Too many pictures, the Nativity and a visit with Santa Claus!

So I feel very behind this year. My Christmas cards have been delayed...Yikes! A few elf like duties are still not complete. As Anna's classroom mom I was kind of talked into gingerbread houses for the class party so I have 20 to put together for Thursday. Anna has a concert today at 1pm at school. I will not miss and the list goes on.

I gifted my sister a photo session with a local photographer that I have used in the past. I think the pictures turned out pretty nice but when she was putting together her card she realized that one of the babies had not been pictured.

This is Jenny and the girls. We always try to picture them in birth order. When it is a single picture it is very hard to tell them apart. So from left to right is Jacqueline, Jennalynn and Jillianna.

This one is my favorite however but I like weird picture or so I am told.

 

 

That is Bernie their father on the end. It is beyond hard to get the three of them to look at the camera. The song 2 out of 3 ain't bad usually pops into my mind.

 

 

This was the set up and it just did not seem right to not include a single shot of one of the girls.

 

Which brought us to yesterday. She called to tell me we needed to get it done so she could get her cards. Big sigh on my part because I do feel a little overwhelmed but honestly I do love taking their pictures and she is so good about letting me do anything I want with them so how can I protest?

 

Her only request was one group shot and an individual one for each of them. This is the part where you should get ready to be flooded with pictures...

These are some of my favorites. I realized this morning that the setting on my camera were not perfect and I may force her to let me retake them...LOL

I think they may be teething. They are in birth order

 

These are of Jacqueline

 

 

 

Apparently they think their Mother is very funny

 

Jaqueline and Jennalynn in the background

 

Jillianna. She will be the first to crawl, walk and talk even though she is the baby baby

 

Jennalynn and Jillianna

 

Jacqueline

 

Jennalynn

 

Jillianna

 

 

So as you can see they look so much alike that it is a little scary. We got her cards printed and now that is one thing off the list.

 

 

Gerard and Anna set up the Nativity the other day. It was only fitting that I got the token picture of her riding the cow.

 

 

It was too wet and too cold in my opinion to make Gerard get on the roof for the Christmas lights. I wish that I would just come home and they would magically be there but my nerves can not take watching him hang off the roof to get them up. We were able o convince Anna that lights in the bushes were a good alternative.

 

Now for our visit with Santa! Anna has been going through a bit of a tomboy phase and really does not like to wear dresses. I know the horror of it all especially during the holidays. She is also refusing to wear bows. She told me "I just want to be like everyone else!" Aside from the bow refusal I have quite a bit of personal conflict with that statement. I am a bit unique and I love that I am. I want her to love her uniqueness too. That is a whole other post so off to Santa we went. Gerard was able to convince her to wear a bow and her Christmas dress over her pants. I still think it is a good look.

 

 

 

So this has been my last couple of days. Off to fall asleep for the another 15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 





An early Christmas present

Today I got the pleasure of working the holiday shop at Anna's school.  There is nothing sweeter then seeing a bunch of kindergartners armed with 10 dollars and a list of loved ones. When Anna's class came in she was so excited.  She was bouncing in her chair. I can not tell you how much I enjoyed watching her be so excited to see me at school today. One of the other mothers took her shopping so everything was a surprise for me. I was pleasantly surprised by the shop and hopefully helped a few kids make some good choices. 

When I picked up Anna she was busting at the seams. There was no way she was going to be able to wait to give me my present.  Here it is. The most beautiful piece of jewelry I may ever own.

The Christmas tree is up

The first year Anna was home we were so busy that we did not even get the tree up until about 3 days before. We only had about 5 decorations on the tree. Gerard was sick and in the hospital. I remember being mad, just plan old mad. It was not what I wanted for Anna's first Christmas. The next year I promised it would be different and it was. This year however seems very rushed to me. Even though I have been off more than usual I just do not seem to have the time to complete the things that I need and want to complete. Now I am sick.

You ask then why are you awake at 3 am. I simply can not sleep. I had to finish my final exam by this coming Sunday and I felt as though it was weighing on me. I woke up and took it. I passed the class with an A. That is done and completed and I feel so much better.

Earlier last night Papa came over to help with the Christmas tree. Gerard was only able to lift the tree into the stand then had to take a nap. I fixed the branches, Papa and Anna did all the ornaments. Thank goodness he came over because I was fearing that we would have a repeat of our first Christmas with a tree without any ornaments. Now I understand that it is not about the decorations but there is something so wonderful about a tree that is decorated.

