Normally I schedule professional portraits once a year. Our recent sessions have been spring and fall. My plan was to have a Christmas photo shoot this year but, I decided to postpone it so Allyson's scar on her head (see post titled 911) can have a little more time to heal.
But, while trying to do Christmas cards this year I realized I have nothing recent of the entire family. Fortunately, my dad was in town visiting while we were decorating our tree and I thought it would be a good idea to have him just snap a "quick picture." Oh. my. gosh. Photographers earn whatever they charge and more. This was excruciating.
Rather than post the one picture that turned out decent in an effort to make it all look so sweet and perfect, I am going to publish them all, in full disclosure. The good, bad, and ugly. Hopefully it will bring a little laughter and a reminder that, hey, none of us are perfect no matter how it looks on our Christmas cards!
We had a great Halloween this year, especially because Papa Sedenko was here! During the afternoon of Halloween he attended the book fair at Nicole's school. They had lunch in the cafeteria together and then he took them shopping in the book store. I was depressed to see them come back with stuffed animals. Fortunately, the animals did come with books!
The girls had several Halloween events so they were able to wear a variety of costumes. We attended a mad science party at the library. Nicole was Alice in Wonderland and Allyson was the White Rabbit.
During story time, Allyson chose to practice her hopping.
Making "witches brew"
Making "goo"
Nicole liked using her apron instead of a bag to collect candy.
Time to trick-or-treat through the library.
Cute little bunny tail
The children's area
Story time room.
On Sunday the church had a "Prince and Princess" party. Nicole wanted to be Ariel and, since many of Allyson's dress-up clothes are in tatters from wear, I pulled out a dress I was saving for Christmas. I can hardly keep her out of it.
Getting ready for Halloween was fun. Papa helped with the pumpkins. Okay, Nicole helped cut off the top and Papa ended up doing the rest. She wanted Jasmine which was a little involved.
Nicole was a little more help when it came to clearing the walkway of leaves for the trick-or-treaters.
For Halloween they went as cowgirls. (I was a cowgirl too but stayed behind the camera.) Our first stop was the big October 31st party at church. We met up with some friends there, but everyone was eager to go trick-or-treating. So, after jumping in some bounce houses and getting a couple of tattoos, we headed back to hit up the neighborhood. Fortunately, our friends, AJ and Hunter, (along with their dad and grandmas) came with us!
AJ and Hunter were Angry Birds.
Our neighbors and good friends, the Suffelette's. Hope has babysat for us since before Allyson was born!
Our other neighbors and friends, Terry & Marquetta.
(They always let mom have some candy so this is one of our first stops!)
Allyson was having a blast at one house running back and forth from a couple of dogs. She adores dogs! The other kids were engrossed with the neighbor playing Jaws which was projected onto their garage door. (I made sure we left before any traumatic scenes!)
At some point during the night Nicole felt like dancing.
Toward the end of the night Allyson was getting pretty tired and her bucket was heavy so Mom was going up to the doors with her. At one house I "felt" something move behind me. I turned around to see what I thought was a decoration come to life... an 8-foot Frankenstein! The guy scared all of us. Then we took pictures.
Another neighbor and good friend (and the last stop of the night), Jill.
Things went pretty well tonight. Allyson only ran into one house (fortunately it was Hope's) and attempted one other. Other than that, we all had fun and ended up with a nice supply of cavity-causing treats. (Actually, a friend left us some healthy treats and goodies on our doorstep for Halloween...I just forgot to take a picture...so it wasn't all cavity-causing treats.)
