Family Photo Shoots

Whenever my mom's side of the family gets together we take photos.  We take just about every combination of photo you can imagine.  We do each family individually...sisters...brothers in law...and last but not least the cousins.  We have years when each person is sort of smiling.  We have years when there's a few criers in the bunch.  Some years everyone is in the picture and some years a few will be missing.  For me (and maybe a few other cousins) this is the worst part of each Christmas gathering.  You have to stand there while everyone tries to make "the baby" smile.  There's a lot of cameras flashing and hand waving, "Yoohoo...over here...ok, me next...look this way." Every child's name is being simultaneously yelled by their mother hoping for that perfect smile.  Most years the pictures turned out just like this one from 1984.  We all look drained, a little stressed, and confused.

Oh boy...how the tables have turned!  Guess who was waving their hands, calling out names, and making a lot of strange baby noises trying to get kids to smile?  A few of us from the photo above have grown up, stepped behind the camera, and threw out all self consciousness.  We waved our hands, said our children's names in a sing song voice, and did all that we could to get them to look at the camera and smile.  It doesn't work.  They just won't listen to sound advice and instruction.  

Why is it that between 1984 and 2011 a better formula for family picture taking hasn't been discovered.  All the kids still look drained, stressed, and a little confused?  

The one constant however is Grandma.  She's the only one who looks at the right camera, at the right time, and smiles. 

Followers of this blog all know who Jonah is.  (The kid on the left.)  The kid on the right is Landon, my cousin Michael's son.  Michael and I are exactly one month apart.  Jonah and Landon are about 3 months apart.  Baby photo shoots are hard.  They don't stay still and rarely look at the camera.  These two guys kept taking turns spitting up and drooling.  (What you don't see is the giant drool stains I tried editing out before posting this picture.) 

After seeing the pictures of Jonah and Landon I recalled a few pictures from the 80s of Michael and me.  

     

 Since my mother is so tech savvy these days I have her to thank for the retro pictures.  She was able to scan old pictures onto her computer AND attach them to an e-mail. (Way to go Mom!)

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Baby Patterned Baldness

Over the past several days when Jonah wakes up in his crib, this is what I see. 

His hair...Tons of his hair.  My poor baby is going bald!  Now, I know this happens to a lot of babies but poor Jonah...He has so few hairs to begin with.  

He's balding in patches like the back of his head and the side.  It's a good thing we live in Texas, because the mullet look he has going on will allow him fit right in at the large multi-purpose chain stores that shall remain nameless.  

In the mean time, he can wear hats while I take a lint roller to his sheets.

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Happy New Year

I should have written something about the new year on January 1st, however that would have required rest and planning.  I didn't write in January 1st because I was doing this on December 31st. 

That's right people.  I rang in the new year playing Bingo.  Bingo with lucky black eyed peas as place holders.  I also rang in the new year wearing my newest fashion accessory...Jonah.  It's best to be celebrating the new year in the highest of fashion.  

The people I party with....they're family.  

They also wear the latest in fashion design.  See those t-shirts? 

See these glasses?

This might have been the hippest party in all the United States.

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.