Friday, November 26, 2010

Visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus - 2010

I can't believe it is this time of year again; however, it is. We celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. Today, we loaded up and headed over to the Brandon Town Center to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. The boys are finally starting to understand who Santa is and they were excited about an opportunity to meet him. This worried me a little bit because I thought they may be a little resistant to meet the great Santa in person.

We arrived and there was one family in front of us in line. The boys waited patiently and when it was our turn, they were in awe but did NOT got to go near Santa. We were very lucky that there was no other family in line because the boys had time to warm up to Santa and Mrs. Claus. With the assistance of time, candy canes and Ms. Kristen (Santa's Elf), we were able to become friends with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Andrew was comfortable sitting with Mrs. Claus but was still not in the mood to smile. Jared did not want to sit on their laps but was willing to stand in front.

Once we had the picture and the boys climbed down, everyone returned willingly to give Santa and Mrs. Claus hugs. Wes even managed to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas... "toys." I love easy to meet expectations. Santa also loved the boys' shirts which say "Dear Santa, I can explain..." Another Santa photo experience success! Thank you boys!

Click here to see the picture from 2009 which also links to the photo from 2008.
We are officially ready for the Holiday season!!

Take care,

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Holiday Family Photos - 2010

It's the holiday season and time for some updated family pictures with a wonderful photographer, Terri Smith. She is so amazing with the boys and I love the moments she is able to catch on film. Many of these pictures are included in our holiday cards this year. So, if you are on our distribution list, stop looking now or it will ruin the surprise. However, I could not wait to post. Here they boys are at 2 1/2 year old...
Andrew...
Jared...
Wesley...
Our 'little' family...
I could not decide which one of the following two pictures I liked better. The first one has the little boys all smiling but they are looking every which way but at the camera. The second picture has everyone looking at the camera but no smiles from the little boys; however, we caught a smile on Daddy... WINNER!
In April of this year, we took the boys 2 year old pictures and we got a great shot on this bench. It is amazing to see how much they have grown. It will not be long before the boys will not fit on this bench together anymore...
Then Terri lined the boys up to get some playful shots of them. I am so happy that she did this because I really believe she captured the boys' personalities so well. Here we are lined up at the starting line... On your marks, get set.... GO...
And they are off! Wesley (as always) jumps out to a quick lead, Andrew is second out of the gate and Jared thinks before he leaps...
Wesley is several paces down the track when Jared finally decides to join in on the action...
Wes can't wait for his brothers any longer! He drops hands and takes off... the clear winner!
We did this race a few times and the results were always the same, Wesley was a serious racer! I love the following photo as it shows off the boys so well. Andrew and Jared are having a ball and Wes is proud of his position as leader of the pack...
It is getting harder and harder to get everyone on one lap but we were still able to find some room...
We changed the boys for a more casual look and had some more fun...
Wes wanted to be 'hood up' but Jared had another plan...
LOVE THIS one because Jared and Andrew are well in the lead on this race because Wes was playing with his hood! Ha ha Wes, they gotcha' this time...
I love this one for many reasons.... so sweet how they are reaching for each other...
At the end of our day, we took one more family shot for good measure. We had brought the boys favorite lovies to help bring smiles to their faces. Wes' had his beloved teddy bear that he caught at Mardi Gras. Teddy bear joined us for this shot. Wes may try to fool everyone by acting tough but he is a softy!
There were many other great shots but we tried to scale it down to only our favorites. It was hard to choose. Thank you again Terri Smith for capturing our family so well.
Happy holidays everyone!
Take care,

Monday, November 8, 2010

Happy Birthday Aunt Kim!!

The boys wanted to send a very special birthday wish to Aunt Kim! I actually think there is at least one full "Happy Birthday" song in this video...

Take care,