lazy day

i'm just taking my sweet time today. little man and i got up and headed out to target early this morning (we had gift cards galore!), and we hit old navy where i found a nice winter coat for ace next year...only $10. not too shabby. we came home and had lunch, connor went to take his nap and i'm just lounging. i'm sure the target bags will still be there to greet me when i'm finished blogging. daddy is at the first vb tourney of the season out at new haven. sounds like he's having fun, but i know he'd rather be home with his little buddy. it would have been quite a chore for us to go out there though, so we opted out of this one.

i think it's safe to tell this adventure story....though at the time it was definitely NOT our most enjoyable memory.

nic and i were talking about hitting the mall early this week. we figured we could get my mom out there with us if we went before she started back to school. my mom mentioned that she wanted to take connor and ava to get pics taken. so we thought we could kill two birds and go to the little mall by my mom's house. i scheduled an appointment at the sears portrait studio, and we headed out the next morning. *it's important to remember that connor and ava had both had the flu and were still having some pretty funky diapers....if you know what i mean.

we got there about an hour before our appointment, but we decided to just see if they were busy. that way we could get it over with early if possible. we walked in to meet a very kind lady. she said she could definitely shoot some pictures, but she had another appt. in half an hour so we might have to come back to finish at our regular appt. time. sounded good to us. so nic and i put the finishing touches on the kids and whipped out our hairspray and spray gel. they were looking good, and seemed to be in fairly good moods. we chose a simple white background to make the process easy...we thought. so the lady gets it ready and says she's ready for us to come back.

first, she says, "let's just have them stand on the X so i can get some full length shots."
so i told her, "that may be a problem....he doesn't stand."
"oh, ok. well, they can sit on the X."
---this looked totally stupid to me. but she's the professional, right? maybe after she crops it will look better. yeah, that must be it.

so nice lady (who i quickly renamed nutty lady), crouched behind the camera while nic, mom and i tried to get the kids to smile. they smiled a few times but nutty lady didn't take the picture. ok. maybe it just didn't look right from her angle. so we made faces, grabbed props, coaxed with popcorn, danced on chairs.....nutty lady just hunched behind the camera. i have to say, if i was connor or ava i would have been giving her the same, "what you talkin' 'bout, willis?" face. then all of a sudden, she comes from behind the camera and does this weird shrill noise.....not helpful. ava ran away...which almost got her a spanking. connor was crying for his juice....it was getting ugly. so we decided to leave and come back after some snacks. i think the total word count from nutty lady was 5 words. no wait 6. "mom, put him on the X". we were doing all the work.

so, against our better judgment, we went back half an hour later to try and finish. as soon as we got there, the most foul odor filled the air. little man was having a serious issue in his diaper. i decided to chance it ...... i do not advise this.... and finish up the last few shots. since nutty lady wasn't giving any ideas, i snooped around and found a little rocking horse. i thought, connor could sit on it and ava could stand next to it. it would be super cute. and it was. they were smiling and playing together. ava was bringing connor a little teddy bear that nic grabbed off the prop shelf. but nutty lady still wasn't snapping pics. i really wanted to just take the camera and start snapping away. if you take tons, one or two will turn out great. who doesn't know that? finally, connor's diaper got to him. he was crying and very uncomfortable, so i said, ok that's all. i took him straight to the bathroom.

yikes.
his diaper had leaked and the contents were everywhere. then he grabbed his pants when i was trying to clean him up and he got his hands in the mess.....oh, boy. legs, back, hands....covered. i got his extra pants out and...uh oh....no shirt. no prob, we're at sears. i'll just get him a new shirt. i used all the wipes i had and that was barely enough to clean him up. it took forever and he was crying and crying the whole time. i'm sure it sounded like i was beating him in there. so we finished up and i took my redneck baby (he was wearing only his jeans and vest) out to find a new shirt. thankfully they had some cheapo's.

meanwhile, my mom was reluctantly ordering the best of the 5 choices....not stunning by any means. she ended up calling customer service to cancel them....they really weren't worth the money.

but here's the good part. when she went back to the store, a very nice man (who knew how to photograph children...he was down on the floor with blocks and props) was there....he appologized up and down and gave her money back and even a coupon for next time. we'll definitely try again when he's working.

coach in action.....he saw me about to take a picture and posed for me

the other day ava was over and she found this hat. after she put it on connor kept patting his head. he wanted his gators hat.

i don't remember if i posted these already, and quite frankly i don't want to scroll through my blog to find out....little man took a digger before christmas and got a nice fat lip.

this face makes it look ginormous

apparently, a fat lip wasn't enough....he wanted them to be green as well. he got a hold of daddy's highlighter.