Holiday Portrait Session....

It is that time of year when my kids dread seeing me with a camera in my hands!! Yup, it's time for their Christmas portrait session!

This time I was ready for them and had not one, but TWO baby wranglers to help me keep them in line (thank you Mama and Tita Teri!!).

Funny part is they both wanted their pictures taken this year. Unfortunately, they didn't really want them taken together.

I am pretty happy with the results, though!

Warning: there are LOTS of pictures! :)

Just like with his Halloween pictures, DJ did not want to be cute. At first, he did not want to smile for me and got mad when I took a picture of him "accidentally" smiling. I couldn't help myself - he's got such a cute smile!



The more serious, supermodel DJ...



...the mad "stop taking pictures of me smiling" DJ. Even his mad faces are cute!



We are so lucky to have a compliant dog like Scooter! He lets the boys do just about anything to him and does not make a fuss about it at all!



After looking at the pictures of the kids on the dog, I was realizing I should have put reindeer antlers on Scooter. :)

Cody is always SO happy! This picture truly reflects his personality.

The one thing DJ treasures most are his animals!

Cody loves Scooter, too!

I like this picture of Cody and Scooter because they both have that "mamarazzi, are you not done taking pictures yet?" look

Funny part about the photo session is that Scooter was the most compliant between the three. He held his pose the best for all the pictures! :)

Oh that face and those chubby fingers! This picture just makes my heart melt!

I'm not too sure what he was doing here, but I had to post this one because it makes me laugh. It has a Victoria Secret feel to it. Especially with the way he's touching his foot and everything! :)

Our cute little men. They really do love each other.

"Don't mess with us!"

Silly Cody. He was making farting noises with his mouth and dancing to the beat.

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Random Pictures of the Boys

Both boys just went back to school last week after break (DJ had 3 weeks and Cody had 2 weeks off). I was sad to see them go back to school. Their vacation time flew by quickly and Cody spent most of it with a cold. The cold weather is still foreign to us wimpy ex-San Diegans :) so colds are pretty frequent in our household.

DJ is happy to be back in school and is now starting a reading program. He received the first set of books today (3 of them) and already finished reading them all without my assistance! GO DJ! It is amazing how far he has come in these few months of school. He makes us so proud.

Cody is NOT as happy as DJ when it comes to going back to school. Although he started out like a champ a few months ago, he has slowly digressed and no longer likes going. He enjoys being there if I am there and participating with him, but if I do leave him behind, he cries and sometimes cries himself to sleep. It's heartbreaking, but I know he will eventually begin enjoying school independently again.

Here are some recent pictures of them.

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas

We LOVE Christmas in our household! So much so that our tree was up (though not decorated) before Thanksgiving!!!

The outdoor decor is still not up, but the indoors is starting to have that Christmas feel. The 32 degree weather is helping make it feel like Christmas, too.

Not sure what we are going to do without a 70 degree Christmas this year! :)

10 Little 9 Little 8 Little Indians....1 Little Indian Boy

DJ is currently on vacation from school. He happily reminds me that he doesn't go back to school until December 2nd.

Before they tracked off, they had Native American Week and they learned about how the they lived, planted a plant (a feather on a popsicle stick) and made crafts symbolic of Native American living.

I picked DJ up from school one day and this is what greeted me



He proudly wore his "baby" around the house for a few hours then even wore it to go to Mama and Papa's house.

Doyle was on travel at the time, but when he returned later in the week, DJ was wearing the head gear and baby to greet him.

We've Moved - Again

We recently moved into a rental home 1.5 miles from my folks' house. At first, DJ didn't want to move, but after he saw the house and realized he and his brother would have their OWN room, he was happy to move in with us. But, he also said that he was going to live with Papa and Mama from Sunday to Sunday. :) Um...ya.

The first night we moved in, we didn't think the boys would sleep in their room. This was THE FIRST time either of them had had their beds away from us. In San Diego, our master bedroom was big enough to fit our king size bed, Cody's crib and DJ's firetruck bed comfortably. That was not the case in this house so it was time for them to move into their own room.

