Jennifer Crum Photography & Design Blog

Colton got a shiny new bike for Christmas, and Lanie got a new Schwinn roadster. It’s just like the one Colton got last year, but it’s pink, and quite possibly the sweetest and cutest trike on this earth. She loves it, but hasn’t quite figured out the logistics of pedaling forwards instead of backwards. We’ll keep at it, and hopefully by summer she’ll have it down and can give the boys a run for their money. Colton couldn’t care less about his new bike, and continues to ride his trike around. He’ll warm up to it soon, I hope.

While the kids were riding around, M fell off his bike. He’s a total trooper, but hurt himself a little bit when he fell. He was a bit upset, and Lanie went right over to him to console him. There was a collective ‘Awwww’ from BB and I (M’s mom), and I grabbed my cam for a shot. Or ten. Lanie loves her some M, and the look on his face is priceless. Love it!

I have two New Year’s resolutions this year. One is to get outside with the kids more, and the other is to take more pictures of life. I have a tendency to gravitate towards the staged photo…(look at me and smile!), and not the everyday photos. This is where Project Life comes in. It’s a scrapbook done over the entire year. You can take a picture a day, which I’ve chosen not to do since I think it would be too much pressure to take a picture every single day, or you can do it weekly or monthly. I’ve decided that I’m going to do a monthly process, and take pictures of things throughout the month…the kids, things we do together, life in general…and make a scrapbook layout for those moments. I’m also going to be in more pictures with them, instead of always being behind the camera. I have a remote for the camera, and I’m going to have to start using it. I don’t want the kids to look back and only see pictures of them with daddy. I’m with them almost 100% of the time right now, and there’s no reason that I shouldn’t be in more pictures. I have to get past my own inhibitions about being in front of the camera and remember that they don’t care what I look like, what I’m wearing, or whether or not I have makeup on that day. They love me because I’m mommy, and I’m one of the most important people in their world right now. In other words, get over yourself, Jen.

I’m really looking forward to this project, and I think that at the end of the year, it’s going to be a wonderful book that highlights special moments throughout the year. If it all goes well, which I suspect it will, I plan on doing this every year. I hear all too often ‘Take lots of pics of the kids, because they grow up too fast’. I promised myself before I had children that I would do everything I possibly could to document their childhoods, so that we can all look back and fondly remember the time we spent with them and the milestones and moments important to every child. In all honesty, I should have started this project when they were born, but I wasn’t in a place photography or editing-wise that I could do that. Now I think I’m capable enough to handle it and do a good job.

I’m not going to post all the pictures I take on the blog, but I’ll post a few of my favorites along the way. Hopefully you’ll enjoy seeing these wonderful moments as much as I got to enjoy being a part of them.

Jo Jo came over and spent the night with us one night last week, and I put all three of them in our tub for a giant bubble bath. I turned the jets on and watched the kids squeal at how fast the bubbles grew. They were having so much fun, and then I noticed Lanie over by the faucet, lapping up the water like a dog and a water hose. She was having a blast trying to drink from it, and I’m so glad I brought the camera into the bathroom to catch this. It makes me giggle!

Kirby, Kristi and Kenadi came over the next morning for a play date. It was one step removed from mass chaos here, and we loved it! We all had so much fun that day…sword fights, dance parties, hide and seek, we played outside, and the kids colored a giant rocket ship that uncle Kirby put together for them. It was the best day Colt and Lanie had had since Christmas, and I can’t wait to do it again. Colton has been talking about it ever since, and can’t wait for his cousins to come back over and play. While we were in Lanie’s room, I gave the camera to Kristi and had her take a pic of my sweet girl and me. I’m not to thrilled about how I look, but I still love the picture. This is Lanie’s signature ‘happy face’, and it cracks me up every time she does it. It might need a little work, but for now, it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen…

I guess Elfie Ho Ho got enough sleep yesterday, because he was up to his regular antics with his partners in crime this morning. I went to get the kids up, and Colton ran ahead to find Elfie. I heard him screaming ‘MOM! MOMMMY! MOOOOOOM!!’ and came running downstairs with Lanie. Lo and behold, there was Elfie Ho Ho, the impish white elf, and that poor little reindeer, zip lining through the living room. Elfie was using a candy cane, and the white elf was just playing around. The poor reindeer was hanging on to Elfie Ho Ho for deer *snicker* life. I’ll tell you, that Elfie’s quick, too, because they weren’t there when I went upstairs to get the kids. Hmmm.

Well, Elfie made himself pretty scarce this morning. I’m sure that since it’s getting so close to Christmas, Santa needed him to stay in the North Pole and help out in the factory making toys for all the good little boys and girls.

Or, which is my guess here, he had to stay so long to tell Santa about Colton misbehaving so much at school lately, that he was so tired when he got back that he just went into hibernation and laid low for the day. Yeah, if I was a bettin’ woman…

When I saw Elfie this morning, I asked him if he’d told Santa about Colton’s shenanigans the last few weeks at school, and this is what I got…

Yeah, somebody got busted to Santa!

I guess Elfie felt bad about the toilet paper incident, because he didn’t make a mess this morning. I guess even elves get a little bored at night…

He’s a mischievous one, our Elf. We couldn’t find him anywhere! Colton finally found him when he went to the bathroom. Elfie Ho Ho had unrolled a roll of toilet paper and had wrapped himself up in it. I left him there all day so he could (hopefully) learn a lesson…

Elfie Ho Ho decided he was going to try and peek into one of the kid’s Christmas presents. There was tissue paper everywhere. I busted him!

