V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

We're on vacation!  Sort of...We're in North Texas visiting family for Christmas.  Shawn, Jonah, and I are sleeping at my cousins house but spending time at my Aunt's.  My camera is at my aunt's, so no new pictures yet.  

Some fun activities have been going on.  

A Lot of cookies have been consumed. 

Plenty of laughter is filling the house. 

The newest part of our family get-together is babies babies babies.  If we could get all the babies in the same place...at the same time...without crying...I'd post pictures.  There's still more time.  It could happen. 

(Hi Auntie Norma!)

Christmas Morning

Thankfully my children value sleep.  Carter and Evan didn't wake up at the crack of dawn.  In fact, after I fed Jonah at 7:45 I decided Shawn should probably get up and start the pot of coffee.  By the time our pot was brewed Carter was up.  He was excited to see some unwrapped gifts under the tree.  

These little puppets were part of the unwrapped group of presents.  What fun they've been so far. 

Here was my little stack.  Carter and Evan each wrapped their own presents to me.  Evan added a little extra embellishment to the paper.  The box from Evan was the new Barnes and Noble Nook.  The gift from Shawn was some perfume I'd been wanting, and the gift from Carter was a pressure cooker.  

Twas The Night Before Christmas...

and all through the house, creatures were stirring leaving crumbs for a little mouse. 

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.  We said "farewell" to our Elf "until next year. Please come back."

With Uncle in his sweats and I in my jeans had just settled in to build a castle with blocks from Great Granny. 

While visions of mommy danced in his head.

Then all of a sudden Uncle Tyler collapsed when a 6 year old Evan jumped right on his back. 

Hoops

Last saturday morning Carter and Evan had their second basketball game of the season.  Carter's league is made up of first and second grade boys.  Evan plays in the kindergarten league that's both boys and girls.  Evan had to adjust to the idea of playing with girls.

Carter's games are exciting.  They move up and down the court pretty quick with some control over the ball and they sometimes make baskets.  See everyone is moving so quick the picture is blurry. 

A lot of what goes on during Carter's games are four boys simultaneously yelling out the name of the one boy who has the ball.  So if Carter has the ball, the other four players are yelling, "CARTER CARTER CARTER". When the ball is passed to another player everyone starts to yell his name.  

When Evan Has Kids.

Evan:  Mom, when I have a kid and he's a boy I'm going to name him Knuckles. If I have another kid and it's a boy I'll name him Sonic.  Knuckles and Sonic.

Mom: What will you name your baby if it's a girl?

Evan: Um...I'll name her...uh...Mom, let's not talk about this.

8 Years Ago Things Changed

8 years ago on December 16th my life really changed.  Actually it started changing on December 15th when I went into labor with Carter.  Here's Carter then.

I think Carter was about 7 months old here.  Maybe he's so loud now because I let him play with the drum kit as a baby. 

A Picture of a Picture of a Picture of a Picture (Did you get that?)

This is Jonah wearing the sailboat outfit that belonged to my younger brother Tyler when he was a baby.  Jonah is laying on the blanket that also belonged to Tyler as a baby. 

This is a picture of Jonah holding a picture of Evan, holding a picture of Carter, holding the original picture of Tyler, in the sailboat outfit on the blanket.  Each of the boys is about 2 months old in the picture.  Each of them fills the sailboat outfit out a little differently.  Evan filled it out the most.  

I must take after my Aunt Norma who admitted to her photography laziness in a particular blog post she wrote recently.  If I wasn't so lazy I'd scan in the original photo of Tyler and each photo taken after that for a line up so you could compare their looks.  I'm not going to do that.  I'd have to locate all the pictures (one of which is at my mom's house, in an album that might crumble if I try and unstick the clear barrier protecting the picture.)  I'd also have to scan them in, upload them to the blog, position them....it's  a whole big thing.  

My excuse is I have a baby.  He's a newborn.  He cries a lot.  My time is limited.  That's also the reason I don't wash or brush my hair most days, wear stretchy pants, and have spit up on my shoulder.   So, for a closer look, click on the picture.  If I have any more boys (don't worry I'm not planning to) Tyler's picture will be microscopic. 

Elf on the Shelf

You're probably familiar with this new holiday trend, Elf on the Shelf.  Carter and Evan acquired one on Wednesday evening.  The cute little elf comes with a book that tells the story about how he works.  You have to name him, but as soon as you give him a name you are not allowed to touch him.  If you touch him once he's named he'll lose his magic.  His magic allows him to travel back to the North Pole each night with a report to Santa about how naughty or nice you've been during the day.  Each morning he returns to sit in a new spot in your house, looking, watching, waiting for you to make a wrong move do something nice.  

