Stinky Cheese Man

Maddox's favorite new book from Christmas: The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. I got it for him since unfortunately "stupid" is one of his favorite words. Drives me crazy. This rather strange book is quite a hit.

Evey even wanted to join in on story time!

Wishing you a happy and safe New Year!

Chunkalicious

Evey is 4 months old today! What a sweet baby - I just love her to bits! She's doing everything in her power to get mobile. She wants to be sitting up and/or moving around as much as possible. We are helping her practice her standing - she's getting quite good. The latest development is probably her adorable little giggle - and I think Maddox makes her laugh more than anyone. No shocker there.

Here are some pics of my little chunky monkey from her photo shoot today.

Definitely a little extra skin and padding in places.

But I'm not worried. Maddox was huge through his first year and then slimmed down and stopped growing quite so fast. And it's not like the girl doesn't work out! Here she is doing her crunches...

(Probably my favorite shot from today...)

And still - more crunches! Looks like she's starting to form a bit of a 6-pack there! ;-)

One more shot of my lovely little Evey.

Christmas Day

We had a late night Christmas Eve because when we got home from Grandma Nita's house - Maddox desperately wanted to play with all of his gifts. We let him play with a few before dragging him off to bed (not exactly kicking and screaming...but almost).

So he slept in pretty late Christmas morning. He went straight from waking up to heading for the tree to see what Santa left him and to open his presents. He is under the impression everything he opened this year is from Santa. I keep trying to explain that some gifts are from his mommy and daddy, some are from his grandparents, etc. But he won't hear of it. He just says, "No...it's from Santa." And sometimes he even says this slowly and enunciates...since I'm sure from his perspective I'm just not grasping the concept. ;-)

So anyways - he opened his presents...

And emptied his stocking...

Here is Maddox with a bunch of his loot...

As late as Maddox slept in - Evey beat him by a good hour or so. By the time she awoke - we had to head out to PaPa's house for brunch - so she did not "open" any gifts in the morning. I'm pretty sure she didn't mind though. Here she is hangin' with PaPa.

After PaPa's house - we made our way to Grandma Donna's house for dinner. We somehow managed to cram even more food into our already stuffed bellies and had a wonderful time. Unfortunately - with my nasty cold I really wasn't feeling that great and didn't take very many pics. In fact - I believe this is the only picture I took while at Grandma Donna's house. :-( This was Maddox enjoying a tasty Christmas cookie - I can't remember what he was telling me - but that is a sprinkle on his lip...

Then when we got home that evening - Maddox helped Evey open her presents and empty her stocking. Here she is with a little rattle clacker thing that Santa left her in her stocking...

And here she is with a bunch of her loot as well...

I'm happy to report that today I am finally feeling better! And Maddox is very happy that my voice is returning. He was crying the other night when I told him I was losing my voice - I had to explain that it would return. Though I think Jay enjoys the break. ;-)

Hope everyone had a wonderful (and healthy) holiday!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with Grandma Nita and Grandpa Bob. Grandma Nita had an enormous spread of yummy food, as usual. So after stuffing ourselves silly - we settled in the living room for the gift exchange portion of the evening. Maddox and Grandpa Bob got to work making a fire in the fireplace...

Grandpa Bob had A LOT of money to burn this Christmas. ;-)

Little Evey took a nice long nap on Daddy's lap.

Here you can see her little bubble lips.

Maddox was a very busy boy. Not only did he deliver gifts to everyone - he helped unwrap each present as well! Quite the helper. ;-)

Evey did wake up and chill with Grandma Nita on the couch for a while.

My favorite shot of the night resulted from Grandpa Bob trying on his new hat and shades. I wish I could say that I planned on catching Maddox's reflection in the glasses - but I'm afraid it was just a happy accident. Pretty neat nonetheless.

Sprinkle Duty

On Christmas Eve - we baked some cookies to leave out for Santa. Of course, Maddox wanted to be in charge of sprinkle placement.
;-)
I was in a bit of a hurry and he was just getting out of the bath - so we tossed his robe on him and handed him the sprinkles.

Here was his immediate reaction when I told him "Merry Christmas!"
And there are no cookies or sprinkles in this shot - I just thought it was sweet.

Quite Random

It has been awhile since I posted so I figured I would get one more in before Christmas. Things have been pretty busy lately - and they will only get busier the next few days as we make our rounds to visit the family. I have been working hard lately on business stuff - some major changes coming for Sarah Rimel Photography in the New Year. Plus Maddox came down with a cold on Wednesday - Jay had it by Friday - and I came down with it yesterday. We have all been totally healthy until now! I suppose we had a good run. So since I don't really have anything specific to post about - I'll just post a bunch of pictures I've finally gotten around to looking at from this month.

One week - we focused on "feelings" for Maddox's learning book. I was trying to get him to pose for pictures expressing various emotions so we could print them and paste them in the book we are building. He had other ideas - that pretty much involved running around the room and looking out the window at who knows what.

Finally out of desperation - I asked him to check and see if there was a monkey in my camera. So he had a good look...

Are you sure? You didn't see any monkeys???

Your absolutely positive. There are no monkeys whatsoever in this camera?

Hee hee.

Evey is doing great. She is quite happy and "talkative." I suppose "noisy" would be another way to describe that. Lots of grunts, growls, squeals, etc. She has learned lately that her fingers are not only tasty - but quite fascinating to look at and play with.

Big beautiful eyes - right side up and upside down.

We are looking forward to "Baby's First Christmas" and happy to report that Evey is nice and not naughty...yet.

Maddox enjoys untying Evey's curtain straps. He asks me to tie them - and then instructs me to ask him how he feels about that. To which he responds by maniacally untying them again. This is a series of him playing in her room with said straps - and just making a bunch of faces. He is a pretty expressive kid - I enjoy it.

Done with pictures.

Another day - another goofy face.

Now I'm thinking I may have gone overboard with the pics. Oh well. Nothing new there. ;-)

Merry Christmas to all!

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Maddox and I struck a bargain. He would allow me to take his picture for Christmas - but he wanted me to dress him like a present. Whatever makes the kid happy so he'll stand still long enough for a picture! ;-)

Now I can work on a Christmas card!