barrettes, bubbles & beauty

Just a few pictures from the past week in our neck of the warm woods.  

Looking in on Fletcher.  I ran out to get this sunset picture, while Fletcher was behind me making funny faces through the window.  He can spot an opportunity to make a moment more awesome.

And I got Rowan to actually wear a barrette in her hair for 15.5 minutes.  It was glorious while it lasted!

Brian and Fletcher brought home lilies for mama.  Fletcher said he got yellow because "yellow is everyone's favorite color."  How smart!  And he's pretty much right.  I LOVE yellow!

And the littles have been OBSESSED with blowing bubbles lately.  Blame the unseasonably warm temperatures, I guess!

And that is what's been going on around here.  The beauty in the mundane can be stunning if you let it.

Linking up to:

colors

the colorful glow of the ipad always gets them running

looking through the garage to find each other's colorful smiles

and colorful garland and tulips remind us that Valentine's Day is coming!

Linking up to:

morning

This week's You Capture theme is "morning."  Morning is actually my favorite time of day.  We wake up pretty slowly around here, and just ease into the day.

{yes, that would be a little shiner on the boy.  playground mishap.}

Some mornings we can barely make it down the stairs. 

But Fletcher is always kind enough to make sure I'm up early enough to catch the sunrise.  Thanks, Fletch.

We all wear jammies for as long as possible.  Sometimes they stay on through lunch if we don't have anywhere to be.

I stay in my jammies and drink lots of coffee.  And I usually have to reheat it about 50 times in the microwave. 

I drink my coffee, the littles drink a little juice...

And then we catch up on all the playing we missed while we were sleeping.

my top 10

This week's You Capture theme is top 10 favorite pictures of 2011.   This was incredibly hard to narrow down.  But I tried to keep in mind that they were my favorite, not the technically best.  Although sometimes those go hand in hand, right?  So here we go, my favorite from 2011.

 Not that great technically speaking, but way too cute.  I look at this picture, and just feel love for those two patooties.

I have a billion that showcase Rowan's brilliant eyes, but her pink cheeks in this one add to the sweetness.  It was hard to narrow it down, or else I would have 50 of just Rowan's eyes.

Bleeding hearts are my favorite spring flower.  And we left behind the most beautifully huge bush of it back in Illinois.  I would have loved to take it with me.  But I have this picture to remember them!

My kids.  I'm sensing a theme here.  Again, not that great technically, but I love the bare feet and colors in this one. 

I think I like this one even more than the one that made it on to msn from the same shoot.

I miss Chicago.  *sniff, sniff*

I miss going back and visiting NWI.  *sniff, sniff*

Luckily this ruggedly handsome man came with me.  Love.  Oh man, only 2 left???

I just adore the attitude here.  I love my mini-Frank Sinatra.  This one's gonna be framed, for sure.

Ok, so technically Brian took this one, but it is my favorite of me and the littles. 

festive

These week's You Capture theme is festive!  I actually had a hard time with this because I haven't been taking that many pictures lately.  I've been baking, cooking, cleaning, and shopping for late minute gifts, so photography has been low on the list.  But we did go out over the weekend to look at some of our town's lights and to ride on the little train that goes around the shopping village near us.

 And anything festive at Christmas has to involve some cookies!

 {almond brittle cookies}

 {grinch cookies}

{hello dolly bars}

lights

You Capture's theme is Lights this week.  We all have a lot of those around us right now, right?  I didn't have to venture far to find lights.  In fact, I didn't have to leave my house!

It's just not a Christmas photo unless you have a little Christmas light bokeh in there, am I right?  Here is the rest of my house if you'd like the Christmas tour.

chilly

This week's You Capture theme is Chilly.  That is something it just hasn't been around here.  I know, I should feel happy about that, but hello, I am a Yankee, and Christmastime should be cold.  It has been in the seventies until *finally* a cold front moved in last night and it's been nice and chilly here in South Carolina.  And by chilly I mean in the high 50's, low 60's.  So not cold.  I miss the snow.  There, I said it.  You can stone me in the town square later.

So we get all excited when it's in the 60's and turn on the fireplace and pretend like it's freezing outside.  And some mornings are pretty cold!  When it's cold, Rowan likes to take a snack on the couch and relax in her cozy jammies.  Fletcher likes to test his feats of strength by taking off his pants and sitting on a chilly leather couch.

And nothing beats the chilly like a cuddle with papa.

And we tried to take Christmas pictures last weekend in only slightly chilly temperatures.  Like 68 degrees chilly.  Is that chilly?  Anyway, the littles liked checking out the big ball ornaments we put in the tree!

That's all I got.  I can't wait to check out everyone else's chilly pictures.  I'm sure they're much more authentically chilly!

something fun

This week's You Capture is something fun.  We're all about fun here.  Except when we're crying.  Or teething.  Or potty training.  Or whining.  Sigh.  BUT.  We do try and fit in the fun in between. 

Like blowing leaves.  Fletcher doesn't know better than to think this is just fun fun fun!

Of course after they're in a pile, he jumps in them, which is some real fun!

Sometimes it's fun to get a kiss from your big brother.  Sometimes.

It's fun to play dress up with papa's hat.

Eating left over Halloween candy = fun. 

And something fun that happened to this mama this past week?  A picture I took of Brian and Rowan ending up on the cover of msn.com.