Carter and Evan named him Chris (short for Christmas) then placed him on the entertainment center.  Last night, after they went to bed, Chris moved all on his own to the ledge above the windows in our living room.  

At 6:30 in the morning Shawn is getting Carter and Evan up for school and I'm usually going back to sleep after feeding this guy.

I asked Shawn later that morning what the kids said about Elf on the Shelf? He informed me they wouldn't shut up about him.  They just went on and on about what happened to him.  I was confused..."What do you mean, what happened to him? I moved him to the ledge above the windows in the living room.  Didn't they see him?"

Shawn informed me that no, they did not see him.  Apparently they thought he disappeared. And after some screaming and yelling Carter admitted that he did in fact touch Chris.  

Evan flipped out! With as much rage as a 6 year old can have Evan screamed,  "CARTER YOU TOUCHED HIM?  YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TOUCH HIM.  HE'S GONE FOREVER AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" 

Carter knew he had to do something.  He starts pleading with Shawn to Google how they can get Elf on the Shelf back.   It's 6:30 in the morning and Shawn has no clue what's going on.  He's never even heard of Elf on the Shelf.  He has no idea what either of the boys are so worked up over.  (All along I remind you Chris is sitting on the ledge in the living room.)

According to the marketing scheme television show about Elf on the Shelf my mother showed the boys at her house, once he's touched he has to go to a special elf hospital and recover where hopefully he'll regain his magic.  While your elf is in the hospital you can write a letter of apology asking him to please come back and how sorry you are for touching him.  Under the watchful eye of Evan, Carter wrote his letter of apology tonight.   

 Chris, our little Elf on the Shelf is still on the window ledge waiting to be pointed out by Shawn in the morning.  

Just How Sad Would I Be?

Today while driving around Carter kept asking me if I would be sad if he died.  Would I be able to go on living?  Would I still be able to do favors for people?  This conversation went on and on until I turned the radio up and drowned him out.  Later, while driving around again, he asked if I would be sad if he fell and busted his head open.  I reassured him that I would and he continued to ask questions looking to find out just how sad I'd be.  I finally broke up his questions asking, "Carter, why do you keep asking me if I'd be sad if you died, or if you cracked your head open, or other things of that nature? YES, I'll be sad OK!  The answer will always be YES so STOP ASKING ME THOSE QUESTIONS!"

Carter's response was, "I just wanted to make sure."

He just wanted to make sure I'd be so sad that my life would be difficult to continue living.  I guess he's worried I wouldn't be sad...?

Look who's 2 months old...

Make sure you click on the picture to enlarge it and get a better view of this growing guy.

A Brotherly Photo Shoot

Now that I've sent out my Christmas cards,  (Hopefully you've all received them by now) I thought I'd share a few more of the pictures from my mini photo shoot on Thanksgiving morning.  The two older boys were so excited to take pictures with Jonah.  They're really sweet with him!

We're kind of ready for Carter to grow into his teeth.

This is the one from the Christmas Card.  When I look at it I see a lot of eyeballs. 

Jonah was in such a good mood that morning.  He usually is every morning actually.

Evan thought this was just about the funniest thing he's ever done.  He would be proud that I'm sharing it in a public forum. 

Evan just might be the best brother!  As Shawn says, "You want Carter to be your lawyer and Evan your Doctor."  He's a natural caregiver. 

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  The leftovers have been eaten or made into something delicious like turkey pot pie.  I had grand intentions of posting all the things I'm most thankful for this year, like a healthy baby boy named Jonah, funny and smart kids like Carter and Evan, a loving and supportive husband like Shawn, but I just never got around to doing it.   (My list of things to be thankful for could go on and on by the way.  I'm a very blessed person.)  I even have a sticky note on my computer desktop with ideas for posts, one of which being what our menu is for the week.  That's how life has been lately though...we haven't even eaten regular meals.

Even though our lives have been busy and hectic and a whirlwind, Carter and Evan still say the funniest things.  So I'll leave you with this little conversation Carter had with my parents after seeing a commercial for an Active Adult Living Community on television.

Carter: Gran, why don't you live in a retirement home.  You're retired aren't you?
Gran: Well Carter we don't need help yet...
Carter looks at Gran with a very skeptical look.
Gramps: We do live in a retirement home...we're both old and retired and this is our home.
Carter looks convinced.

The funny realization I had after this conversation is that the older I get the younger older people seem, but to Carter my parents seem really old, old enough to need assisted living.

Carter needs to remember though that his "Old" Gramps does silly things like this still.