Christmas.

We had a fabulous Christmas! Hope that yours was wonderful too!

4.

I can hardly believe that four years have gone by since my Braden was born! It's so true when people tell you to enjoy every moment. He's gone through some interesting stages this past year, many quite difficult to deal with, but he is truly a great little guy. He has brought so much joy into our lives.

Thursday, yes he's one of those "lucky" Christmas babies, we had some lunch and cake to celebrate for him. He was so excited and it made watching him open his gifts great. We are blessed!

Braden at ten months.

Gingerbread 2010

This Thanksgiving we did not get a chance to build our gingerbread house like we did last year. And after the disaster that occurred with our house last year, I definitely wanted another chance at it. 

We finally got around to building it this year, although we were missing the Shako's. Braden was super insistent about getting it done so we went ahead without them. This year we actually followed the directions and did it in three separate steps. It turned out pretty good (although I can't take much credit for it). Rob went at it and if you know Rob then you know he wanted it done a certain way :)

Here's a couple of pics of how it turned out!

Christmas Cookies.

Thursday morning we headed to the Shako's to bake Christmas cookies. This has become quite the tradition with Grandma Arlene. We get everything set up, the kids eat alot of cookie dough, maybe cut out a couple of cookies and then run off. Us adults end up cutting the rest and the kiddos aren't usually back until it's time to decorate :)

We had a lot of fun and even braved the cold, cold weather to play outside for a couple of minutes!

Boxed Christmas cards maybe?

Well, perhaps I should preface this by saying that I'm not sure what I was thinking. Why I thought that the morning after I had slept four hours (because Carter was up for three hours in the middle of the night), both boys were sick, and I was feeling edgy to begin with- was the right time to try and take pictures of the boys for Christmas cards is beyond me! Our short time ended with tears, broken ornaments, relentless bribes, a frazzled mom, oh and with not.one.single.usuable.photo.not ONE.

Carter is at a very difficult stage to have sit and cooperate for a photo and i'm honestly feeling uninspired. At this particular point i'm thinking that a box of Christmas cards from Target will do the trick. I can buy them, message them, and mail them in a matter of days. The problem is that I know that I will deeply regret not taking the Christmas pictures. Not just for purposes of a more personal card but for the memory. So hopefully I can pull myself and my creative juices together and snap a picture or two of these boys of mine. Because I guess in the end it'll be all about the memory.

Here's one or two for some giggles.

This pretty much sums up Braden.

And yes, Carter had just gotten done crying- had just broken an ornament and just thrown a fit because he wanted this hat.

More,Baby love.

Carter and Gabriella. Love them.

Carter's 1st haircut.

My baby boy has these unruly, dirty blonde, absolutely cute curls. They have gotten quite unruly and a little crazy. I had been going back and forth about whether or not to cut them for quite some time. Tonight my hubby finally conceded and decided to cut them! I'm so sad, he looks like such a big boy. A little bit of baby left him tonight- now he's a little more polished, a little more grown ;)

Here are the before and after pictures.

Love him <3

Baby love.

The hubby fixed my computer!! Now I just need my editing software back and i'll be a super happy camper ;)

Gabriella is 6 days old today. I absolutely adooooore her. We are all fighting about whose baby she is (she's Joce's baby, Braden thinks she's his sister because apparently cousin isn't good enough, and well -I keep calling her mine too!). She's definitely loved and so sweet!

I'm glad my sister is willing to loan her so that I can take some pics because I plan on taking lots! Here are some from today.

Gabriella.

She's here! My sweet baby niece was born yesterday morning. She's tiny, has a ton of dark hair, and is absolutely perfect. I was there when she was born and my sister was a rock star. She did great in the delivery room, moments later I would have never guessed she had just given birth. I can't wait to take zillions and zillions of pictures of her <3

Halloween.

Yikes, this is late but I still have no computer here at home. Boo hoo. This year was a chilly Halloween, but at least it wasn't raining. My husband was gone in Oklahoma for Halloween and that was a bummer but we had lots of fun with my sister and family.

This year Braden decided that he wanted to be Iron Man. He had started on this kick a couple of months back and I was really hoping that he'd change his mind and fall back to being Batman but that wasn't the case. Carter was a lamb :) I figured it was my last chance to get him in a cutesy costume. Next year he will have his own opinions and I doubt lamb would be his top choice!

We got lots of candy and had lots of fun. The boys have since forgotten about the candy and now the hubby and I sneak it at night...not good for the diet but oh so tasty!