Four Christmases, Make that Five

Well, I just got all of our decorations put away and I am thinking back to what a wonderful holiday we had this year. I really can't believe how busy we were. It really is unbelievable, all that we did in one short day. I will give you a rundown....

It all started at 12:30 am Christmas morning when Evelyn genuinely thought it was morning. We were woken up very sweetly, but had to tell her to go back to bed. Ian spent the next 30 minutes comforting her because she was so upset that she did that. She is so tenderhearted. Well, we were able to sleep until 6:30 am.

Start - Christmas 1. The kids got their gifts from Santa and we opened our gifts as a family. It was wonderful.

Start - Christmas 2. We arrived at Ian's Grandmother's house for brunch at 10:00 am for the big Ruff Christmas. There was a very nice mimosa waiting there for me. Mmmm. We exchanged gifts between all the Great Grandkids and then did the adult gift exchange. Very much fun. We actually did not bring the lemon gifts this year! We headed back to Ian's mom's house around 1:00.

Start - Christmas 3. Back at Kim's house, we exchanged gifts between Mama, Ian's sister and her family, and us. It was lots of fun. Mama got a new TV so after that was set up, we got to play the new Wii that Mama got from Santa. She must have been very good this year. Then, the boys had to fry a turkey for Christmas number 4.

Start - Christmas 4. At 4:00 we had to drive to Irmo to arrive at 5:00 for the Boyd family Christmas. This is when the kids finally conked out in the car for a nice hour nap. We had a delicious dinner, and dessert. The kids played themselves silly and the adults had a gift exchange. We left Irmo and headed back to Saluda, arriving at 10pm. Oh what a day.

Sunday marked the start of Christmas 5 in which we celebrated with my family at our house. We had lots of fun with the cousins playing. It was Durham's first Christmas, although he slept thru most of it. I don't blame him. If I was only 2 weeks old, I would be sleeping too.

Next year, we are staying at home.

And finally....my family

Well, we finally made our family picture this last weekend with a trip to the Merry Christmas Tree farm. This is our tradition and the kids LOVE it! First it was a long game of hide and seek. Then, Owen helped cut the tree down while Ev and I sipped on our hot chocolate. Thanks to my new tripod, and the self timer, we were able to get our photo. Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Birthday Durham!!

I was lucky enough to be able to visit last night for a couple hours. These pictures were taken when he was about 7 hours old. He really is perfect in every way. Congrats Sheri and Keith!

Mmm, cookies!

Thank goodness for Oreo's! It was a beautiful, yet perfectly cloudy day to take pictures of this wonderful family. Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy day to capture some sweet moments. I am really enjoying getting everyone's Christmas cards with their pictures on them:)

Ralph the Elf

So, we had a little elf show up on the shelf this morning. They named him Ralph - short for Red Elf. I have to admit he is a cutie patootie. Evelyn was a true believer from the start, but Owen is quite the skeptic. For a solid hour he asked every question imaginable about elves. I was about to go crazy. I finally had to tell him I don't have all the answers. In fact, he is still asking me questions as I write this. I warned his teacher this morning, and sure enough, he continued with the inquiries all thru school. The cutest part happened this morning when both kids stood on the chairs with their christmas lists and held them in front of Ralph. Evelyn read her list very clearly. She is convinced he is looking at her wherever she goes. Owen thinks he is an old toy that Daddy got out of the attic. I guess we will see their reaction when they find him tomorrow morning!

Any Day Now....

This is my beautiful sister and her husband. She is due any day now and we are so excited to see new baby Durham! Thanks for letting me capture these moments :)

Party of Five....

We were able to sneak into Clemson to the Botanical Gardens EARLY on Saturday before the Clemson vs. Virginia game traffic got too bad. It was worth it! What a beautiful family. Thank you soooo much for the practice! I got there early and scouted out the only 4 trees left with some pretty color. We got lucky there were some left.

I am looking forward to the next shoot!

Beautiful Sunday afternoon.....

I just have the best friends! Thank you Holbrooks family for letting me get some more practice. We went to the Botanical Gardens and got a few shots of the family. It was so much fun! I just went to Wally World to get a few prints from this shoot and the lady told me I had to have a copy right release in order to get them. Ha! I told her I took them and then realized when I was leaving that I just got a super compliment!

Here are a few sneak peaks. Hope you like them Holbrooks family!

Continued from below.......

Here are some more pics.....

Thank you Kids!!!!!

My wonderful, patient children spent 2 hours at the Botanical Gardens in Clemson with me so that I could get some more practice. Now that my class is over, and I am waiting for the next one to start, I need to PRACTICE!! The kids were very patient with me. I mostly let them run around and I took random shots. There are a few that were posed. None of the images have been altered in Photoshop......yet. Oh, and I did it all in Manual setting :) It was hard to decide which ones to show, there are so many!! So, with that said, if anyone wants some pictures, I need the practice. Just let me know!

Nighttime shots

My class went to Falls Park during class one evening and we learned how to take night shots WITHOUT the flash. It was so cool. I managed to get a couple good ones. My wonderful husband just bought me a tripod for our anniversary, so now I can really get some that will be in focus.

My new Hobby!!!

I found out I love Photography! I just finished a 9 week photography course at Greenville Tech continuing education. I had so much fun. I can't wait to take the next class and increase my skills. Here are a few shots from last Sunday when my class went to Falls Park in Greenville. The bumble bee is the granddaughter of one of the ladies in my class. The shots of the couple are a girl in my class and her husband. He was such a trooper. I am planning on taking some shots of my "very pregnant" sister and her family at the Botanical Gardens sometime soon.

The Migraine Blues

I finished this blanket yesterday while recovering from a killer migraine (for the baby shower). I have not had a migraine in 2 years. Oh it was horrible. Thanks to my wonderful husband Ian for staying home and taking care of me and the kids.

This blanket was for a friend from church. She is having a baby boy, and naming him Bradley. We can't wait for his arrival.

Evelyn's Bday

Well, since I am very slow at posting my crochet projects, I thought I would bless you with some of my random thoughts. You know, since so many people read my blog, haha. Evelyn's birthday was a huge success. We rented a giant Spacewalk (I highly recommend it). The kids had a blast, but it was 100 degrees so they spent most of the time in her bedroom, tearing it to pieces. It was clean for all of 30 seconds. I spent the entire week preparing for this party. My house was so spic and span I could have put it on the market. Of course now, not so much. Anyway, an incredible amount of people showed up to the party. I was so happy and overwhelmed at the same time. Thank goodness for friends. All the mom's jumped right in and helped me so much. I am so thankful to have good friends. Kudos to our friend Jason who came and drew portraits of the children. That took lots of patience. To top it off, there was even a kid at the party that I have never even seen before! He walked in the house and asked for a piece of cake. I realized later that I had no idea who that kid was. He stayed while Evelyn opened presents and played for 1.5 hrs after the party was over. I finally had to ask him to go home - wherever that may be.... Come to find out, he was a friend of the neighbor boy. I am patting myself on the back for my patience that day!

Oh yes, I had a birthday four days later. Thanks everyone for the purses. I got 4 of them. And yes, I like them all.

New Projects!!!!!

Well, here it is. I am finally posting some projects from the last few months. You will see some prayer shawls, scarves and a baby blanket. My next project is some pillow covers for a friend.

It has been quite a while since my last post. I have been having trouble uploading some photos so I will just leave a short note and work on that later. I hope in this new year to make more posts, get more comments and make some outstanding crochet projects. Keep checking back.