Merry Christmas 2008

This afternoon, we decorated Christmas cookies at my parents.  The kids were very into the project, and it was especially fun to watch Adriana get into it for the first time.  Being the brilliant mommy that I am, I forgot my camera!

I'm taking a blog break until after Christmas so a very Merry Christmas from our family yours. May you find fresh joy as we celebrate the miracle of God becoming man to pay the punishment for our sins so that we could be adopted as sons and heirs.

Little Chef

After receiving mini pots and pans and a whole chef's get-up from her grandparents, Adriana has been enjoying her kitchen more then ever. She scurries around acting like she's in a rush to get dinner on the table (monkey see, monkey do!), then brings me "coffee" in a polka dotted tea cup. I also had no idea that you could make cookies in a metal pot, but she's teaching me how.

Christmas- Michigan Style

My mother-in-law knitted scarfs for each of the girls in the family, even the little girls:

Grandpa, Grandma, and the grandkids:

The boys sporting one of their favorite gifts:

And of course Steven couldn't resist:

The Tree

Christmas is all over our home now. I chuckled yesterday as I heard Adriana singing "Feliz Davi-dad".

Maternity Shoot

I'm so excited about my first nephew that's due to arrive in about a month. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to take some maternity shots for my sister.
If you're interested you can check them out here: http://alyssaannephotography.blogspot.com/2008/12/c-maternity.html
Now I'm looking forward to a special newborn photo shoot!

Sunday School

Even after my kids are potty trained, I'm always nervous about an accident when we're out and about. Diapers remain mandatory while on the go for a little while after they're potty trained. But a few months back we decided that Adriana ready ready to be diaper-less at all waking moments.
I still worry a bit that I'll see my number flashed at church with a message waiting for me to go clean up the puddle in room 2B. So the other Sunday before church, I gave the pep talk,
"Okay, Adriana, now Momma will take you to the potty when we get to church and when I pick you up from Sunday School. But if you need to go while you're in Sunday School, who do you tell?"
She quickly answered, "Jesus!"

Thanksgiving Day

Watching the Macy's Parade...she was kicking her legs along with the Rockettes:

Waiting for turkey:

The whole crowd:

Pumpkin Pie

While my sons are running around the house like wild Indians, my daughter would much prefer to follow me around trying her best to help out with housework. She loves sorting the laundry with me or taking a wet rag around wiping walls or splashing in the dish water. Her absolute favorite thing to help with is cooking. So Saturday when Steven whisked the boys away for some "guy time", Adriana and I made a couple of pumpkin pies for our caregroup's Thanksgiving meal. I had her help every step of the way, and she stuck with me through the whole task and was thrilled to be doing such a "big girl" job. So while there are times, that having a two year old at my heels can reveal impatience in my heart, I love having the company and getting to begin the beautiful task of mentoring my girlie. What a gift!!

And thanks to Auntie Caroline for sending those matching aprons!

Intruder

In the middle of last night, I woke with a start. I had a gut feeling that someone else was in our room. While Steven slept soundly beside me, I lay still wondering if I had been dreaming. Then I heard breathing that I knew was not my husband's. My mind raced and my heart pounded. If it was an intruder, did he have a gun? Should I move? I opened my eyes but was unable to see anything in my pitch black room. I quickly shut my eyes thinking that it might be best to pretend to sleep until my husband awoke or I thought of a better plan. The breathing continued or what I'm sure was only a matter of seconds, but what seemed like long minutes to me. Finally there was a small noise I thought I recognized.
"Who's there?," I mustered. Elijah had been standing over me the whole time waiting for me to wake up to console him from a bad dream. You can imagine my sigh of relief. And when the morning came, I'm sure I saw a couple new gray hairs on my head.

One Little, Two Little, Three Little...

I have not been consistent about making sure that our Tuesday art projects get photographed and posted on the blog; but like almost everything else in my life, it will just have to be sporadic. I had to post of picture of the three little Indian chiefs, though. I don't think I've ever seen my boys that excited about an art project. My house has been full of wild Indians since this morning. Actually that's inaccurate, my house has been full of wild Indians for the past six years...

Another Blog

Since I have so much free time these days *snort*, I thought I might as well start another blog. No, seriously, I've been hearing and reading about how much a blog can help market a photography business and decided to give it a go. I figured that throwing a few photos on a blog shouldn't be that hard (isn't that about all I do here?). The point is to not only give potential clients a feel for my photography, but also have a place for clients to get a first sneak peak of their own photos.
So if you feel like checking it out, it's www.alyssaannephotography.blogspot.com

Give Me A Caption

This has to be one of my favorite photos ever. I didn't even realize what Adriana was doing when I took it, but I laughed so loud when I looked back over my pictures the next day. A photo truly is worth a thousand words. But I wanted to hear from all of you; leave me a comment with what you think would be a good capture for this pic:

All Three Before the Wedding

Wedding

My brother's wedding was Saturday. It turned out to be a gorgeous fall day that was enhanced by the fact that the wedding and reception were out near the Appalachian mountains.
Elijah put on quite a show as the ring bearer. During the first practice of the rehearsal, he walked faithfully down the aisle while staring at the ground the entire time. My mom told him that the next time he should try to look up. So for the second round of practice, he stared at the ceiling the entire time. We had a good laugh and instructed him to just look at Josiah while walking down during the wedding. The next day during the real deal, he walked down the aisle looking straight at Josiah and sticking his tongue out the entire time! The whole place was laughing, and my brother later told me that he was so grateful for a good laugh to calm his nerves.

