Eating Habits

A few months ago I tried feeding the twins some beans.  After a severe gagging incident/choking scare, I swore never to give them beans EVER again.  As the days passed on, memories of the racing heart rate and adrenaline rush faded (not to mention they've been doing really well at eating small foods lately) so I thought I'd have another go at the beans today.  I cut up some kidney beans, placed them on their high chair trays, and proceeded to watch them like a hawk as they ate to make sure we didn't have a "bean day" repeat. 

They did great, but as I watched them, I noticed that they have very different eating techniques.  Lilly is very precise.  She will pick up one bean, put it in her mouth, chew, swallow, and then pick up another.



It's almost dainty at times...almost. 

Maya, on the other hand, prefers the grab-as-many-beans-in-one-hand-at-a-time-and-try-to-shovel-them-all-in-your-mouth approach.


And for every bean she actually gets in her mouth, there are probably three or four that wind up in the seat of her high chair. No wonder you're so skinny kid!

Happy Halloween

Can I just tell you, I LOVE Halloween. Last year Halloween was on a Sunday, so we didn't go trick-or-treating, the year before that I had the Swine flu, so I didn't get to enjoy Halloween AT ALL, so this year I had two years worth of celebrating to make up for, and I think I accomplished it! We had TONS of fun celebrating this weekend. We started by carving our pumpkin.

He may not look like much, but he meant a lot to me. His design was a family effort. I wanted lots of eyes, Bart designed the shape of the eyes, and did the carving, and Addison designed the mouth. We were very pleased with the results.

I also turned these into a yummy snack.

We had all of our siblings that live in the area over for a chili cook off/costume party. It was AWESOME! Charles and Heather came a little early, so our kids played in the leaves before everyone else got here.

Bart and I didn't make any chili this year, but we did make apple cider from apples my grandparents gave us from their apple trees, and pumpkin pie from actual pumpkins (not the canned kind). SOOOOOOOO yummy. I felt like we were really celebrating the harvest. Te he he.

Unfortunately, after the sun went down, my camera got put away (I have GOT to get a flash). But my sister in law, Heather, got some pictures of some of the kids' costumes on her blog if you want to see them. It was a really fun party.

Yesterday was the big day. The twins were little cows...although they went to bed before the trick or treating started.

Addison was a beautiful queen (or princess...depending on when you asked her).

Hannah was a candy corn witch.

Addison and Hannah LOVED trick or treating.

And people in the neighborhood did a great job decorating.

Before we were done with even half of the neighborhood, Addison decided she had enough, and was ready to go home (she does NOT take after her mama). Although, if we had let her, I think Hannah would have gone to every single house and then some (she DOES take after her mama).

When we got home, Addison took of her scratchy dress (possibly part of the reason she was ready to go home) and didn't even bother to put on a shirt before digging into her conquest. Hannah didn't even bother to take of the scratchy dress. :)

Last week I saw the cutest picture of a baby and a pumpkin, and thought, "Hey, I want a picture of my babies with a pumpkin!" They didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned, but they're my babies, so I think they're cute.

Overall, it was a GREAT way to kick off the holiday season!

My Photography Class

So, as I mentioned in the previous post, I've been taking an online photography class. I am SERIOUSLY loving it! It is ending this Sunday and I am so sad. :(

Since I doubt I'll have time to post about the pictures individually, I thought I'd share some of the pictures I've taken for the class in one big post. Most of them are straight out of the camera (no editing) and the rest have a few minor tweaks.

Week 1 - Window light





Week 2 - Open Shade
(You Already Saw Magnum)






Week 3 - Backlighting (This was the hardest for me I think)

The instructor suggested I turn it into a black and white, so I did. :)





And this week's assignment is silhouettes...I still don't have one to turn in for the actual assignment, but here's one I like:

And I played around with the color and wound up with some new iTunes ads. ;)


Now I have to figure out how to raise enough money to take another class. I may be addicted. Te he he. ;)

Magnum

I got some picture of the twins outside today for an online photography class I'm taking. When I saw this one of Lilly, I couldn't help but think of Zoolander!

Can I Get Some Water?

So today Hannah comes into the living room where I'm playing with the twins, and asks me if she can get some water. She had a cup, and we have water in the door of our fridge that she can (finally) reach so I told her sure.

A few minutes later I notice that she's walking back and forth between the fridge and the sink. So I go into the kitchen to see what she's doing.

She went to the fridge, filled her cup, then went over to the sink where she got up on a stool she had moved to the sink so she could reach. She took a sip of her water and then did this...

It didn't even give her pause that I was standing right next to her watching! She just went back to the fridge, got more water, came back to her stool, took a sip, spit it into the sink, emptied the rest of the water, and walked back to the fridge for more.

I couldn't help but laugh. It was just so typically Hannah. I love two-year-olds.

I think our next family home evening lesson may have to be on not wasting things...like water.