Location scouting with my little explorer

Speckled with freckles...

Connor- 10

Noah- 5

Freckles combined... 1,375,298

The power of Pheebs

The boys bathe/shower every day.

It's routine before bed.

Yet, every day it's almost painful convincing them to bathe (and heaven forbid I make sure they use soap to actually get clean).

Must be a boy thing.

Well, ever since Pheebs has ventured into the boys' bathroom, she's so fascinated with anyone in the tub.

So Captain Cat Smotherer willingly bathes now every day just so he can peak over and chat with his Phoebe.

Thanks cat.

Christmas Eve

So it's 1am & I should be sleeping before I have a tiny person standing bedside in a few hours ready to tell me what Santa brought him...

But I thought if I didn't work on/post pictures from our Christmas Eve, I wouldn't get to it until after all the chaos of Christmas is over/organized/packed up.

So before I head to bed, here's a beautiful recap of our morning.  I got to love on my favorite little Nolan, all boys were happy & it was just a beautiful way to celebrate.  If Connor was home, it would have been perfect.  

I just love our family.

 {Everyone look at the "Winkel")

Oh good gracious, is he not absolutely perfect?!?!

 

Here's to a slow paced, easy Christmas day.  And my Connor will be home at noon--I can not wait!!

Merry Christmas!

Another reason why I'm the World's Best Mom...

I like dogs, but I do what makes my kids happy....

And surprised them with this for Christmas...

{Seuss ran away about a month ago...don't go thinking I have two cats.  One is enough}

Meet Phoebe.  Pheebs for short.

We surprised Noah with her today & he declared, "Today is the best day of my entire life".

She plays, she snuggles, she purrs the moment you pet her...

She's exactly what he had ever hoped for.

Connor will be home Christmas Day & we can't wait to surprise him too!

My amazing friend, Annie, fostered her & has helped me keep her a secret for the boy's Christmas gift.  She's about 3 months old & is so far one of the best, friendliest cats I've ever been around.

Hallelujah!

Tis' the season...

I officially finished my LAST photo session before Christmas!

Wahooooooooooooo!

I literally took 5 mins & threw this card together, so we have one :).

Merry Christmas!

We're throwing pajamas on the boys & heading out to our fave holiday light display.

I survived the crazy photog season...

I tend to do more sessions in September-November than I do the rest of the year combined.  It is glorious money saved before the holidays/just before kids' birthdays, but man, once the end of November arrives, I am so relieved to have sessions slow down again.

It's funny how I get so burnt out on sessions doing 4-6 a week, yet once I go back to 1-2 a week, I am itching to do more.  I have to remind myself to do sessions with my own kids too!

We have a cold snap that will be gone in the next 24 hours...but we took advantage of the cool weather & tried out a new little spot across the street from our house.

Side note: I have patience with other people's kids without a problem, but man, when it's time to do my own kids, I lose my cool pretty quick.  Minus the bickering in the car for the 3 minute car ride there & back because Noah was touching Connor and Connor was retaliating...yadda yadda yadda… it all went well.  Oh and Connor's due for a haircut so we found Matt's ski hat he could wear to cover up his scruffy head.  He may have looked more like a bank robber, but it did the trick :).

Thanksgiving 2018

We opted to get away this Thanksgiving.

First feast of the day--a McDonald's pitstop on the way to Orlando.

We checked in at The Grove & it was beautiful!

While we waited for our room to get ready, we had a few hours to kill...so headed to the hotel arcade with our crazies to entertain them.

Once we checked into room, we changed and loaded up again to meet some friends at Medieval Times for supper.  It was quite the experience... but the kids loved it.

Day 2 we hung at the hotel---ventured to the water park, veged out in the room, had Nana & Papa visit, then headed out to Disney Springs to supper at Rainforest Café.  

It was a challenge to keep Noah awake on our long walk to supper, but we managed to do so!  I got quite the workout hauling my 50lb baby around Disney Springs trying to keep him from falling asleep.  The boys had fun playing in the giftshop of the restaurant, but man, once Noah chowed his food, he was out like a light.

Then yesterday, we got to visit with Kater & have our own little Thanksgiving feast while watching some FSU football.

We had some cute cooks in the kitchen!

