Our Christmas

Welllll....it was an interesting Christmas. We all got the flu bug going around. Poor Jim came down with it on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas morning Aidan had it. It was so sad to see him mustering up all he had to open the presents that he was so excited for the day before.

Here the kids are on Christmas Eve. We open presents from Jim and I, and from their Grandma and Grandpa Hosking. They had so much fun opening their presents! Oh, I know these snaps are not great at all. I just wanted to capture the day, so I used the on camera flash and just shot.

Addie LOVES clothes! It took a while to get her to open more presents because she was so excited over her cute new outfits!


Aidan helped her open her doll. I think he really dug it. This may be blackmail when he's a teenager.


Aidan liked his clothes too! I don't think he was really that excited, but he gave me a smile anyway!
I know for a fact he was excited to get this one. :o)
On Christmas Morning, my poor Aidan felt soooo bad. Look at my poor guy. This kid LOVES toys, he goes crazy for them. It was hard seeing him like this.


At least Addie had some fun.
She showing off her super cute new purse. What a big girl!Then we went to his other grandparents house. Aidan was feeling a bit better by this time. He's opening presents with Grandma's crazy dog, Gretchen.Addie just looked cute and that's all I can say. She's the cutest little girl there is!She LOVED her new trike! This thing is pretty cool. I can't wait to take her out in it!Then a bit later her cousin, Elliot came by. I love this. They are finally starting to interact a bit more!

OK, that's all I'll share. Of course, I have tons more, but this is more than enough! Ha ha!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree....

Last night I realized that I haven't taken any pics of our tree this year. Our poor tree is decorated a little top heavy this year since Miss Addie thinks ornaments make great toys. I decided to play around with lighting a bit and put this together.

Cristmas progam

Aidan had his first Christmas program for school today. It was just too cute! Preschoolers are just too funny! Aidan of course was his typical goofy self. He participated some, but he was mostly being a bit silly. Of course, I have photographic proof!

Just disclaimer. These are photographically bad! It was dark in the church, so I had to shoot at a very high ISO.

Here's my boy. As you can see, he was highly enthused to perform on stage.

Just because his look is so priceless, here's a zoom. Like I said quality is bad! I also love the expression of his buddy, Ayden.

Aidan and his buddy, Ayden were fooling around and being silly. I wish I was able to capture that on the camera because they were pretty funny. He's definitely his father's son!

This one is just priceless to me. I don't know what was going on, but this is my interpretation....

The kids are all singing a song in the pews. Aidan looks like he's about to whack his friend on the head, but gets stopped by Mrs D. He looks like he might be in some trouble! LOL!

It's been a long time!

Wow, I haven't posted in almost a month! I have two reasons for that. The first is that we've been pretty busy. Obviously, we've had Thanksgiving, but we've also had Aidan's fourth birthday! I can't believe my little boy is four! He's been looking forward to his birthday ever since Addie's turned one. That's been six months! He was so excited to have a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. I have pictures that I'll share at a later date. If that weren't enough excitement, we've also been house hunting. Those that know us, know how badly we've wanted to purchase a home of our own. It's been one of those things we never thought would happen. On a whim, we went to a open house for a home we've been eyeing. I instantly fell in love. Even better was the fact that the dream of owning wasn't as far off as we had thought. So, we've spent the last few weeks looking at homes. Most of them were awesome homes, but we just couldn't get over the first one we saw. It just suits us so much. So, this weekend we put a offer on it! After a little bit of back and fourth, we came to an agreement. I'm actually a little nervous posting about it here because we still are going through the oh so fun process of getting our mortgage together. I just don't want to jinx us! So, hopefully friends and family can keep your fingers crossed and send us positive thoughts!

The second reason I haven't been posting as much is because my beloved camera is giving me a bit of trouble. I have a couple problems. One of them is that I have a couple pictures from Aidan's B-day trapped in camera without a way to come out to share on my computer. I hopefully have that problem solved for now. There are still a couple issues that remain. Hopefully after all this home excitement and the Holidays pass, I can take it in for servicing! I just hope that it doesn't cost so much to fix that I need to find the money to buy a new camera. I would be so sad without it!

Photographer in training

Yesterday, I had my camera set up on a tripod in the living room. I can't remember why I stepped away, but walked back in to the room to Addie looking through the viewfinder. In my eyes it was just the cutest thing! She was pretty serious about it too! So, I quickly found my old crappy P&S camera that I gave to Aidan and started snapping. Ugh, I had to use the flash. They were too blurry without.

