Noah and Sam

Noah got to spend time with his cousin Sam over Christmas. Noah apparently thinks that Sam is a baby (he's about 18 months old) and decided Sam needed to picked up and held by him, one way or another. Sam had other ideas. It was hilarious to watch. Well, Mary might not agree.

Christmas morning

Carter really got into Christmas this year. He was so excited for Santa and presents. We tried to talk a lot about baby Jesus and play with our nativity scene. He'd just yell "No baby Jesus!" and throw poor little baby Jesus across the room. So much for the real reason for the season. And Noah just mimics everything Carter does. Noah also enjoyed opening presents early this year.

(Excuse the pictures! We got a new camera and I can't figure it out. There's something to be said for simple point and shoot cameras!)



Honestly, Noah's favorite present was his stocking. He carried that thing around with him all day. When else can he have candy at his disposal whenever he wants?


Yep, that's a shiner on Noah's cheek. He got that by running into the couch the day before.



The boys got electronic dinosaurs and love having them attack anything in their way.

If you can see in this picture, Noah is having the dino eat a car.







We had a great day! It's so much more fun to watch my kids open their presents than open my own!

Christmas Eve Party

On Christmas Eve, we headed for our family's traditional Christmas Eve party at the prison. (Ha ha - I know that sounds funny; it's actually the rec center at the prison where my uncle worked. It's really nice!) The kids played a lot of games and we ended the night singing what we have for decades -- Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer. It's nice that some things don't change.

Holiday card outtakes

Once again, I'm late posting holiday pictures but I talked to Carter's "S" and thought she and Noah's birthfamily would enjoy some pics.

Here are some outtakes from me trying to take pics for our Christmas cards. Just let me say I believe I will never ever try it again. They hated it and would complain and cry and for the most part, we were all miserable. So next year, everyone, just expect a card!

Waiting for Carter

One good thing about Carter being in preschool is that it gives Noah and me some time alone together. On Thursday we had a gorgeous Indian summer day and as I looked around at all the leaves on our yard, I thought, "Hmm, Dan really needs to rake our leaves." Then I thought about all those fall days when Mom would make us rake the leaves and how much fun we had jumping in them. I realized on Thursday that while I was not quite dressed appropriately for the occasion, it was time to jump in some leaves.



Noah then heard some birds in the trees and started yelling, "Bird, bird!" and pointing to them way high in the trees. Then he ran to me with his arms held up high yelling "Up, Momma, up!" Ah, the faith of a child.

Just a little late

Well, it's a little late, I know but here are the boys in their costumes! My favorite moments of the evening:

1. All the adults calling Carter the "land shark" (if you're not a Saturday Night Live fan, you might not get it!)

2. Noah periodically deciding he needed a rest and proceeding to stretch out in the middle of the sidewalk as if he had nowhere to go, and thereby pulling a Moses as he parted a red sea of candy hungry little kids who either had to go around him or step on Nemo.

3. Carter deciding he would sneak a red sucker into his mouth (even though I told them no candy until they got home) and staining his shark teeth a very realistic blood red. A nice touch, I thought.

4. Wondering who got the shark costume next? Mary?

5. Noah getting so excited over the candy that he'd squeeze it in his hand until it was pulverized. I mourned the loss over quite a few Milky Ways.

6. Holding my boys' hands and thinking it wouldn't be too long before they'd be too grown up for holding Momma's hand.

7. Trying and trying to get a picture of the boys together. The picture below is unfortunately the best we got! At least Dan was looking at the camera.

8. Picking out the best candy for myself. Yea!

Happy late Halloween!

High School Musical

Here are the girls at High School Musical. Nate and Steven were at the concession stand, surprise, surprise.

They thought the lead (Troy) was pretty cute. He did have some groovy moves (LOL). Anyway, we had a good time!