A Week of Christmas

Sunday:

went to church (of course)

ate Texas waffles (actually i really can't remember what day that was)

Monday:

Went to see Tangled (loved it!)...

Played outside with Ona and Papa

Tuesday:

played some more...

Went shopping, ate empanadas, and played pickleball

Wednesday:

My parents watched the kids while Daniel and I went to the temple

Thursday:

Baked goodies...

Drove around to see the lights...

Friday:

Went to the neighbors for donuts and pillow pets:)

(p.s. my neighbors are our adopted grandparents...they buy our kids shirts and treats for EVERY HOLIDAY!)

Made Sugar Cookies...

Acted Out The Nativity...

Read "Santa's Pack Story" (An adorable Lawton tradition)

Opened up Christmas jammies...

Watched Muppet Christmas Carol and waited for Santa to come...

Saturday: slept in, opened gifts, ate breakfast Had a photo shoot with Ona...

Watched movies...

Read Stories...

gave lots of hugs

Today my parents left for Atlanta to meet their newest grandbaby.

We miss you already!

Give Avery kisses from us.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

Announcements announcements announcements!

My little sis used to scream this at the top of her lungs everytime she wanted to say something important...

I'm pretty sure the birth of her baby constitutes as something very important:)

Avery Paige Cushman

December 19, 2010

6lbs 7 oz.

Congrats to my little sis!!!

I'm heartbroken that i have to wait til June to meet you Avery!

For now i'll just blow kisses from Texas:)

Smartie Pants

Last week i was eating dinner with my kids.

Kolby has been a whiz at math all year.

I honestly don't know how he does it.

Since we've only done addition I thought we try a little subtraction.

me: "What if I had 10 cookies and daddy ate 4 of them? Then what do you get?"

Kolby: "6"

Olivia: "no! you get a tummy ache! and then you throw-up"

Both my children are geniuses!

Dear Santa-

I just love kolby's little drawings...

Party time

Last weekend the kiddos helped me get ready for the ward Christmas Party by making a slew of centerpieces...

They were rewarded for their efforst by getting to sit on Santa's lap:)

Then we had a preschool party on Wednesday. We almost had 8 reindeer:)

This weekend my parents flew in to town and my lil sis had her baby!!!!

So we are really partying now!

The Family Picture Saga

Once upon a time (like in May...see side bar?) we took a post-baby-blessing family snapshot outside my church. That is the only photo I have of my family of 5. For a photo and blogger nut...this is just unacceptable! I was determined to get a family picture before Christmas...or before my children grow up and move to college.

I had the outfits and the location and the perfect images all in my head. My awesome sis-in-law, whom i owe BIG TIME, agreed to take the pics once again so everything was set.

The only problem is...

family photos are serioiusly the biggest visual lie known to man.

Reality check:

The location was a no-go because it was freakishly cold for Texas and we were short on time. We ended up standing outside Rosie's house for a few seconds and then dethawing inside inbetween each picture.

Naomi was way too cold to actually break out a smile.... (she woke up the next day with a runny nose and fever, nice.)

Olivia decided to make faces in 100 out of 108 pictures.

Kolby kept thinking he was going to fall down so the look of fear is quite clear in his eyes.

Daniel and I both look old and tired because with 3 little ones we are old and tired:)

Daniel wishes he had more hair, I wish i had less chubbs.

As it turned out I still had fun playing photoshop-wanna-be on picnik.com and came up with these. Daniel hates them because they're too bright for his taste. At this point I'm just happy everyone is looking and I have something to give the grandparents for Christmas.

And now you know that when you see one of these beauties hanging on my wall it wasn't on a glorious warm family outing where we all just happened to be in coordinating colors and having the time of our lives:)

Have I learned my lesson?

nope.

The next family picture will appear in the spring:)

As a side note: before i get in trouble for being too "real", I really do LOVE my family and the love that is captured in the photos is real. Sometimes its just harder to see when we're too busy being a real family.