And now I will bore you with tons of pictures from last year

I've been lax in my blogging duties yet again. This time, I blame the abbreviated monster known to most as the PTA - you know, the Parents and Teachers Association? Well, I was asked to be on the board this year, and then asked to chair a committee about which I knew nothing.

I hereby warn you mothers of young children to NEVER make this mistake.

The PTA in our house now quietly stands for Pain in the you-know-what.

Anyway, I had a big event that I was working on steadily since Christmas, but now that that is behind me, hopefully I can get caught back up here.

So, imagine yourself stepping in to a time machine that will take you back to the far off date of December 2010.

Welcome!

This picture is totally out of order, but Blogger is not cooperating with me today. This was taken on Christmas day. Uncle Zach with all the boy cousins - Ezekiel, Benjamin, and Noah. Hello, Biblically named boys!

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Before Christmas break, Claire's class had itself one humdinger of a party. Seriously, the parents in her class went all out, and we had chicken fingers, cupcakes, sandwiches, veggies, fruit, hot cheese dip, and more.

Ben was super thrilled to "help" Claire with her Christmas party craft.

And after this delightful pictures of various classmates working on their craft, my camera batteries decided to call it quits. Awesome!

So, the next "hunormous," as Ben would say, group of pictures were all taken while we were up in Ohio visiting family over the Christmas holiday.

We started Christmas Eve night at Grandma's house with some serious present opening fun.

Aunt Allison and Uncle Jeff. Odd how Jeff looks like he is having about as much fun as getting a tooth drilled.

Putting those new toys to work.

The evening even included a Claire-modified version of the game Catch Phrase. Here she is giving a clue.

Papaw and Claire

Oh, hello! What's this? Aren't you 2 people usually behind the camera?

Grandma snuggles

Ben loving on Aunt Allison


And then we come to Christmas morning. We stayed with mom this year, and here are the kids sitting on the stairs waiting to come down to see what Santa left for them this year.

Ben must be shutting his eyes because he is so overwhelmed by all the excitement.

SCORE!

Obligatory Christmas morning family pic. Notice how Shawn and I are holding on to both kids by the arm. They were very interested in getting back to the toys ASAP.

In fact, Ben was so interested in everything toy-related, that it was difficult to restrain the kid at all. He was in Cloud 9 from the get go, and his joy and excitement was something to watch.

For example:

Oh my gosh! Cars! Trains! More Cars!

Okay, I'll turn and smile at you quickly, but I really want to get back to playing with my new Transformer.

Jubilation!

And, finally, my favorite of the night:

Is that the face/pose of a happy, totally psyched kid or what? Kachow!

It was a very special Christmas for this little guy, that's for sure. He was totally into all aspects of it, and was so effusive in his joy and thanks for each and every gift he got. We heard lots and lots of "this is exactly what I wanted" and "thank you, I just love it" and "this is the best gift ever." He provided lots of entertainment.

We love spending time with family while up in Ohio, but certainly one of the highlights for the kids is that they get to see their cousins.

I think I've mentioned before about despite Claire and Kayli being so close in age how radically different they are in their personalities. They get along great, but they really couldn't be more different.

For example, here is Kayli opening the gift she asked for:

That's a remote control tarantula, people. She was thrilled. Claire was perplexed.

It's not a family Christmas without a meal at the "kid's table."

Ben and his cousin Zeke.

Ben: Oh, I am so happy on this wonderful day, and I just LOVE my older cousin Zeke so much, but I really do wish that he would let me play with his hand-held game system! Yahoooo!

Zeke: This kid is a little weird.

Uncle Jesse showing the boys how it's done.

The family!

And, the funny-face family. I'm thinking this one is probably more true to life.


Christmas Night was spent at my dad's house, and I just couldn't resist snapping a picture of this moment.

Noah gets his first bike. Does that face say it all, or what?

The family.


The day after Christmas we were able to catch up with some friends from college. We haven't seen Olivia and Andy Koch in probably 10 years, so it was so nice to spend some time with them and their sweet family.

The kids were all fast friends, and I am so regretting not having video evidence of the sweet Just Dance Wii performance that Claire and Caroline did for us. They were like 2 peas in a pod, and Ben is absolutely smitten by Sylvie. He still talks about how much he loves her.

Claire, Caroline, Sylvie, Oliver, and Ben

Such cute girls.

Before we left town, I snapped a few more shots of the cousins all together.

And, finally, I leave you with this:

Classic Zeke.

The end.

Now, back to 2011!

Christmas Card

There's a story behind our Christmas card this year. It mainly involves a windy, snowy, 30 degree day, a very whiny little boy, and a kid tackle resulting in inconsolable wailing by whiny little boy thus cutting short our photo session. I can't even think about it without cringing. And, so I'm going to skip the long-detailed account of it. Suffice it to say, I was certain that we weren't going to have a Christmas card this year at all.

Despite all of this (and thanks to the talents of Amber Gallimore), we were still able to get some great shots.

These were the 2 we used on our Christmas card this year.

We hope all of you had a very merry Christmas and send best wishes for a wonderful new year!

Our Cracker Box Christmas

Christmas for us is generally spent up in Ohio with our extended families. Because we travel nearly every year, I am tempted to just forgo decorating for Christmas at our house. Because who loves coming home to a tree so dry it could impale you? No one. That's who.

But, decorating for Christmas is probably as much fun for my kids as is Christmas morning. There's no way we could not do it around here. So, since our families never get to see our house at Christmas time, I thought I would post some pictures here.

I'm also linking to The Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes.

Though, I have to say I'm a little nervous about that since most of those homes and pictures look like they've been done by professional stylists.

Our home? Well, there's no rhyme, no reason for what we put out for Christmas. We put it up because we have in the past, and the kids wouldn't be happy if we didn't do it again. It's sorta like Santa threw up in the living room. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

My dreams of a perfectly coordinated decorating scheme will have to wait.

So, here we go.

I don't know if it's an indication of my mood today, but this little guy is my favorite decoration right now.



What's even better is that if you push on his back, he does this:

I ran out of brown-colored jelly beans. Lucky you!

Here's the living room.

See that wreath against the window? That's actually what I was trying to capture in this horribly dark photo.

A close-up of the wreath I made. Yes. I did. Glue gun and all.

Our every color, crazy, hectic, ornaments-jumbled-too-close-together tree.

I love it. Can't help myself.

Into the kitchen. Please pardon my wrapping paper and boxes in the corner!

We started this tradition a few years ago. Each day, the kids open a door on the advent calendar and find a candy treat and a small ornament. They then hang them on this little tree. It's the first thing they do when they wake up every morning.

Hideously old-school, but I love this thing for some reason.

Some of those things I would have kept in boxes, but the kids had to have them out.

Every home with young children should have this toy. It's a hit every year I bring it out.

Our "Elf on the Shelf," Elfie decided to ride the reindeer this morning.

This was always out at my house during the Christmas season while I was growing up, and it doesn't seem right not to include it now.


And finally, some of my favorite ornaments:

My girl. Ugh! Was she ever so small?

Geesh... we were infants!

The kids love this one. Pooh and Piglet's sleigh moves around the circle when you pull the string on the bottom.


And, last, but not least . . .

Guess who!

Thanks for visiting our Cracker Box Christmas!