I guess the reindeer is back in the elves’s good graces, because all three of them were sliding down the Weebles Playhouse slide today when I found them. All their arms were in the air like kids on a roller coaster! At least they looked like they were having fun…

Elfie has apparently made some friends here in our home, because I often find him with one of the other white elves, and a pesky little reindeer that’s wandered his way into our hearts. I don’t know what happened last night while we were asleep, but I stumbled upon a botched air rescue attempt this morning when I went in for my coffee. Elfie was hanging from the ceiling fan, holding a rope, which the white elf was trying to climb up. Our poor reindeer friend had been hog tied at the bottom of the rope. I guess that’s what has to happen when you don’t have opposable thumbs to help you climb a rope…

So it appears that Elfie Ho Ho is getting bored at night after his visit to Santa at the North Pole. I came in this morning and he and one of the reindeer had apparently gotten into a snowball fight on the living room table. Reindeer games, sheesh.

It appears our elf likes to read! The kids were happy to see him reading their favorite christmas book, and the little angel and Santa Claus seemed to be having a good time, too!

He’s really a mischievous one, that Elfie Ho Ho. I guess he got homesick for the snow, and decided to make himself some with the sugar on my kitchen counter. He even went so far as to put earmuffs and a scarf on!

The kids are both old enough this year to help me with the Christmas decorations. They didn’t care about anything but the christmas tree. They helped me decorate it, and they are always either playing next to it or looking at it. I know how looking at a beautiful christmas tree all lit up and sparkly makes me feel, so I can only imagine what goes through their heads when they look at it, too. I came into the room to investigate where the whispering was coming from, and what I saw made me smile. They were both standing in front of the tree, gazing at it with complete wonder, while Colton was schooling his baby sister on how beautiful it was. I grabbed my camera to take a few shots of this incredible moment. I don’t know if it was that the tree was the only light, creating almost silhouettes of the two of them, or if it was the sweet whispers of the older brother to the younger sister, or that he grabbed her hand for just a moment to show his love for her, or that as completely enthralled in the christmas tree they were, neither realized I was there, watching them…but I was seriously overwhelmed with a sense of complete and utter love for the moment. I’ll forever remember it.

We couldn’t find Elfie Ho Ho anywhere today. We looked everywhere we could think of, but he was nowhere to be found. We were starting to get worried about our favorite elf! Finally, Colton spotted him when he went to get some cheese out of the refrigerator. Elfie Ho Ho was sitting on the top shelf, drinking one of Colt’s juice boxes! I guess traveling back and forth to the North Pole every night makes an impish elf thirsty!

I guess he was tired after his trip to see Santa, and he decided to take a nap in Colt’s stocking by the fire. I’ll bet it was much warmer there than in the North Pole!

Much to my surprise, the kids spotted Elfie Ho Ho right away this morning as they came down the stairs. I couldn’t find him at all! That impish elf, he’d taken the angel off the small tree in the dining room and sat himself up on top of the tree so he could look out the window…

I guess Elfie Ho Ho got tired of flying by himself to the North Pole at night, and decided to take one of Santa’s reindeer with him this time…

We couldn’t find him this morning. I finally noticed that the previously broken lights on the christmas tree on the giant stocking I made years ago were now magically working, and Lanie looked up and saw Elfie Ho Ho sitting in the top, with his arm around the stuffed moose that was hanging out up there, too. I don’t know how he did it, but those little lights are working now. He really is magic! He’d also brought back a letter from Santa Claus…the kids were so excited! We are so happy that Elfie Ho Ho is here…

The kids and I came downstairs to look for Elfie Ho Ho this morning, and Lanie spotted him first. He had managed to bury himself in the pine cone potpourri we have in a hurricane glass on the counter, I suppose in search of the christmas bell in there. Looks like he found it!

When I picked up the Elf on a Shelf book, I knew that the kids would love the whole experience. I read the book to them the other night, and we named the elf together. Colton decided his name was going to be ‘Elfie Ho Ho’. Lanie just calls him ‘Ahhh! Ho Ho!’, but that’s okay by me. She’s just as excited about it as her brother. The book says that the kids aren’t allowed to touch him, or his magic might go away and he won’t be able to fly home to the North Pole at night…which, by the way, was brilliant of the author to put in there, so the kids keep their grubby little paws off of him.

The first night, the kids were so excited to see where Elfie Ho Ho had been during their sleep. The first thing both of them said when I woke them up was ‘Where’s Elfie Ho Ho?’. Colton ran downstairs to see if he could find him, Lanie trailing not too far after. (Shorter legs are much slower, you know.) Colton came to a dead stop at the bottom of the stairs, gasped, pointed and screamed ‘LOOK WHAT ELFIE HO HO DID TO YOUR PICTURE, MOMMY!!!’

And there he was, Elfie Ho Ho, sitting on one of our gallery wall pictures, with a marker in one hand. He had drawn a mustache on Colton and me, and little hearts all over Jason’s shirt. He’d also written ‘Elfie Ho Ho was here!’ on the bottom of the picture. Colton was completely beside himself. He wasn’t quite sure what to think, but he came back periodically to check on Elfie, still perched on top of the picture. He goes and talks to him throughout the day, mostly to call attention to some particularly good thing he’s done for his sister at the time, and to remind Elfie Ho Ho to be sure and tell Santa that he was sweet to her. Of course I had to snap a pic of him for posterity’s sake. Of course.

Crazy elf.