste testing the crayons and ripping their paper! We did get a few good scribbles in so I was proud of them. 

 I aboslutely love catching both girls in the frame at the same time. Before they arrived, I often wondered what it would be like to have two sweet little faces, four little eyes looking at me, and here we are. I can't believe it! I think they are looking more alike now as they are getting older...I'm curious where the future will lead us. It is so funny to me to look back at photos from a year ago- how time flies!

That's it for us! Thanks for stopping on by!

Scenes from a Snow day part 1

Yesterday we had our third snow day in the past two weeks! Wow! We had a great string of weather thus far into the year and I knew it would only be a matter of time before it came to an end. As much as it messes up my school schedule, I was so happy to have some laid back days at home with my kids with literally nothing on the agenda except spending time together. It was a welcome change of pace! 

Can we say bed head? I thought you might enjoy these photos of the girls before they get their hair all done up. 

The girls love playing in the bath but we are usually pressed for time on a weeknight so it was fun to give them some extra time on our snow day. They are so cute playing with each other! They have finally calmed down enough in the tub to stay sitting and it makes for a much less hectic experience for me. 

(these are both Anna)

...and Scott got me flowers! Arn't they lovely? 

We are just trying to get through these cold, winter days and are looking forward each day to our florida vacation. I am in the thick of my busy time at school but the hope that spring break looms is a powerful force. I hope you are staying well with your family! 

Insta Update

Here are few insta updates of what we've been up to lately:

Michael had been talking about having a friend in his class over for weeks and we finally made it happen. He lives in our neighborhood and they had a nice time together on a weekend morning. They played a little on their own, I helped them play a game together and we made and ate personal pizza creations! 

Legos! Everywhere! 

Over break the kids and I were out and about and were going to meet Scott for lunch but he ended up being busy at the office. So I decided to give it a go with just myself and wow...it was a big job. Not sure I will do that again for a while! The hardest part was holding two babies and trying to do things like get out the door to the restaurant, pay the bill, etc. The girls were great and Michael was happy so it was a pretty good time. 

After a series of dreary days, I had to capture the beautiful sunshine coming through my bandroom windows! It was glorious! 

We are preparing for our upcoming trip to Disney in March and I was wanting to show Michael Beauty and the Beast since we are going to eat at the Beast's castle in the Magic Kingdom. I had it reserved at the library when I mentioned to Scott how hard it was to find some of those older movies. Lo and behold, he found me a big pile of VHS tapes (for a grand total of $4.70) while he was at a ribbon cutting for the new Goodwill store by his office. I was so surprised! They are terrible quality (at least when we watched them on the big screen) but we still got the gist of it. Update: we found a used blu ray copy (without the case) of Beauty and the Beast on ebay for cheap and just bought the Diamond edition of Snow White which was released today on Amazon. 

I was home with sick girls a few weeks ago and got to see how busy our pond was during the day with ice fishers. It boggles my mind- I have about a million other things I would choose to do instead of sitting on a huge block of ice but to each his own, I guess!

I posted this on instagram while looking back at photos from our Disney trip in 2006 before we were married. It is one of my all time favorite photos of Scott and I. We hit up Animal Kingdom early in the morning for extra magic hours and had so much fun being the first ones behind the rope and being first on Everest (it was new then! And the yeti worked!). We found this little alcove and took our photo by propping up the camera on a post and using the self timer. It was such a good morning and the memories are still so fresh in my mind- the cool morning, the excitement of being on vacation and in a park by ourselves, and being 23 without a care in the world. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and re live those days but I also know that youth is a fleeting gift and I am thankful for the experiences it has given me. 

We've been keeping it pretty low key here this month but I find comfort and joy in the routine of things. We are counting down the days until our big trip but we also have lots of things before then to keep us busy (mostly me...school, contest, concerts, and more concerts). Thanks for stopping by!