Reading, reading...
I received this dress from a friend. It had one of those giant square boat collars that really outdated the dress. So I turned the Collar in, and sewed on some lace I had laying around the house--and voila! A beautiful Christmas dress that cost me NOTHING! (Alaina is modeling the dress in the pic above.)
This pretty much sums up how our picture taking experience went. I had to take the kids back the next week to finally get a decent pic of the 2 of them.
Posing with some wildlife at Daddy's Christmas breakfast
My Boy!
The kid who poses well for pics....
With the girl that has to be held down for pics...
Then he went back for another. It would be a shame to leave one cheek naked!
Alaina's turn for a tatoo
Apparently the wet sponge was the painful part.
Was it worth it? (I don't think we will ever have to worry about her getting a real one!)
So excited to meet Frosty!
Alaina picked a sock monkey for her ornament.
Boys being goofy--definite Schnake genes....
Ky with one of the birthday boys
Ry, Jordan, Uncle Jim, Uncle Rick
Ky with one of the birthday boys
Ry, Jordan, Uncle Jim, Uncle Rick
The 2 birthday boys- 3 & 21
Going for a ride
Hanging with U. Ry
Pops, Rick, and U. Kirk
They really do love each other!
Going for a ride
Hanging with U. Ry
Pops, Rick, and U. Kirk
They really do love each other!
Birthday boys take 2
First snowfall--Ky with his buddy Daniel
Mae Lin after she fell
Alaina and the first BIG snow--18" of snow
Ky is happy with the snow
Yeah--I don't think the bushes in front of our windows survived this snow storm
So came the time of year to get the kids pics done together. Ah....Well, knowing me as the money saver I am, the best place to get their pics done for the best price possible is on the other side of town--a 25 minute drive or so. This place will do both kids without a sitting fee and I can order one pose picture for 9.99 and get a whole slew of photos.
The day before, I went through the kids clothes and decided Ky's unused ring bearer suit needed to get at least one more use--not to mention I still did not have one good pic of him in it. From there I had to decide on Alaina's. The red plaid dress looked really good with Ky's gold vest, so I picked that, but I couldn't get past the big ugly black collar it had. Then it hit me. I flipped the collar inside the dress and the dress VASTLY improved. Then I actually noticed the lace on the sleeves. HEY! I have lace. So, I tacked the lace onto the collar and VOILA! A very pretty dress.
So I got the kids up early the next morning and got them dressed. We drove the to pic place and both kids were in good spirits. We ended up having to wait 20 minute for our appointment, but it was all good. They had a lego table!
This Aussie photographer guy with black hair and black clothes ends up taking us to the photo room. Then it happened. He spoke to Alaina. She lost it. I don't know if it was his accent or his freaky hair or what. There was no recovery. They even brought in a different photographer and had him leave, but it was too late. The damage had been done. Not even one picture taken. So back on the road we went. Two hours of my life that I will never get back. Do you know how hard it is to wrestle little ones in nice clothes? And then to keep them looking that way through a 25 minute car drive and waiting another 20 minutes. Have I mentioned how Alaina likes to play with her hair? It is an obsession. Especially if she eating, drinking, sucking on her nuk, sleeping....This is why in all the pics you see of her, her hair isn't very curly looking. The fact is, this girl has a lot of curls in her hair, but she pulls them out....UGH!
Anyway, we get home and I try to take a few of my own. Yeah that didn't work so well either (See pic of kids on couch.)
The next week we rescheduled and did the drive all over again. This time the drive took me 50 minutes because a car caught on fire on the highway. At least I had left early and was only a few minutes late. And I am glad to say the pics came out fine this time. The Aussie was no where in sight!
That weekend (Dec 4), we had a Christmas breakfast at Rob's work. It was a really fun time. Everything was free! (even better!) The breakfast was great. They also had places where kids could get tatoos and their faces painted. Ky got tattoos on both hands and both cheeks painted. He was very excited and took both experiences very seriously. He didn't move! Rob then thought it would only be appropriate to get Alaina a tatoo. All was going well until daddy put the sponge on her face. Then she began to scream! Seriously, you would think we were torturing her or something. I don't know if we will be getting her any more tattoos anytime soon.
At this breakfast there were some wandering Christmas characters. Ky found Frosty and was very excited- what's even more exciting is that he didn't know who Frosty was at that time. We actually showed him the cartoon several weeks later. That didn't matter to him though. He was excited. He also ran into Mrs. Claus--but yeah--he didn't know who she was either, and nor did we explain....