Amazingly, both boys fells asleep in their own beds in their room without protest. Excuse the darkness of the images. The only light source was a night light. :)




Both have continued to sleep in their rooms since we moved in. Doyle and I were the ones having a hard time adjusting to the kids not being in our rooms. We jumped out of bed at every sound to check on them.

DJ was anxious to pick out the motif for his bathroom. After going back and forth between, he decided on a zoo theme. The bathroom turned out great with what he chose.

Halloween Day/Night

Both the kids had a great time this Halloween. This was the first year that Cody was able to enjoy himself so he had a great time.

Here is my scary vampire before heading out to school. They are the only ones that get to dress up at school and they even had a little carnival for just their class.



After their parade (thank goodness the rain seized long enough for them to venture out), the class headed back to the classroom to line up and receive the goodies that their classmates brought them.



Every Friday, I volunteer in DJ's class while Cody is babysat by his Uncle. That morning, I was there for the parade and all the kids kept asking me where Cody was. The kids love him and always want him in their class. He even stands in line with them somedays and walks into class with them!

By special request, Cody attended the carnival.



The carnival consisted of 10 games for the kids in which they win prizes. One of the moms works at Chuck E Cheese and they donated a ton of little toys for the event. The kids LOVED it.

DJ was a little off on the Pin the Spider on the Web game. :)



Cody had a great time at the carnival. While the kids played games, their teacher had a Halloween record (yup, they still have RECORD PLAYERS in the school!!!) playing. Guess what Cody did? He did what he does best - he danced!



Recently, DJ told his dad that he should volunteer in school like mom. Doyle just happened to fly in early that morning from the East Coast and headed straight from the airport to the school to surprise DJ and volunteer in DJ's class. DJ was pretty excited that his daddy was there.

(Note: the only reason I dressed up for the Halloween Carnival is because a week earlier, DJ told his teacher I would be dressing up. So, the day before the carnival, we went out and found me this cheesy Angel costume! The lashes were a hit with the kids.)

DJ with one of his best buddies in school.

Let's check back in and see what Cody's doing.....

Yup...STILL dancing!

Back to more games for DJ...this one was a ring toss.

Cody thought it looked like fun so he stopped dancing long enough to play the game, too.

One game that Cody couldn't stay away from was Monster Bowling. In between songs, he would walk over to the table to steal the monsters.

That night, we brought DJ out trick-o-treatin'. We didn't bring Cody since it was sprinkling outside.

We decided to dress up with DJ for the outting.

Since Cody wasn't using the Muno head, Teri borrowed it for the night.

DJ with his Uncle the Wrestler.



A rare shot of me in front of the camera.

Imagine this scary bunch walking up to your door for candy!

We only made it to about 10 houses before DJ said his bag was getting too heavy. Since there were not too many kids out, people were throwing handfuls of candy into his bag. :)

Muno Bopping Til He Drops

At school, there is one song in particular that Cody loves to dance to, Bop Until You Drop. Being in a Muno costume didn't stop him from dancing! Although, he is a bit distracted by all the costumes. He was pretty unsure about the Elmo costume. He couldn't stop staring at the Elmo head.

The reason the video is fuzzy is because DJ and I were watching from the one-way mirror in the observation room.

Crazy Hat Day

Today was Crazy Hat Day at DJ's school.

When he found out about Crazy Hat Day yesterday, the first hat he thought of was his Pirates of the Caribbean cowboy hat. BUT he did not want to wear it the right way because he says it had to be "crazy" looking. Instead, he wore it sideways. He's such a funny boy! :)

Cody's Halloween Parade

Since Cody doesn't have school on Fridays, his class had their Halloween Parade today. He was excited to wear his Muno costume.

You will notice that he is not wearing the original Muno head. Because he was afraid of the head part, I modified his costume so that it was something he would wear.



Muno at work doing puzzles. Like DJ, he is a natural at puzzles! He can look at a puzzle and know exactly where the piece goes! That's our boy!!!!



After free play and book time, it was time to go trick o treatin'!!! Cody wasn't sure what to think of it. He doesn't even like candy. DJ sure was excited, though, since most of the treats were his favorite, M&Ms.



In the hall, Cody found a ride-on car and decided that he would ride that instead of walk during their parade/trick-o-treatin'.



Cody in his "ride".