just a day in the life.

she doesn't seem like she quite fits yet.

The Christmas Bomb

It still looks like a Christmas Bomb went off in this house. Trash doesn't come until tomorrow, so we still have about 8 giant bags of wrapping paper hanging around. The dishes are almost done! I'm on my last load now. And I've begun taking all the decorations down. There are still toys everywhere. In the middle of the night last night as I'm quietly getting up to feed Abby, I accidentally trip over a drag racer which then starts all on it's own. I'm chasing it around in the dark as it's loudly zipping through the living room and under the couch. Good stuff The energy in the house yesterday can only be described by a sound. You know that hum of a flourescent lightbulb? Or maybe the sound that a bug makes when it gets stuck on the zapper? That was what it felt like around here. Will played with all of his toys in the most efficient way possible - two at a time. He would lay on the sleeping bag and play with a toy or sit in the middle of the train tracks while watching a new movie. And he just looked like he had some kind of sugar hangover. He just stared and sometimes drooled. I think he's almost detoxed today.

Abby is enjoying some real conversation with the hens on her exersaucer. She's so misunderstood. Gracie is being harassed ALL DAY by a cheeky imaginary squirrel.

And finally, one of our Wise Guys is recovering from a frontal lobotomy. It's pretty serious, but that being said, he actually looks and feels better than the donkey.

A Striking Resemblence.

This is Criddle's last day at our place before he heads back North. He's been a fun little elf and we'll look forward to seeing him next Thanksgiving. But he definately reminds me of someone...

Discovery Green

We went downtown to The Ice at Discovery Green on Sunday. I thought it was going to be fun, but I had no idea it was going to be that fun! Everything was just fun and gorgeous to look at. It was just a really great place to be with the kids. Anne and her friend, Jordan, had alot of fun ice skating. Mom did too! Brandon sort of dragged Will around the ring a few times. There was an awesome park and it was so fun to ride the trolly and just walk around. So much to see and do. It was one of those magic kind of days that really made you feel all Christmas-y.

Lessons Learned From the Turkey.

i've taken pictures, and i'll get them up tomorrow (i'm tired-ish), but there are a few lessons that i learned during the trial turkey that i would like to share to those who have never attempted a turkey.

1. the turkey weighs as much as my youngest child.
2. a casserole dish actually isn't quite big enough
3. the neck really takes a good strong yank and is quite disturbing to remove.
4. there can, apparently, be more than one bag of goo in the turkey. not cool to find when you're having your magical turkey carving moment.

all in all, and in spite of all of that scary info, it was actually a crazy good turkey. it was really moist and flavorful. i thought maybe too much, but amy says that's not possible. so i' guess i'll try it again in a week and really really super double check for any yuck bags. really it would be great if they would make those bags a different color than the rest of the turkey.

Cooking A Turkey is Nasty Work!

It's my first time! But it's starting out in a really disgusting way.

SNOW!!!

Blurry pictures of us playing in the snow. That top one is a teeny snowman. Below that, Stephen taking a picture of me taking pictures. Uncle Sean and Joshua keeping warm. And that last one...well, that's a snowball in the freezer.

Jesus is Big Around Here Right Now

Will is all Jesus all the time. He prays over nearly every bite. He prays at night for everyone he can think of (which I actually think is a stall tactic, but cute still). He even prays for all of your dogs and phones. Yes, each and every phone. Anyway, he now has an imaginary baby Jesus that he rocks to sleep and puts in Abby's crib. Abby has to scoot way over if they are sleeping together. And he has informed me that Jesus wants a brown and orange birthday cake and that Mary is throwing his party at Jumpin' Jungle. Well, today beats all of that. He was singing what I think was supposed to be 'Jesus Loves Me'. But he must have some words mixed up or maybe he hears a different word. Anyhow, he's sitting at the table singing, "Yes, Jesus smells me."

Decorating the Tree

Not too much to tell. Pretty self explanatory. But fun. We watched Polar Express, which is probably my favorite Christmas movie and Will "got it", and that was fun to watch.

