When we last left off, this is what things looked like around here. For whatever reason, after the girls went to bed on Christmas Eve I started to panic about what my photos would look like. I hate using the flash, I was worried about things being blurry without it, my video camera would be on the tripod so that was out. I think I just like to worry in general. I decided I should shoot Christmas morning in manual mode. For the first time. I sat down with my camera manual and figured it out. Sort of. Granted, many of these have a smidge of blur and they are far from perfect -- they are MUCH brighter and prettier than any of our previous Christmas celebrations. So, I'm trying to have no regrets and just go with it. Now onto the big day! I woke up at 5:30. I made coffee, pigs in a blanket ...
sophie
Twas the Night Before Christmas
When Scout came to visit on the morning of Christmas Eve he left the girls a note, so they knew to expect a little surprise from him when we got home from Nana's and Communion later in the evening. True to his word, Scout was on the living room buffet with a pretty package for the girls. Can you tell they were excited? On top of the gift was a silver key just for Santa so that he could let himself in since we don't have any working fire places in our home. It took some discussion to determine just what the key was for, but Ella was really excited once we all talked about it. She was puzzled that it wouldn't fit in the front door, but decided that it must mean when Santa touched the key it was magically transformed. We were all about the magic of Christmas this year. They also got ...
Christmas at Nana’s
On Christmas Eve, we always celebrate with Josh's parents. His mom cooks the BEST lunch -- country cooked ham, chicken & dressing, macaroni & cheese, lots of veggies that I avoid on principle, rolls and lots of homemade desserts. We all pretty much stalk the kitchen until the dressing is out of the oven and then eat way too much. This year, Ella wasn't feeling well and we knew she had an ear infection in at least one ear. We were waiting to hear back from the nurse, but I felt sure we would be traveling into town to the after hours clinic at some point in the afternoon. We ate quickly and opened gifts early so that she wouldn't miss any of the important parts of the day. We knew that Sophie was going to be fun at Christmas this year. At twenty months old, she's the perfect age to ...
Catch him if you can!
The night before Christmas Eve, we were cleaning house, wrapping presents and eating pizza as a family when we heard sirens. I did a double-take and realized that they didn't sound like warning sirens and that Santa Clause must be in the neighborhood! We went out on the porch and could see him a good ways in the distance making his way towards our house. When we realized that his entourage was going to miss our house (we are only one of a few which face the road and he took the street behind us instead), we started grabbing mittens and boots and threw ourselves in the car. A few neighborhoods away, we found him. Sophie held onto Josh so tight, but both girls were excited to see him so close to Christmas! ...
Two Big Girls
Yes, I know I should be sharing photos from our Christmas celebrations, but I'm not quite there yet. I thought instead I would share what we worked all day on yesterday. When we woke up, Sophie had a nursery and by the time we went to bed, it was all gussied up as a play room. We moved the kitchen and baby dolls into her room and added a comfy chair for reading and where mommy could watch the comings and goings. Bonus points for not having to walk through the room of a sleeping baby to go to the restroom! And giant fail for not realizing that a bath towel was creeping out of that door before I took these pictures. Meet Tuck, Sophie's Christmas lovie. She has never been attached to anything before now, but Nana & Grandpa gave her this sweet light up one that she calls Tuck and ...
Merry CHRISTmas from the Fields’
Everyone at the Rock House is wishing you a wonderfully Merry Christmas and hoping you are celebrating with us the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord. And just in case you needed a cute fix today, here is Ella's sweet video from last Christmas! ...
A Breakfast Surprise
The Sunday after Thanksgiving seemed as good a day as any for Scout to make his appearance. Ella had been asking for days when he might come, but I was dreading finding something for him to do for 30 days in a row! It just so happened, that Scout didn't care anything about my concerns and made his appearance bright and early on Sunday morning. He wrote the girls a sweet note and even left them a card for a response. He was pretty industrious this year and had the dining room table all decorated for Christmas. There were sausage balls, pigs-in-a-blanket and snow-covered donuts for breakfast (he completely forgot to set out the hot chocolate and marshmallows -- oops!). The girls were so excited to see his little surprise and I decided this breakfast might be the perfect way to welcome the ...
Christmas Tree Hunting
The morning after Thanksgiving we headed off to the Christmas Tree Tent. If you've been reading awhile, then you'll remember that we decided to make memories last year and cut our on tree down with the girls. It was cold and miserable and Ella hated it. Not only was the experience lackluster (except for the awesome photographs), but the tree was a disaster and died and we later had to replace it with a fake one! We all decided that we deserved a redo and we headed back to our favorite striped tent. But first, we had our annual pancake breakfast at IHOP. Ella had 5 pancakes and Soph ate almost as much of my french toast as I did. Daddy wouldn't let us bring the big camera in and it was all I could do to get him to smile for a few Instagram pics. He is not a fan of taking photographs at a ...