Traveling Circus

I think Ivy would fit right in with a traveling circus. She's petite, yet fearless, which would make her the perfect candidate for a trapeze artist. She'd probably fit in a cannon, too, if someone wanted to blow her out of one. Her most impressive talent right now is probably her ability as a contortionist. Wanna see?

Here we have an innocent-looking box. (It happens to be the trunk the girls' dress up clothes came in.)

Upon closer inspection there seems to be fingertips poking out. Perhaps the box isn't empty?

We'll have my lovely assistant, Steve, open the box to reveal its contents.

It's Ivy! The Famous Contortionist Toddler!

(No children were harmed in this amazing feat of flexibility.)

Our Last Weeks in Cali Part 2: Christmas

My favorite things about this picture:

1. Her ensemble. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a princess crown, a Halloween shirt, and a mermaid tail.

2. The purple tree. We didn't have room for our big tree, so we let the girls pick one out at Big Lots. Thus, we ended up with a purple tree.

Ivy's always up for a kiss. Always.

Every year our ward in California has a dinner in December where Santa shows up. The pic on the right is of Sophie. It's amazing how much she looks like Ivy in the other picture.

This year no one cried. I have to admit I was slightly disappointed. Drama makes better photos. Ivy was so tired. She probably wouldn't have cared whose lap she sat on.

We spent Christmas Eve and Day at the Perrys in Sacramento. Grandpa was teaching the girls how to make pigs in a blanket.

Grandma got the girls matching red skirts and we tried to get a pic of them.

Then we had to have one of the grandkids in front of the tree. Layla wasn't a happy camper.

The after-photo-shoot dancing.

Then a special visitor came. Grandpa Perry makes a pretty slick Santa.

The kids didn't recognize him. It was perfect.

I don't remember the last time I sat on Santa's lap.

Then we had to have ANOTHER one of the grandkids with Santa. Layla flipped out. She really didn't like Santa, which is funny, because she adores Steve's dad. We kept waiting for her to figure out who he was, but she never did.

Here are all the Perrys with Santa. It's a strange photo. Why the weird look on my face? I was watching Steve's cousin with my camera. I don't have live view, which means you have to put your eye on the camera itself to get the shot set up (old school, I know). She never did that. She just held the camera out in front of her, took a photo, saw it pop up on the screen, move it to the right/left, took another shot, readjusted, and so on -- never seeing what she was taking a picture of before she hit the shutter button. It was weird.

Christmas morning didn't disappoint. The girls got a trunk full of dress-up clothes, which they have worn almost every day since Christmas. (See this post - that was this afternoon.)

The guys got matching shirts and headlamps. I have to admit, I chuckled a little at the headlamps thinking, "such a guy thing". But I wore it the other night while I was looking for something packed away in the garage. It's super cool.

New Year's with the Perrys

Working on my backlog of photos . . .

New Years was actually more a "4th Christmas Gift Exchange" with Steve's family in Sacramento. Although we did stay up until midnight playing cards. (Poohead is the best game ever. And Steve ended up being the reigning Poohead of the night.)

Sophie had a blast with the tricycle from Grandma and Grandpa Perry. . .

which was quickly commandeered by her little sister. I'm beginning to see what having twin girls would be like -- having to buy two of everything to keep the peace. Hopefully they'll just learn to share.

After that, Sophie did all the documentation for the couple days we were there. I think her technique is improving.

Kimi without eyes.


Floating head Kimi.


Grandpa with Mom's arm in the foreground.


Dad's leg next to an Ivy torso.


Ivy's ascent to Sophie's knees.


Nice head shot of Dad with Grandma in the back. Such clarity!


Probably her best yet: Portrait of a Little Sister

December Part 2

Here's where the fun began . . .

5. Opening presents at home.

Stockings were pretty simple this year.

Since Ivy was so enthralled with the "big cats" at the zoo during Thanksgiving, we got her a set of postcards from the gift shop. She loves them. (Both girls do.) I think I'm going to put them in a little photo album.

6. The first stop on our Christmas trek: Great-Grandma & Grandpa Henderson's house.

And the first time either of them have seen snow (that Sophie remembers at least.) They stood by the window forever looking at it. And there were only a few scuffs of snow on the ground.

After we opened gifts, Sophie ran her new baby stroller (with her pink glittery purse hanging from the handle) all over the house. Yes, the floors are red. Red vinyl stuff. It rocks. The previous owners of the house had a. . . um. . . unique sense of style. We loved the red floors when we were kids, so my grandparents kept it the way it was -- at least in the basement.

Oh why do I not do her hair before we take pics? She doesn't look homeless all the time. Maybe 72% of the time.

Such a cute little mommy. I think this was the favorite gift from Christmas.

7. Second stop: Grandma and Grandpa Phillips' house.

I'm glad she found other uses for the stroller -- like entertaining Ivy.

We found this little couch at Downeast Home and couldn't resist getting a shot of them in it.

8. The cousins bonded.

Unlike the girls, I don't think Carter's used to having company in the bathtub. Grandma's tub was plenty big, though.

9. Steve got creative for a few minutes, too. I didn't see this picture until we got home.

10. Sophie and Grandpa fed the horses. One of Sophie's favorite parts from the trip was riding in the tractor with Grandpa when he fed the horses. She still talks about it.

She looked so cute all bundled up, too. She could barely walk with all that on.

This is my favorite picture from the batch . . . and perhaps from all of our Christmas pictures.

Hopefully I'll post more when I get a few from my dad. I'm surprised we had all these. Maybe we're getting better at documenting our own stuff. :)

We had a wonderful Christmas with everyone! Thanks Mom & Dad for hosting the whole circus!

December Part 1

1. Ivy got her first tooth on Nov 30th. A big, giant hippo tooth on the top. Today she got her fourth. Now she's got two on top and two on the bottom.

2. We made our first fort in the living room.

Ivy dug it.

Sophie found a new nap spot for a couple of days.

3. I was crafty for a couple of hours (shocking, I know), and found a way to use the scrapbook paper I have piled up. (I don't scrapbook. I just like patterns. Psst. . . thanks Kathryn for making me realize that.)

Tutorial HERE.

4. Santa came to our ward activity.

Sophie didn't want to stand in line to see him, but her two favorite boys in the ward were there, so she did anyway.

I love pictures of Asher and Sophie. He eats the meat, she eats the bun -- they're soulmates.

Ivy didn't like Santa. (She doesn't like anyone, so it wasn't a big surprise.)

I mean she really didn't like Santa. Sophie was embarrassed I think.

At this point Ivy almost slid out from under Santa's arm. She was seriously stressed out.

To be continued. . .

Oh, and Happy New Year!