i promised to "ketchup"! (part one)

so FINALLY i am posting christmas pics. at this point, it's more to relieve my sense of guilt than for anyone else...except you mom...maybe this will give you something to do as you recover today!

here is the first glimpse of what awaits....

xander could hardly wait for anyone!

we convinced him to let hadley walk ahead of him, since she's littler. they are clearly excited! so is their daddy!

you can see we were up pretty early...we've never seen THIS before! sunrise? what's that?

this is after all the spoils and destruction, but you can see, christmas got a "double thumbs up"

hadley was feeling pretty fabulous in her snow white costume!

alexander was the most excited by his "deep sea book" -- here he is looking at it with alan.

who knew a plastic astronaut stocking stuffer could be so exciting?

hadley in her own little world...i think it's "princesslittlepetshopdolly world" to be exact. she visits there often.

the triumph of getting the ONE item he wanted the most!

who knew pez could be so exciting?

by far alan's favorite toy and a bathtime favorite all around. the shark rig!

the first thing hadley noticed was her kitchen. she played with it for over a half an hour before she even LOOKED at anything else. i love the expression on her face here!

the "marble roller" which has filled many a saturday and sunday (and my dining room). a favorite dad/kid activity.

there are more updates below, mom, so keep scrolling. i never said they were recent updates, but at least i'm all caught up!

i promised to "ketchup"! (part deux)

on christmas eve, we thought it would be more fun (and feel more like christmas) to have some friends over for christmas eve dinner. the preparations took most of the day, but it turned out really nice! alan and our friend matt went to the church early and "borrowed" a large table and chairs. with kids, there were 14 of us!

here is the dining room....

kids were in the kitchen....not pictured is the "littlest table" for the two youngest ones. it was in the kitchen too. we could kind of keep an eye on them, but they definitely had their own party going on!
check out the food! yum!
after dinner, liz brought chimes -- a family christmas eve tradition -- and charts of christmas songs and plenty of spoons to chime with. it was a lot of fun and the timing on the songs was pretty funny, since we each had one (or two) chimes to be responsible for -- of course, the kids insisted on doing it themselves, making for some over-long pauses filled with whispered cues when their chime came up. this is liz, joshua, xander, and mason.

everyone concentrating: dan, josh, amanda, and joshua again. i think i did manage to get a photo of everyone, but i'll spare you...they are all more of the same. :)

I promised to "ketchup"! (part C)

hey! nothing like thanksgiving pictures on leap day! woot! we are blessed enough to have family nearby (nearby being virginia...and more recently, Pennsylvania) and were invited by the Gardners to spend Thansgiving with them at their fantastic beach house in Delaware. (if you're counting along at home, that's 4 states involved here. kinda awesome, eh?)

without further ado, i present the photo that best sums up our holiday weekend.

here is xander and collin doing what they do best. (being hungry, waiting to be fed, and generally just being little boys) lauren and i DID have a stroke of genius and managed to keep them busy making about 16 place cards. they drew pictures and actually wrote everyone's name. it was sneaky on our parts because not only did it keep them occupied for the better part of an hour -- they were also learning, but don't tell them that.

the "little kids" had their very own table and were pretty pleased with themselves. they took their places a bit too soon and were beginning to get restless by the time we took this photo. despite the look on hadley's face, i think it was mitchy that fell asleep at the table during dinner.

the table, laid out for the feast. and what a feast it was! i have to say, we all teamed up to make a mean thanksgiving dinner and practically eliminated the need to cook for the rest of the weekend due to copious leftovers. unfortunately, these are all the photos i got, because my camera batteries died shortly thereafter. i realized later on the drive home that i could have used 2 AAs or even swiped some of the recharable AAs from my kid's leapsters. oh well.

the highlight of the weekend was lauren's "devils on horseback" -- alan and i still laugh about the name -- but boy, were they delish! i won't divulge the secret, but let's just say it involves scallops and bacon. yum!

sweet baby addi

as usual, sis beat me to this, but i was planning to do it anyway.

today would be addison's 3rd birthday and i'm sure she would be ready to princess it up with the other girls. we love you and miss you addi. you will always have a special place in our hearts. we will not forget you! thank-you for being a fighter and waiting for us to meet you. you really are the tiniest, sweetest princess i have ever laid eyes on. we are watching out for your mommy and daddy and your crazy brother asher. thank-you for blessing our lives and for touching our hearts forever.

a whole lotta "ketchup"

okay, okay, i admit it. i've MORE than slacked off lately. in fact, i've completely been MIA from the blogiverse since mid-december! it's definitely inexcusable. at least, it's inexcusible unless you have a very, very, very good reason for your lack of interest in blogging -- which i do....




keep scrolling.....

ta-da! crazy huh? and let me tell you, #3 is a doozey. i've been more sick, more nauseous (still no puking though, i am the dispeller of morning sickness), and more exhausted than i though humanly possible. we found out the good news on new year's day and i'm still trying to wrap my head around it. today i am officially 11 weeks, so the worst of it should be nearly behind me (until i hit those last few excruciating weeks, at least). so....without further ado, i will begin the long, slow process of "ketchup". :)