The Post w/o Purpose

It was just a happy day... Skylar getting an extra tight squeeze.

Lincoln and his favorite person.

And poor Londyn who had to take a picture with me.

Hey, Santa!

As always, the season has flown by and we are getting down to crunch time, and I haven't yet finished my Christmas to-do's. The first thing I checked off the list Saturday was a quick visit to Santa. The morning started out by Skylar kicking Londyn in the eye, but thankfully improved from there. Apparently Lincoln loves the camera these days. As soon as he sees the lens he gives me his best cheesy face. Here they all are getting ready for a full day of Christmas festivities. (Maybe I should say a full day, with a couple of Christmas festivities mixed in.)

Lincoln was not quite sure what to think. He went to Santa right away, but then was a little unsure. It's better than screaming I guess! The girls change their wish list by the minute, but when they got to Santa, Skylar requested egg nog and Londyn asked for a pillow pet. Hmm...

When we got back in the car, Londyn said "Oh, I forgot to ask Santa for some pickles." What does it say about you as a parent when your children ask Santa for grocery items?

Tacky Sweater Party

We hosted our second annual tacky sweater Christmas Party this weekend. Everyone really rose to a new level of tacky. It's gone far beyond tacky sweaters to entire ensembles. We had ugly sweaters layered over ugly sweaters, earrings made from actual ornaments, garland hot-glued onto sweaters, and the winner of the sweater competition had actual lights to enhance his already ugly sweater. Thanks to my friend Faith's genius idea, we added the gingerbread house making competition this year. The competition was fierce, and I was highly impressed with the quality of architecture and variety of the gingerbread houses. Thanks to everyone that came and participated. I had a great time, and I hope you enjoyed your evening as well! The annual step-brother photo of Kevin and Adam.

The tacky couple photos in front of the tree.

A few of the completed gingerbread houses and their architects.

The Nutcracker Performance (finally)

I say finally because we've been practicing since September! I was so glad for this performance to be over. The girls were tired of the practices interfering with our Saturday, but it turned out great and they LOVED it! They loved it so much in fact, that the first thing Londyn said when she got in the car was she wanted to do it again next year. ( I sort of thought this was a one time "have the experience" sort of thing.) We'll see what happens when next year rolls around. They performed as mice, but there are no pictures of them in costume. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance, and the costumes belong to the ballet company. I bought some that they took at the studio, but haven't received those yet. I may have to make another post a little later. Anyway, we took a few pictures before and after the performance. The usual posed photos in front of the tree with each different family member. I am so proud of these sweet girls! I can't get enough of their silly antics and they never cease to make me smile.

Note to self: decorate other parts of the house for Christmas so every picture in December every year does not have to be taken in front of the Christmas tree.

Holt Family Visit

Saturday, my grandma and mom came into town for the girls' Nutcracker performance. Since they were going to be here, my uncle Jim and Heather and Tallon came up for a pre-Christmas visit. We also finally got to meet baby Charlie. She is pretty adorable, and apparently Lincoln thought so as well. I couldn't get over how they were so intrigued by each other, and he would just hug and cuddle her. I didn't do a very good job documenting the day, but I did grab my camera for a few pictures of the babies.

P.S. If Lincoln is in a good mood, he's quite the ham for the camera. He had just woken up from his nap, so he was really being sweet and ready for his picture to be taken.

It is Better to Give Than to Receive

I tell my children this a lot, although I'm not sure if I "show" them this a lot. I have to be honest and say that I'm not great at taking time out of my schedule to do things for others. I always like the idea and have big plans, they just don't always get carried through with. Anyway, a couple of months ago, some ladies got together at church to make ornaments for the shut-ins. I couldn't make that gathering because we were out of town, but I was determined to help with the delivering, and am so glad I did. I really wanted to include the girls in the process, and they were thrilled to help out. We started the evening at the church with some hot chocolate.

We then headed to the car to start our journey. Faith was our navigator.

This sweet lady was our first stop, and it brought tears to my eyes. She was overjoyed that we came to visit, and she really made an impression on the girls. They loved giving away the ornaments and were anxiously awaiting their turn to be the giver of their ornament.

These are the adults that came to help out! Thanks Gina for organizing everything and thanks ladies for a wonderful evening. We definitely need to make it a tradition.

Checking Out the Tree

How December is jetting by, I'll never know. It's my favorite time of year, but with all the Christmas activities, gatherings, events, shopping and baking I don't always take time to fully enjoy it. Lincoln is so much fun this year, and is interested in all the Christmasy things. He like the tree, but doesn't mess with it much which is nice. These are a few pictures of him exploring the tree.

More Walking...

