Christmas Cards

If you know me, you know how much I love the whole Christmas card process. I love making our Christmas cards. I love receiving Christmas cards (hint-hint). I love seeing how friends and families have changed. I just love everything about it (except addressing the envelopes). I was a bit distraut this year when I realized that we didn't have a family picture (again). I was even more frustrated when I realized that we had about 2 pictures of all three kids together. No worries I told myself - I'll just take one. I tried MULTIPLE times and Carter didn't want to have anything to do with it. Every time I tried to take his picture, he would shout "NO!" and at the least would turn his back to the camera or even better, he would run the other way. Here are just a few of my attempts to get just the perfect shot...



This is Carter playing the "Go Limp" game. Boy, was that a fun one.












No, we do not have a baboon as a child...










This was one solution, but something just doesn't look quite right...








We went on a walk just after it had snowed. I thought to myself what a great Christmas card picture-all of us bundled up like one big happy, cozy family. I wanted to see if Carter would let me take his picture so I said, "Carter, say cheese!" He promptly turned away from the camera...









The picture I used for our card was nice - it just wasn't quite what I had invisioned. Better luck next year!

The finished product!

Taaa-Dahhhh!

Gingerbread Chaos

For Family Home Evening tonight we made our Gingerbread House (donated to us by Grandma & Grandpa Brenchley). The festivities started out with me trying to assemble the house and hearing Lauren say, "Oops Mom. It was an accident." She had "accidentally" snapped one side of the roof in half. Kennan fixed the problem with some toothpicks. Shortly after we started decorating, Carter fell off his chair and landed very hard on our very hard brick floor (yes, there was an audible bonk when his head hit the floor). After that, it got really fun! Actually, the kids had a ball and thoroughly enjoyed making their gingerbread house! Check out that concentration...

Carter turns 2!

The little terror has officially entered into the realm of the 2-year old. That is a bitter-sweet thing. It's sweet because the world of a 2-year old is all about discovery. Watching that discovery process occur can be priceless. The bitter part comes in to play when the little munchkin discovers things like...he is too small to go poop in the potty with the help of Lauren (yes, the brown stuff was everywhere and no, I'm not thinking of potty-training him yet. Lauren might be though.) Sweet=when Carter is enthralled with the ornaments on the Christmas tree and stares at them forever with a look of wonder and amazement on his face. Bitter=when he tries to take an ornament off the tree and it doesn't come. He pulls and pulls and yes, the entire tree falls over breaking many of those ornaments that he was once enamored with.

We could go on forever. Lucky for him and me, at the end of the day he goes to sleep and looks like an angel - all is forgiven.

His birthday party was all about trucks and trains - which he loved (sweet).