Caroline talked me into rented one of the Barbie animated movies – something about magic pink horses? – and it was just about as awful as you can imagine. I would rather watch one million episodes of My Little Pony than anything Barbie-themed ever again.

Sunday:

A bear, a Wuzzle and an angry bird walk into a bar…

Weird things I drank today: apple cider vinegar in grapefruit juice, chia seeds in lemon water.

Sleeping face.

Monday:

Mondays are royal occasions.

Greeting her subjects as they arrive home.

Hair stylist daddy brushes the ginger curls

Tuesday:

So much blue sky, so so cold

A recent family picture! It’s a miracle!

When that face says “pweeeeeeease??” I almost always say yes.

Wednesday:

The school’s Thanksgiving program was a fruit salad (my job was to send in a cantaloupe)…

And a performance of some songs about turkeys and family

Tiny Dunkin Fan.

Thursday:

Bus stop cuddles

Accurate Snow White portrayal

Friday:

Proof everyone – even Princesses – loves Target

I think there are some kids under all that hair

CLEARLY we needed an organizational system

Saturday:

Maybe the highlight of the week.

“Mommy I’m going to do my pose and Caroline is going to do her pose and you take a picture, OK?”

If I could go back in time and start househunting again in CT, I wouldn’t even consider anywhere but Mystic.

I can’t believe this week is Thanksgiving already, especially because right after Thanksgiving it’s December. I’m not ready for December. I need way more than 2 week to finish getting ready for Caroline’s birthday party…and WAY WAY more than 2 weeks after that before Christmas. I am not prepared. AT ALLLLLLL.

I set a goal for myself to take more interesting, photographically complex, technically strong iPhone photos, since those are all things I’m working on in my real photography. I failed. Maybe next week.

Sunday:

Waiting in line is boring. Thank goodness there are benches for lounging.

The Carle <3

Practicing their cheers

Monday:

The ticket cashier printed extra “tickets” for the kids and the ticket puncher punched their “tickets” for them. We love Metro-North.

You’ve seen this one, but my phone died in NY so I didn’t get many more.

Donut the size of his head.

Tuesday:

She’s obsessed with my glasses

Winter is coming. So is the bus.

Modeling her awesome hat and sweater.

Wednesday:

I have no idea what we did on Wednesday. Teeth brushing might have been the only thing.

Their new favorite bedtime book

Thursday:

Not very excited to be outside in the cold

Ignoring me.

Matching Christmas jams (just a little early)

Friday:

We are totally going back to do this again

My new favorite spot for evening pictures

Playground time before it gets too cold

Saturday:

DO I LOOK CUTE MOMMY?

First pony tail requires two pictures.

Bounce house birthday = kids who slept really great

I cannot even believe how fast November is going. I have less than a month until Caroline’s 3rd birthday party (princess themed this year!) and I’ve done almost nothing. THAT IS SO UNLIKE ME. I don’t even have invitations yet. If anyone has this work-life balance thing figured out let me know, because so far I suck at it – and I can do 75% of my work from my couch.

I feel like my head might explode with all the things I am trying to remember. Wednesday morning I realized at 7:30 am it was Caroline’s turn to bring snack to school, so we drove to the grocery store for Goldfish crackers and milk, drove home, put Evan on the bus, dropped Caroline off at school, drove down to the beach for a Christmas photo shoot, drove home to meet Evan’s half-day bus (since the LAST half day I totally forgot him – Mother Of The DECADE!!), threw him in the car, drove back to Caroline’s school for pick up, drove to the post office, drove to BJ’s for essentials (Diet Coke, cheese and milk), then finally stopped at Moe’s for lunch. LUNCH. Because all of that was before 12:30 pm.

The rest of this week is also half-days which means more racing around to make it to pick up, plus my parent-teacher conference on Friday. I have two newborn clients I’m just waiting to become outside babies so I can schedule their sessions, a handful of families to do Christmas photos for, a cool press event in NYC on Monday and a husband who is about to go into shift work that will last probably the rest of the year. ALL OF 2013. I’m not sure I’ll survive it with my sanity, let alone with a house that doesn’t look like a tornado hit it, because that’s what it looks like now. Like a storm of boxes and My Little Ponies and couches rained down on my family room. I made the mistake of building Evan a “city” out of empty Amazon boxes and now I can’t throw any of them away or he freaks out. Smooth move, genius. Let’s turn trash into something we have to keep!

