Studio picture time!

I recently took all 3 girls to get their pictures done. Lilly was due for her 5 year birthday pics, Heidi her 2 year ones, and Loralee's 6 month ones. I also dressed Bobby up in the off chance everyone was cooperating and I could throw him in for a group shot. Wishful thinking? Of course Lilly is an old pro at this and it took all of 5 minutes to get her pics done. Loralee was super easy too. Heidi not so much. She's just not in a picture taking mood these days. I'm hoping this phase will pass. All the kids go through it at some point. I think we did pretty well overall though. :)

Lilly Elizabeth 5 years old

Heidi Jean 2 years old

The only way we could get her to sit is if she was holding a pumpkin and even then it was tough

Loralee Catherine 6 months old

And here are the best group shots...



Halloween time!

The Lloyd Pack had a really great Halloween this year. We did our usual routine which is going to my grandparents house right down the street. We have dinner and then trick-or-treat in their neighborhood. It's so nice because we know a lot of the neighbors and they enjoy seeing the kids all dressed up. This year was especially fun because the 3 older kids are at such a fun age and really get the whole idea about going door to door for candy. And this was Loralee's first Halloween. She was totally fine being dressed up in the Lloyd family lamb costume and enjoyed being pushed around in her stroller. The older picked out what they wanted to be for Halloween all on their own this year too.

Our jack-o-lantern

I tried to get a pic of it all lit up

The last time to Lloyd lamb costume will make it's appearance. :( But I'm happy that every kid wore it for either their first or second Halloween.

Loralee was over picture time

Bobby as Mickey Mouse

Heidi as Minnie Mouse

Trick-or-treat!

And Lilly as Rapuzel

The kids with my nephew Barrett the monkey

I love how Barrett and Heidi held hands in the pics

We went to Camp Spooky at Knott's this past weekend as well.

Heidi was dancing to the Halloween soundtrack that was playing

 

Irvine Park Pumpkin Patch

About a week and a half ago we headed to the Irvine Park Pumpkin Patch with my parents. It was super crowded but there just seems to be so much more for the kids to do there than at a regular pumpkin patch and the prices are fairly reasonable. If you've ever wondered how hard it is to get four kids to pose together for a picture, let alone smile, look no further. I took about 35 pictures to get just the perfect one of them. This year I've decided to include some of the more goofier ones so you can see what it takes to get that one shot. :) We had so much fun though. I wouldn't trade the chaos for all the tea in China.

So we start out piling the kids together and then call their names, makes faces, etc to get them to look. Then we just start clicking away with the camera. As most of you know, Lilly is an old pro at picture taking and can smile and pose in an instant. And she stays that way most of the time! Loralee's pretty easy as well since she smiles at anyone and can't quite run away yet. Heidi and Bobby aren't so easy right now.

Getting situated

Bobby's bored already

Almost...

Not quite

This one looks like they are on break

We tried a different pose and we got it! 38 pictures later. I love love love this pic of them.

My little pumpkin

Cotton candy yummmm

Took a wrong turn in the maze

6.5 months old

Heidi and my dad

Checking out the horses (I love this pic because I make the same face)

Riding a horse



My birthday girls!

Yesterday we celebrated Lilly's 5th birthday and Heidi's 2nd birthday. I thought I would share the story for those who don't know of how the girls almost had the same birthday. First of all I had the same due date with both girls. It was Oct 29th 2006 for Lilly and Oct 29th 2009 for Heidi. With Lilly I went into labor at 1:30am on Oct 17th (38 weeks and two days pregnant) and had her at 3:39pm that afternoon. With Heidi I went into labor on Oct 16th (also 38 weeks and one day pregnant) at 4pm. We headed to Hoag about 6:30pm and were joking the whole time about how the girls were going to have the same birthday 3 years apart to the day. I have a history of marathon labors so we just assumed this one would be the normal 13 to 20 hours. Even the nurses were joking with us about my long labors and how I would never deliver before midnight. I was actually pretty bummed because it was the one thing I didn't want for my girls. Well by about 10:30pm the nurses knew there was no way Heidi was going to stay in until midnight because I was dilating at lightning speed. And low and behold Heidi flew out (I'm not kidding I barely pushed once) at 11:30pm just 30 mins shy of being born on Lilly's birthday. My doctor barely had her gloves on before she was catching Heidi. So now everyone knows how close Heidi was to being born Oct 17th.

This year we decided to have a joint birthday party and will continue doing so until one of them decides they don't want to anymore. I'm sure they will hate me as teenagers for having their birthdays a day apart but that's the way it goes. Not much I can do about it now! We had a fabulous Barbie party for them yesterday and we all had the best time. Pink castle bounce house, separate Barbie cakes, and pinatas included!

Birthday girls before the party!

Lilly's birthday Barbie cake (my mom made both girls cakes! Amazing!)

Heidi's Barbie cake

Castle bounce house

Lilly, her friend Sofia, and Bobby bouncing. Heidi actually didn't want anything to do with the bounce house lol.

So we got a pumpkin pinata for the kids to whack. Normally one of the teenagers at the party busts it open for us after all the little kids have hit it. But this time we must have picked a crappy pinata or overloaded it with candy because it cracked open when Heidi hit it the first time. This of course led to a meltdown from Lilly and the other kids were bummed they didn't get a hit. Thankfully Michael dug out a beer bottle pinata from his college days out of our garage and we quickly filled that one for the kids. Lilly was happy again and all the kids got a turn. Now I can't give Michael as hard a time about saving all this crap from his bachelor days because that freakin' beer bottle pinata came in handy!

Heidi hitting the pumpkin pinata

Lilly getting her turn at the beer bottle pinata

Candy everywhere!

Collected her candy

 Presents EVERYWHERE!

My parents got Heidi her first bike!

Lilly got a Barbie make-up kit. Of course she and Sofia had to try it all on before the party was over.

Loralee was happy to celebrate too!

Bobby had a blast as well

Partied out

They stayed in the bounce house until the company came to pick it up at about 7pm

We managed a quick pic at the end of the day

PS We went to the Irvine Park pumpkin patch on Sat. That was an entirely different adventure that I will post about later this week.