See those lines? Yeah, that's from the crappy camera.


This one is my favorite! Look at her looking through the viewfinder. What a little pro!

An unexpected shot of Aidan

Today is what I'm assuming will be the last nice, warm day that we'll have for several months. It's what my mom always referred to as "Indian Summer". I don't know how PC that term is today, as I haven't heard it used in ages. I took the kids down to our neighborhood park to drink it all in. I really wasn't intent on getting pics of the kids, but was trying to get a pic of myself. (I'll explain this in another post at another time. Ha, ha!) Anyway, the three of us were heading to the wagon when Aidan stops by a tree and says, "Do you want to take a picture, Mommy?" I was a bit shocked! "Well, yes! Of course!" He was even taking direction! The only problem was, I still had to keep my eye on Addie, which was a bit distracting. Anyway, this is what I got.


I'm kicking myself for not getting the light in his eyes and the focus can use some work, but I still really like it. If I had known he would willingly let me take his picture, I would of put something a little nicer on him. Jim says he looks a bit like a rag-a-muffin. Oh, and he's not mad....this is just his GQ tough guy expression. ;o)

A Holiday card sneek peek of sorts

This is an outtake from my "session" of taking pictures of the kids for our Christmas card. If it had Jim in it, I would consider using it. But, as often the case, Jim had to sleep before work. Speaking of not having Jim there, getting these shots were such a challenge. This is very pretty park with a pond in our city. It's not the most kid friendly place to say the least. I had to watch Addie like a hawk while she ran around like a maniac! It made getting pictures soooo challenging! Anyway, here are the three of us!

Happy Halloween!

We had the best Trick or Treat weather tonight! It was in the 60's...almost unheard of for Halloween in MI. The kids had a blast. Aidan did pretty good going house to house, and Addie found her love of candy. I think she had a sucker in her mouth most of the time we were out.

Here are a few snapshots from before we left....

Getting them to smile for me is nearly impossible.

Until Aidan started making funny faces at his Grampa standing behind me!
Getting ready to go Trick or Treating is serious business!

Ready to go!
'

A couple MORE of Addie

Can you stand it?

We haven't been very exciting this fall. My car is still out of commission, leaving us with just Jim's truck. Unfortunately, the truck is not family friendly at all, so we've been stuck with doing family things around the neighborhood. Yesterday, I just took the kids to the little park down our street. I'm trying to practice and take as many pictures as possible right now. Soon it will be winter, which will have us stuck inside with little lighting in our cave of a house.

So, here are a couple of Addie. She's looking so grown up these days! Definitely not much baby left in her! Aidan was busy running around with a friend he met, so none of him this time!

I'm loving this one, though looking at it now, I need to fix the vignette. And in B&W, just for fun.

Just a couple of Miss Addie

I was just outside the other day, practicing a bit on Addie. While the pics aren't perfect, she sure looks cute! I couldn't resist posting them here. I just can't say no when her hair is in piggies!

"I'm not upset. I'm just looking at this tree."

This is what Aidan said earlier this afternoon.

Aidan got the opportunity to go camping with his Grandma and Grampa Wilkins over the weekend. He had so much fun, which is no surprise. After they dropped him off at home, Grandma and Grampa stayed for a little visit and I got to hear all about the fun they had. When it was time for them to go, we all walked out to say our farewells. I could tell that Aidan was sad to see his Grandparents go. I was talking to my mom when I hear Aidan say, "I'm not upset. I'm just looking at this tree." Awwww... I turn my head to see my poor boy was tearing up, with his face in a tree. He was so sad that his fun weekend was over, and that he had to say good-bye. I've never seen him hide his tears before. It was both funny and heart breaking at the same time.

I guess it's another reminder that he's growing up. He's a big boy and he doesn't want anyone to see him cry.

Such a scary boy!

Since Aidan doesn't have his costume yet, I still wanted to get a fun pic of him for Halloween. So, I told him to be scary and this is what I got. I love it!

This is just an outtake, but it makes me chuckle. I promised to take Aidan to the ice cream shoppe at the end of the block as a bribe for letting me take his picture. (So bad, I know! ) Anyway, Addie wanted in on that action so bad!

