Rewind to: November!

Okay so I have officially gotten soooo behind on this poor blog. I planned on catching up over Christmas break, oh well.

Before I begin, I wanted to say to anyone who is reading this, I do have another blog that I started last July. I started it as just a photography blog but it's become much more than that. It's called this is just my temporary home. And I often post pictures and stories of our family life. (And I post way more on that blog, as in once or twice a week).

Okay moving right along. We are going to rewind life to the beginning of November because I never posted pictures from my Sweet 16 party.

It was so beautiful and I'm so thankful for my amazing parents who helped create this spectacular tea party.

Next up was thanksgiving but thankfully I already covered that in a previous post.

Right after Thanksgiving on Nov. 25th Max turned 9 years old!
He had a football themed party and eariler in the day Dad bought paint and painted football lines on our backyard creating a football field. Max's party started out with an intense football game between Aunt Jackie, Tyler and Nathan and Dad, John Paul and Max. Emily, Rose and Lauren were the cutie pie cheerleaders.

The coin toss.

 The crowds:

The excited cheerleaders:

And the game begins!

"THE coach"

 In between all this action there were group huddles:

And little kids who got bored watching so they played their own games:

And then more action:

And I'll end it with a touchdown for Max because honestly I have no idea what the final score was :)

After the exciting game outside we came inside for cake, ice cream and gifts.

 For his birthday all Max wanted was as many Nerf weapons as possible. Here is Max and Dad with Max's stack of brand new Nerf weapons which included a double ended sword, a Nerf axe (it resembles Gimli's in LOTR) and a Nerf crossbow.

After opening his gifts it was time for cake but since everyone was already sitting in the living room my mom decided to bring the cake into the living room and have us all sing in there.

Please enjoy the following scene:

People start to get up to move into the dining room, 
Mom: "Wait, wait, just sit down, I'll bring the cake in here"
Dad: "What, No! There's nowhere for the cake to go."
Mom: "Max can hold it"
Dad: "Teresa, he's not holding the cake with candles lit!"
Mom: "He'll be fine"
Mom brings cake out and gives it to Max to hold. 
Mom: "Mary Kate, get a picture of him with the cake."
Max is mesmerized by the idea of holding his cake:

Mary Kate: "Max look up and smile."

In the above photo Max is thinking 'hahahahaha the power of the cake is mine!!!'
Mom and Mary Kate: "Max!"

Mom: "Give a nice smile Max."

 Mom puts candles in the cake and lights them. 
Cecilia: MOM! Gasp"
Following picture - the invisible thoughts are: Dad - "this is so stupid he is going to burn the house down" Max - "oooooh fire!!!"

Mom: "John Paul, turn the lights off."
Everyone: "Happy Birthday to you..."

Mom: "See I told you it would be fine."


And that is the very funny cake scene. :)
Lastly before everyone left I had to get a picture of Aunt Jackie and her kids who came all dressed up for Max's party:

 

Happy 9th Birthday Max!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Near the end of November Fr. Joe came to visit us. It was a nice visit and he got to meet our five little kittens:

 

We love Fr. Joe and miss him!

Also in November I got my laptop, my 50mm lens and an ipod touch:

And now that I have an ipod touch I have instagram which I love! Even though the pictures are pretty bad quality I love having a little camera in my pocket and I love the filters and square look instagram gives the photos. Here are my top favorites since I got it:

And people, we had a very important day. 11.11.11. Yes that's right. Why was this particular day so very important? Just watch the following video to find out:

Some 11:11 11.11.11 excitement:

Also our kittens were born and grew:

And to wrap up this ridiculously long and unforgivably late post, I'll share some of my photography from November {which is pretty much all of my youngest siblings}.

So there you have it. November all wrapped up.

And in case you were wondering why the date says it was published on Dec. 31 2011, when it's obvious I just wrote this (on Jan. 20th - Happy b-day Dad) I can explain! Since Mom wants to publish this into a book (she had the first two years printed in a book and gave it to the family as a Christmas gift) I changed the date so that this post would still be under the "2010-2011" book.

Love,
Mary Kate