This year as I helped to unpack my ornaments I felt a little sad for Gerard's Mother. She lost all of her ornaments in last years flood, she lost her Mother's Nativity too. Anna kept asking when I got this ornament or that ornament. I know I am blessed.

Here is a picture of Anna and Papa after the tree was decorated. More about the Nativity tomorrow.

Anna' Christmas pictures

Today we had a snow day. This was the first of the season. In my area it looks like it was a bust. We only have a little more than a dusting on the ground and the streets are clear. Gerard is home sick...actually we are both sick. I feel exhausted and have a sore throat and his has the same. Anna on the other hand is a ball of energy. I have had a headache for over a day. Last night I must have said something about my eye ball popping out because this morning she looked me in the and told me. "Good your eyeball did not pop out last night."

So I wish I had been able to get pictures of her in the snow today but I just could not. Maybe later. Here are the pictures that I took last week for her Christmas card.

 

We used instant mashed potatoes for the snow.

 

I am not going to lie I think even when she is 40 I will make her wear a red nose for at least one picture.

Secrets with her Daddy

We just finished our Daisy meeting. The other troop leader asked..."Anna what sre you having for dinner?" To which she replied without skipping a beat. "Taco bell!"

So she has finished two serving of rice, a serving of cheese and picked apart a taco. My little girl os becoming an eater.

Here she is plotting with her Daddy as to which movie we will watch tonight for cozy time.

Thanksgiving update and Christmas tree lighting

Well my camera is broken. Insert major sad face. All of a sudden the display screen stopped working.  I was okay with that so when I took it to horse club...yes Anna does horse club with the girl scouts I thought I might be able to get a few pictures even if I did not have the display. Well all the pictures were very blurry. I was not sure that replacing my camera is in the cards anytime soon. Really it is a want not a need. Gerard has offered to give me back my old camera which I will gladly take but it is still not the camera that I quickly became a custom to using. So my guess was that I would have to wait for a new camera.  If a sale is outrageous then just maybe it will be in the budget but I did have to just replace my computer so I felt like the budget was shoot.

Thanksgiving was spent at our home as usual. This year was a little different as every year is a little different in our house. We usually have a random guest which this year is to first time in approximately 15 years that we did not. We did host Gerard's cousin and his children. About two weeks ago Aunt Nel had a massive stroke. I was home when Gerard's mother called me. I dropped everything to go assess the situation. To make a long story short she needed to have the clot removed from her brain. She has some function of her left side but it is improving everyday. Because Gerard's cousin lives so far away he wanted to come down to see his mother on Thanksgiving. After all the food was eaten I was looking over the advertisments (it is somewhat of a tradition) and I found the camera I wanted. Oh boy the deal was a good one. I looked at Gerard and he looked at me and told me to get it. I am one lucky girl.

So because I had to work on Thanksgiving night my sisters were sent out into the craziness to purchase my new camera. Jenny (the one with the triplets) took it as a fun night out. She got everything on her list and my list with the help of Julie and Joan. Poor Joan is such a sensitive one and I am afraid the crowds stressed her out but in all I do think that they enjoyed shopping together.

I have about two more weeks until my class is complete. I have just finished my last quiz so that leaves only one presentation and the final exam. This was a fun class. I know that sounds weird but I liked that I was able to manage this class without taking too much time away from Anna.

Tonight we had official Daisy scout business. It was the annual Christmas tree lighting in out town. The mayor spoke and it was quite nice to see that he was not afraid to mention Christmas or Jesus in public. In church today the Priest was talking about how Jesus has been removed from so much of our public areas. I am not a fan of the Macy's day parade (I know I heard you all gasp). I have never really liked it but today when the priest asked if anyone saw the balloon of baby Jesus no remembered seeing it...well because it was not there. Hmmm I wonder if that is one subconscious reason why the parade never appealed to me?

My Daisy scouts are still learning how to act like a Girl scout but in all I think they did a great job. As we were getting ready to go I looked at Gerard and asked if he was coming too. He responded with "Is this something that the dads get to come to?" I teases me about how official our Daisy business is and yes I am talking his ear off about it. We all piled into the car to meet up with the other girl scouts. The other mothers are really quite nice and I probably would have not met them if it were not for the Daisy scouts. I was a little surprised to see that all but one father came (I know he was working his new wife did however come). I was so glad Gerard made the decision to go.