Thanksgiving pics III

So now we're up to Thanksgiving Day. Man, I have a lot of pictures. At least 2 more entries worth after this one. You've been warned.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, we came up with the brilliant idea to try to get a nice group picture of the 4 cousins together. Yep, 4 kids under the age of 3... I know, we were crazy, but we at least had to try. We didn't get "the perfect shot" but we sure got some shots that will make us laugh for years to come. Behold...

Micah took it upon himself to get us off to a great start by crying. And Ari did her best to cheer up the little guy.



Leave it to Ari to give us the perfect smile before we'd even officially started...



OK, so let's review here. From left to right we've got Matthew (8 months), Lyvi (2 1/2--just a few months older than Ari), Ari, and Micah (2 months). Matthew and Lyvi caught on to the idea right away. Ari was still preoccupied with comforting Micah.



We got Micah to stop crying, and got a nice smile from Lyvi.



Then the girls got restless. Oh, this is only the beginning...



Yes, that's my daughter, ever the dainty lady. And notice she's managed to wriggle one of her shoes off.



I put her shoe back on. But get a load of the look on her face. That right there is her "Hey, look, I'm doing something naughty--are you watching?" face. Devious little thing.



And the shoe is gone again. See how she's trying to hide it? But, look--a perfect smile from Matthew.



Ari is so DONE with pictures.



And then, for some reason, we decided to insert the grandparents. Lyvi was fully distracted by her cell phone, Ari was even more DONE than before, and the 2 boys were just chilling as usual (probably wondering what the heck was going on).



Notice my poor mom, trying desperately to pin Ari down while also trying not to let Micah slide out of her lap. Give that woman a gold star.



And for the grand finale, I present... probably the 2 best shots we got. Sure, no one's smiling, but they're all looking up in the general direction of the camera, eyes open, fully-clothed, not crying or pouting. I call that... SUCCESS.





Next entry... much more pleasant pictures from Turkey Day.

Thanksgiving pics, part deux

I mentioned in my last entry that Ari loved both of her baby cousins, but only showed pictures of Matthew. I do have pictures of Micah, but they're still a little ways away. On Tuesday night, we went to Dave and Jess's house for dessert, but their little Micah (2 months old) went to sleep shortly after we got there, so I didn't get any pictures. So you'll have to wait until I get to the Thanksgiving Day pictures.

I got this picture of Ari as she was reaching up at me, trying to grab something from me. I don't remember what. Probably the camera. Anyway, get a load of those killer blue eyes. I'm proud of this picture because I adjusted the lighting all by myself with my snazzy photo-editing software (the background/floor was really dark).



I'm also quite proud of this picture, because I took it, and it came out awesome. Aren't my parents the cutest?



I took the day off work on Wednesday and spent the entire day at my parents'. My sister and I made a creamy pumpkin pie together, recording it in pictures "for posterity!" (we kept saying that, and cracking ourselves up). First, I posed with the Cool Whip.



Then I posed with the Jello mix.



And Mary posed with the pumpkin.



And then we posed together.



My mom with Matthew.



And Mary with Lyvi.



My silly girl.



Apparently, it is very tiring being Ari.



This picture cracks me up. I had just gotten done telling Ari not to touch the tree when Lyvi came up and started touching it. In this picture, Ari was yelling, "Lyvi, don't touch!"



OK, and this next set of pictures tells a little story. See, Ari wanted to read her storybook, and she wanted to read to Cinderella. So I sat Cinderella on the couch next to her, and Ari started reading.



Then Lyvi tried to snatch Cinderella. Notice her little hand in the right side of the picture, and notice that Ari has noticed.



So I told Lyvi to leave the doll there, but Ari took things into her own hands. She tucked Cinderella securely under her arm and continued reading (while still keeping a wary eye on Lyvi).



Ari also has a large Belle doll, so later on, the 2 girls decided that Belle and Cinderella wanted to see the Christmas tree. You can't tell in this picture, but they were both dancing a little as they looked at the tree (Ari and Lyvi, that is--not the dolls).