The Kids This Week

Well, here's what's going on in my house this week. Not big exciting stuff for most people, but I'm pretty sure nobody looks at this except Amy, Jenn, Grandpa and Grandma. And you guys totally care, right? Well, then, let's see...

Abby's big into her hands starting today. They are brand new and she spends quite a bit of time and energy looking at them. She moves them around and acts completely fascinated. Mr. Will is into a few things this week, as usual. Quite the character. So, where to begin...

Will is loving downtown. As I'm trying to get settled into the loft this week, Will has been trekking around town with Dad. They went to the Thanksgiving Day parade. They just pack a bunch of pennies and throw them in various fountains, hang out in the Macy's, and give Cokes to homeless people. He loves it. Here he is hanging out in the window watching the trains go by.

He's also big into messing up the Christmas tree. That just never gets old. We're down to about two ornaments. He can manage to break the plastsic ones, even. And Jason and Kara came into town this week. We got to hang out, get to know Kara, and they even helped with setting up the loft.

And finally, here's what we're into this week. Getting the loft set up. Here's an idea of what it looks like. This is the kitchen and the living room. The furniture comes in on Thursday. In this picture I am standing on the window seat. The window is floor to ceiling and is the entire width of the loft and looks down on Main Street.

This is the bathroom. I can't wait to take a bath in that thing! Over to the left is a seperate shower.This is the master bedroom. We just painted it this color and I love the tower. Now all we need is a bed! To the right is a big giant window. You have to climb up and out the window to get to the balcony.

And that's the tour. There's also an office in there, but I didn't photograph it. So, tada. That's our week!

santa claus is coming to town!

i'm a major christmas junkie. i love all things christmas. and i'm way excited about this particular year for my son. will is three this year and i'm just thinking that this is going to be a big year for santa around here. so i've found a few cool links that i thought i'd share.

obviously, i'm a spaz about elf yourself.
www.elfyourself.com

you can track santa from this one.
http://www.noradsanta.org/

this seems really cool. you can schedule a live phone call from santa. it costs about $15 and each call lasts 3-5 minutes. but you fill out a form that will give him all kinds of info like names of pets and siblings, how the kids are doing in school, the kid's wishlist, things to work on for the coming year, etc.
it would be priceless for some kids. maybe mine, who is insane about the phone.
http://www.santaspeaks.com/index.html

this is fun. the elf on the shelf. there's a (seemingly) stuffed elf that comes with a book. it also come wrapped and sent from the north pole with a custom message from santa. the elf sits around the house watching your kids throughout the day. then at night flies back to report to santa about how the day went. in the morning you have to find him as he usually ends up sitting somewhere else. nice behavior threat. only my child actually threatens our elf.
http://www.elfontheshelf.com/#/home

this never gets old!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

jen and shawn are having....

A GIRL!!!! shawn is so screwed. just get a second job now, buddy. the shopping is fierce from here on out!



aunt beth is so thrilled!!!

it's that time of year again

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

More hilarious out-takes

And now we'll continue with the out-takes from yesterday's shoot. These are just as fun as the real ones, but I so love out-takes. I'm going to have to blog the outtakes for every shoot.

Here's Britten harassing Daddy.

Here's Aunt Beth teaching the kids about bunny ears. That's comedy.

Here's Will stealing Stephen's cell phone

You're going to want to click on this one to see it bigger. It's flippin hilarious. I don't think it needs any explanation. If you've ever attempted a large family portrait with children, then you know what this is about. But it does remind me of this hysterical Barenaked Ladies Christmas song. It's such a funny song, but here's the lyrics if you don't have this album.

Turkeys are done

Reviews are mixed

When's mom going to get that hearing aid fixed?

Hold still, wait for the click

You're in this years Christmas pics

Brother, we don't agree

About the government or where to put the tree

Hold still, wait for the click

You're in this year's Christmas pics

Flash bulbs and wine
and "oh, that's mine"
Everyone's here
They've flown for miles
It looks like we've stood the test and
We're looking our best

Tears rolling down my nephew's face

Santa's house can be a scary place

Hold still

Wait for it

Hold still, wait for the click

You're in this year's Christmas pics