Professional Photos - Holidays 2010

I live for Christmas cards.  I love getting them in the mail.  I especially love the ones with a nice coordinating and sometimes awkward family photo so I can see how everyone's families have grown and changed in a year's time.  The more perfect the families appear, the funnier I find the picture.  That goes for my own family pictures as well.  I love displaying the cards I receive and when I go to someone's house during the Holidays, I almost always look through their pile of cards even if I have no idea who the families are. I love it!

And yes I totally get that it's a little narcissistic to get the family all dressed up in coordinating outfits and get professional photographs done each year but I don't care.  Call me vain, roll your eyes at what is the adorableness of Brenna's Ralph Lauren ensemble (Thank you, Aunt Schecky) but as long as I have the littlest of strength left in my body in the month of December, I will schlept my family out to the beach or some grassy knoll and get a picture taken.   Because for that one second, it appears that we have it all together and I find that delightful and amusing.  I probably have residual snot in my hair and I may be bribing my kid with a lollipop or the empty threat of NEVER RIDING THE MERRY-GO-ROUND AGAIN, but you will never know that by the looks of our photo. :-)

My very good friend and photog, Lauren Donovan, of Lauren Donovan Photography took these pics.  Kudos to you Lauren.  I love them!!!  Thank you for your patience and beautiful work!

Christmas 2010

For some reason, I've been really burnt out with the blogging lately so I took a nice long break to just enjoy the moments themselves without hopping to the computer to record them right away.  I hope I can get back into it on a semi-regular basis because I know that I will love to look back and read all about our lives "when".  I also do this because I hope Brenna and any other future kids will also look back and see a glimpse into what life was like when they were little.   So without further adieu, here is our Christmas 2010 Recap!

We had such a nice Christmas this year.  We started out by baking cookies for Santa...

Pouring some milk for him and leaving some carrots for the reindeer.

Before bedtime, we needed to taste for quality-assurance.

In the middle of the night, Santa arrived and even left snowy footprints.

Brenna woke up around 5am and I brought her in our room past all the presents (which luckily she didn't even notice) and we all slept a few more hours in our bed.  Brett and I got up and started breakfast before Brenna came stumbling out.  She was half-asleep so didn't have a huge reaction to everything but she did enjoy playing with all her new toys and discovering new ones all throughout the morning. 

Daddy and Brenna playing with Mr. Potato Head in her new Monkey Tent.

Dress Up Time

One of my favorite memories was skyping with the grandparents and Brenna showing them all the goodies Santa brought her.


Christmas Eve at the Bloom House

Grammy fixing Brenna's hair....there's always a lot of this going on.

November 2010 Favorite and Not So Favorite Things

Well let's start with my least favorite things about November 2010 so we can end on a positive note.

1) Brenna got REALLY sick the week we were supposed to go to Disney for a week.  Her fever was so so high and she had strep throat and was just miserable.  Brett had taken off work for the whole week so we could go to Disney and have a nice vacation and we ended up in the house all week taking care of Brenna all day and all night.  She was waking up every couple of hours at night and it was NOT FUN.  Poor thing did get better in time to go to Disney for the weekend though!  I was very thankful to have Brett home to help take care of Brenna for that week but sad that he pretty much wasted 4 vacation days.

2)  Tonsillitis!  I got tonsillitus during Thanksgiving and was MISERABLE for 8 straight days.  On the plus side, I did lost 2 pounds rather than gain the normal 5 or 6 during Thanksgiving.  On the negative, no Thanksgiving food or leftovers to enjoy :-(

3)  Brett has a PE job and his work at PSI has him working WAY too much.  He probably averages working 16 hours a day (weekends too).  No joke.  Can't wait for him to cut back.  We miss him.  But let's be a pollyanna for a second and count our blessings that he has a job!  And one that he loves!  I should take this one off the list...

Ok, now on to the happy and good times of November 2010.

1)  Disney!!!  We were able to bring Brenna to DisneyWorld despite her not feeling well in the days prior.  Post all about that will be up shortly. 

2)  Supportive Family.  I'm so lucky to have parents and parents-in-law who can help with Brenna when I'm sick.  Brenna spent a day with the Epsteins and her cousins Nick and Alex over Thanksgiving when I was feeling so crummy and then she spent 3 days and nights with my mom and dad later that week.  I have no doubt that I had to take care of her on top of being sick with tonsillitis, I would have been sick for twice as long.  Here's Brenna and Nick and Alex having a photo shoot at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Great grandma Ruth (Bubbee) and all her grandkids

3) Marina's 2nd Birthday Party which was ladybug themed.  So fun!

4) Playdates at our place.  Specifically a Megablok-themed playdate that I hosted which was sponsored due to my other blog (http://www.thismommyloves.com/)

5) Happy Birthday, Mac Luber!  November 29, 2010, Mark and Jill welcomed Baby Mac Alan Luber.  Can't wait to see them over New Years and Meet Baby Mac in person.  And for the record, I guessed his weight exactly to the oz!  7lbs 1 oz

Such a proud big sis!

6) Cooler Florida winter temperatures which make it fun to go for walks outside!

7) Christmastime is here!  Decorations are everywhere, the tree is up and Brenna got to welcome Santa as he arrived at our local mall. 

Kisses from Trey while Santa arrived and the kids had milk and cookies.

Halloween 2010

The Haffey's (Sonya, Ryan, and Ry Ry) had a little Halloween party this year and we went trick-or-treating in their great neighborhood with our playgroup pals.  Of course, our whole family dressed up in a Royal motiff.  We were watching Enchanted one day and that's when Brenna decided she wanted to be a Princess, Daddy should be a Prince and Mommy the evil queen. 

Our caravan complete with a beer wagon!

From October 2010

From October 2010