The Allison Diet

I think if I ever wanted to lose a lot of weight, I can just copy what Allison eats.  Tonight for dinner she ate one stalk of celery with peanut butter, was given two hostess donettes, but only ate one.  Way to save those calories Allie, rock on!

Solid Parenting

Christmas break is for making plans, venturing out, baking cookies, games, activities, family time and festive fun.... or you can let your kids discover Temple Run, and have a 3 year old put you to shame.

Two Little Trolls

Two little trolls named Allie and Sloane

Two little trolls who will not let alone.

Two little trolls, devious and mischievous

Breaking and dumping, and completely oblivious

Causing stress and messing messes quite grievous.

Two little trolls reeking havoc in halls, in kitchens, on rugs, on couches and chairs.

We clean up each mess as we pull out our hair.

So pray for us, we’re slow, we’re tired and our heads are a spinning

And lets hope it’s a phase end, and not a phase beginning.

Two little trolls, grab a quick bite to eat.

I am sure the huge mess, was never their intent,

We’re just glad they didn’t add a bit of two percent.

 Two little trolls playing with knives

Sharpened edges, risking their lives,

But the mischief survives

And the mischief still thrives

But these sorts of things usually happen in fives.

 Two little trolls, now onto the pasta

Oodles of noodles from egg to spaghetti, rigatoni, fettuccini and even macaroni

What ever should we do with troll Alley and troll Sloaney!

And lets not forget, the onions the garlic and popcorn,

Scattered with bites and peels all forlorn. 

Can’t a mom, just get a small break,

and have two little trolls that aren’t such a headache?

 Two little trolls, with a craving for bread,

The loaf gave quite a fight, but ended up dead

Destroyed and demolished, what to do next?

why face painting Sloane’s face, with green, blue and red.

What is a day for a troll without a few good books,

But of course not for reading, nor looking nor chattering.

But for spreading, and shredding, and skittering and scattering.

 And go ahead, load up your truck with our chocolate chips,

I know your addicted trolls, but now we have zero!

Zilch!

Zip!

Oh two little trolls, what did you do now?

This mess, well this mess is a real moon jumping cow.

Seriously!!  Cream of wheat all over the place!

We vaccum and vaccum, and dump case after case. 

We had to wash the entire couch and the chair.

Now don’t you give me that glare!

 And of course Christmas, it doesn’t come with its share

Of destruction and mayhem, we are quite aware,

But tipping over a tree was quite an assault,

But at this point baby, it’s your own darn fault.

Two little trolls, keeping are hands full to the brim

Sometimes you wonder, when will we ever win?

They are cute as a button, with personality that shines.

We guess we can take the mayhem, the messes and whines.

We will survive, we’ll move on, and we will make-do.

I just wonder

What comes next?

Ohhh, just a little baby doll voodoo.

  

  

A few production photos

Had a few shots from the Mormon Message production.  

The girls loved having their hair done.  At first Allie was not sure about the whole thing, but when she realized what was going on she loved it.

A lot of production is the "hurry up and wait".  Sebastian waited patiently as the girls rode in circles around him.

Some pretty sweet camera equipment, and what draws her interest?

The Art of Tornado Allie

Sometimes a child's creativity outweighs the emotional aggravation that instigates the enforcement of discipline. Allie has a way of walking this very fine line. When I saw this, I knew I had to enforce discipline, but deep down inside, there was a tremendous sense of pride for her creativity. (I don't think she even got a time-out for this)



I love the way the black sharpie contrasts the white painted doors. The reflector is nicely placed, accented well with the sharpie patterns. The three pennies pull in a level of emotion that makes this piece just moving. I never would have thought of glue sticks as an art medium, but Allie has brought the glue stick to it's full potential.

And the Tornado continues. Apparently the Horses needed some dirt to play in.



Oh yeah, and the choco-sludge she created with a cup of quick powder and a few tablespoons of milk. I am not sure how full that cup was before we found her.



One chocolicious time-out. (Rachel had to put her in a time out because she didn't want Allie seeing her taking pictures. It may communicate the wrong thing to our little artist).



No, I didn't upload the same picture twice. REVENGE OF THE WALL ARTIST! Yes, she revisited the scene of the crime to accent her work with brown sharpie, and re-attaching the reflector.



More shennanigans.



Throw Andrew and Emma into the mix, and things spin out of control rather quickly. We actually found these pics on the camera which apparently Emma shot. But Allie was basically chucking toys at Andrew and Emma as they took shelter in the nearby bunk-bed. She always knows the best toys that get the best distance and cause the most damage.



Its not funny you little punk! Ahhh, how can I resist, we love you Allie!!

Already Working over Grandpa

It looks like baby Sloane is already learning to work over Grandpa.



Allie's game is well polished. I think one time Grandpa Harris went for his glasses and they were gone, not realizing Allie had already swiped them at an undisclosed time before hand.

Allie's Big 1 Year Birthday Bash

It was Allie's Birthday just recently (the 17th, I am slightly behind). It was fun and all, but like a 1 year old really cares about their birthday. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

I thought it would be fun to have one of those contests to see how many people we can fit in one room at once... oh wait, this is any social event we have.

Look, more people we could have crammed into the kitchen!

Presents! Luckily Annie, Allie's cousin, is teaching her the process.

Yay! more presents!

And just one more, I think Allie is getting the hang of it.

Mmmm... cake! Allie had a sense that the pink things must taste good! (M&Ms)

Time to sing happy birthday. You know it seems you give a kid a video camera, and with it comes the Hollywood attitude. The "no climbing or standing on furniture" rule is heavily enforced, but once the camera was in Andrew's hands it didn't seem those rules applied anymore. Whatever it takes to get the shot.

Allie - "Why are all these people staring at me and fluctuating their voices in strange ways. Can we just go back to the good ol' high pitched goochi goos?"

"Mmmm ... My cake!"

"Whooa what is the brown stuff!"

"It's brown and sticky and won't come off my hands. This seems all too familiar"

"Me no likey!"

As it would turn out, Allie was not that big on eating the cake. I don't think she liked it sticking to her hands, and being messy. Oh well, she will have plenty of time to grow attached to cake. Once we started talking to her she got a bit happier, but did not really eat any more.


Cheesecake! (Get it?)


To end the birthday, there was a Peanuts-esque dance. All we needed was Molly dancing on her hind legs with her nose up in the air and arms flapping about.

"What are those people doing, having some sort of sponsored epileptic fit?"

Portraits from September

One last group of pictures from the month of September. Basically these are just some quick portrait shots that I like. Nothing I spent too much time on. If I spend more time, or have a more organized photo shoot, I will also post them on my own dedicated "Travis Deming Photography" blog.

Just a quick photo of Allie. Sometimes I really like the "halo" effect (light coming from behind), but there are some challenges with the shadows on the face.

Another quick photo of Allie. It was overcast and close to sunset so the lighting was kind of weird, but I like the way it turned out.

Emma had to play in the grass. Not a great picture, but I kind of liked it.

This picture is not that great, but there were hundreds of Dragonflies flying around and I was hopping to capture that feeling. I wasn't that successful, but you can see several dragonflies, and the spots in the distance I believe are dragonflies.

Typical Emma expression.

Okay, I couldn't resist a Black and White picture. This was actually a picture I took testing a photo setup that I was going to use to photograph a friends baby.

One last one of Emma. Andrew is the most uncooperative child at the moment, but I will work on getting some pictures of him.