How many photos do you need to take for one Christmas card?

Answer: about 75. Thank goodness for digital cameras. Here is just a sampling of the MANY photos we took in an attempt to get 2 good ones for our Christmas card. We did select 2 cuties and our card came out adorable, but the time and effort it took to get those was unbelievable.

Above and below are the 2 photos we selected for our card. Above Helaina is looking at Heidi as if she adores her - and most of the time she does. It's when Heidi snatches a piece of cheese or a chicken nugget out of Helaina's hand -- that's when Heidi better run!


Morning photo shoot. "Helaina, take the choke-hold off of Heidi's neck!"

"Heidi, look this way!"

This shot was one of our finalists.

In this first picture I think Helaina had just snatched something off the tree and is hiding it behind her back! "Who me?"

"Heidi, that's not a real bird."

"Helaina, look at Momma. Heidi, sit down. Now both of you stay, for the 50th time."

Awww, cute with Helaina holding Heidi's paw.

"Potty?"


Evening photo shoot.

Absolutely enough!

Sprinkles AND Twinkies? Where have these been for the past 9 months?

The other night Jim was in the basement wrapping Christmas presents and I was trying to get some candy made in the kitchen. Helaina was taking turns "helping" each of us, running up and down the stairs when she wanted to see what the other one was doing. She decided that sugary goodness was better than wrapping Momma's gifts. She's had sprinkles before on ice cream and cookies, but never came face-to-face with an entire jar of them (her eyes lit up). Before I ended up with 11 million rainbow sprinkles all over the floor, I decided to pour some onto a plate so she would be amused for a while (this way I only had 5 million spilled onto the floor). She was a riot to watch, studying them on the plate then figuring that slurping them with her tongue was the best way to get as many into her little mouth at once. Too funny and too cute.

"Hmmmm, now this works out well."

"These would be good sprinkled in my breakfast oatmeal too!"

After the sprinkle eating frenzy, she was back down to the basement again to help Daddy. Before long, she was back up in the kitchen. The sprinkles apparently wore off so she headed to the pantry where the "nacks" are kept. Since Joshua has had a major Twinkie addiction lately, Helaina thought she'd dip into the open box and nab one for herself before they were all gone.

What do you want now, Helaina? "Momma, nack?"

Sure, why not, as long as you have some milk with it.

Oh well, she's still on a semi-soft foods diet while her palate is healing - and Twinkies are definately soft!

Lunch with Santa at the Zoo, except we have no pictures of Santa!

Today we went to one of Helaina's favorite places, the zoo, for lunch with Santa. Everyone was in a private room with a lunch buffet set up, a Christmas tree, a face painting table, a cookie decorating table and of course, a throne for Santa to sit on when he arrived. With all the food and cookies and zoo animals Helaina had a lot of fun but she would not get very close to this particular Santa. She stood in line and was actually trying to get in front of other children to see him but when it was her turn, she would only get within a few feet of him. After I gave Santa a high-5 Helaina did too, but that was it. No pictures of her sitting on his lap but Jim caught the entire encounter on video. She still got a Christmas tree lollipop from him for her efforts.

Helaina decorating her cookie with lots of pink frosting and sprinkles.

"Hey Mom, do I still have spaghetti sauce up my nose?"

Daddy liked the Rudolph antlers from Santa more than Helaina did.

Having a snowman painted on her hand by one of Santa's helpers.

One must always have a bag of marshmallows handy while rock climbing.

Snuggling outside to stay warm!


Hello, Nemo!!

Glad this baboon was behind glass - scarey! The lions were cozy and warm in their little den.

Our daughter - uncooperative? stubborn? No way.....

The other morning I decided it was time to get some holiday pictures of Helaina for our photo Christmas card we want to send out this year. I got her all dressed up in one of the pretty satin outfits we bought in China, did her hair with a red bow (which she hated and constantly tugged at), and attempted to pose her in front of the Christmas tree. Later that day when I told Jim that I took about 50 pictures and only got 5 possibilities, he couldn't believe it. After dinner that night he said "Why don't we put a different outfit on her and try again for a few more shots." Great, as I said to myself "now you'll see". I did her hair with a barette, put on another holiday outfit and said to Jim "go ahead, pose her, get her to smile and stand still for the count of 5". She would stand still for a second, then run or make a funny face, or sit down, or sing and clap, or even growl. He'd say "Helaina, just stand still for one more picture then we'll have ice cream, or watch the Backyardigans, or ..........." She accepted no bribes. Then Jim decided to stand her in front of the tree, quickly run back beside me and do funny things to get her to laugh. The only thing that accomplished was to get me laughing so hard that I couldn't hold the camera still. I laughed even harder when he decided to try and put the antler ears on her that she got from Santa at the mall. The photo below is the result with Helaina ripping them off her head almost immediately!

