Another weekly recap....

So as you might have guessed, the lack of blogging this week is indicative of my lack of 'free' time to be at the computer. I've been busy this week with processing a few photo shoots that I've had (everyone wants their Christmas card pictures!) and so any child-free time (aka naptime or after bedtime) has been spent on Photoshop. And while I absolutely love this photography hobby of mine, I am glad it is just that...a hobby, and that it doesn't usually steal me away from my kids and my husband like it has the last couple of weeks. A shoot every once in awhile is great for me! Those are my pleasure to do and I truly enjoy them. I'm just not a fan of this back to back thing. There is just too much to attend to with my family, and that for me, is my first priority.

Anyhoooo......

Guess a recap of the week is in order. Let's see......

Ahhh...our anniversary. Has it really already been a week? Sheesh! Our actual anniversary on Friday was pretty uneventful. It was a cold, rainy sort of day, so when Ty got home from work, we spent the afternoon listening to Christmas music with the fireplace on while we decorated the tree and the house for Christmas. It was a cozy kind of afternoon....all together as a family. Very mellow, but very nice. Luke got to decorate his very own, tiny tree in his playroom this year. He thought that was super special to have his very own tree!

He was actually pretty adept at hanging those tiny ornaments too! I was surprised! And I was equally as surprised that he agreed to wear his santa hat while doing it! Here's my happy boy!

Then he decided to try on Tess's silly antlers....

This was just one of the shots in a series that I took, each with Luke 'posing' in a G.Q. kind of way. They're pretty silly and incredibly cute!

Saturday actually felt more like our anniversary than Friday did. That's when these arrived, accompanied by a beautiful poem...

...a day late because UPS was delivering them and had apparently sorted them wrong. :( Poor Ty was so upset on Friday night when he told me that they were supposed to be delivered earlier in the day to surprise me before he got home. He was crushed that his surprise had been botched. I didn't mind the mix up at all....in fact, getting them on Saturday was actually better, since it was the night we had planned to celebrate anyhow. And......because of the whole UPS mix-up, the flowers ended up being FREE! :) Who can complain about a free dozen long stem red roses and white calla lilies????

Saturday night was our special night out. My mom came over to be with the kids and I nursed Ellie just before we left with hopes of her going to sleep and not needing to be fed again until the middle of the night. That sort-of ended up being what happened...my mom attempted to give her a bottle of pumped milk I had left 'just in case', but Ellie refused most of it. Silly girl! She was fine though until her 3am feeding. (Yes....she's STILL waking hungry at 3 or 4. Wondering when that will end, but that's another whole story!). Here's the fam. just before Ty and I left...not the greatest of shots, but like my mom said, it catalogs what our 5th anniversary was like...our arms full of kiddos! :)

Luke apparently wasn't in the mood to look at the camera. Surprise, surprise.

After finally escaping the little ones, our night out was really nice. We had cocktails and appetizers at the swanky little bar at the resort (I had my first martini ever...a raspberry drop. Not too shabby!) and just talked awhile since we had arrived about an hour earlier than our reservations. Then we got to ride a little boat (they called it a gondola, but it really was just a small motor boat) across the resort's lake to our restaurant....the Sea Grille. When Ty made the reservations, he asked for rose petals and candles on our table just as we had on our anniversary table last year. So sweet. We had a delicious dinner...lobster thermador for me and sea bass for Ty. Mmmmmm....yum! We lingered as long as we could at dinner, drinking our wine and just enjoying our meals. The night was over much too quickly though, and soon we found ourselves back at home, checking on the kiddos before hitting the hay ourselves. ***Sigh*** I still wish we could have gotten away overnight, but so it goes. It was still a nice evening. And five years are now under our belts! :)

Oooh...I almost forgot....Saturday morning before those amazing flowers arrived, I got lost in messing around with my camera and one of my lenses that I hadn't used in quite some time. I must've taken 200 pictures, just playing with settings and such. Here are two of my favorites....of my two most favorite kids in the world!

I just love that little smirk! Its rare to get him to look at my camera, much less smile at it these days, so this adorable little look was priceless. And ahhh....my sweet Ellie. I just adore this girl! She is the most beautiful child I have ever laid eyes on! (Of-course, I am a little biased!) But seriously...she grows more and more beautiful every day! And get a load of those cheeks!!!



In the process of taking all those pictures, I came across one in particular that reminded me so much of myself as a baby that I had to go digging through old photographs to be certain. What do you think....do you see the same resemblance that I do?????



I see a lot of me in her.....but maybe it's just me hoping that at-least ONE of my kids looks a bit like me! :) I grew them both in my belly, afterall. It would be nice to have them look the part! :)

Well my friends.....with all that said, I guess that it is time for me to sign off. Ty is out of town for a boys-only Vegas weekend with his highschool buddies, so I had better get plenty of rest to keep up with my two munchkins this weekend. Not that having them to myself is much different from any other day, but the idea that there is no break in between a long week past and a long week ahead makes me tired! ;) Ta-ta for now.