The boys played Wii in the afternoon, and I caught Tony in between turns to take this picture. Can you tell he's looking right past the camera at the TV?



And last but not least, a lovely family shot, taken by my sister.

Thanksgiving pictures, part 1

OK, so, on with the Thanksgiving pictures. Steve and Mary and their families arrived on Saturday night (last Saturday), so on Sunday afternoon, after Ari's nap, we headed down to my parents' house to see them all for the first time.

Ari absolutely loved both of her baby cousins. She wanted to hold Matthew (my sister Mary's little boy), so of course, I helped. (I don't know why she insisted on holding his face.)



Josh (Mary's husband) was a big hit with both Ari and Lyvi (Steve's little girl). I know this shot is blurry, but I still thought it was cute.



Mom had a couple small gifts for the girls to open, and in case you couldn't guess, they were books. Ari wanted to read hers with me right away. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love the way she loves to read.



Ari spent some quality time with Matthew...



Kissing his hand (don't ask me why)...



I love this shot because I love the expression on my sister's face...



Ari, Tony, Steve, and Lyvi were all camped out on the kitchen floor when I walked in. Without any prompting, Ari turned to me, said "Cheese" and pasted this perfect little smile on her face. Sure, she won't do it when I ask her to...



We went down to my parents' house the next night, too, after I got off work. I like this shot of Ari...



We attempted to get both of the girls to lay down on either side of Matthew so we could get a group picture. Guess who didn't want to cooperate? (You can see her in the upper corner, making her escape.)



That was the night we put up the Christmas tree, because we were going to celebrate Christmas on Thanksgiving Day. The girls were absolutely thrilled to help Mary and Josh put it together. Mary sorted through the branches, and the girls carried them to Josh.



I love these next few shots...



This one cracks me up, because I was sitting there begging them to smile, and both of them gave me the exact same expressionless face...



There's those smiles...



And that's all for now.

Being bold

We went to the mall last night (which wasn't as busy as I thought it would be), and while we were there, I decided to take a peek in The Children's Place and see if they were having any good sales. In the back of my mind, I was also hoping to find a Christmas dress for Ari. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, though--especially since she'd probably only be wearing the dress once.

Almost immediately, my eyes fell on this dress, and it was love at first sight.



There were only a few left, and as luck would have it, there was a 3T. As always, the first thing I did was to check the price. It was originally $29.50, marked down to $19.99. A salesgirl working nearby also told us that all sale items were an additional 30% off. Which made this lovely dress about $13.99. I was sold--that was a good price for a dress this pretty.

As I examined the dress, I found several little strings sticking out in various places. I tugged on all of them--a few came out, and others stayed, but none seemed to be a serious defect. And since I loved it so much, I knew I would end up buying it. I even found a cute pair of tights (white, with little red roses scattered on them), which were also on sale, to go with the dress.

When I got to the counter, I did something I normally never do. I assumed my kindest, most I'm-not-a-nasty-customer-I swear expression and told the cashier. "Look, I really love this dress, and this is the only one you have left in this size, but I noticed there's a lot of little strings hanging out." I pointed out a few to her as I continued. "I don't suppose you could maybe give me any extra discount on it?" I asked almost apologetically, figuring she would say no.

But she called her manager over and asked him. He took a quick look at the dress, shrugged and said, "Yeah, give her 30%."

I fought to remain cool and casual, but I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe, at best, they'd give me another 10%. I never would have expected 30%. So the dress rang up at $13.99, with an extra $4.20 taken off, which made the grand total... less than $10. (Yeh, I'm too lazy to do the math).

So the moral of the story here is... never be afraid to ask kindly for an extra discount, because you never know...

Awake for 28 hours (might be a personal record)

So, the all-nighter. It went well. Everyone survived, no one got hurt, and it seemed like everyone had a good time.

It started off with a hockey game and within the first 5 minutes, there was a good fight. And by "good fight" I mean the helmets came off and the refs just stood back and let it play out. To me, the only thing that makes hockey remotely interesting is the fights. Other than that, I couldn't care less about it. There was another fight in the first period, and then... nothing.

