What happens when you combine a two year old and a mock photo set

Well, what do you think happens?  The two year old wins of course.

Now that I am thinking about it when doesn't the two year old win???  Ahhhhh, the twos...I think someone once mentioned they were terrible.  I wouldn't go so far as to say terrible because developmentally the twos are amazing.  The tantrums, well, yeah...those are terrible.  Those will drive even the calmest person crazy.  Ava of course inherited my temper...the poor child.  This said temper has been passed down from generation to generation.  It is combined will complete and utter stubbornness.  The kind that even a mule would give in against.  The same stubbornness that I can 100% attribute my success in breastfeeding.  If someone tells me I can't do something then no matter what I have to do it.  It's feels so great to say insert foot in mouth now thank you.

Now however I am having to deal with myself through my child.  It's an interesting journey.

So where were we....o yeah the photo shoot (insert ominous tones).  Well at least an attempt to create a nice setting for our holiday card and the attempt at trying to get my child to agree to be in the gereral vecinity of said setting all the while trying to operate a camera.  Not so fun.

Well they happened and surprisingly the card looks great.  I was able to get them ordered today.  I won't show the three shots that appear on the card so you'll just have to wait for that.  I will show the rest of the decent shots.  Unfortunately only one of the 15 or so family shots turned out...I may post that after the cards have gone out.  All the rest are either a blur of us trying to restrain a wild child or our wild child giving an awful evil look.

First let me just say how hard it was to convince her to sit...you would think that would have been the simple part.  I mean it is a bench.

(that is an orange hair band by her shoes...she thinks they are bracelets and wears them...this one must have fallen off.)

She finally sat for about 10 seconds and then climbed down and ran off.  We had to snatch her back up for the family shots and that ignited her fire.  She was DONE but Mommy wasn't so Mommy had to fight back a little to get our shot.  So far the best attack method seems to be grab, sit, tickle, and never take your eyes off the camera....now smile.  It may not result in her actually looking at the camera but it does result in her smiling.

By the way, isn't that the cutest outfit ever :)

Sunday dinner at Nan's and a photo shoot.

A few weeks ago my Grandmother asked if I would take a new picture of her Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren.  So I sent out an email to try and coordinate a date to meet at Nans for a photo.  I figured why not use Nan's front porch.  We picked yesterday and since we were all going to be there we decided to have dinner with Nan and Pop to celebrate their 60th Anniversary.

Well yesterday turned out to be a BUSY day.  Aaron decided on Saturday to race and asked if Ava and I would come for a little while.  I have to be at Nan and Pop's at 3pm so Ava and I met Aaron at the track and stayed until about lunch time then went home for her nap.  While she slept I started preparing the apple dumplings for desert all the while with curlers in my hair.  It was have been a scene out of 1950 if I hadn't been wearing jeans...haha.

Ava by the way loves "bikes" and is her Father's daughter through and through.  She would drag me to the track to watch motos that weren't even her Dad's.  She would say "come on Mommy"...."look bikes"..."Mommy go ride bikes, come on"  because she wanted to go ride them...yikes.  Then we would watch Aaron and I would point him out on the gate and say see Daddy he is in the blue.  She would say "Go Daddy" "Come on Daddy" then when he was off the gate and going around the track she would yell "Go Daddy Blue"...it was so cute.

Ok, so after naptime I changed Ava into clean clothes and wiped her face and we headed off to Nan and Pop's for pictures.  We started with the Great-Grandkids and then I did some family shots for Jamie and Jason.  Then we hit a wall because two Grandkids were missing.  Turned out my brother had decided to head to Calvert County before coming (wrong direction) and Kate's work didn't let her off early as had been promised because they were too busy.  Soooooo....two hours later with literally minutes of sunlight left we packed ourselves onto the front porch and managed to get a few shots.  The shots didn't turn out as well as they would have with the proper sunset light since it was closer to dusk.  They are grainier and foggy but they still actually look half decent.  For the most part everyone was looking straight and smiling so I would call that a success.

The big success of the evening was following our dinner I got two really good shots of Nan and Pop sitting in Pop's recliner.  :)

Here are some samples of yesterday's (very stressful almost not existent) shoot.