Meanwhile, Bobes found where the turkey was leaking onto the ground & had his own secret feast out back. 

Connor loves himself some babies!  Nolan was wondering what in the world was going on.

Exposing Nolan to some football (and Nole chop).

And the feast was served!

I was too busy making sure Noah would eat some food, Connor didn't have turkey grease all over his hands, and checking out Kater's new house progress to snap anymore pictures from our feast.  It was lovely, I promise :)

Holy Busy...

So this month has been an absolute blur.

Matt & I are coaching soccer (I say I am, because I'm making sure he's got his act together behind the scenes).  Hosting practices twice a week & games on Saturdays.  The boys are tied for 2nd place, so it's been pretty exciting!

I'm averaging 4 sessions a week, which basically means I'm averaging about 4 hours of sleep at night to balance editing time and family time.

We just hosted a neighborhood Halloween party to meet our new neighbors.  In preparation for that, I got to mop THREE times yesterday--once to just clean, the second time when Noah spilled his orbies all over the floor, and a third time when the cat drug a lizard in the house & tortured it all over the tile floor until it looked like a tiny murder scene.  

Our cat went under a $2,000 procedure after he had a complete urinary blockage.  We were told it may occur again & the procedure couldn't guarantee a fix.  Fast forward to now & he's showing signs of a blockage forming.  I'm mentally preparing to have to explain to the boys that the cat may need to be put down.  Ughhh.

Speaking of dealing with possible death~

Noah's 5 year old friend at soccer experiences their dog dying & her parents had to explain to process of "death" to her.  So last week at soccer, Noah and her had a little conversation between two 5 year olds about what she had learned about death & heaven.  So Noah has now come to me a few times a week with tears puddling up in his eyes saying, "I don't want Daddy to die.  He has gray in his beard, so that means he's getting old and I don't want him to die."  His precious little heart.  Then the next night, after our nightly prayer when he was lying in bed quietly, he randomly says with tears in his eyes again, "I don't want to be the last one living in this house.  I'm the smallest, so I'm going to heaven last.  I don't want to be all alone here."  Oh, this boy & his innocent little thoughts.  THEN, the next day, Noah came to me with his Ipad and said, "Hey Mom.  You know Ryan on my YouTube videos (this millionaire kid that lives in CA & makes YouTube videos daily)… If he goes to heaven one day, does that mean I can meet him when I go to heaven?!"  Ughhh...yep buddy.

A toilet cleaner bottle broke randomly as I was cleaning a few weeks ago & the bottle spilled all over the carpet on the stairs as I was heading upstairs to clean.  So I get to get carpet replaced on stairs.  I know--awesome.

I'm sure there's oodles of other things, but that's all my brain can currently recall.  I woke with a sense of relief this morning, as I'm all caught up on editing, Halloween party is done, and I even get to sneak away for lunch with my Mom soon.

Here's to November!  May it be a little less chaotic!

*Oh and I know while I'm busy doing pictures for every one else these days, I'm slacking in having photos of my own kids.  I did sneak in Connor's Halloween and U10 soccer pictures (even if you can't tell that's Connor under the Fortnite Skull trooper mask, I promise it's him).

DASH

This is the year of the big, fake muscles apparently.

I was going over all the boys' previous Halloween costumes & when Connor was Noah's age, he was into superheroes & was Batman (with the super amazing puffy muscle costume too).

We'll never have fun girly costumes like Unicorns or tulle skirts, but I'm pretty sure big, puffy, spandex, artificial muscle costumes are the awesome equivalent in boy land.

And I'd like to add that I have photographed a gazillion kids to this day & my boys will always be my hardest subjects.  Noah is my goofy kid, but is only goofy on his own account.  If you ask him to do something goofy, you'll be shut down.  It took a nice, calm chat with mom in the middle of sweating on the backside of a Coconut Point store (where I needed a solid wall in the shade for pictures) to get him to come out of his shell a little for a few minutes.  While he declined on the idea of actually running (his character, Dash, is known for running fast), I tried to improvise.

We ended with all smiles & he cashed in on a trip to Five Below to pick out goodies.

Still waiting on Connor's costume to arrive in the mail (pray his Fortnite character costume being shipped from China that was ordered a month ago will actually make it here in time)!!!

I give to you~ Dash from The Incredibles