Breakfast with Santa

  

This past weekend was a busy one.  On Friday night Steven and I dressed in cocktail attire and went to a fun Christmas party celebrated at a friend's house.  I completely forgot to take a picture of us though. Boo!
  On Saturday morning we went with a group of friends to the Grand Hotel down in Point Clear for breakfast with Santa. 

You don't actually eat breakfast with Santa but you do partake in a super delicious all you can eat breakfast buffet overlooking gorgeous oak trees and the Mobile bay.  After we stuffed ourselves on every breakfast delicacy imaginable we took the kids to wait in line for a picture with Santa.  I must admit, I was a little worried how Savannah would take sitting on Santa's lap.  She's at the prime age of attachment issues so I knew she may not be happy about it.  Surprisingly Isaac had never had a bad experience with Santa so I wasn't worried about him.

Until...

I told Isaac we were going to see Santa and he responded with a shake of the head and a big mama I don't like Santa.  I don't want to see Santa. Oh he'll be fine, I told myself.  It's Savannah banana I need to worry about.
I was wrong.  So very wrong.

We finally made it up to the front of the line.  Santa was located in a little lobby and the actual location where Santa sat was a small little space.  There were probably fifty people in the lobby at the time, all smiley and relaxed waiting, talking, and watching. 

Then our family emerges.
As I walked up to Santa I place Lillian into his arms.  She was fine.  Good.  One child down.
I turn back to pick up Savannah and Steven walks Isaac up to the big man with the jolly expression.  Isaac seems perfectly fine.  Awesome.   
However, in the flash of an eye our son flings his entire body to the ground and literally face plants right in front of Santa.  He begins screaming, NO ,NO, I DON'T WANT TO SEE SANTA!!!, all the while there is Steven trying to pick him up, and every time he does, Isaac wiggles out of his arms and falls to the ground in a fetal position once again.  Meanwhile, Savannah of course sees this and begins weeping uncontrollably herself so I choose to put her in my lap and this year we would just have the parents in the photo...that is if we can get Isaac off the ground.  Finally Steven finds a way to pick his terrified son off the ground and head lock him into camera ready position.

And then we get our picture with Santa.

Now, I'll warn you, these pictures of me are not the prettiest things you've ever seen.  But folks, these are just too funny not to share.

I just wish someone had taken a picture of Isaac in a fetal position.

And...we're done.

Unfortunately, Isaac get's it honest.  I was the exact same way according to my mother.

Thankfully I did manage to get a very peaceful picture of Santa and Lillian.

Santa looks a little bug eyed in this next picture.  Maybe we did him in.

Crossing our fingers for presents this Christmas. ;)

We ended the morning with a nice stroll by the shore line. 
Here are some of the girls that we went to breakfast with. 

All in all it was a fun morning.  Fun and CA-RAZY all at the same time.
We're building memories...building memories.  That's what I have to keep telling myself.

Here's hoping our picture with Santa will go better next year.
I can dream can't I....

Blogging again and 2 months old

Well, if it hadn't been for my mother this morning this blog post would have never been in existence.
You know you're losing a lot of blog followers since you don't post anymore she told me very matter-of-factly. 
I know she's got a point. 

But then I remembered that I didn't created this blog for just you blog followers in the first place, but also for me, and my book of memories from years gone by.  Of course you know I love to keep you updated on our mundane lives if you allow me to and maybe even make you chuckle every now and then...but I also need this blog.  I need it to collect the memories.  I need it for my creative outlet.  I need it for my own sanity.  To give you a little entertainment in your day.  A small ticket into the outside world as I stay inside most days taking care of little ones.  And most days life seems pretty monotonous and often chaotic and I think to myself how on earth am I ever going to blog again?? But then I remember...life doesn't slow down and it won't get any easier.  So why not just try to get the camera out more and try to capture these memories that are passing me by way too fast, because they do go by ever so quickly.
  To be honest, since we moved here, I haven't felt like blogging much.  Our rental house is awfully dark and taking pictures in a house with no natural light just does nothing for me.  My shots always seem blurry and the lighting is always dark and orange-like.  The kids are never in cute clothes unless we go somewhere and my house is always a wreck.  Oh yeah, and I have that newborn that takes up some much needed time.  But, I realized I can make excuses all day long and I just can't not take pictures of my growing babies and our "boring" life that I'll soon forget...and miss.  And really, who wants to always see the "perfect" pictures of families anyway??  Not me.  I like real life...and as you know, real funny.

