Fall Family Photos

 Time flies so quickly and I didn't realize it had been THREE YEARS since our last family photo shoot.  As per usual, we asked our photographer to bring her fun red couch.  It always looks so pretty with the fall foliage.   

The location this year was our lake's trails and recreational area, just across from our house.  The shoot was on October 10th, but we just got the pictures back to share (and to make Christmas cards).

It was a morning shoot (10 AM) and we only had a few mishaps in the morning.  The first: I had quite an eyelash mishap (*groan*).  The second: Connor showed up in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.  He apparently forgot the reason he had to drive to our house on a Saturday morning.   Since he had taken ALL of this jeans and pants with him to college, I had to think quick.  And... well... the kid had to end up wearing a pair of my jeans (no bling on the butt and they were quite gender neutral).   Chaotic mishaps were averted!

Eric and Connor are never overly thrilled to get their pictures snapped, so Heather (our photographer) started off with Ramsey, who seemed the most willing to comply.

Then, off with the rest of the group photos, walking down the trails to different areas with gorgeous Fall foliage.

I enhanced a number of them to add vignettes, more intense colors, and even variances in tones.  

We took along my yellow wagon that I've had since I was younger than Ramsey.  The colors jived and I thought the pics turned out quite precious.  Ramsey had fun getting pulled around by Big Brubby Connor.

Heather got a number of cute happy pictures of Ramsey, laughing his rear off.  Back story: for much of the time, Eric was poking my hair with branches, which Ramsey found absolutely hilarious.  My "do" wasn't perfectly coifed that day anyway, so I took a few for the team.  ;-)

Along the way, Connor got a wild hair to climb a tree, midway along one of the paths.  That kid can climb!!!!  I was impressed.  We got a few shots of that as well.

When Connor got down, his arms were scraped up a little from his monkey-ness, but I think it was worth it!

Ramsey found a special "fort" that he was obsessed with too, so he had to make sure Heather got pictures of him there.

The boys got creative and had a little fun with the leaves too!

Decorating for Christmas

 This year needed some EARLY Christmas cheer.  Instead of waiting until after Thanksgiving, all of the boxes of Christmas decor came out on November 11th (and was completed within a few days)!   I also figured it'd give me more time to relax a little over the holidays instead of going MACH 10!

As a Christmas tradition, Ramsey and I had gone to Hobby Lobby to get two new Christmas ornaments.

Mistletoe!!!

I had some spare garland, so sure... why not... decorate my make-up dresser!?!

Our "Christmas Tone" has been set.  I love this time of year!!

Obsessed with Homophones, Homographs, Homonyms

 Ramsey and I had touched on homophones and such a while back, just because I am a grammar nerd.  Recently, in his 2nd Grade Language Arts that he's escalated to, they've introduced them to him again, but just a few.

He likes the idea of these fun words, so I decided to see what he knows.  I gave him examples of the homophones and asked him to give me the definition, use them properly in a sentence, and spell them for each instance.  We went through dozens.   I was astounded the he got them ALL RIGHT.  

Most astounding are that he was able to differentiate and properly use and spell "To, Too, and Two", "Your and You're", and "There, Their, and They're"!!  Drop the mic, kiddo, drop the mic.   Bravo to this First Grader!  Proud Momma Moments!

Now, each night, after he draws his Super Monkeys, he wants to practice homonyms, homophones, and homographs!!   I'm good with that.  :-)