Because posts about how I am SO BUSY and don’t have time to blog are boring, I will make it up to you with a video of Caroline from a couple weekends ago. The kids are obsessed with the Cups song and E is pretty proud of himself for knowing how to do it, so this actually happens a lot around here. And don’t try to tell her she’s doing it wrong, she won’t believe you.

It really might as well be week one million. It feels like week one million.

Sunday:

I hung out with the cutest, chillest baby ever at the Community Baby Shower

My teeny little table showing off my work

Don’t worry, I pulled over before I took this picture out the car window of the regatta in the river

Monday:

I took this picture AND threw that ball. Impressed????

School makes him tired.

Princess Sadface was sad, so we had lots of extra cuddles

Tuesday:

I bought ALL THE GROCERIES. I also broke my crock pot (the second one!) so I can’t make half the stuff I planned.

I like this spot.

Evan likes this spot too.

Wednesday:

Saying good morning to Fred, the giant fake Halloween spider

Face painting at school. She meowed all afternoon.

Reading on the front porch

Thursday:

All the RescueBots HAVE to come outside to wait for the bus with Evan.

Mr. Incredible from Enterprise. They’re office of superheroes was the best part of my day.

Trick or treating at the fancy houses

They actually liked handing out candy more than collecting it

Friday:

It wasn’t actually raining, but the gingers do not care. Umbrellas make them look jaunty.

WTF Target, it’s only NOVEMBER FIRST.

I wasted fancy hair and spanx on a lousy event for E’s work.

Saturday:

My assistant at the morning photo shoot got a liiiiitle dirty

We have too many couches right now, but at least it means they can watch iPad OVER THERE and leave me alone.

Yes, she is wearing her costume AGAIN. At least it was at a costume party.

E’s submarine was commission on Saturday, which means they’re one step closer to being a fully functioning boat that goes to sea. That is both good news (no more shipyard!) and bad news (deployments) but it also means he’s going to be working even more over the next couple of weeks. Since this is still the busy season for pictures too, I suspect there will be a lot of late nights for the next month. Although it hardly matters now, since it’s 4:55 pm and PITCH BLACK outside. Thanks for nothing, daylight savings time.

In blog news: I’m about 3 meals into a brand new round of What’s For Dinner – which I haven’t done in a crazy long time – and it’s nice to be cooking new stuff again. I can only handle taco salad and spaghetti so many times before I give up and let my family eat pop tarts and grapes for dinner. So watch for that sometime next week!

This week is basically just photos of all the places I’m going to take photos. Plus Caroline.

Sunday:

Super happy to be swinging.

I GUESS this spot was OK for family photos. (This spot was amazing.)

Monday:

Eyeing the last apple fritter at Chowder Days.

Nicely done, Connecticut

Free boat rides are the best boat rides

Tuesday:

This is not my baby, but I kind of want to hang it up in my house anyways.

75% off wings at the craft store!

Pixie Girl

Wednesday:

Practicing his long jump skills

A pond…

…a cove…

…a park. I LOVE CONNECTICUT.

Wrinkly toes

Thursday:

Ready for school! It’s been 65 here all week, so she refuses to wear a coat.

I found the steps where we did my maternity photos! I love this park.

What does the fox say? BUY ME, I’M ADORABLE.

Someone had a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast.

That chalkboard was the train station schedule for Evan’s birthday. Repurposing!!

Editing editing editing…I really loved this session!

Saturday:

I did NOT buy this, even though I really really really really love it. I did end up buying a dresser. And a table. And a couch. And…another couch. It was an expensive weekend.

I love you, soda machine.

Project RECLAIM THIS DISASTER is underway. I’m so excited about it, especially now that it’s getting darker and colder and we’re going to be stuck inside more.

I had no photo sessions this weekend but I’m making up for it with 4 in the next 6 days and I’m crossing my fingers SO HARD that the weather stays nice. I’m hoping to get some of our personal photos sorted and (minorly) edited and shared too, since my family starts to get mad if there aren’t enough gingers on the blog. MOAR GINGERS SOON, I promise.