Just a sidenote---Alaina makes taking pics SO difficult. The girl does not stay still. Speaking of staying still--life at Casa Schnake has been getting much more difficult. I don't know what to do, other than literally make one room covered in mats and her toys. The girl puts things together to make stools and steps. She ends up on top of tables ALL the time...and no--not sitting--standing! Between her and Ky most of the child locks are broke---so she is constantly emptying my cabinets. I move things up to higher shelves so she can't reach, she builds higher stools/steps to reach them. Kylan was NOTHING this extreme. Have i mentioned that she has taken the gate down and gone upstairs on her own multiple times. Babyproofing- HA! Alaina laughs at that. I spend so much time chasing after her and fixing what she is destroying that right now very little actual house cleaning is getting done. Not to mention decorating. Yeah--this Christmas it just isn't going to happen.
This year we waited until mid-december to put up the tree. And we set it up behind our couches--using them as a barricade to keep her away. Well--she then figured out how to crawl up on the couch and still reaches the tree....Yeah that sucker is coming down soon--too much added stress!
Okay, back to our day. So after the Christmas breakfast we went to the store and let each kid pick out their ornament. I helped Alaina--and she really liked the sock monkey--and hey it's kid safe! Ky picked out a sparkly blue, more adult like ornament---which kind of surprised both Rob and I. And then Rob and I found a snowman family of four ornament that we thought well represented us. So fun!
From there we were off to Milwaukee to celebrate Rick's and Dominic's 21st & 3rd birthday. We had dinner at Buca's. It was YUMMY! Alaina was a bit tired though, not having gotten enough sleep. I think all the Schnake boys were worked up. There was just some sort of goofiness in the air.
The last couple of pics are of the first snowfall & second snowfall--the first which was light in Madison. I was watching my neighbor's kids that day and we decided to stay home and have some fun in the snow. All the kids had a really great time. We even had a small snowball fight.
The second snowfall happened over night. We got around 18". It closed the city down. Even Rob's work was shut down. It was such a nice time for us all to be FORCED to stay at home and just enjoy each other's company. Shoveling took FOREVER and poor Rob ended up with most of it. For some reason our snowblower wouldn't work. Also, Alaina didn't really like being outside in that much snow. She was kind of angry that she couldn't move! We would shovel her paths, but you know her, she wants to go where she wants to go--she doesn't want anything holding her back. So yeah, I ended up going in early with a very unhappy girl. It looks like this snow dump actually ruined several of our bushes. We actually had to hack away at one, because the snow had smashed it down so much that it was in front of the garage--and our car would have gotten scratched up by it. It should be interesting to see what it looks like come spring.
Another long blog...I gotta wrap this one up. A few Alaina'isms...
Alaina says "E" for please, "Ear Mama" for here Mama, "Mama" or "Up-E" for up please. "uh-book" for book, "air" for Bear, "Eat, Eat" for eat, or I'm hungry. "Nigh, Nigh" for I'm tired. --seriously she has told me on occasion when she wants to go to bed. She likes to sing Twinkle Twinkle or Abc's. (Yeah--gotta get that on video)
By the way, I have updated to the new blogger--and apparently it does not have spell check...I apologize for any inaccuracies, but I just don't have time to go back through! UGH--blogger I need spell check!
First snowfall--Ky with his buddy Daniel
Mae Lin after she fell
Alaina and the first BIG snow--18" of snow
Ky is happy with the snow
Yeah--I don't think the bushes in front of our windows survived this snow storm
So came the time of year to get the kids pics done together. Ah....Well, knowing me as the money saver I am, the best place to get their pics done for the best price possible is on the other side of town--a 25 minute drive or so. This place will do both kids without a sitting fee and I can order one pose picture for 9.99 and get a whole slew of photos.
The day before, I went through the kids clothes and decided Ky's unused ring bearer suit needed to get at least one more use--not to mention I still did not have one good pic of him in it. From there I had to decide on Alaina's. The red plaid dress looked really good with Ky's gold vest, so I picked that, but I couldn't get past the big ugly black collar it had. Then it hit me. I flipped the collar inside the dress and the dress VASTLY improved. Then I actually noticed the lace on the sleeves. HEY! I have lace. So, I tacked the lace onto the collar and VOILA! A very pretty dress.
So I got the kids up early the next morning and got them dressed. We drove the to pic place and both kids were in good spirits. We ended up having to wait 20 minute for our appointment, but it was all good. They had a lego table!
This Aussie photographer guy with black hair and black clothes ends up taking us to the photo room. Then it happened. He spoke to Alaina. She lost it. I don't know if it was his accent or his freaky hair or what. There was no recovery. They even brought in a different photographer and had him leave, but it was too late. The damage had been done. Not even one picture taken. So back on the road we went. Two hours of my life that I will never get back. Do you know how hard it is to wrestle little ones in nice clothes? And then to keep them looking that way through a 25 minute car drive and waiting another 20 minutes. Have I mentioned how Alaina likes to play with her hair? It is an obsession. Especially if she eating, drinking, sucking on her nuk, sleeping....This is why in all the pics you see of her, her hair isn't very curly looking. The fact is, this girl has a lot of curls in her hair, but she pulls them out....UGH!