The goofy crew:










The groom and best man, A.K.A. my baby brothers:


Matt, Christine, and baby:


My handsome parents:

I'll post some pics of my other two kiddos in a few days.

So we officially have another Mrs. Helms in family, and we couldn't be more happy with the girl behind the name!

Reading

Elijah's big accomplishment for this month was learning to read. He's so enthusiastic about it, and looks forward to Phonics each school day.
This past week he was sitting next to my sister Katie who was quietly reading her own book. He reminded her that he is now an accomplished reader and asked her what she was doing with her book.
"I'm reading this book," she told him.
"I don't hear you," he contradicted.
"Well," she responded, "That would be because I'm reading in my head."
He leaned in close, putting his ear next to her head, "But I don't hear anything!"

By the way, he wasn't mad in this photo but decided he wanted to look "cool". Notice the crossed arm trend in my kiddos portraits...

Naughty & Nice

So with Christmas only nine weeks away, no doubt Santa has begun making his list and will soon be checking it twice. My question is, what does he do about the kids who are both naughty and nice?? My girlie is talking so much and one minute is such a delight to be around as she hugs my leg or helps me do laundry. Then, the next minute, she is decorating her room with Desitin diaper cream or bossing her brothers around. Even after reminding her that she is only their sister and not their mother, she has insisted, "No, I am my boys momma!"

Yesterday morning, I came to get her after her room time was over. She stood by her dresser with her little chair and was looking quite guilty.

She immediately told me, "I didn't touch anyfing!"

I realized that she probably was using the chair to climb up to the drawer with the Desitin. I walked over to check it out and asked, " What did you do?"

The pushed her hand against the drawer in question, emphatically denying the obvious, "No! No! I didn't touch anyfing!"

I tried to open the drawer and she pushed it all the harder, "Don't look! I didn't touch anyfing!"

I broke every mommy rule and just started belly laughing, having to gather myself to even muster a correction.

For my two-year-old's sake, I hope Santa defaults to the "nice list" in such cases, or else a certain little girl might be decorating her room with coal come December 26th.

Cousins

Eric and Autumn, Steven's brother and sister-in-law, flew here to Virginia with their daughter to spend the weekend with us. The kids had so much fun with their cousin who is now walking. The boys spent a lot of time pretending to be lions and tigers, chasing Trinity up and down the hallway while she ran laughing and shrieking. Adriana called her "baby" most of the weekend; and when not having a bad attitude over sharing toys, enjoyed having another little girl in the house. Steven and I had a great time as well and were grateful for the chance to get to know Eric and Autumn even better.
We grabbed the opportunity to get some "cousin photos"...

First Field Trip

The farm we went to was a lot of fun. For all of you local moms with little kids, I'd highly recommend it: http://www.greatcountryfarms.com/ It had a pumpkin patch, berry patch, petting area, huge moon bounce, mazes, hayrides, giant slide, play area, dried corn sandbox, and lots more. Even though it was about an hour drive, it was totally worth it; and we're hoping to make it an annual trip.


You've got to love the masculinity my son is embracing as he crosses his legs...

My Little Pumpkin

Yesterday we took our first field trip to a farm with a pumpkin patch. Isaiah was the one who found the perfect pumpkin for our dining room table. Adriana picked up a sad little marred pumpkin that in her eyes was just perfect. She toted it around, proud of her find.







More pumpkin patch pictures (say that four times fast) to come!

Gifts From Cancun

If my husband ever tells you that you should watch "Nacho Libre," just ignore him. The only reason I even wasted my time finishing the pathetic movie is that I was having too much fun watching Steven doubled over laughing. So when we were in Cancun trying to find some gifts for the kids, we spotted some wrestling masks akin to the kind worn by Mr. Nacho Libre. We knew our own two wrestlers could have a lot of fun with those masks.

And of course, someone else had to try it on...

Honeymoon #2

This past week, Steven and I got away for a sort of "second honeymoon". We spent five nights in Cancun, Mexico at a gorgeous resort. Having six days to focus on Steven and our marriage was priceless. We had a blast, rarely leaving the resort. I walked away with the most wins at the pool table but thoroughly humbled on the tennis court. The food at the resort was super gourmet and fabulous, and my waistline grew right along with my love for my hubby. Best of all, my wonderful husband had me giggling like a teenager, kissing like a newlywed, and spending hours talking and growing closer.

Part of the resort:

The view from our room...the water really was that blue!:

In front of the lobby's hanging lounge beds:

The main difference between this honeymoon and the first was that instead of coming home to piles of wedding gifts, we returned to three of our biggest gifts who lavished us with hugs and kisses.

From Psycho Fan To Daddy

When I met my husband, he was a football fanatic...and that's putting it lightly. Not only did this former, all-region highschool football player watch just about every televised game. But he became the self-made University of Toledo "Psycho Fan". He went to every game in tights and a cape (no, I won't be sharing photos) and became a sort of mascot during his four years of college, even having a write-up in a local paper.
After his conversion, the cross became bigger and bigger in his eyes and football got smaller and smaller. Suddenly, he was watching fewer games and prioritizing his time. Now don't get me wrong; my husband still loves football, especially the University of Michigan. He could still hold a lengthy conversation giving you stats of the team and how he predicts they will do this year. He still tries to watch his Wolverines every autumn Saturday. But it's no longer a high priority in his life.
As I looked over the railing in our home this past Saturday, I realized that the Psycho Fan has truly become a daddy. I rushed to get my camera to capture this candid moment during the game. Who says you can't have tea party while watching football?




And the neighbors can still hear him when Michigan makes a good play...