I'm Baaaaack!

With a bagillion stories and photos to share (yup, I can count that high). Since I'm so very far behind and I have tons of photos to edit AND lots of real life to live outside of the interwebs, I'm not really going to edit my photos to put on here. I think it's just best to get it done. So without further ado, here's a bunch of stuff. Excellent description. Someone should pay me to write concise descriptions-----with lots of typos so I can stop hitting the darn backspace button.


Let's start with our first round of Christmas. Since we traveled for Christmas, Santa so kindly came to visit Harvey a whole week early. So very accommodating! So Saturday the 18th we woke to this:


This is the sweet little face of a guy that has no idea what's going on---he's just happy to be awake! And he's oh so happy to see his mother------or the camera. It's hard to say.



This is what was waiting for him from Santa:

Stop the world! Something that's actually appropriate to climb on in the house!



And then there were some other "lame" gifts (his big boy bedding for instance). He'll be pretty excited about that someday. If we ever let him out of his crib.




And he finally understands why momerazzi was following him all over the house. He's finally seeing his precious.




And this is pretty much how the rest of the day went:







Heh heh heh. Bet you guys are pret-ty jealous of me right now, huh mom and dad? Heh, maybe next yeawr. Maybe.



We had a relaxing day at home followed by a fun holiday dinner. Then we went out to a local toy store and then to look at some lights and chat with Santa. I guess it was to say thanks for everything he already brought. Thank goodness he's still too young to understand what really happened. Why did Santa keep asking me what I wanted? Why couldn't Santa remember he was just at my house today?! Oh the questions we would have had to answer if he was any older.


There is a subdivision here that goes crazy with Christmas lights. Tons of people come out to check them out, coming in limos and buses, and then you can get out and walk around if you want. And naturally Harvey needed a much closer look.


This is just one house. It was Harvey's dream come true.


Love this photo. The holidays are so magical with a child.


The plan was to go somewhere else to see Santa, but fortunately he was all set up at the end of the culdesac. Tricky Santa!

This was the best shot I could get without my flash. Still, sweet little memories. And a new Christmas tradition is born.

I meant for this to be one huge catch up post, but it looks like it's just Christmas Post Part 1. Oooh, catchy title.

A Party for Everyone

Alright, I'm back and ready to roll. I've been working on editing and getting photos sent off all this week. Then last night I watched a sweet little 4 week old baby girl for some friends of ours. Now originally when I signed up for this gig, John and I had nothing planned, and we would wrangle the two children together. Nice little trial run if you will. (Oh, and I will). Shortly after I said "we" could do it, John got an email about a work Christmas party. For the same night. Nice.

So instead of putting on a nice little dress and going out for some adult conversation, I got to stay home and facilitate "dentle" (gentle) time with the big Harv and baby Ava. And man oh man, he was a jealous little thing. We're with Sam and MH 4 days a week, but there's something different about a new baby being in HIS home. She cried and he walked over and said "Oh, hi!", like he didn't see her there. Then he "dently" offered her his sippy cup. Very sweet.

However, when she continued to cry for the next hour, he did anything and everything to get my attention. Saying all kinds of words, dancing, playing his banjo, dressing up as Elmo. He did anything he could to a) make the baby stop crying so b) mommy look at me! He sure was hoping this kid wasn't permanent.

And naturally, she stopped crying as soon as I put him to bed. Nice. But really, I probably did have more fun at home with the two of them. Nothing better than snuggling with a newborn.

Since you have to have an official Christmas get together/party for every group you're associated with (doesn't it seem like that's the case this year?!), I decided to follow suite and have a little something for Mary Helen and Harvey. Today we decorated cookies while listening to Christmas music and then we had a fun pizza lunch with cookies. There was supposed to be some fun Christmas crafting in between all of that, but the mess after the cookies----good heavens. After I spent almost an hour cleaning (and doing some laundry) I decided craftiness could wait. Until next week.

Here are a few photos from today. Naturally, I forgot to bring my camera today, but Jenny allowed me to use theirs. Thanks Jenny! :)

So here is what we started with. Pretty darn fancy.




Eagerly awaiting party time. I can just feel the excitement radiating from this photo.
















Mary Helen was SUPER into this.



And she was super into sprinkles as well.





The boy needs.a.haircut. Stat.





Up to this point neither of them knew they were working with food. Finally Harvey deicded he's taken a bite of every other art project we've ever done (crayons--check! markers--check! gluey paper--check! finger paint (tastes pretty soapy)--check!), so why not try taking a big bite outta this here craft. And it was magic. Now I'm going to have to work twice as hard to convince him not to eat art projects. "But mom, I did it dat one time and it was so nommy. Gots to see if dis is nommy too."




The finished products. What was left of them anyway.





And no party is complete without a temper tantrum. Nice.

Luella Rose

I just did a sweet photo shoot today with Miss Luella and her mommy Jess. I promise to get some more photos/stories on here soon, but in the meantime you should go check out her sweet photos. I can't just leave you hanging with nothing to read! :)

Clore Photography

Top 19 at 19

In honor of Harvey being 19 months old, I'm going to do a list of Harvey's most favorite 19 things in life. Since 19 is such a nice round number and all. Makes total sense.

1. Playing his "banjo" and dancing around. He especially loves it when mom and dad will rock out with him. Because banjos are so rockin.

2. Saying "MmmmmMMMMMmmmm!" for everything he wants. Kinda cute. Kinda annoying when you hear it all.day.long. We're working on using more words. Immediately.