Ok, so maybe walking is not so bad. I think I can do it! Well finally, as Lincoln approached 14 months, he decided that he prefers walking to crawling. I must admit that I thought the little guy may never take to walking. So for now, crawling is a thing of the past and we are on to a few other firsts. He's turning into such a big boy, and is more fun everyday.

I Love Walking....

...or not so much!

Christmas Tree Catastrophe

Every year, I think that decorating the Christmas tree should be some glorious event where everyone is happy, drinking hot chocolate, singing Christmas carols and of course, dressed accordingly. That's how you do it, isn't it? Instead, every year, we seem to slap up the Christmas tree before rushing away to our Thanksgiving destination, and this year was no different. I did manage to snap a picture of each of the kids helping out, and they were thrilled, so I guess that's all that matters in the end anyway. Lincoln was ecstatic about the holiday decorating and insisted on being heavily involved in the process. He managed to break several ornaments and get caught up in a few cords, but no one was injured, so I'm calling it a success!

On to the catastrophe part of the Christmas tree. We needed a new tree this year because the lights on our previous tree continued to burn out and we couldn't get them to work. It was also a little small for our living room. Being the eager, impatient person that I am, I rushed out to purchase a new tree. I had found a great deal on a 12ft tree that I thought would be perfect. I won't even go into the details of the purchase, but it involved Sam's, 2 giant boxes, and me alone desperately needing to find a bathroom (I must stop drinking so much caffeine) only to find them out of order. Moving on...when smart people buy large things, I'm assuming they do things such as measure or think logically. Not I, so I brought home this 12ft tree that didn't quite fit in our living room. It's way too much work to box it back up and take it back, so we did what any normal people would do and just left out one of the middle pieces. If you notice in the picture, it quickly gets really skinny at the top. Awesome, don't you think? Not to mention, when you get double the size of tree, it might require additional ribbon and decorations, but who has time for that? So, there you have it, our 2010 oddly shaped, sparsely decorated Christmas tree! On the bright side, it is up and done, so bring it on Christmas!

Natalie Reese

As I stated in the previous post, I got to meet my new neice Natalie while we were in Missouri for Thanksgiving. Here are few more pictures to document her cuteness! We love her already, and can't wait to see her again. Of course, she'll probably be twice this size by Christmas!

Hi!

I had intended to set this post to load in a few days, but somehow messed up and don't feel like reloading the video, so I'm just leaving it alone. I was trying to video Lincoln walking, but he preferred to talk. Ok, maybe none of the words are actually distinguishable, but it's cute, right?

Turkey Day

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Missouri with my family. I didn't get all the pictures I would have liked, but here are a few to document the day. The addition of Mr. Lincoln to my life seems to have made it more difficult to spend my time shoving my camera in everyone's face, but I did manage to annoy a few people with my flash. I really hate it though that I didn't get many pictures of my siblings this year. As all of our families keep growing, everyone is just so tied up feeding, changing, and/or entertaining all the babies! I got to meet my new neice Natalie Reese for the first time over Thanksgiving. She was born on the 17th, so I had to wait a whole week! I always seem to forget how tiny the newborn babies are. She is quite precious! The girls posed for pictures with their great-grandmas, Dad played with the only boys of the family, Lincoln and Kevin cheesing it up for the camera, and my mom holding Miss Natalie.

Throughout the day the girls enjoyed playing games. My grandma bought them the headbandz game which was quite a hit with Kevin and the girls. They then convinced my parents to play Old Maid and Memory with them. They are starved for attention don't you think?

Londyn the Pilgrim

So, Londyn had a Thanksgiving Feast at school the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I haven't exactly been on top of my mom game lately. I had signed up in early October to send candy corn for the feast and forgot until the night before. I did manage to find the candy corn at the last minute thankfully, but it was quite a hunt. Christmas has completely taken over the stores! Then, I was a little late to the program and missed all of the singing. I felt awful, but I did get a personal showing later in the afternoon. Therefore, this one photo of her decked out in her pilgrim gear is the best I could do this year. We've been celebrating Thanksgiving with my family in Missouri, so many more Thanksgiving pictures to come! I hope you and yours have all enjoyed a few restful days with family and friends!

Pre-Thanksgiving Visit

Kevin's parents joined us last weekend for a little Pre-Thanksgiving family time. The girls always love having grandparents come and stay with us. I'm quite sure they take full advantage of these opportunities. We're glad they were able to spend a little time with us in Oklahoma, and we're looking forward to seeing them again at Christmas in Portland!

The girls and the grandparents. Lincoln was too busy eating to get in on the photo grandparent photo with his sisters.

Lincoln and Grandaddy having a little fun with the glasses. (In case you were wondering, I did fully dress him including shoes and socks on both feet. Unfortunately, it just doesn't last. I'm sure you understand.)