My little monster

Just got Addie her Halloween costume today! She's a little pink monster and looks absolutely adorable in it! She actually enjoyed playing in it too (so much that I had to hide it in her closet!)! I have to return Aidan's costume. The store didn't have his size, so I got the next size up and it just didn't work. As soon as he has a costume I will post pics....if he'll cooperate!

For now, here's the cutest little monster you've ever seen!

Victor turns 4

Sunday was Victor's 4th Birthday party! It was just me and Aidan this time, since my car is on the fritz. Addie got to hang out at home with Daddy. It was actually very nice to relax and have fun with only 1 kid! Victor had a nice party. I can't believe he's 4 already! Every time Victor's Birthday rolls around, it reminds me that Aidan's Birthday is just around the corner. I can't believe that I'm about to have a four year old!

Speaking of Aidan, I think this is a record for me on pictures taken of him. They certainly aren't portraits, but at least he gave me the time of day!

Here he is hanging out in the bounce house.

This is Victor's adorable little brother, Logan!
This is the look I get when I say, "Hey, Aidan!". He's clearly annoyed.

The Birthday boy opening presents with his mommy!
Aidan is checking out one of Victor's toys. When there are toys around, he has no self control.

Rachel's little sister, Delaney with Logan
And one last picture of Aidan. I can't believe he's going to be four in 2 months! Where has the time gone?

Aidan starts school

It's official, he's my big boy. Aidan had his first day of preschool yesterday! He did great!

We had a little drama in the morning. He was still tired since he's normally a late riser. He's like me, a total grump when tired! He didn't want to wear the shirt we had originally picked out the night before. After a bit of drama, he finally decided on a sweatshirt from last year. It was a chilly day anyway, so we went with it. Once he was dressed and his daddy fixed his hair, he started getting excited. Since the drama put us a little behind, I only got these quick shots.

Doesn't that backpack make him look so much older?!?

Drop off went very well. We just walked into his class room and he went off to find someone to play with. All I got was a quick "Goodbye Mommy!". I guess that was good for me, since a drawn out goodbye would've surely made me cry!

I went home, put Addie down for a nap and next thing I knew, it was time to pick him up. I got a little emotional watching the little ones walk out one by one to be greeted by their parent(s). When Aidan came out, he greeted me with, "Hi, Mommy! I missed you!". I got a little choked up, but didn't shed a tear!

I had promised him we would go to McDonalds (or "Old McDonalds" as Aidan calls it) for lunch if he was a good boy at school. He was, so we had a little lunch date. I had to ask him every question under the sun to find out about his day. Through my questioning I learned....

-He played with Play-Doh, but they only had yellow

-At recess, he played on the pirate ship and it has two slides

-He didn't sing

-He did pray

-He had Goldfish, milk, and a cupcake for snack time

-The kids are nice

-There aren't blocks in his classroom (I actually think there are)

-He got dirty at recess and had to wash his hands

-He's not the only Aidan (that's new to him since he hasn't actually met another Aidan yet)

So funny! I also think he has a little crush on one of his teachers. Last night he was playing with one of Addie's toy phones, and was pretending to talk to Miss Dodge! He was telling her that he would see her tomorrow. How cute! Yup, I'm a proud Momma!

Through Aidan's eyes

The other day, I decided to let Aidan have my old point and shoot camera. It's old and on it's last legs anyway. It was an idea I've been toying with for a little while now, but wasn't sure if he would even be interested. When I asked him if he would like it yesterday, he jumped up and down and got very excited. I showed him some basics....basically to frame up his image and snap the shutter. He surprised me! He loved picking his subject and shooting.

Here are a couple of my favorites that he took (and there are a lot)! I did very minimal editing on them since they are his images. I only cropped a few and sharpened/sized for the web.

Orange Ball. See the Goldfish cracker in the upper left corner? :o) Animal crackersThis is a pic of the TV during a Pop Tart commercial. LOL!This is my shadow! Here's his tricycleThis is my favorite of the bunch. This is his neighbor friend, Patrick, peeking over the fence from his backyard.
I like this capture of Addie. I was letting her sip water out of my glass. But I think he was trying to bust her here. Little stinker getting into the cabinets as always.

This one while I was making dinner. The secrets out....this is what I look like when we don't go anywhere. Nice hat!Here he managed to get a pic of someone I haven't been able to in ages....his daddy! Poor guy got assaulted by the camera as soon as he woke up!
Not too bad for a first timer, huh? Jim and I were pretty impressed, considering he's not even 4 yet! Now he keeps saying that he's a photographer. Silly boy! :o)