Getting Ready for Christmas

Life has been quite busy since I returned to work after maternity leave. We're all pretty exhausted!

Austin got a cold at school, but just can't resist snuggling his baby brother!

Hi Grandpa!  Look how well I can hold my head up when I'm on my tummy!

I had this weekend off, so we decided to put the tree up and get out our Christmas decorations on Saturday.  Trevor was introduced to the Christmas stuffed animal marching band.  His sentiments seemed to be along the lines of, "Wow! What the heck is this?"

Austin and Sarah had a blast putting the ornaments on the tree this year.

(Yes, I know Austin's outfit doesn't match...he dressed himself that day.)

Trevor took in the lights and the sights while snuggling in his cozy red fleece outfit that says "Mom's Cool Dude".

 He was pretty excited about the tree.

The tree...(hadn't put the star up yet).

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

The newest addition...Trevor's stocking!

Today, while the big kids were napping, Trevor and I decided to play with the camera a bit.  I was trying to replicate some of the Christmas tree photos I saw on Pinterest (like this one and this one).  I was not particularly successful at first, but got some cute shots anyway.

Trevor got sick of being on his tummy and I couldn't get him to stop chewing on his hands so I could get a photo of his cute smile, so I propped up his boppy pillow and got him sitting up.  I got some of the lights in the background, but not quite the effect I was going for.

Taking a little break to chew on my thumb...

Totally adorable!

Then Trevor got tired of smiling for the camera, so he hung out with dad for a bit, while I experimented with camera settings using the marching band drum major as my subject.  I got it!  Just what I was going for with the big blurry lights in the background.

I quickly scooted over to the couch where Daddy and Trevor were sitting and got a photo of Trevor with the lights in the background.  He started smiling for me, but the camera was out of battery so I only got one shot.  I hopped on my computer and bought a back up battery for the camera, since I don't want to run out of battery at a critical moment.

After supper, I tried a few shots of the big kids on the same settings.  It doesn't work as well when it is dark, but still some cute shots.  I think I'll need to take these when there is daylight coming through the window instead of taking them at night with artificial light from varied angles and sources.

We've got a very busy schedule from now through the end of the year, but we're hanging on for the ride.  We've almost got our Christmas shopping completely done.  I've been trying out meals that I can make ahead of time that Steve can just pop in the oven when I'm working evening clinic for a week straight while on rounding weeks, and we're starting to get a bit better at getting Trevor to go to bed at a decent time at night (instead of the 1am that was routine over the past few weeks).