Once the game was over, the event truly began. They allowed a few minutes for everyone else to leave the arena, and for all the church groups to move to one end of the rink, and then the rally began. First up was the speaker, who spoke for about 20 minutes. When he was done, the crazy ice games began--everything from human bowling (pushing a person on a sled into giant inflatable pins) to tug-of-war to other games where the whole audience could participate. Plus, as always, they gave away awesome prizes such as a digital camera, a desktop computer, a Wii and a $100 Best Buy gift card. No one in our group won anything big, though.

After the rally, we had our pizza and soda at the ice rink and when we were done chowing down, we headed to our first activity--bowling. We had a lot of fun there. The people running the event ran a few little contests, and when they called for "the coolest bowling trick" we got right on it. We lined up several people--some standing with their legs apart, and others making a "bridge" out of their bodies by bending over and touching their hands to the floor. Then, one person grabbed a bowling ball, came running up, and slid on her belly underneath everyone. She actually got a strike once or twice during practice, but not when we "performed" for the judge. But we still got first place, so go us.

After that was over, we went to "open gym" at an indoor soccer building near our church. A couple fields were divided to be used for soccer, touch football, and dodgeball. In the center field, they had a bunch of inflatable activities--a mechanical bull, an obstacle course, a boxing ring, a jousting arena, a sumo wrestling ring, etc. Plus, there was still enough open space to some people to do their own activities--a few of our teens joined a circle of people bumping a volleyball around.

It was while we were at the open gym that I hit my "wall"--that moment where you're so tired, you feel like you could just collapse. But I soldiered through. It helped that it was kind of chilly in the building, plus I had a book to read (yeh, I'm a dork--a non-athletic dork).

We were back at the church shortly after 6, and shortly after that, one of the girls in my car zonked out completely. We waited for parents to arrive and once all the teens were gone, I went home. Tony stuck around--our church was running a craft fair that day and he had promised to help set up. I got my second (or third, or fourth--whatever) wind when I got home, and was not at all tired. I messed around online, did dishes, and got a few things done for church before I finally succumbed, around 10 AM, to napping on the couch. I figured Tony would be home any minute and could wake me up, since our plan was that I would go get Ari while he slept.

Instead, I woke up around 2:30 to the dogs barking at the door. I heard it open... then heard Ari's voice. I was confused, and when Tony saw me awake, he felt bad for waking me up. He had come home earlier to find me asleep, so rather than wake me, he decided to get Ari himself and even treated her to lunch at McDonald's just so I could sleep longer. (Isn't he the best?) Ari went down for her nap almost as soon as they got home, so we both slept while she did, and when she woke up, I took over Ari duty until her bedtime.

We went to bed slightly early that night, and rested a little yesterday afternoon, so I feel fully recovered. Tony's been achy and sore since that night--probably from playing touch football for over 2 hours at the open gym--so he's feeling a little rougher than I am. Of course, I haven't been able to resist teasing him about being old.

Anyway, here's a couple pictures from the night (in the interest of protecting the privacy of the teens, I'm not going to post any pictures of them). Here's me at the bowling alley at roughly 2 AM...



This one was taken at approximately 6 AM on Saturday morning, after I'd officially been awake for 24 hours. And I've discovered something... when I am overtired, I get really pale. I mean, look at me in this pic (and compare it to the previous one)--I'm like a ghost or something. When I said this to Tony later, he agreed and told me that sometimes I come home from work looking really pale, and he always knows that means I haven't been sleeping well. So a big "awww" at him for being so attentive, and without further ado, the picture...



And yes, we had a nice time at my parents' house last night, visiting with my sister and brother and their families. I'll probably write more about their visit after they all leave, since we'll be spending pretty much every free moment down there with them. But suffice it to say, my niece and nephew are as cute as ever, and all the kids got along famously. (Well, OK, Ari and Lyvi had a few scuffles, but that's to be expected when you have two 2-year-olds sharing toys.) I'm only working today and tomorrow, and then I have the rest of the week off--we're celebrating Christmas on Thanksgiving Day with the out-of-town siblings, so that should be a crazy, fun-filled day. Hooray for the holidays and all the madness that ensues.