Family Affair

Ugh, I don't want to complain but I need some sleep people!!

Yeah, we had yet another bad night. This has got to end soon.

I can say on a positive note though that the crib napping is going remarkably well. Of course, now that I've said something I have probably jinxed it.

He went down for two naps yesterday in the crib and slept for over an hour each time. That is not quite as long as a normal good swing nap, but I'll take it. The upside was that last night when I was ready for him to go to bed I just laid him down in the crib and he sucked on a bottle for a couple of minutes, rolled over and went to sleep.

Of course, he was awake an hour later just as I was crawling into bed.

And then he was really awake at 4am after sleeping with me in the bed. From then on he would not go back to sleep. I finally changed him into a lighter onesie at about 7am and he passed out for an hour.

On to bigger and better...

Last weekend Hubby and I decided last minute to throw on some clothes and run out to a park for some sunset family photos. We do this every year for our annual holiday card, and after thinking about how few weekends we had left to get some images we decided to try.

As these things always go, it was a disaster to say the least. There was tension and angst about what to wear, then some settling on my part (I'm still kind of in between sizes and for whatever reason I got it in my head that we should all wear shades of green - don't ask me why; I don't even have a nice green shirt). We tossed all our camera gear in the car, grabbed the boys and raced out there. Kiddo fell asleep in the car - HARD. We had quite the time trying to wake him up. Unfortunately we got to the park a little late and after a failed attempt at getting some shots on a park bench, we drug ourselves over to a cool fence and barn. The light was a bit better there, but fading fast. I thought I was taking the pictures and Hubby (a photographer too) thought he was taking the pictures. More tension; Kiddo running amok and throwing rocks at donkeys; confused donkeys thinking Kiddo was feeding them - it was madness. Hubby got his gear all set up and we took a few shots - I am not sure how they came out; he hasn't shown them to me yet. But I am pretty sure we will be making another attempt. The kids were not exactly cooperative and the light was going and apparently my hair style choice according to Hubby, "looked like I had just done housework". *sigh* - he was right.

Then just before the light was gone completely I snagged my camera (and broke my tripod - grr) and grabbed a few images of my boys. I just looked at them for the first time today and though they are grainy and blurry I love them so much.

My boys:
The always sassy always vein-y headed Kiddo...
The undeniably adorable no-sleepin'-rascal Port...
(with handsome Hubby)
And oh my how I love, love this picture. It is not perfect, it is not all in focus and it is quite poorly composed, but it is of the loves of my life and I adore it. Da Boys - Even if we try again to get some family shots this coming weekend, even if we get our acts together, and even if the shots turn out better - I will still love the above image wholeheartedly. Just looking at it makes my heart swell.

Thanks for looking.

Until,
D :)