Christmas 08...

I'm so thrilled that I finally have a picture of Brent and I to post! We realized that we have so few "couple only" pictures of us since the kiddos came along! This was at a New Year's Party with a surprise birthday cake for my dear hubby who is a Christmas baby. But I guess I'm getting ahead of myself...since it's been so long since I've posted!

Here's the Christmas photo of my whole family!! My brother came up from Vegas with his kids for the first Christmas together...ever! It was so much fun...the kids played together so well, and we had a fantastic two days together.

---

Here's the four grand kids together...taking their photos was quite the ordeal until we brought out the candy canes (my kid's first ever!!)...then their spirits and patience rose quite quickly after that.

Here's little Miss Tuckered Out...five minutes after we hit the road...on our way up to Brent's parents' house. Day after Christmas in the afternoon we arrived for our 3rd Christmas celebration (at home together, Seattle, and Arlington). It was another flurry of gifts, fabulous Christmas dinner, and staying up late talking together...the next morning we went out for breakfast with Brent's parents and headed home to Christmas "detox". I think we must have spent all day putting things away...and our kids began fighting over the new toys...it was a rough day, but at least we were all together, back to the normal pace of family life.

A few random pics...Gracie posing in rag curls...before and after!

My kitchen helper...these days he wants to cook, stir, cut, and press buttons of all kinds...most of the time it's great, but it's hard to include sister as she's not as good at following directions. A patience thing on my part....
Also, my little guy is going through a non-posing/photogenic phase, where he "doesn't know how to smile"...so I had to throw this pic of him in, because he was so proud of his cooking skills that he couldn't help but maintain his grin for the camera.
On a side note...we're trying to break a severe nose-picking habit...so any suggestions would help. Right now he's got medical tape on the four perpetrating fingers...(thanks for the suggestion, Dad!) and that seems to being helping....especially if we call them claws!! How many days does it take to break a habit?

---

Here's the big belly...New Year's Eve...only a few weeks left!!