Oh Christmas Cards....how I think about you WAY TOO MUCH!

I don't know about you but I spend the entire year thinking about our Christmas card picture.  When I am behind my camera, or without my camera, I think, hey...that would be a great photo for our card.  I love (and have used) a collage in years past and love the idea of it.  It seems to hard to capture our essence in a single photo....especially with a one and three year old who never seem to smile at the same time.  I also think using several pictures is fun when you have babies since they are growing and changing at lightening speed..or so it seems.

We spent nine years married without kids and watched our Christmas mail change from cards from friends to cards with just kids on them, mind you, our friends have some pretty darn cute kids...we just missed seeing the friends.  We swore that our Christmas card picture would be of our entire family...and it always has....no matter how rough we felt looked!   


I am pretty sure I have decided on this one for our 2010 card but I really like the simplicity of this one, if only my family were that frickin' gorgeous, don't get more wrong, my red headed babies are precious just not that happy....or tan!! 

I am also IN LOVE with these desk calendars and think they may just get put into some stockings this year.

I have to brag on Shutterfly here, I have used them for both babies birth announcements, thank you cards, stationary and more prints than I can count.  Their consistently excellent quality has made me a loyal customer and their prepaid print prices are hard to beat.

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow the arrow à  http://bit.ly/sfly2010 

Family Pics

2010 Family Picture Time

These were done in our backyard by the talented Apryl Murphy and incorporated some meaningful objects as well as our little family.

A head hug...on the porch swing...that is patiently waiting for us to build it a new home.

My grad school graduation gift, Will's great grandfathers rocking chair.

 My sweet boys in the red wagon we had long before boys.

 

Punkin' Patchin'

On a gorgeous fall day I took my two little monkeys to the pumpkin patch.  We picked out pumpkins, got to ride on a trailer behind a tractor, fed our leftover apple to a horse, patted a calf and some bunnies, played in not one but four different corn cribs, jumped in hay, slid down slides and got completely filthy.

Oh yeah....and I took a truly obscene amount of pictures! 

 

 

No neighbors..I am not torturing my children.....they just H A T E sleep.

As in any long-term adventure there are good days and then there are the not so good ones.  I am pretty sure my neighbors must think I torture these poor kids with the way the carry on at naptime and/or bedtime.  It seems we are finally breaking even in that we have an many good days as not but the bad days are tough.

Here is the scenario, on a good day, I lay Matthew down in bed and he usually reads books or plays tractors until he doses off, I then nurse Kimber for a bit and lay him down awake in his bed.  He usually fusses for less than a minute and then dozes off.  SO on a bad day, I lay Matthew down after reading books, nurse Kimber for a bit, lay him down, he wiggles, rolls, turns on his aquarium, chews on the crib, whines and then starts crying as if the world is coming to an end...at which point Matthew screams "Baby lay down" while kicking his legs like a mad man.  At this point Kimber either cries harder or laughs.  This can go on for hours if I don't intervene and the actual intervention delays bedtime by at least 30 minutes.

I know all about Mr. Ferber, The Baby Whisperer and Babywise, I have read the books, repeatedly....believe me.  I truly think that my children are genetically predisposed to sleep adversity...that and I am not a Ferber mom, though I have had my days where I have let the screaming go on because I am simply at a loss for what to do.

I know that this is all a phase and that a month from now it will be different, hopefully better, but at least different.

Back.....

Back on in the wagon tent.


After a nearly 4 year camping hiatus we did it, we went camping with our little men, we survived, we had a good time, we ate like kings (thanks Falkners), we got dirty, we peed outside, well, everyone but me peed outside and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. 

The first "fun" activity, digging in the cold ash.

 The whole fam on our hike to the waterfall.

 Pretty awesome waterfall.

I think my favorite part was being away from home....and the never ending laundry, to do list, and getting to watch my two little boys sleeping snuggled up next to each other.

Willie enjoyed cooking, hiking and spending some much needed time with all of us.

Matthew and Kimber enjoyed getting dirty, playing in the dirt/sand/cold ash, eating marshmallows, hiking, and just getting to be outside.  Matthew was pretty impressed with the tent and the fact that he could drop his drawers anytime and just pee.

New Suitcase

Well, not really.

I put both boys in overalls Friday and it was the cutest thing ever.

We had German Class and some errands in the morning and once we got home we played outside for an hour or so.  After we had been home a half hour or so Matthew came up to me saying "suitcase off mama" about 20 times and it took me to the 20th time to figure out what he was saying.  For some reason, he was calling his overalls "suitcase".  Maybe because of the latching mechanism...who knows.  Regardless, it was funny to me.

Happy 1st Birthday Grey-Bear

You are ONE year old today my little man.  You came along and filled a hole in our family we didn't even know existed. You made our perfect little family seem complete.  Your smile never ceases to illicit a smile from myself or complete strangers.  You are most certainly our eater. You are walking more and more each day and I am counting down the days that my toddling little baby morphs into a running little man.  You adore your brother and he loves making you laugh.  You have been trying to do a somersault for a while now but you can't get past the downward dog yoga position.  You hate to sleep...which seems so appropriate in your quest to be like the rest of the boys around here.  You can say "hat", "Mups", "Mama", "Da"(Papa), "Brud" (brother) and "Bye-Bye".  You are quite adept at signing "more"....as in more food.

A very proud mama and papa....

We had a low key celebration for your birthday and it was perfect.  After devouring your dinner and making a mess with your cupcakes, your brother taught you how to open your presents.  You made out like a bandit...as usual.  Your very own train set, which resulted in timeout for your brother (which is a whole other blog post), some new clothes, a guitar, your very own hammering toy and a bike seat and helmet.  You have already perfected the art of pointing at your helmet as a way of "telling" me you would like to go for a ride.

Such serious cake consumption....

 Whoa, this stuff is GOOD.

 See, you pull here.

 As always, the box won BEST GIFT award.

 On your first bike ride!

 

Your one year photo shoot:
(In your new overalls from The Nairns)

 

We love you little bear and that love grows exponentially with each passing hour.  Thank you for teaching us once again that is does not matter how nice our cars nor how big our house, it matters that we are filled with love for each other and that we recognize how greatly we are blessed.