The Santa Express

Last Saturday we took an amazing train ride to see Santa.  This year was awesome because our family and friends joined us.  Also, Oliver is SUPER into trains this year and he loved seeing the trains!  He just kept yelling "Choo Choo" over and over and over.

As soon as we got there Papa took Oliver outside to see the train!  He was a little overwhelmed by the whole thing at first but once we were there for a bit he got more comfortable and LOVED it!!

Claire was excited to share this day with her BFF Giada.

They were stuck like the glue the whole time!

 They loved sitting together and looking out the window!

Oliver loved walking around looking at everything!!

He is at such a great age!  He loved checking everything out and taking it all in.

 This year Owen went too and he LOVED it!!  It was his first visit with Santa and he did great!  He loved him!!

Claire loved it when the conductor came around to punch her ticket.

Giada was proud of her ticket too.

Owen and Uncle Brian thought it was pretty cool too.

Oliver just wanted to crinkle his up and rip it :)

When the train got to Santa the kids had a blast hanging out!  I tried desperately to get a Christmas Card shot but although I got great pictures of the day, none of them were Christmas Card worthy.  They look pretty happy here but neither of them were looking at the camera.

 Oh...almost.

 Nope...not even looking in the same direction.  I couldn't get Oliver to take his eyes off the train!

Oliver loved checking out all the train cars.  He was thrilled when we put him up in one!

Then Claire had to check it out too.

Here is another lame attempt at a family shot.

Oliver snuck into Jessica and Giada's picture.

"CHOO CHOO"

Nevermind that there were 10 REAL trains around!  Oliver was thrilled with the cut out of the train!

Seriously, I could bite his face (and I have).

This face too!  I can't believe how old my baby girl is now!  Last year she was seemed sooo young.  Click HERE to check it out!

 Nana loved hanging with Oliver and seeing him enjoy the trains.

 And of course, Papa loved it too.  And Oliver LOVES his Papa (which he now says Papa, nope not Mama yet...but he has Papa down.  Papa and like 20 other words including THANK YOU...I swear he is messing with me).

The kids had a blast running around and playing while we waited to see Santa (and yes Claire is in the air).

Owen loved dancing with the band!  And yes,  him and Oliver have the same coat.  Totally not planned!!!!  

 Claire had fun hanging with Aunt Erin with her new reindeer that Owen brought for her and Oliver.

Finally, it was time to see Santa!  Oliver loved all the decorations!  

Claire hopped right up on Santa's lap and started chatting away!

She held her letter tightly even when she was with Santa.

Then it was Oliver's turn.  He was not too thrilled.  I blame the fact that we were past naptime and he had done so much already that day that he was beat.  Hopefully Santa won't take it personally.

He sat for a minute but was still not too thrilled.

Family shot.  Close but not Christmas Card worthy.  Plus, I am not sure that Santa was too thrilled when I knocked off his hat.

Then Claire dropped off her and Oliver's letter to Santa.

We tried to get a shot of the kids through the train window.  Mark was supposed to just set the kids up.  He kept saying "I was trying to get out of the way so I wasn't in the picture."  Yeah....he tried really hard, can't you tell by his face?!?!

Yep...still trying to "get out of the way".

Within 5 minutes of the train ride back to the station Oliver started to fade out.

Within 6 minutes, he was out cold.  Poor guy, this was a lot for him.

This was the test shot after my Dad and Mark dropped my camera.  Everything is still good..THANK GOD!!!

Overall, it was a GREAT day!!  It was so nice to have our friends and family all there together!  We all had a blast and made some great memories!!

The Perfect Christmas Card Picture

Yesterday the Cappellis came over and I took their family Christmas pictures.  They turned out GREAT! 

How gorgeous is this little girl?!  These pictures turned out so great that I couldn't wait to take my kids pictures for our Christmas card.  Now for those of you who know me, "The Christmas Card" is a huge deal.  I spend a ridiculous amount of time getting the perfect picture and then even more time creating the BEST card ever.  There have been years that I have even ordered cards and then taken a better picture and ordered more.  I am a crazy woman when it comes to these cards.  It is an illness and I cannot help it.  So today after naps (probably should have done it first thing this morning) we got the kids all dressed up and it was PICTURE TIME!!

I started with some shots of Claire.  She was a dream.  She stood just where I told her to and did everything that I said to do.  Her pictures alone came out great!

Love her.

So pretty!

Claire just went with the flow and smiled like a model every time.

She really wanted to do a silly one.

Seriously, she is amazing!

So Mark went to get Oliver dressed and I set up the spot where the perfect Christmas card picture was going to be taken.

And we got a little silly while we waited.

Then Gus showed up. So handsome in his tie and vest.  Now we are talkin'!  Two gorgeous kids and a great background, how could we go wrong?!

Then we got started.  I didn't take into account that in order to get the perfect lighting from the tree I needed to turn my shutterspeed down, which means that my subjects had to be still so that they wouldn't be blurry.  Well, you tell an 18 month old BOY to sit in a certain spot AND sit still.  Yeah....not so much.  He wanted to get down immediately!

Ok, we will bribe him with a decoration that he not usually allowed to touch! Brilliant!  This will work!!

Til, we took it away.

This one would have been great if I was going for the whole "we are super serious kids who never smile" look.

Ok let's skip the chair and get them standing up.

This one would have been perfect if Oliver would have stood super still. But, nope.  He moved.

Then things took a turn for the worse.  

Ok let's take a little break.  We will just hang out and see what happens.  Ok, now we are having fun and we are relaxed.

Let's try the chair again.

Nope.  Oliver hopped off the chair and he was done.

This was his response to me saying "Why won't you just smile???".  He puts his little hands up and says "I know no." 

Then he just wanted his "Choo Choo".

Claire tried to help.  She told us "When I want him to do something I just rip the toy out of his hands and make him come where I want him to".  So we tried that with an ornament from the tree.

And here is Oliver pushing her because he is mad.  Apparently he is on to us.

Oliver wanted nothing to do with this situation!  He has had it!!

Then I tried to get one of them watching the train (which Oliver loves)!!

Oliver, of course, made the cutest faces while watching the train!

So I gave it one last try while they were watching the train.  Nope, Oliver was NOT having it.  He knew Claire was trying to hug him for the picture and he just kept pushing her away.  God love him.  This was the point when I thought "Enough for tonight" (or when Mark gave me the look that said "enough for tonight").  We are going on a train ride next weekend to see Santa, maybe then I will get a good picture.  Or maybe not.  We will see.