3. His football lovey and Dog Dog. They go everywhere with him.

4. Blankets of any kind. Especially if they have a nice big tag on them.

5. Christmas decorations. Every time we drive by a house that's decorated we hear a giant GASP!!! and he's pointing to the lights. He's beginning to over generalize just a bit. When we drive by gas stations/grocery stores/anywhere there are bright lights he also gasps every now and then.

6. Elmo.

7. Cheese, yogurt and anything carb-y. Totally my child.

8. He loves to "GO go go!" most anywhere. In theory. Until it's time to get in the car seat. Or get out and get into the stroller/shopping cart. Then we get to hear another lovely screaming fit complete with much screaming/crying/pelvic thrusting/NO!!!-ing. But this is a list of everything he loves. And really, I'm starting to think he loves to throw down a good tantrum every now and then. So that's number 9 for ya.

9. Tantrums.

10. Finger paint. What toddler doesn't like a good mess?

11. Giving hugs and sitting on everyone's lap. He gives the best snuggley hugs before and after bed time. I so look forward to that time of day.

12. "Goggies" and "Ca-AAATSS!". Such an animal lover.

13. Wrestling with daddy. Really anything daddy does is pretty cool. I love to watch those two together.

14. Balls, trucks, blocks and puzzles. All things boyish make him so happy.

15. Eating paper. Sad but true. If he can get his hands on a piece of paper, he quickly bits off a piece and tries to swallow it before we can get over there and fish it out. I choose to think of it as a game we play. :) A nasty, weird game we play.

16. Remote controls. He just walked over and handed one to me. Again, such a boy.

17. Uh-oh! and No!. His two favorite sayings. Nice.

18. Sliding. He even got really brave last week and went down head first like the big kids at the play place in the mall. He ended up with a pretty sweet carpet burn on the side of his face. But he was so very proud of himself. And the next time he decided to go back to going down feet first. Smart boy.

19. Bath time. He gets to take a bath in our big bath tub. Its like a big baby pool for him. Lots and lots of splashing and acting wild. Such a boy. And I love it.

There's so much more he loves, but I must stop at 19. Because I'm a rule follower. Even the ones I impose on myself. If only Harvey loved rules that much............

A Day in the Life Part II

Nap typically goes from 1-4. Sometimes it only lasts until 3:30, and other days it goes until 5:00!! Yesterday Harvey was up by 3:30 (then Sam at 4:30 and Mary Helen at 5. Seems to be the norm for now).


He ALWAYS wakes up crying from nap. Tis never a pretty site. Especially when everyone else is still trying to sleep.





Because he's waking up about an hour before everyone else these days, I bring him downstairs quickly and try to keep him quiet for an hour. So that means.......TV time!!!


A little TV, a little sippy cup and a good blanket for snuggling. Now that's how you keep a toddler quiet for about an hour.


Everyone else gets up, Sam has a bottle, everyone is diapered and dressed and we play until mom comes home at 5:30. Then on Monday nights I have Bible study at church at 6. So Harv and I head straight to church where we meet up with John.


John switches the car seat into his car and they're off!


From there, they do dinner around 6:30, then it's time for some Wheel of Fortune....................




Some baby yoga..............




Santa time...............




A little time with his new favorite sunglasses...............







And one last check of the Christmas tree before bath around 7:30 and bed at 8:00.




So there you have it, a typical Monday for the Clores. That's some exciting stuff right there! And this particular Monday just so happened to be Harvey's 19 month birthday. So crazy that 19 months have already come and gone.

A Day in the Life Part I

I got this idea from my friend Alicia. I wanted to document what a typical weekday is like for us, and then in a couple of weeks we'll document a typical weekend day. I think this is something we'll look back on one day and be so glad to just remember the little things from everyday life.

On a typical day, John gets up around 5:15 to go workout (at least that's what time his alarm goes off----the number of times he snoozes depends on the day :) ).


I get up around 6, get ready, make lunches, and pack up for the day. Around 7 John goes in and wakes Harvey up and gets him ready to go to "work".

We get to work around 7:30 and it's breakfast time for all of us. Then after breakfast is play time. Today Harv started play time
with a bang----literally.

He fell and hit his eye on a shelf. Poor kid. Monday's are tough.






Poor Sam. Wearing a "Cute Little GIrl" bib while Harvey tries to shove a Santa hat on him. It's tough being little.











Around 9 little Sam goes down for his morning nap and I do art with the big kids. I had the cat take these photos, so try not to judge the quality of the setup here. :)





















The final products. Today we worked on our shapes. Obviously.



After art we went up to the playroom to play. And cry. And play dress up. While crying.


The first of many crying fits. I soon realized (uhhh after 30 minutes of crying) that perhaps he had a bit of a headache after his collision earlier in the morning. I gave him some Motrin and voila! Tantrum free.

Harvey vs The Laptop. Stupid thing wouldn't do what he wanted. So he threw it.




Then gave it a few kicks for good measure. Taught that laptop a real lesson.




Post Motrin playtime.





This photo cracks me up. She's dressed in a fairy costume, with and apron around her waist and a firefighter coat on top. Then she used a temper tantrum to really help pull the whole look together. Priceless.





Captain Harv.




Sam wakes up around 11 and we go back downstairs to play until lunch time at noon.

The lunch crew.










Some lunch time shenanigans. They thought I wasn't paying attention because I was taking photos. False.



I made them trade cups back immediately after this photo. Maybe next time kiddos.




After lunch we clean up, do diapers then it's off to nap time. They love to march up the stairs chanting "Go, go, go!! Up, up, up!!"









And he's outta here. Stay tuned for part two tomorrow!