Holiday Tears

This is what a 3-year-old boy looks like after you tell him for the fifth time he's got to stop eating all the candy intended for the gingerbread trains/house. Grinchy mom strikes again.

Taken this evening at the beginning of the decorating.

Polaroid 600SE; Fuji 3000B

Santa 2011

It wasn't difficult to convince the boys to go see Santa at The Grove this morning. We talked about who Santa Claus is what he does during our drive there. George practiced his "Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!" while James remained more subdued about it. When we arrived at Santa's workshop there was a short line but totally manageable for a mom of three. I just used the power I had at the time, such as threatening them that Santa might send one of his reindeers out to see what all the ruckus was about if they kept knocking over the poles that held up the velvet rope. Once greeted by one of the elves, James' first words to her after she said hello to him was "I want a marble game." From then on out that's about all he said to anybody who addressed him. "Hey, I want a marble game." "I want a marble game please." "But I want a marble game." Hopefully Santa heard loud and clear that James wants a marble game for Christmas.

Santa Claus at The Grove is a good-looking Santa. George was skeptical about sitting next to him at first, and I got slightly worried he might bail on the photo. But, I picked him up and sat him on the other side of James and he didn't protest much at all. Cash kept looking up at the lights, but hey, what can you expect from a 4-month old?
Here is last year's photo. It's fun to compare.

Santa looks exactly the same.

Thankful

Below is just one of the reasons I am thankful this Thanksgiving. I adore my family, and, even though things can feel really hectic at times, I know I could not ask for a better life. 

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful and full day. I wish we could have been in Boston celebrating with my Mom, Dad, and sisters, but I'll have to work on that in the future. I'm sure Taryn rocked the kitchen and made an absolutely unforgettable meal. Love you guys!

Happy Thanksgiving to my Camaj family! I treasure you dearly and hope to see you out here in California soon!

God Bless.

Polaroid 600SE

A Witch and A Mummy

Halloween 2011 was just as fun as last year in Michigan. We packed up the kids and went over to Chris & Tanya's house in Rochester, whose neighborhood is just about the most perfect Halloween set-up anywhere. Almost every house participates in some capacity (no dark houses here), and there are loads of children running around all over the place. The only difference from last time was that James was a total maniac as he ran from house to house on the heels of his cousin, Zeb. Seriously, he could not be stopped; after we left the house I barely saw him, except for his black cape.
For two months James told me he wanted to be a witch. At first I was skeptical, thinking he'd surely forget about it or change his mind. But no, he never wavered. There were times when I asked him if he wanted to be, say, Batman or an astronaut. He replied yes, he would like to be those things for Halloween as long as he was a Batman "witch" or an astronaut "witch". Yep, the witch was hear to stay. (And no, calling him a warlock meant nothing - he still wanted to be a witch). So, off I went trying to conjure up a semi-masculine boy witch, hat, broom, and all.
Now, when George decided he was going to follow suit and started requesting to be a witch, that's when I put my foot down and simply told him he was going to be a mummy. "Oh, a mummy. Ok, Mama, I'm a mummy". Goodness, I love him.
Before we left for the night at Nani's house:

The witch laugh:

James and George here with James' Halloween escort:

Later on at the Demetral's house:

My Peekaboo Halloween Baby with him Papa:

Fran's Christmas

This image pretty much sums up Christmas day for Fran:

And a couple of others I've been meaning to post:

Canon 1V. Delta 3200. Fromex.

Before We Get to Thanksgiving....

Perhaps I should post the photos of the previous holiday?  Makes sense.  I don't really have that many because George really took off on his walking that week and quite the busy boy.  He growled like a monster at passer-bys and at the couple of doors he trotted up to.  James was able to get down the "treat" part of the saying "trick-or-treat".  We spent the evening in Rochester, MI with our friends, the Demetrals.  It was a great night out.

All photographs taken using the Fujifilm GF670 on various film.  

Hello 2010!

Happy New Year to all my loved ones out there! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday season and are looking forward to what the new year has in store for you. I certainly am!

To start the year off, feast your eyes on some Georgeous. I was playing around today with some different setups and these two are a couple of my favorites. If you are wondering why you see more of G than James on the blog, it's for one very good reason: James barley stops moving long enough for me to snap a photo of him. Therefore, I shall focus on George. He's not such a bad subject....

Next, I have some photos taken over Christmas while Gjelina was in town spending the holiday with us. We made it to the beach one morning and really enjoyed the sun and very slight chill in the air. James had no problem rolling up his pants and walking right in, cold water and all.

Boo!

Happy Halloween Everyone! George has been sporting his Halloween costume since early this morning and we are headed to Calico Jack's party in just a few short hours. I thought we'd spread some scary cheer with a photo of my dear G, who is still so stinkin' cute, bones and all.

Happy July 4th Everyone!

Well, we are having a pretty mellow July 4th holiday this year.  The weather here is still pretty cool and I'm ready for some temperatures that get over 65 degrees.  Today James and I ventured out to the front yard with his Star Spangled 4th of July helium balloon for a little photo shoot, only to lose the rock that held it down so that it didn't fly away.  Low and behold someone (and I'm not naming names here) managed to rid the string of the rock and away it went seconds before the first picture was snapped.  Sigh.  Anyway, we watched it float away into the neighbor's tree and carried on with our shoot both inside and out.  James had a lot of fun standing on the chair and doing anything but looking at the camera when Mama wanted him to.  

Wishing you all a happy and safe 4th of July!