Merry Christmas from the Carey Clan!

2011 Christmas card and family photo.

I called on Thursday, 12/15 to make an appointment for pictures to be taken at Portrait Innovations.   Considering the usual mad crunch to get things done before leaving for Michigan, I thought it might be a longshot that they would have something available.  They had a slot open the next night, a Friday!  Phew!  I haven't sent Christmas cards out in three years, I'm guessing.  Doug didn't relish the thought of taking pictures, but was a good sport and went along with it.  I'm so glad he did!  We were running late for our appointment, but when we got there, we waited almost an hour and a half.  Gulp. 

Once they were ready to take our pictures, the kids were pros!  The photographer was great with the kids.  She asked Doug if he wouldn't mind slipping a red velvet Santa sleeve onto his arm.  It was a glove like Santa's, with a red sleeve that only went up to his elbow.  At first I thought...What in the world?  She handed him a tray of "milk and cookies" and told the kids to pretend like they were giving milk and cookies to Santa.  The kids thought it was absolutely hilarious that they were actually looking up at their Daddy and not Santa.  Oh how funny this was to me (and them).  Only Doug's (I mean Santa's) red sleeve was captured in the picture, along with the kids' expressions. 
Portrait Innovations took some of the best pictures of Liam I've seen, so far.  It is SO HARD to catch Liam with his eyes open!  They did a great job.  Doug also mentioned that we wouldn't be leaving their studio without the picture of Ava with the black background.  He loved it.

We walked to an ice cream shop while our pictures were printing.  The pictures were done at 9 p.m.  We headed home.  The next morning, I was hoping to print labels before the kids' gymnastics class.  Unfortunately we didn't have enough labels.  I ran to Publix and bought stamps.  They didn't have the Avery labels.  I went to Office Max and bought the labels.  I headed home, printed out the Avery labels, grabbed our Christmas return address labels and the Christmas cards to be sent, and then headed to the kids' gymnastics class.  I stuffed, applied stamps, return labels, address labels and sealed the envelopes during their gymnastics class.  After gymnastics class, I dropped the nearly 70 Christmas cards in the post office mailbox, in time for the 1:15 p.m. mail pick-up.  Ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing.  Never before have Christmas cards been processed so quickly (14 hours, to be exact)!  If we would've printed the cards or letters ourselves, I would've been sunk.  It was nice for at least one holiday project to go quickly and turn out well! 

Kudos to the kiddos and Doug for going along with it!

Peace, love and family-style,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam

School Pictures 2011

Ava's first official school picture:  Kindergarten, Fall 2011

Liam's school picture from the Three Year-Old Class at Lighthouse Academy: 

Fall 2011

Father's Day Gift to Doug: Pictures from Ava and Liam

These are the low-res scans of our gift to Doug for Father's Day.  We took the first picture and put it into a "Happy Father's Day" montage.  We chose a nice frame at Target and gave that particular picture to him on Father's Day, so he could put it on his desk at work.

This boy could get away with just about anything he tries, with this smile...

Sweet Ava.

They did SO WELL during this photo session!  I guess I did get a little reward for not taking them for over two years (other than their Christmas pictures at day care).

Beach babies.

She looks so grown up to me!

This is my favorite picture of Ava's.  The photographer suggested all of these poses. 

I thought this one turned out great!

We took the train that Grandpa Dean made for Liam to this photographer, to use as a prop. 

I love little "railroad" engineer overalls.  I thought they would go well with Grandpa Dean's train! 

Liam loves to ride this train.  



Peace, love and photo sessions,

Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam

Christmas at The Lighthouse Academy 2010

Ava and Liam's day care had their annual Christmas luncheon.  This year the program was held in the sanctuary of the East Cobb United Methodist Church.  It was adorable.  Ava was an angel this year, although she was originally "Mary."  She mentioned to the teacher that she didn't want to be "Mary", so she decided an angel might be fun. ;-)

Even Liam's class got in on the fun.  Liam wore reindeer antlers, although by the time his class got to the stage, only ONE of his reindeer antlers actually stuck up.  It was so funny, Doug and I couldn't stop laughing!  Liam had no idea how funny it looked!   We took some video of Liam with his antler ;-) 

Ava's friend Tommy-Elyse was the angel Gabriel.  She memorized an unbelievable amount of lines for a little girl her age!  She did a great job.  So did Ava!

Here are some pictures after we all headed into the fellowship hall for lunch, as well as the kids' professional Christmas pictures from school.  I brought some homemade truffles and Aunt Linda's pumpkin torte to share.  We gave out gifts to the teachers after the festivities.  Ava and Liam also got Christmas gifts from the day care.  Incredibly sweet!  They have been our family, since we're geographically far from our own families.  Thank you, Lighthouse!

Peace, love and kid-Christmas carols,

Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam

Ava's bestie: Tommye-Elyse.

Girls just wanna have fun.

 O.M.G. This picture cracks me up.  Liam didn't want to keep his dress clothes on after the pictures were taken in the morning.  The day care staff assured me they would change him back into his dress outfit.  Check out the tie.  He looks like a monkey's uncle!

Lighthouse Academy Christmas Pictures