What happens when...........

Mommy leaves you in Daddy's care for 5 minutes

Daddy hears the crinkling of plastic and wonders what it could be

Mommy comes back down stairs and asks where the boy is

Mommy and Daddy enter the play room to find......

the boy has made off with a candy cane from the Christmas tree

and is thoroughly enjoying it

at least until Mommy takes it away

moving on to watching chickens instead

Little Ninja

Friday December 10th, Sophie had her belt graduation for Karate. So, now instead of just a plain old white belt she is a Yellow Stripe belt! Basically, the graduation is a way of showing parents, grandparents etc, what the kids have learned, accomplished and gained from the classes, it is not a test they have to pass, to put it in her instructor's words, "they have already done all the work". Neal took off from work a little early and Gigi and Papa Slimick came too and Sophie was so proud to show us what she could do. It was so great to see a sense of accomplishment on her face when she got her new belt. Those Little Ninjas (that's the name of her class) all worked hard and their new belts were well deserved.

Ready Stance - ready to learn
(Mr. Mike will call out the stances and the kids have to get in the correct stance and say what it stands for making sure they always say "Sir" at the end.

Self-defense Stance - common sense before self defense

Guard Stance - never give up

Bow - courtesy and respect


One, two punch


Slip, Slip, Roll


Snap Kick


Side Kick


Her main instructor and gym owner, Mr. Mike.

How We Decorate......

Sophie wanted to help in every capacity!

Naturally, Jonah is fascinated with the tree and lights. He keeps trying to blow the lights out and stick my cooking utensils on the tree like ornaments.

Jonah enjoyed rolling around and breaking ornaments.
(Luckily they were ornaments we don't use)

She was quite into decorating this year

She was SO excited to put the star on the tree.

it's a wonderful life.........

A couple of weekends ago we set out for a family photo shoot to get some pictures for our Christmas card and to document our ever changing children! I have to say that I was pretty pleased, actually overjoyed with the way they turned out. This is the way we will be doing photos from now on, just us and Neal's trusty tripod and keen eye for style and design. Here are a few of my favorites from the day........there are many more favorites of mine, but I figured posting all of them would get a bit redundant! Enjoy my beautiful family and the talent of my husband.