Anyway, we get home and I try to take a few of my own. Yeah that didn't work so well either (See pic of kids on couch.)
The next week we rescheduled and did the drive all over again. This time the drive took me 50 minutes because a car caught on fire on the highway. At least I had left early and was only a few minutes late. And I am glad to say the pics came out fine this time. The Aussie was no where in sight!
That weekend (Dec 4), we had a Christmas breakfast at Rob's work. It was a really fun time. Everything was free! (even better!) The breakfast was great. They also had places where kids could get tatoos and their faces painted. Ky got tattoos on both hands and both cheeks painted. He was very excited and took both experiences very seriously. He didn't move! Rob then thought it would only be appropriate to get Alaina a tatoo. All was going well until daddy put the sponge on her face. Then she began to scream! Seriously, you would think we were torturing her or something. I don't know if we will be getting her any more tattoos anytime soon.
At this breakfast there were some wandering Christmas characters. Ky found Frosty and was very excited- what's even more exciting is that he didn't know who Frosty was at that time. We actually showed him the cartoon several weeks later. That didn't matter to him though. He was excited. He also ran into Mrs. Claus--but yeah--he didn't know who she was either, and nor did we explain....
Just a sidenote---Alaina makes taking pics SO difficult. The girl does not stay still. Speaking of staying still--life at Casa Schnake has been getting much more difficult. I don't know what to do, other than literally make one room covered in mats and her toys. The girl puts things together to make stools and steps. She ends up on top of tables ALL the time...and no--not sitting--standing! Between her and Ky most of the child locks are broke---so she is constantly emptying my cabinets. I move things up to higher shelves so she can't reach, she builds higher stools/steps to reach them. Kylan was NOTHING this extreme. Have i mentioned that she has taken the gate down and gone upstairs on her own multiple times. Babyproofing- HA! Alaina laughs at that. I spend so much time chasing after her and fixing what she is destroying that right now very little actual house cleaning is getting done. Not to mention decorating. Yeah--this Christmas it just isn't going to happen.
This year we waited until mid-december to put up the tree. And we set it up behind our couches--using them as a barricade to keep her away. Well--she then figured out how to crawl up on the couch and still reaches the tree....Yeah that sucker is coming down soon--too much added stress!
Okay, back to our day. So after the Christmas breakfast we went to the store and let each kid pick out their ornament. I helped Alaina--and she really liked the sock monkey--and hey it's kid safe! Ky picked out a sparkly blue, more adult like ornament---which kind of surprised both Rob and I. And then Rob and I found a snowman family of four ornament that we thought well represented us. So fun!
From there we were off to Milwaukee to celebrate Rick's and Dominic's 21st & 3rd birthday. We had dinner at Buca's. It was YUMMY! Alaina was a bit tired though, not having gotten enough sleep. I think all the Schnake boys were worked up. There was just some sort of goofiness in the air.
The last couple of pics are of the first snowfall & second snowfall--the first which was light in Madison. I was watching my neighbor's kids that day and we decided to stay home and have some fun in the snow. All the kids had a really great time. We even had a small snowball fight.
The second snowfall happened over night. We got around 18". It closed the city down. Even Rob's work was shut down. It was such a nice time for us all to be FORCED to stay at home and just enjoy each other's company. Shoveling took FOREVER and poor Rob ended up with most of it. For some reason our snowblower wouldn't work. Also, Alaina didn't really like being outside in that much snow. She was kind of angry that she couldn't move! We would shovel her paths, but you know her, she wants to go where she wants to go--she doesn't want anything holding her back. So yeah, I ended up going in early with a very unhappy girl. It looks like this snow dump actually ruined several of our bushes. We actually had to hack away at one, because the snow had smashed it down so much that it was in front of the garage--and our car would have gotten scratched up by it. It should be interesting to see what it looks like come spring.
Another long blog...I gotta wrap this one up. A few Alaina'isms...
Alaina says "E" for please, "Ear Mama" for here Mama, "Mama" or "Up-E" for up please. "uh-book" for book, "air" for Bear, "Eat, Eat" for eat, or I'm hungry. "Nigh, Nigh" for I'm tired. --seriously she has told me on occasion when she wants to go to bed. She likes to sing Twinkle Twinkle or Abc's. (Yeah--gotta get that on video)
By the way, I have updated to the new blogger--and apparently it does not have spell check...I apologize for any inaccuracies, but I just don't have time to go back through! UGH--blogger I need spell check!
