The Lutz Family Blog: 2011

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas Card Picture Attempts

I had some great pictures of our family that a friend of mine took (here), but the kids were not in a smiley mood that day. Here's my attempts at getting a smiling picture of the kids to go with the family picture for our Christmas card. These are "a few" of the many that didn't quite make the cut. I will post the card on here eventually, but I haven't sent them out yet so I don't want to ruin the anticipation!

This one will likely be part of her "1 Year Old Photo Shoot" collection to be posted by the time she is two... :)

We had to take a break to sing at the "pulpit." Emma is singing along, "da da da da."

Sam's red cheek is from the rough housing that you see in the pictures below...

And, this is when I decided to just give up on getting a picture of them together...

Oops, forgot to wipe the chocolate off his lips...

Of course, she decided to smile and look right at the camera in poor lighting and background...

Emma loves her brother...

These below were taken the night I decided I "needed" a new flash. Any decent pose I got was blurry (from no flash) or harsh (with flash). The pictures above are with the new flash or with no flash (mostly with flash). Again, I posted in reverse order of when they were taken, but I'm too lazy to reverse it.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Leaf Raking

We have been initiated into living in the Northeast with the massive amounts of leaves in our backyard this year. (This was the case last year too, but I was immensely pregnant and had my family rake for us when they came for Thanksgiving.) We would rake the yard and look back at our work only to realize it needed raking again. So, either we are really bad rakers, or the leaves were falling fast. We did have some helpers with us that may have intruded on our ability to completely clear the yard. I like to take breaks from my work by capturing the process on film. These pictures were actually taken on multiple days, but apparently Emma wears this outfit too often.

She DID NOT like being thrown in the leaf pile this day...

Samuel "helped" with his shovel...

Emma took lots of cereal and milk breaks...

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Christmas Sneak Peak

We celebrated Christmas a week early because of our upcoming travels. I have a lot of pictures to post of the festivities, but here's a sneak peak of Sam's two favorite gifts...

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

My Birthday Trip

Bud treated me to a trip to NYC for my big 30th birthday with three of my very best friends from Arkansas! It was spectacular! It only took me an hour and a half to get there, crazy that it's taken a year and a half to make it happen. I'm already planning another trip :) We saw it all and came home exhausted, but it was totally worth it. It was fabulous to spend my birthday in an amazing place with even more amazing friends. Thanks girls for making this happen!

First glimpse of Times Square...

Dinner in Soho...

THE tree...

The Salvation Army collectors were so much more pleasant in NYC. They sang and danced all the time. All Salvation Army ding-a-lings need to go train under these guys every year...

NYC library...

Bryant Park...

Grand Central Station...

Of course we stopped at FAO Shwartz to pick up some goodies for all the babies we left behind...

Central Park...

Carriage ride...

The tree again.

The 9/11 memorial was really amazing. I wish the museum was open, but it was cool to see the monument.

I took a picture of the fire truck, one which responded on 9/11, for Sam...

Madison Square Garden basketball games. We found out Oklahoma State University (one of the girl's alma mater) and Duke were playing at the Garden in a tournament, so we decided to go. We were all ready to sit still for a while and we got to see some great games in a famous arena.

Dinner before the theater. Somebody has a picture of us outside the show, but I haven't gotten all the pictures from the others yet.

We ran into Harry Connick Jr on the street...

After the girls headed to their plane, I ventured out to get a glimpse of Lady Liberty...

... and ran into this turkey right in the middle of Battery Park.

The kids were glad to see me and enjoyed their "special treats" from Dylan's Candy Bar. You can't see Emma's very well, but it's a mini version of Sam's. Her first Lollipop! She was a fan...

Some memories I don't want to forget... Clipping toe nails in Times Square, Our carriage driver leaving us on the side of the road with the horse to go use the restroom, Kate running into an old friend on the subway, catching up with my friend Amy, experiencing Broadway, good food, nice people, and many great conversations and adventures together! Thanks again girls for making turning 30 not so bad after all!