King of Xmas

Adler showing off his new Elvis glasses while celebrating Christmas at Grandma and Papa's house.

Happy Holidays!

We decided to go green this year with our Christmas / Holiday card this year by sending it electronically.  Or maybe we just never got around to the printing, the stuffing envelops, the stamp licking, the addressing, etc. Believe whichever story you want. I know which one I believe. Anyway, here is our family's 2011 virtual holiday card. Bowen didn't make the card this year. He was probably sleeping when we took the pictures.



We wish you the very best this holiday season (and always)!

work it for the camera

Today LT asked me to take his picture and have it printed. I think he has some kind of xmas gift art project in mind that he wants to use it for but I'm not sure and I didn't ask too many questions. Anyway, I set up some gear and took some shots of him in front of the Christmas tree. In all of them he had either a serious face or a forced face smile and I couldn't get him to lighten up and be natural. When I had him review the pictures with me so he could chose the one he wanted, he was really disappointed and told me, "but I wanted one where I look happy." I told him we could take some more and that he should just act natural and have fun. Apparently he took that advice to heart as you can see from the results of our second photo shot of the day.   

Peace Night 2011

LT's "big school" celebrated its winter festival, called Peace Night, this week and his preschool class sang a couple of songs.

LT, much like me, isn't exactly a natural performer.  And he only goes part time to his big school so didn't get as much rehearsal as the other kids.  

So he's a little out of his element when on stage.  

 

But, to his credit, this year he got into the singing, dancing an bell ringing a little more that he did last year (and more than I was expecting).

late with halloweeen

I forgot I had some Halloween photos to post from a great family friendly party at my office.  Above is an actual photo off all four of us together.  And below are some photos of the boys at the party (a bunch of other shots from the party can be found here).

Swingin in the Snow

Last Friday, I got to go play in LTs big school class for the morning. We played some board games together, practiced songs for his holiday performance and enjoyed the fresh snow in semi warm air.

First performance of the season

LTs big school does a fundraiser each fall at Barnes and Noble. Each grade level performs a few songs and a percentage of anything bought is given to the school. The boys and I spent the afternoon sipping hot chocolate from the Starbucks inside the Barnes and Noble, singing and buying a few books. I saw LT move his lips a few times, a huge improvement from his performance last year!

Candy!

LT, Adler and I made our annual trip to the Hammonds Candy Factory earlier this week. This was the first year Adler really understood why we were there. He embraced the candy idea fully.
December is a busy month for the candy factory and often the tours are booked. This was the case when we arrived Tuesday, the 10 AM tour was full and we were going to have to wait an extra half hour. However, soon after our arrival, we were informed that the school group scheduled had cancelled and we would get an almost private tour! They usually give out broken pieces of candy that they can't sell to the tours, but because our group was so small, a factory worker came out with full sized candy canes for each of us!
Adler can just barely reach this year!
LT has been reading a lot of Curious George books. Recently he got one called "Curious George and the Chocolate Factory". It was fun to hear him compare the book to the candy factory tour.
My love bugs.