Our little family

So we originally went to Kiddie Kandids to get our family pictures done and they did an OK job. We only had 6 pictures to choose from and that's all the poses they did so we didn't have a lot of options. When time came to order prints we were blown away to say the least. One page cost $20 so we only got 1 8x10 for us (sorry mom and dad no pictures for you). Well about a month later I was at Target and ran into a freind and she told me about Targets Portrait Studio and how much cheaper it was, we dicided to give them a try and were pleasantly surprised. I think we will be going to Target from now on, we may keep trying different studios so if anyone has recommendations I would love to hear them.

Making ornaments and a mess

Every Christmas season my family gets together and does our version of the 12 days of Christmas, it pretty much consists of doing a different activity with the family each day on the 12 days before Christmas. The first activity we did was make Christmas tree ornaments. You start with a dough made out of cinnimon, apple sauce and glue (so its edible!). You roll out the dough and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. I had a great idea of getting Shad's hand print, well it didnt work very well because the dough wasnt the right consistancy. Knowing how much Shad likes textures I thought he might like to play with the dough and boy was I right. He mostly just grabbed it with his hand and squished it in between his fingers and of course made a huge mess but it was well worth it.

Reading time

I try to get in a least a few minutes of reading time with Shad every day. I can usually squeeze it in but sometimes it doesn't happen. My hope is that he will grow up loving books and reading and that will only benefit him that much more in the end. He loves textures so his favorite books are the touchy feely books but he will sit and listen to anything and often tries to hold the book on his own. Its only a matter of time til we go in his room and find him sitting up in his crib reading, right?

Memories and Sock Monkeys

Dan and I thought it would be cool to get a new ornament every year since we got married (you know a little something to remind us what happened that year). So naturally this year we had to get something to represent our new little addition to the family. I could have gotten you know the "Baby's first year" ornament I have found some pretty cute ones but we wanted something a little more unique and thats when i found the adored sock monkey. And with our luck the purchase comes with a story. So the day after Thanksgiving we went christmas tree shopping. Well they didnt have any trees up yet so we went to the Antique/Flower shop next door (The Planted Earth, dont ever go there you will see why). Its a cute little shop with fun little trinkets that we were adoring (we as in, my sisters Angie and Bekah, my brother Luke and me). Well shortly after we got there I noticed that one of the workers coinsidentally needed to dust wherever we were. I pointed it out to my sister thinking that we were being spyed on so we didnt steal anything, I guess we are not the usual customers of an antique shop, figures. Well we then went up stairs to look at some vintage hats and jackets when Luke proceeded to try on an old War jacket, very cool. We then heard a screach from downstairs (and Im not exagerating we actually thought it was a parrot) saying "dont put that on, dont put that on" over and over, "thats over 100 years old and you will tear it" WOW. I dont think I have been yelled at like that since I poked holes in my sisters water bed. After being repremanded by a 50 some year old fashionably challanged store owner we felt very uncomfortable. Then to top it off the same worker from before shockingly needed to dust some pictures right next to where we were upstairs. I said "lets just go" and Bekah very loudly said, "YA we're being followed". We went to leave, well first buy my sock monkey which I realy didnt want to buy from her but I really wanted it and didnt know where else I could get it. While I was checking out the owner came out and said, not apologetically "ya I have tried on really old clothes and tore right through them" and Angie replied, "ya well we just dont like being yelled at from down the stairs", the owner didnt have a response to that. I really cannot believe that an owner would treat her customers so poorly, we felt like little hoodlums, as Im sure she would refer to us as such. In the end we ended up with a beautiful tree, and adorable ornament for Shad and a store added to my "will never shop at again" list. I found this ornament in my moms Christmas box and decided to put it on my tree, I hope she doesnt mind. I made this when I was in 1st grade I think, wasnt I so stinkin cute, that must be where Shad gets it from.

Christmas in Comming

I cant believe it Dan didnt fight me on putting up a tree this year, actually I think it might have been his idea. I think I just might be more excited about this Christmas than any other year, there is something different about Christmas when you have kids. I am more excited about opening Shad's gifts than my own but that may also be because not only do I know what I am getting, I bought and wrapped it too (I guess we are not very traditional in that way). I am so excited for the rest of my family to get here, and get more excited every morning when I turn on the tree lights.

Sacramento or Bust

I know they look gentle and harmless, if we only knew

Kaylee showing her true colors (Shad looks so miserable)

Since Dan will be starting the Post Academy in January and we finally had a car that would make it we decided to go to Sacramento to visits Dan's family and friends. Bekah was here for Thanksgiving so she rode with us back to CA, which was nice because I got to spend a little more time with her. This was the first time Shad had met his cousins on Dan's side so that was fun especially because they love dolls and thought that Shad was just a real live doll, I still dont think that they can hurt him eventhough everytime they picked him up he whined in protest. Overall it was a very eventfull evening, but I think Shad will enjoy his cousins more when he can defend himself. I drove up to Chico one of the days to play with Bekah and meet her freinds, it was really nice to see that she is being taken care of by some pretty good people. The last night we were there we went to Dan's best childhood freinds house for some dinner and games, which always includes a game of Killer Bunnies which didnt dissapoint. The trip home was much easier then the one there because we stopped half way in Winnemucca so each day we only drove about 5 hours. Shad holds his ground with hating the car seat but Im sure I will break him in eventually and he will learn to love road trips, the sooner the better.