Orange Satin Balls Christmas Prom Party

Meet Beth Reidemann, our sultry party hostess. Yes, she dresses like that to pick her daughter up from preschool. She is uber-cool.

I don't think I remember the story behind the Orange Satin Balls parties, but they have something to do with her GM. Anyway, this year she decided to throw in a little twist and combine it with an 80's prom theme. This chic goes all out. She hired a band, The Blue Light Specials, to cover only 80's songs. It was so much fun!! These are just some random pics to give you an idea of how easy it was for us to 80's up. This last picture is of Amber and Lake crushed by the crowning of Dina as Prom Queen. She was 7 months pregnant and lettin' it all hang out!!

Christmas pictures that didn't make the card

The only reason I did not pick any of these beautiful photos for our Christmas card this year is because I could not get the lighting right. I wanted the lights from the tree, garland and fireplace to provide all my light and they simply did not. I was trying to recreate our 2003 Christmas card when Dominic was but a babe and we are all sitting in front of our tree with the fireplace crackling in the back
ground. That picture was taken around midnight and was one of 2 pictures we took. Maybe the picture isn't even that great, but my memory of it is. The pictures you see here were selected from hundreds that were taken over the course of 3 nights and from 2 different cameras. My philosophy now when shooting pics of the kids is to hold the shutter down and let it take 40 odd shots in about 10 seconds time. One of them is bound to turn out. I did this over and over again...flash on, flash off, kids by the tree, kids on the hearth, with Luca, without Luca, nothing worked. When i turned the flash on the kids looked great, but you couldn't see the lights on the tree, much less the blue flame from our lame gas fire. When i turned the flash off, you couldn't see anything. I have since gotten some tips from a friend who is currently taking photography lessons, so i will be sure to apply them next year as i am so ANTI generic studio posed pictures. It killed me to send out those posed Christmas cards, but i had to get something in the mail...and Aurora grabbing Dominic's face...that was all her. She just can't get enough of her big brother;)

And can you say desperately seeking Susan???

Talk about confusing ;o)

Most of the birthdays in Aurora's class fall over the summer, so her teacher celebrates all the students' half birthdays. So, on December 4th we celebrated Aurora's half birthday. Confused does not even begin to describe the looks I received from my daughter that day, but we enjoyed some cupcakes and juice all the same;)

Alli's Baby Shower

So, Alli's baby shower went off without a hitch. She was surrounded by all of her closest friends, received tons o' baby stuff and a good time was had by all. How could the guests not enjoy themselves when games like "guess the pooh" are on the agenda? One thing that floored me though was that 2 of her friends arrived pregnant... with their 4th kids!!!! Keep in mind Allison is 8 years younger than me!!! Nuts, I tell you...Nuts!!!