The family shot for Jamie and Jason...

 This is actually my favorite because it was a reaction shot.

Then Aunt Bev decided to climb the tree so we did an impromptu Grammy and Grandkids shot.

Then we took our extra long unplanned break.

All smiles

And a little silly

We did a few more and then Ava decided to sit on the porch by herself....Juli went to sit with her and Ava had words for her on that.

Then the true prizes...

 This was after Pop put his arm around Nan and popped her on the chin...hahahaha

Saturday Morning in Santa's Workshop...crayon melts

This elf was busy getting to work on one of Ava's stocking stuffer's.  Throughout the year I have collected all of the restaurant crayons and any coloring casualties (aka broken crayons) out of Ava's box of "colors" (that's what she calls crayons).

Then I divided them up by color to see what I had.  Mostly primary colors, of course, since that's what the restaurants tend to give out.  I wanted to do confetti crayons and not solid crayons so I broke them up and just put them in my molds willy nilly.

I picked these up at Target in my favorite place...the dollar section.  They were perfect and let me be a bit more creative then your average muffin pan without having to spend too much money.  The whole point to this was to have a cheaper option for a stocking stuffer.

After they were sorted into the molds I popped them in the oven.

 I waited till they were melted and liquidy and turned off the oven and cracked open the door.  It was a great way to get a little extra heat in the house while Ava was secure in her chair eating lunch.  Once they had hardened enough to be moved I placed them on top of the stove to completely harden.  The ginger bread men and one of the candy canes gave me a tough time and cracked when trying to pop them out of the molds.  The beauty of silicone was that I could just pop them in the microwave to soften up a bit then into the freezer to harder real good.  Then they popped out perfectly.

The finished product....

 and when she colors with them she will get multiple colors on her page.  So fun!!!  I can't wait till she is a bit older and we have some fun broken crayon colors and can really get creative.

A Tribute to Nan and Pop on their 60th Anniversary

You read that right; it was no typo.  Today marks the 60th wedding Anniversary for my Grandparents.  So first and foremost let me say Happy Anniversary to Nana and Poppie.

For 60 years you have shown dedication and love to one another, been there for one another, accepted each others faults, and loved each other even on the days you wished you didn't.  You did not give up when things got too hard. 

Many people may think that to make it to 60 years you just had an easy marriage but that is not true.  They had their fair share (and then some) of struggles. 

It would be impossible to tell their story in a blog post and in fact impossible for me to tell it simply because I did not live it.  I can however share a few quick stories about their beginning and then pictures of it all the way threw. 

Let's start with this photo....this is the first photo my Grandfather gave to my Grandmother.  If you look real close into the car behind him you will see another girl.  Hahaha...leave it to pop to give Nan a photo of him that has another "date" in it.

Now that wasn't really a story but this one is and it is one of my favorites because it really set's the stage for the marriage.  This really tells you just who they are and is so typical.

Nana told me the story of when her and Pop went to the court house to get thier marriage license.  She said they both had off on the same day one week (I believe it was a Monday but don't quote me) so Pop said let's go down and get our marriage license.  Mind you this was his idea and that he picked the day.  So there they were walking up the steps to the court house when my Grandfather turned to my Grandmother and asked if she had any money because he didn't bring any.  So my Grandmother paid for their marriage license because my Grandfather forgot to bring his money.  She told me she should have known then what she was getting herself into. 

She also had told me that her Father had not wanted her to date but he let her go out with my Grandfather because he knew him (or his family...again don't quote me) so he gave them the go ahead.  On the night that my Grandfather proposed my Grandmother she went in to tell her Dad good night like she did every night but she said, "Daddy I have something to show you".  He saw and said, "I knew this would happen....this is why I didn't want you to date".  I guess he knew dating would lead to his little girl getting married. 

My Grandmother and Grandfather did get married and boy were they young.  Just look at them.  Nana was only 18...I can't imagine getting married at 18.  

Click to play music while you look at the photos.

From a blushing bride and groom to beloved parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. 

Congratulations....you are an inspiration to us all.