Family Pictures

In honor of this holiest time of year (the month of Elizabeth's birth), we decided to go get family pictures. I grew up with the tradition in my family of getting family pictures taken every year around Thanksgiving. I haven't been doing very well with the Thanksgiving part, but I have with the family picture part. Elizabeth was awesome getting pictures taken. She was totally into the ladies doing the pictures. They were putting a teddy bear on their heads and having her blow it off. (She blows and they knock it off their own heads.) She thought it was hilarious. We got some really good pictures. I was a little embarrassed by her fidgetiness, and then I remembered that she is a two year old and she is not accumstomed to sitting in a forced pose for any duration of time. Also, another family brought in a two year old after us, and they had to carricade him in the room to keep him from running away, so I felt pretty good about my daughter who just had to be moved an inch or two or have mom sit near her. She's so awesome. Here are some of the results of our Sears Portrait experience. (We bought the CD that comes with copyrights, so I am not breaking any laws, FYI.)

Camp Family 2011

Elizabeth's Birthday!

My daughter is now two years old which is shocking and exciting. She is a fantastic little girl and I feel really fortunate that I get to be her mom. Considering how "terrible" she should be at this point, I think we are getting off pretty easy. The few fits she throws can be dealt with by reasoning with her (Yes, you can reason with her. I know it's hard to believe), giving her a very stern look, or if all else fails, the dreaded "time out." We have so much fun with her every day. She is a sweet, silly, funny, happy little girl and she is super awesome. Just so ya know.


This is the quilt I made for her which I started in November or so, but got stuck on the quilting phase, so I had to get some help from Grandma (in New Mexico), so I got it back in time for her birthday. She loves it. I explained to her that it was "special blanket" that mommy made her and grandma helped. So at bed time she will either ask for her Dora blanket or her "special" blanket. Usually the "special" blanket wins. Take that Dora.
Birthday party: We just had a small party with family and a couple close friends. It went really well. I attempted to make her look like Dora. This is as close as I could get to orange shorts. A week after her party I saw the "Dora" bracelet in a store. Too late.

Her Dora "Fiesta" decorations. There were more balloons scattered about and that is a Dora tablecloth on that table down there. Yeah, I went all out. (She loves Dora, for those of you who don't know.)

Playing with the vacuum she got from Grandma and Grandpa Camp. When we clean or vacuum she brings it along and helps. If the training keeps going this well, she will be the primary cleaner of the house by the time she is 5.

Here is her cake. It of course didn't turn out exactly as I wanted. I got Elizabeth's opinion and she told me she wanted a soccer ball-Dora cake and she wanted it to be purple, so here is my interpretation of that.

Christmas

It has been pointed out to me by several people that I haven't blogged in a while, so I am playing catch up today. I'm going to stick to the highlights.
I always do the pictures weird, so these are in no particular order....


Here is Elizabeth Christmas morning. She got a pretty good haul. There is more on the couch, but I didn't take a picture of that for some reason. Don't worry. She got plenty.

Going out to play in the snow with her new Christmas hat.

Opening presents on the Dora couch that Santa got her. You can see part of the present opening carnage in the background.

Opening her Christmas Eve pajamas from Grandma Williams with daddy and his brief beard. (He shaved it a couple days later.)