So...all this to say my friends...starting in the month of January I am going to make a better effort and post every.single.day.  My goal is only for the month of January...but I thought one month might get me more in the habit of blogging more.  We'll see.  I'm not sure if this made any sense whatsoever but it made perfect sense in my tiny, sleep deprived brain. ;)

For now, let's just focus on today shall we.

This little bug in a rug and her 2 month birthday!

This one is a sweetie pie.

She can make me want another baby right away...

...and then the next second, never ever want another baby again.

Not because she's not the cutest thing on the planet, because she is, but because she's been a toughy. 
Thankfully we still love her like nobody's business.

 
And so does one older brother.

Who says, Lillian tink I'm her bess fwiend.

And he may be right.

She thinks he hung the moon.

And why wouldn't she I ask you? 
Who wouldn't be entertained by this guy and his terrible terrible grown out haircut??

Yes it's true, little Lillian is 2 months old today and I honestly would have forgotten to post this monthly milestone if my conversation with mother dearest had not taken place.  So, thanks for the reminder momsy. ;)

Lillian's 2 month stats are as followed:
Weight: 11.5 pounds (70th percentile)
Height: 22.5 inches (60th)
Head: 15

She's a growing girl.

I can't believe how big she's getting and how alert she is.
Plus I think we are slowly getting out of the colicky symptoms (hallelujah, amen, amen, amen amen.)  I mean who would think this happy little face could turn into such a little ball of fussiness??  Come on over around six tonight and I'll show ya how.

But like I said, she IS growing out of it.  THANKFULLY!!

Speaking of growing out of.

This little one is slooowly growing out of her mullet.

Oh who am I kidding folks.  She's still got the business in the front and party in the back.

But thankfully is loved by big brother too.

The kids have been sick this week so it's been a rough one and also another reason amongst many that I haven't blogged.  We are on the mend though...so glad.
This one had it the worst.

So glad she's still smiling with a nasty cold.

Well, that about sums up our week.  Kids sick, Lillian turning two months, and Christmas shopping in full gear.

Until next time...

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree

...how lovely our thy branches...

And what a lovely tree she is.

Our 2012 Christmas tree in all it's glory before we chopped her down.

Oh and chop it down we did.
If you've been a faithful visitor of my blog for some time now you'll know that I very much prefer going to a tree farm and picking out a tree over heading to home depot/lowes and trying your best to find the perfect one amongst the mound of already cut trees one on top of the other.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.(cue the famous Seinfeld phrase).  If you don't remember our past tree excursions click here. 
 I guess I just wanted my kids to experience the same familiar pleasure of a Christmas tree farm that I did as a child.

There's a perfect little place here called Fish River Tree Farm and we headed there on Thursday morning after Steven returned from an overnight shift.

Unfortunately this cute little train only runs on the weekend but Isaac didn't have to know that.

We just nodded and agreed with him when he said "it's broken mama, it must be broken."

We'll try to go back on the weekend next year.

I personally enjoyed not having a crowd that day.  We were literally the only ones there.

This girl thankfully slept the whole time.

And this girl was everywhere as always and was enthralled with the animals they keep for the live nativity.

While little buddy was "eager" to run off and look for the perfect tree.

He doesn't care much for live animals.

That's okay little buddy, they were kind of smelly.

They had rows and rows of different types of trees.  They did have a section of fraser firs already cut but we, of course, settled on one we could chop down ourselves.

...but not before a few staged photographs...

Isaac has been perfecting his camera smile lately and I must say, he's doing a superb job.

We'll have to work on Vannah's.

Isaac was the one who picked out our tree.  We didn't believe him at first and kept searching through the rows but soon realized he had actually picked the best one.

It even came with it's very own bird's nest.

We watched as daddy cut our 9 foot tree down.

Well...most of us stayed there and watched.
Other's enjoyed wandering off and creating more work for the watcher.

Isaac was sure to explain over and over again "daddy, just don't let the tree fall on you alright?"

He was very adamant about it.

Thankfully it didn't land on Daddy and we were ready to net it up and head home.

But not before taking a picture with the woman behind the curtain, I mean camera...

By the end of our morning Mama and Daddy were a little tired so we let Isaac help just a bit.

 

 

Hey, he's gotta work for his keep people.

 

Food doesn't grow on Christmas trees you know....