I'll post more pictures from the "photo shoots" after we mail out the Christmas card. Yes, we finally selected 2 photos for the card, and we're very pleased with the way it came out!

Our little angel, exhausted after the first 50 pictures of the day!

A little play time outside on the swingset on a sunny, cold afternoon.

Nothing is more fun than when big brother Josh plays too.

Decorating the tree was a success. Only problem was that Helaina would hang every ornament she picked out in the exact same spot on the exact same branch!

While we were preoccupied with the tree we noticed that Helaina was unusually quiet. I turned around and found her stringing some decorative beads around her neck

Beautiful result. They look especially nice with her camo shirt!

Surgery completed! Helaina's back to normal, except for the puffy lip!

Tuesday, Nov. 25 is done and over with, thank goodness! Helaina did very well with her surgery. It was relatively short (2 hrs 45 minutes) and she looked a lot better in the recovery room than she did with her palate surgery - her screaming was the same though! Her upper lip was swollen quite a bit and she had the "usual" surgery remnants (dried blood, yellow solution and surgical tape stuck to her face), but she looked good. She did a lot of moaning, whining and fussing throughout the day and she was not pleased with all the heart monitor leads, the pulse ox wire and of course the iv, but she did sleep very well through the night - waking up about 5 or 6 times but going right back to sleep usually. In the morning I told her that if she drank something, we could go home. She turned her head away from me at first, but I told her we could fill the pink "bucket" with water and suds and play in it if she drank. She decided that was worth it and had some water - yippee! Throughout the morning and early afternoon she had chicken broth, popsicles, lemon ice, jello, soda and flavored water. At 12:30 we told the nurse everything that Helaina drank & ate and to "get us out of here". It took forever to be discharged because there were so many patients going home on Wednesday (who wants to be in the hospital on Thanksgiving). I made the HUGE mistake of taking Helaina's sneakers out of the bag and getting her clothes ready. BIG mistake. As soon as she saw the sneakers she got very excited and there was no stopping her. She was ready to get dressed and hit the road, iv and all! We finally put the sneakers on her to try and quiet her, but no such luck. We eventually blew out of the hospital a little after 2:00 and were home in no time. We had a quick dinner, plopped down on the couch, and all 3 of us were asleep on the couch before 7:00pm. The ringing phone woke us up - total exhaustion! Helaina slept through the night, happy to be in her own crib, and woke up on Thanksgiving in a pretty good mood. Her pain was managed with just tylenol and her oral antibiotic was slurpped down with no problem this time because we mixed it with Hershey's strawberry syrup - a tip from the pharmacist. It worked wonderfully. She took the medicine twice a day for 7 days with not one complaint. She also let me do the ear drops and nasal spray without too much squirming either. Ahhhh!

Waiting, waiting for the surgery. Helaina's memory is amazing. Her palate surgery was 6 months ago but as soon as the nurse came into the room with the gown to change into, Helaina started wimpering then crying. She knew what was coming!

Temporarily distracted with some Dora dominos.

Poor baby. A few hours after surgery in our room. This is how Helaina and I spent much of the next 24 hours.

Resting with her favorite pillow from home, and then playing with a bucket of soapy water while watching cartoons!

That is one fat lip ... and it's still swollen today.

Having some lemon ice and a popsicle.

That lemon ice is mighty tastey and refreshing after a day of nothing to eat or drink.

"Moray, pllleeeez!"

Funny sock story: Helaina hates socks. There is a constant struggle at home to keep socks on her. She will pull them off, we will put them back on. 10 minutes later she's barefoot again "Helaina, where are your socks?" Her reply: "I dun no." It's really a power struggle. In the hospital recovery room, the nurse put one of these red slipper sox on Helaina's right foot to keep her from pulling the pulse ox wire off her toe. In all her pain and crying, Helaina pointed to the other sock and wanted it on her other foot. They stayed on the entire time we were in the hospital. She wouldn't let us take them off! We brought them home with us. Now we'll have to see if she wears them at home as much as in the hospital!

Wearing her new snowman jammies from Aunt Terry and Uncle Mike. Helaina has to wear footed jammies to bed because even in her sleep she's active - she kicks off all blankets!