Thanksgiving with Papou and Gigi

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Papou and Gigi on Saturday by all watching the Iron Bowl together.  The game was quite boring since Auburn never even came close to scoring, but I was fine with that.  The close games stress me out!  Gigi brought Mac a new game of Travel Zingo, and we all enjoyed playing together.  We again attempted to get some good family pictures of the grandparents with all three grandchildren, and I think we were successful.   

Thanksgiving at Yaya and Coste’s house

We are blessed to have so many family members to celebrate the holidays with that we have to split our holiday over several days.  Nana and Granddaddy came in town on Wednesday and stayed for the whole weekend.  I am thankful that they are still able to drive from Tuscaloosa to Pensacola so we can all spend the holidays together.  Mom and Nana cooked a wonderful meal, and we all had a great time being together.  I purposefully spent a little extra time trying to get some good family pictures of the grandparents and great grandparents with all three grandchildren.  Forrest also wanted a few updated family shots. 

Finley is easy to photograph at this age since she can’t move around much.  Mac understands bribes so as long as he doesn’t do his fake smile he isn’t bad either.  Copeland is definitely the difficult one.  He doesn’t want to sit still, really wants to touch/hold “Fin-nie” and doesn’t smile on command…but when I manage to capture those sparkly blue eyes and baby boy grin the hassle of the photo session is quickly forgotten.  I think these pictures pretty well document our first Thanksgiving of the weekend which really occurred over a two day period.

              

Thankful for

Twice yesterday we went around the table and said what we were thankful for. Both times after Mac had a turn I remembered something else I was thankful for.

At Breakfast

Mommy: it's thanksgiving and we need to all think about what we are most thankful for

Mac: I did this at school. I don't remember what I said but today my most favorite thing is my family and friends. And my toys. But do you know what I'm most thankful for?

Albi: what?

Mac: it's who made me and he is bigger than anybody and he lives in heaven but it isn't Jesus. It's god!

Mac: I'm also thankful for god, Jesus, mommy and daddy for buying us this house

(My thoughts: I am so thankful that you go to a Christian preschool.  I want to keep you in this bubble forever!)

At lunch with the whole family:

Mac: This time I’m most thankful for this penguin cup that Yaya got me to drink out of, all my toys, my family and friends and John and Ran.  They are just pretend.  They are my imaginary friends.

(My thoughts: I am also thankful for John and Ran who are always available to play, never need an extra car seat in the car and are very quiet friends!)

Christmas card photo session (part 2)

I took a million pictures today of the boys with the family during of first of two Thanksgiving festivities this holiday weekend, but I haven’t had time to edit those pictures yet.  I also wanted to post the pictures that I liked from the possible Christmas card photo session last weekend since all I have posted so far are the bloopers.

Since I took these pictures, I have now decided whether to use the beach pictures vs the fall photo session for the Christmas card.  Emily has designed the card and as soon as I tell her how many I need, she will be ready to print.  You will all have to wait another few weeks to see my final decision and Emily’s design!

the bite

I debated whether to share this story, but since I want my blog to tell our real life story and not just the happy fun stories I figured I better include this one.  I am confident that one day the boys will read this story and laugh.  I just hope Mac doesn’t decide to retaliate at that point…

I worked on Sunday and called Albi around 4 to say I was on my way home.  He said the boys had been excellent all afternoon and everyone was in a good mood.  I rarely get this report when Albi has the kids on a Sunday, so I was very pleasantly surprised.  I asked him to brush Mac’s hair and put him back in his “picture” clothes so I could reshoot his individual pictures (see my last post re: fake smile and need for the reshoot). I walked in the door a few minutes later, and Mac was waiting on me at the door.  He had obviously been crying.  My first thought was “what did he do now and why did Albi spank him and make him cry when he knew I was coming home to take his picture?!?!”  Mac looked at me and said in his most pitiful voice, “Mommy, I gotta tell you something terrible.”  Uh oh this is not good.  Albi quickly appeared and confirmed it was bad.  Coe stood suspiciously by and waited.  Mac then said, “Copey bit me!”  I was shocked.  Not shocked that Coe did something mean to Mac.  I knew that was only a matter of time, but I was shocked that his method of attack was biting.  Coe has never bit anyone.  If anything he is a hitter.  Matter of fact he has taken a few retaliatory swings at Mac, but he hasn’t managed to really connect…yet.

Albi wasn’t exactly sure what happened between Mac and Copeland.  From what Mac tells us something was going on with the animals on the bed.  I think Copeland wanted one of the animals and for whatever reason Mac wouldn’t let him have it.  Mac was leaned over the bed and Copeland walked up and bit him on the back.  Copeland got him good.  Looks like Mac tried to pull away while Coe remained latched on because the teeth marks are scraped a little down the back.

    

I’m not convinced yet that Coe is a biter.  Maybe that is wishful thinking, but I still think hitting is our bigger problem with Copeland.  Hopefully the biting incident was a one time thing.  Albi punished him before I got home, and by the time I arrived Coe appeared remorseful.  He kept going over to Mac and saying “sorry Ma” and then giving him a hug.  He also wouldn’t go near Albi for over an hour, so I guess the punishment was effective. 

In all of this I learned that despite Mac’s temper and high dramatic response to everything, he doesn’t hold a grudge.  After Mac and I finished the reshoot, he quickly ran inside to look for Copey so they could play.  I’m sure this is the first of many brotherly induced injuries, but hopefully the others won’t leave a mark!

Christmas card photo session (part 1)

Every year I spend entirely too much time thinking about our Christmas card.  I try to find the perfect pictures to go with the perfect card.  The latter being much easier for me than the former thanks to one of my very talented sorority sisters who has her own invitation design and printing business - Emily O. Holmes. 

Generally I have professional pictures taken of the boys in the fall with the intent of using one of the pictures for my card, but this year that didn’t happen.  We have beautiful pictures taken at the beach in September by my very talented niece, but they don’t fit with my typical “Christmas card” theme.  Before I decided whether to step out of my comfort zone and use the beach pictures or go with a more traditional card, I needed to get some new pics of the boys. 

That brings us to Saturday.  Late that afternoon I dressed the boys in coordinating outfits, drug everyone outside and started begging, pleading and bribing them to cooperate and smile.  I figured Copeland would be my problem child since he doesn’t quite understand bribing, and that turned out to be half true.  Copeland did not want to sit with Mac and take any pictures, but he was very good and smiling and taking pictures by himself.  Mac on the other hand was very cooperative but is going through a “fake smile” phase.  Albi and I did everything we could to try to get him to give us a normal smile, but it was difficult.  Matter of fact I had to redo his individual shots the next day because I wasn’t thrilled with any from Saturday.

First I will share with you what I refer to as the “blooopers”        Finally I gave in up and let them have the bribe.  At this point Copeland had already finished his solo shots, and I was hoping that somewhere in the middle of the bloopers I managed to get one decent group shot. 

I’ll share the pictures I’m happier with in the next post.