Phone Photo Moments

So my phone doesn’t have fantastic photo quality, but there are moments in life that you just have to capture regardless of equipment capacity.  I pulled the photos off of my phone, and these are essentially a series of moments in our past year.

The girls found a rogue feather in the living room (undoubtedly from one of the sofa’s down pillows) and were experimenting and watching it float above the heat register.  As you can tell by N’s short hair, this is a while ago. Ice cream party.  N. has a doll with her, and K. plays politely.  As the girls have gotten older, it is really fun to see how much they interact and play together.

The girls riding N’s rocking horse (dog) together.  The snuggles and smiles were unprompted.

Playing in the inflatable pool in the backyard.  Our neighborhood has a pool, too, but watching both kids and a camera doesn’t typically happen.  Dad was nice enough to set one up on the patio for some additional playing.

K. driving a tractor in our neighbor’s basement and N. riding behind.

One very pleasant evening, the girls took their babies on a walk around the block.  One of the nice things about N. at this age pushing a stroller is that she was less likely to trip.

Sam’s club.  I always appreciate that the girls can sit side-by-side in the cart, and it makes it one of the outings that is enjoyable and manageable (until the shoving starts, at least).

There is a little nature trail that at a park that is not too far of a drive from our house, so we went for a walk in the woods.And paused for a rest on a log.

Random picture of the curly-ness of the back of K’s hair.  She probably has a person compliment her hair approximately once a week.  It goes between being somewhat curly to mostly straight with curls on the ends.

The girls trying on their red riding hood and big bad wolf costumes, pre-Halloween.

And N. discovered that her costume had a tail.  It was hilarious to watch her try to catch it!

N. got a Viewmaster for her birthday—it was one of my favorite things I remember from childhood, and her friend J. got her one as a gift.  She politely shared it with Big Sister as well.

At a shopping trip to Trader Joe’s I discovered that they had N-sized carts, so I made the baby do the hard work while shopping.  She was in heaven and took her job very seriously!  So seriously, in fact, that the lady at the cash register almost forgot to card her for the bottles of wine in her cart.

N playing the violin.  She loves music, and every time I practice the violin she comes to the door and taps her collarbone to suggest she would like to play the violin at that moment as well.  Additionally, every time the door to the music room is open she enters, takes out the little violin, and plays it.

The girls sitting politely together watching TV.  At least they’re quiet together.

Christmas Catch Up and Delayed December

Merry (very very belated) Christmas!  Sorry for the blog delay—I got behind, and then I needed to catch up before I could post anything more recent, or the posts would be out of order.  So hold on to your seats, because we’re in for a long ride!

A series of pictures that didn’t make the Christmas card, as my timing was too late.  Also, we hadn’t set up our tree yet, so I dragged the girls to the church to pose in front of that tree, and our pastor stood behind me, clowning in order to make them smile.

The girls, bundled up to go outside to play in the snow.  In hindsight, I’m very glad I took this picture.  At the time, I assumed we were in for much more snow to fall, but that wasn’t to be the case.  It was a very light winter.  Sniff.

K, looking beautiful before her class sings at a service during Advent.

And here is her class singing.  She is toward the right, but since this is pre-Christmas, I don’t own a zoom lens yet and this is the best my camera could do.  Next year will be better.

K. with her preschool teacher, whom she loves very much.  She requested at some point recently to be a part of her family (which is funny since her teacher has a daughter named K. who is a year older than my K.).  Aware of this, K. said that her teacher could just have two daughters with the same name.

My staff at church.  Group photo taken so none of the people pictured would have to write a newsletter article that week and we could just include a large photo.

The sweet girls kissing, holding their new bears from their Auntie.  N. is also holding the Tylenol, which she had been chewing the lid of.  Teething is hard.

Also in December, K. had her ballet recital. The girls were so tiny and cute!

Making Christmas cookies at Grandma’s house.

I almost didn’t include the next picture because the lighting is poor, but look how cute N. is standing on her tippy toes!

K. had such a great time with Grandma in the kitchen.  She helped her with the cooking and baking and washed many many dishes.

While N. spent quality time playing with Grandpa in the basement.  They had a very long, involved tea party.

And played some games that involved wrestling.

Later, everyone worked together to decorate the cookies.

I wanted to take some nice pictures using the bokeh (ooh, fancy photography word!) from the tree lights.  K. was not the most cooperative subject.

And when gift time rolled around, she donned a Santa hat and helped distribute presents.

While N. snuggled with Dad.

And we got to spend nice time with the girls’ Aunt, Uncle, and cousins!

“Hey, N, we see you planning to turn out that light!”

We went to the Christmas morning service at Grandma and Grandpa’s church, and the girls went up front to participate in the kids’ sermon time.

Christmas morning.

Then, we travelled to visit Grandma and Grandpa L!

The girls got to hang out with their Great Grandpa!

And their Great Uncle.

Then it was time for gifts!  The girls helped to pass them out.

And read the tags to determine to whom to give each present.

One of the things we did at Grandma and Grandpa’s was to play in the basement.  There are always fun toys and things to ride.  Here K is, riding a bike that Aunt J. rode when she was a child!

And we actually sat down for a family photo!

And outtakes are always fun.  It is interesting that N. and I are making the same face without even being aware each other was doing it.